Celebrating the Half-Birthday ....

..... at Como Zoo!!!

Last Tuesday Ella and Zoe turned 4 1/2.

They also learned what half-birthdays are, and of course wanted to celebrate. So we did --- at the Zoo.

I told the girls because they are now 4 1/2 they get to use the camera themselves (under supervision) and take photos of things that catch their own eyes. They thought they were such hot-shots, and they did a really good job taking pictures -- I was impressed!

Zoe took this one of the sloth.

Ella wanted to photograph the flowers.

Zoe wanted to catch the mice, but they were pretty fast and trickier to get an actual photo of : )

Ella took this one of Zoe.

Zoe took this one of Ella.

I had a good laugh when I realized they both thought they were taking pictures of each other in bunches of bananas --they didn't realize they were actually sunflowers : )

Ella took this one too ....

.... and Zoe took this one.

Sparky the Seal doesn't do shows during the off season, but he still performed for us. He apparently has a thing for Zoe and Ella. This is when he first saw the girls and made eye contact with them (he's in front of the little girl in purple) .....

..... then he moved in closer to them .....

..... and froze in this position while he looked at Zoe, then at Ella, then back at Zoe and then back at Ella ......

He then moved in for a closer look at Zoe .....

..... then he took a better look at Ella .....

..... and he stayed there for quite a while.

It was the neatest experience!!

We also checked out the Polar Bear exhibit.

Zoe took this photo of the bear picking up a carrot.

Ella took this photo of the bear eating the carrot.

The girls also pretended to be baby seals .....

For the record, Zoe is not doing a gang symbol -- she's saying 'I Love You' in sign language -- it's just hard to see all her fingers the way her hand is angled. : )

After spending time with the arctic animals we went over to see the giraffe family. Because they were inside we didn't stay long or take any pictures (it is unbelievably stinky in that building), but we did see the baby giraffe along with his/her (?) parents. SO neat!!

We then made our way to the wild cats area and saw the daddy lion (photo by Ella) .....

..... the daddy with the mommy (photo by Zoe) .....

..... the cheetah (photo by Zoe) .....

..... and the cheetah again (Ella's photo).

We ended the morning hanging out with all the primates, and being checked out by all the primates : ) The baby orangutan and Ella played a game of 'monkey see monkey do' (so funny), while Zoe and one of the spider monkeys had the best stare-down contest. Zoe won but that little monkey and Zoe stood face-to-face, with all four of their hands touching the glass in the same position for probably close to 30 seconds. Super neat to watch all the different interactions, but the photographs I took didn't turn out because of the lighting and reflections.

It was a perfect way to spend a morning. It was a perfect way to celebrate two little girls thinking they're Big Girls because they are now four and a half years old!!