Fall Festival at the Zoo

October is one of my favorite months in Michigan because it's cooled down a bit but you don't have to worry about snow yet. Plus there are always so many things to do with it being fall and Halloween, that it's easy to find fun things to do every weekend.

One family tradition we'd like to continue doing is going to the Fall Festival they have at the zoo we are members of. Last year we went and it was the first time we'd gone to the zoo just the three of us and had a great time. Besides the attraction of all the animals they have several little activities suitable for toddlers, like painting a pumpkin gourd.

ER and Daddy enjoyed running through the hay maze before she got her face painted. Then it was on to try her luck at pumpkin bowling. Unfortunately for ER, she seems to inherited her bowling skills from Mommy. We had a few gutter balls to start with, although Brad did point out that the ground was sloping away from the pins by her "lane". She also got to make a cool colored noodle, fall foam button, and bead necklace. The last fall festival activity we did was making a jack-o-lantern stick puppet while listening to the music. They even gave us an extra one and a scarecrow to take home with us. We skipped the inflated slide - because we're lucky enough to live by a great bounce zone, hay ride, and the food tent to spend more time visiting our favorite animals. This time ER requested the monkeys, and we got to see a mother holding her baby in the ape exhibit.We managed to have a few hours of fun, despite the rain. We were lucky and managed to be right by the Artic Circle exhibit the first time it came down and got to sit and watch the sea lions swim back and forth over us in the tunnel. It continued to drizzle a bit but we were back in the car, heading to dinner at Grandma Norma's, by the time the second bit of downpour came.