The Zoo -- Revisited!

In our efforts to squeeeze the last bit of summer fun into our schedule, we made a quick trip to our children's zoo recently.

I sometimes forget what a great zoo it is, but I do love it!

Part of what I love is that it is relatively small and doesn't take an entire day to visit.

Plus, it's not a very smelly zoo -- you know how some zoos can be that way!

This is about as close to a cow as Maddy wants to get!

Yep, she's a city girl!

This lovely, though hungry, peacock followed us around begging for fries and popcorn!!!

Of course, we gave him some -- do you see the beak on that guy!!!

It was our first time there this summer since the butterfly pavillion opened.

That is one of Maddy's favorite spots!

Every single year, she tries and tries and tries to get a butterfly to land on her finger.

Usually, the butterflies do not cooperate.

This year, however,

one landed immediately and probably would have stayed on her finger all day long,

but we didn't want to hog the one kid-friendly butterfly!

We do like to share, you know.

Can you tell, Maddy was beyond thrilled!

Ever since then, whenever she sees a butterfly in our yard, she takes off running after it

-- never catches it and one never lands on her finger -- but she gets "A" for effort!

Butterflies are free . . . or are they?

Well, most butterflies are free to fly wherever they want, aren't they! But not ALL the butterflies at the zoo are able to fly about freely -- especially not the ones in the butterfly exhibit we visited the other day.

For the first time ever (despite many visits and attempts), a butterfly landed on Maddy's finger! She was so thrilled! Failed attempts at butterfly landings last year resulted in numerous instances of tears and frustration. So I was doubly delighted that our first visit to the butterfly exhibit this year was so successful!

Maybe the clothes had something to do with it?? Look closely, Maddy's shirt has a butterfly on it, so perhaps that was just the thing the visiting butterfly wanted to see.

We might have tried to get one of these birds to sit on Maddy's finger or shoulder,

but I'm pretty sure that is not allowed!