Boo at the Zoo!

This past Friday the Banta family and our friends the Copelands packed up all our kids (5) and headed for the zoo! Every year the Birmingham Zoo puts on a Halloween Extravaganza with spooky train rides, hay rides, trick or treating and fun for the whole family! It has become a tradition in our household since Christian could say, "Trick or Treat"!

I was hesitant that we would be going because after we got over all the colds and sniffles, Christian came down with a stomach bug...which he gave to me! He woke up Tuesday morning projectile vomiting and has had diarrhea for days! It was supposed to be a 36 hour thing, but then he went and started throwing up again on Friday morning! Seriously? However, I think that was the last of the last of his stomach bug! I promised him that if he kept his lunch in his tummy that we would go to the zoo! No fever and with our friends not concerned about this virus catching on to their kids we headed out to the zoo! I know, I know all you parents are reading this thinking what in the world were we thinking? Well, when you have a three year old who is really looking forward to something and you are too, then you just go! According to the doctors he was not contagious anymore anyway, so what the hell?

The zoo opened at 5:00pm and that is when we arrived there to start our night! Everything was going so smoothly and the boys were all having a blast! It was a little chilly, but we were prepared and had the kids bundled up! Christian was supposed to be the transformer Optimus Prime, but at the last minute I got an e-mail that they had sold out of his costume! Furious! Brian took Christian Friday afternoon looking for a costume that was acceptable and he would wear for the zoo! He ended up being a power ranger...he does not even know who the power rangers are!!!:) The kids were all dressed in their costumes and looking very cute when we entered the zoo.

We walked around and they trick or treated from the zoo employees, who were also dressed up! We then headed for the Carousel to take the first ride of the night! On the way to the carousel we had to stop many times to play games and trick or treat more! Christian already has enough candy to last him for a long time! The carousel ride was fun for everybody and they make it go backwards during Halloween! Preston, Elijah, Porter, Henley and Christian all loved it, but it made be a little dizzy! When that was over it was off to the petting zoo too see which animals would be out and about to be tortured by little kids! There were not to many, but there was a rat that a zoo keeper was holding! Elijah and Christian kept calling him Ratatouille! :)

After the petting zoo we wandered through a pumpkin patch and did more trick or treating! I have to say, that these kids have gotten very good at asking for candy! The last thing we did was ride the spooky, haunted train through the zoo! This is actually very fun and all the kids enjoy the lights and sounds you encounter on the ride! We all had a great time!

If that was not enough stimulation for our children, we all decided to go out and eat dinner! I have no idea what we were thinking, but it just went down hill from there! The older kids were wired and not to bad to deal with, but the babies were up way past bedtime! It was a stupid decision on our parts and we definitely learned our lesson! We do not think that we will ever try to drag Henley out to eat when it is time for her to go to bed! Wow! She was grumpy and I had a hard time getting her to fall asleep on my shoulder, but she did! After dinner we went home and went to bed! I think we were all worn out!