Sterling's Birthday

Sterling turned 4 on February 2nd.  He was very excited.  On his birthday, we went to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium with Halee and her kids.  It was a great day.  The zoo is much cooler than the Phoenix zoo.  We had a ton of fun. The zoo had a baby nursery that had some really cute baby animals in it. We had lunch in a restaurant that had part of the aquarium in it.  So, you could eat lunch and watch sharks swim by.  In the evening, we had chinese sundays as per Sterling's request and then Sterling opened presents.  Oh and Sterling was excited because his name showed up on Sprout wishing him a happy birthday.  It said "Sterling, 4, Mesa, AZ". 

Avalon was a crazy monkey at the zoo. She climbed everything and ran all over.

There was a peacock walking around randomly through the zoo.  It got really close to the kids.

The zoo/aquarium had several white alligators.

A baby wallaby.  It liked to sleep in this fabric pouch hanging from a table. 

Avalon was fascinated by the giant fish tank with the sharks.

Sterling really liked the sting rays that you could pet.

Madelynn petting a horshoe crab.

Sterling loves penguins and they had a really neat penguin exhibit where you could see them above water and below.

The petting zoo had goats, deer and a llama.  The llama had figured out how to stick its neck through the fence and get its tongue right into the feed machine.

Sterling made friends with a deer.

Sterling's first birthday cake.

Saturday following Sterling's birthday, we had a birthday party for him. We had a few of his friends over and the kids played hard. Last year we had a birthday party for Sterling and I planned all of these games, none of which the kids wouldd play. So, I didn't plan anything for this party. We brought out the bubble blower and the kids played with bubbles and then they played in the playhouse. We did try a game of duck-duck-goose, but some of the kids wouldn't run and the other kids would do nothing but run. Then we had pizza for lunch and chips and soda. It's always fun to wire the kids and then send them home. After lunch the kids beat a pinata to pulp. Pinata's always get a little crazy. It started out with the kids nicely taking turns. By the end, three of the kids had bats and were all hitting at the same time. It was a very tough pinata and took them a while to crack it open. After the pinata, the kids had cake and Sterling opened presents. Overall it was a good day and I think Sterling had a great birthday week.

Sterling's Second birthday cake.