Lions and Tigers and Brynne, Oh My!!!

What a WILD day at the zoo today!

We decided to have Brynne's 4th birthday party at the Tulsa Zoo and 6 of her friends and their families were invited.

We mailed these invitations to her friends, and included tokens for them to ride the train from the front of the zoo to the playground which is at the back of the zoo.

The kids and their families all arrived by 10:30 a.m. They played on the playground for about 20 minutes. I got pictures of all of her guests except for the one boy .. he was just too busy playing to be bothered with pictures with a bunch of girls!

Then we all walked to the Elephant Encounter demonstration.

On the way back to the playground we stopped to watch the tortoises get fed. "Big Al" is estimated to be about 125 years old. These tortoises live to be an average of 200 years old. Amazing!!

Once back at the playground we ate lunch of zoo shaped chicken nuggets, chips, koolaid and cupcakes.

Then Brynne opened her gifts.

She got some great gifts! She got a Hannah Montana outfit, some books, some crafts, some barrettes, a 'Tom and Jerry' dvd and a new chocolate lab Webkinz. (**Last week when we were at the mall in Dallas she lost her beloved "Pup" who was a chocolate lab Webkinz. She was very sad! Pup went everywhere with her and she slept with him every night. One of her friends found her a new one and she hasn't put him down.)

After gifts the kids just played some more until a couple of the families had to leave.

Our family and two of the other families took off together to see the rest of the zoo. We had a really great time with the Gores and Masons!!

We rode the carousel. And for a special birthday treat we paid for our kids to ride the camels. That was a highlight!

We finished the zoo tour back at the playground and rode the train back to the front of the zoo.

It was a really fun party!

And this is how I felt the rest of the day ...

Tomorrow I plan to post about all of the specifics of the party. It wasn't as frugal a party as I might normally do for one of my kids, but I was able to do it a lot cheaper than if I would have just organized it straight through the zoo. And, it was very personalized and special, instead of generic. It took lots and lots of planning, but it was so worth it! Come back tomorrow for some fun ideas!