Sunday, December 11, 2011

Alfie's 2nd Birthday!

The past month has simply flown by!  One day we're at Colchester Zoo then all of a sudden its the middle of December and I'm sat on the sofa as a family of four!  So yeah, lots has happened in the past month, obviously including the birth of our daughter Esme, which gives me loads to catch up on over the next few days and weeks!

But before I get to that I must first catch up with the wonderful day we had at Colchester Zoo on November 12th to celebrate Alfie's 2nd birthday.  We were joined by my Dad, Tasha's Mum and Dad, all of his Aunties (Dawn, Ammie and Michi) as well as Bill, Linz, Tom and Team Ferg (Sal, Dave, Dan, Joe and Jess).

Colchester Zoo has changed loads since I was last there, and it was excellent to see all the new attractions.  Bill and Dawn both told tales of an amazing ant colony which we never managed to find though :o(


Amongst the new attractions were some parrots - which incidentally squawk very loudly - and some cool black and orange monkeys whose enclosure you can walk through and get real close to.







Alfie was certainly a fan!  In fact he gave it a firm 'thumbs up!'


We had a good mooch about the reptile enclosure, and Tash got to hold the MOTHER of all stick insects!



One of the reasons we had decided to visit Colchester Zoo was the fact you can feed the elephants.  I've always loved that, and with Alfie having something of an elephant obsession I figured he'd love it ... as long as their immense size didn't scare him off!


Amazingly he didn't bat an eyelid and we must have gone around three or four times giving these big ole ele's their veg!  Judging by Sal's reaction I think feeding the elephants might have made her year too!  With me taking Alfie round I wasn't able to get any photos, but I'm guessing Fred will have some as in traditional fashion he was like this most of the day.



Lunch came around fast, and we pretty much took over the on-site Pizza place.  With all the tables lined up we sat down to some of Colchester finest Italian offerings!




We had arrived early and dropped off the cake to the eatery to save me having to carry it around all morning.  I was going to make Alfie something nice and dazzling ... but then remembered he was two and so decided to go for the 'chocolate overload + all the smarties' option.


The afternoon was largely spent around aquatics creatures - or at least that's the story my photos tell!  The Sea Lions and there underwater viewing tunnel were a massive hit, and we managed to catch feeding time at the Penguins.  The kids loved them;




By about 4pm we were all shattered.  Largely from chasing Alfie around.  Dan, Joe and Jess had done the wise thing and decided to grab a nap, but not Alfie who seemed to think he was an Energiser bunny.  Still, it was his birthday after all.