Party Animal

Erik was invited to a birthday party where the parents had hired a local petting zoo fo sorts to come bring some australian wildlife for the kids to learn about and touch.

To start off the party there was food (smart to have all the food taken care of before the creepy crawlies came out!)

There was a pizza delivered that was a square meter, it was ginormous! And it was funny because 3/4 of the pizza was pepperoni-a safe bet for kids and 1/4 supreme style for adults. Well here in Oz, sausage is different than in the states (this host family is also American). Let me digress for a moment-a big tradition in my family is to have summer sausage at family gatherings, but especially christmas. There is no such thing here in Oz-which was sad when we were trying to find a suitable alternative last christmas :(. Anyhow pepperoni is almost always spicy, not like in america, and thats all right. But with this large pizza, many kids didnt eat much....well combined with excitement of other kids, party happenings, and the adults didnt have to be shy!

 Sweet little guy, enjoying his. He likes spicy so he ate a bit of it, but then gave up.

 After food and treats, we all gathered in the  front garden (lawn) to see what animals we would get to see. There was such a crowd they tethered off a half circle for the kids to stay behind since chitlins seem to always scoot closer and closer - you know like the tv.....all of a sudden they could lick it if they stuck out their tongue. It was quite funny.

 Some spiky looking lizard. I know I am not good about remembering all the animal names and things I learn here, I should take notes or something, I just dont have it in me. I just like to take it in and move on. this one was named "Spike" I remember and it was going after a little worm on the pillow case.

 Erik reaching out to touch a different lizard. It had a head like a turtle kind of but the body of a lizard and skin kind of  like a snake, very interesting. Erik was hit and miss with the animals. He would get all anxious to have it be his turn and touch it and then he would panic and retract. Unfortuantely there were so many kids so he didnt have much time to change his mind if he did want to reach back out, so he missed out on a few.

 turtle...

Snake...smallish compared to the one you will see soon...

 I practically bribed him to have her put the snake around his neck. This was nearly the best pic I could capture of it-you can see it all in his face.....I am only doing this for you mom! He did not enjoy it in the least. And rightly so, snakes are scary, he doesnt like seeing them at the koala sanctuary too much either. Actually the first handful of times we went he wouldnt even go in the building. So this was a big step.

 The big snake!

 The big one slithering back into its box!

 This was a really cool looking bird. It looks sort of like an owl but its not one.

All in all Erik had a blast, there were lots of cool things to see. There was lots of fun food, there was a lot to learn and just fun times to be had.