WILD AT THE WEEKEND: BIRMINGHAM NATURE CENTRE
Before I was struck with a case of the nasties, we managed to get some cousin time in at the Nature Centre in Birmingham. Sadly it really wasn’t all it used to be and so I’m putting every mother’s advice about when to speak into practice – but we did have fun seeing the lynx [Mr. Lynxy] and running about getting faces painted in the sunshine.
Granny stole the Quinny from me faster than I could walk. She’s pretty speedy. Grandad had the picnic bags, and we were face painted up within the hour and ready to go. Snow leopard, tiger and raccoon.
One take – that was all our precious snow leopard needed. Our toddling tiger was a little different…
Angry tiger…
After a few funny and fierce tiger faces, we got our little tiger…
We saw the “Sat” pigs. Yotie still has trouble articulating his Fs, and so they are sat. I love the sound of that and may have asked him to tell me what they were over and over a hundred times. These actually were called fat pigs – the name translated to it!
We found a Mario raccoon hiding near the monkey cage…
…and we somehow managed to get six ice lollies that everyone liked out of £10. Miracle.
The highlight for the boys? Face painting. The highlight for me? The lynx – even though Lyoto assured me it was “just a cat”.
For the mister, who was working at home – here’s the best shot we could get of your favourite, the red panda. Zzzzzz…..
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What a fun place to visit. Those animals are beautiful and it must have been such a blast to see them so up close. I absolutely love the gorgeous face painting job–and I bet your kids did, too. Would love to visit the Birmingham Nature Center one day.
Amanda
http://www.queenofthelandoftwigsnberries.com
The children's pictures really warm my heart. They are so adorable, especially the toddling tiger! So cute! I am happy you got to spend the time with them and learned about animals.
The "sat pig" made me chuckle. Kids really have a way to reinvent words. My toddler calls jalapeno "spicy penos." I like the word "spicy penos" better. Thanks for sharing the pictures with us!
Looks like you all had such an amazing time! I absolutely love the kiddos face painting and your little boys expression! I love visiting our zoo and used to have annual passes. Hoping to get them again this fall to use for homeschooling lessons 🙂
Whoa, those face paints looked so real as the colors used were vibrant. I have never seen a red panda before. It almost is similar to a fox from this angle. I can imagine it to have the same face as the fox in Mozilla Firefox.
Wow! The face paintings are really cool! I love how realistic it is. I have never stopped for it before because I was always afraid of the mess it would make but you have almost talked me into it. We have never been to the Birmingham Nature Center but this looks like a great family fun activity!
That is an awesome place to spend the weekend! I wish my son liked face painting, because those are some awesomely wicked designs!! I love the animals that are there, and I'd love to visit one day soon. I need to see what kind of nature centers I have in my area. I think my toddler would LOVE it!
This looks like an amazing place to visit! The face paintings are incredible! I know what you mean about things not being the way you remembered…I feel like that with our local zoo. Then again, maybe it's just so different because WE are so different. Ah, to be a kid again. 🙂
Your pictures are always precious Sara-Jayne. The face painting actually looks amazing, I wish the face painters in our area were just as talented! We have a wildlife park five minutes away from our house and you've made me want to take my little one there this week, it's always so much fun to see them excited by the animals 🙂
I know the kids had lots of fun!! Look at the face paints so detailed! OMG there are red pandas I never knew that so cute!