At the weekend Mummy and Daddy took Isla and me to London Zoo. Mummy had been prepping us for it all week, I'd read Dear Zoo with Mummy about 25 times at bedtime and Isla had a cool new book about going to the Zoo called Tabitha Posy Was Ever So Nosey, so we were properly excited - although Isla didn't want to end up like the little girl in that book getting swallowed by the Tiger! Mummy asked us what animals we wanted to see, I shouted LIONS and Isla said Sheep!
We had to set off really early in the morning to get the train and we nearly didn't get on because it was so busy - then we got the big red bus where more important Zoo prep took place - we ate a bag of Cadbury's Animal biscuits - Yum.
We got to the zoo and made our way round to see the animals - here's our photo tour......
I was also lucky enough to meet a nice young lady, Pixie, who's my mummy's friend's little girl. I think she liked me....my mummy and daddy's first date was to London Zoo many moons ago, so it's clearly the place to go courting!
I couldn't wait to see the lions - my favourite film ever is The Lion King!
We had a really nice day at London Zoo and the sun was shining which made it all the more special. Once Isla and I started to get a bit tired Mummy decided that it was time to go home, so I snuggled up to Mummy and let the C2 bus rock me off to sleep and I dreamt of all the animals I'd seen at the zoo.
Isla couldn't wait to get her new Giraffe home!
Here I am with Isla telling mummy what we saw at zoo.....thank you for a lovely day!
Over to Mummy.....
Our Day Out to London Zoo was paid for by Virgin Money - so thank you so much for giving us a lovely family day!
Virgin Money Travel Insurance was voted “Best Online Travel Insurance Provider 2012”
at the Your Money Direct Awards. They are worth checking out particularly for families as they offer good packages like their Family annual travel insurance and kids are covered free - up to 3 and under 18's per insured adult. Other perks of being a Virgin Travel Insurance customer are extra discounts on airport parking (13% off) and car hire (10% off) - all things to consider when conserving those pennies!
If you want to check out how much fun the other blogging families had on their trip to the zoo, check out their blogs:
More Than A Mum
Chelsea Mamma
Tired Mummy Of Two
Babes About Town
Super Amazing Mum
Ever since Isla was very little I have always read to her, reading is one of my favourite past times and I very much hope that she follows in my foot steps. I've blogged about the importance of reading on my Library post recently. Reading really does fire up the imagination and I loved becoming immersed in a book especially on winter days. I grew up in the 80's, in the days when TVs in kids bedrooms started becoming popular, but I just didn't want one! I was happy listening to tapes (!) and reading books - does that make me a geek?!
The following 3 books are regularly thumbed in our house, and we never tire of them!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
We love this book, Isla has had it read to her millions of times practically since birth! The colours are beautiful and when she was really little she just loved putting her fingers in all the holes that the caterpillar made in the food. I like to get her to point out all the things that she recognises - the cakes on the last day of the caterpillars gorge-fest are her current favourite!
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
A really nice lift the flap book that helps babies to recognise animals and it gives me the chance to ad-lib and do all the animal noises. Isla's favourite of my animal impressions is when I pretend to spit like a camel! OK, not very ladylike but it gets a laugh every time!!
Spot's Noisy Night by Eric Hill
Spot goes camping with his friends and they have a very disturbed night what with owl's 'twowittwowooing' and frogs leaping around the tent! This one is so fun and brilliant because throughout the story there are sounds to play and for each of the sounds is a puzzle piece that your child can fit into the pages. This is such a great interactive book and is the latest in a line of Spot books that we own.
The next two books are obviously a bit too advanced for Isla right now, but they are two favourites of mine from when I was a child and I really hope she takes to them like I did. When I was at primary school I had to write book reviews of all the books I read and I've still got the folder up in Mum and Dad's loft! I read so much, I was a book worm, so choosing just these two was a struggle because I could have gone for Ramona and Beezus or Pippi Longstocking and actually all Roald Dahl books hold a special place in my book loving heart, so it was hard to pick one of his.
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
This series of books by Enid Blyton are just pure fantasy. I loved Moonface and Silky the fairy. Through the Faraway Tree they showed us magical lands and all manner of creatures. My favourite of all the lands is 'The Land of Take What You Want'
where, as the name suggests, you can take whatever you want for free!
Thinking about this book has made me feel all nostalgic about the Enid Blyton books I used to own, they all had hard covers and the pages felt so good (does that sound weird!?).
I'd love for Isla to get lost in these books imagining that she is visiting all these wonderful places. They are so escapist and can really help you forget about the real world...
The Twits by Roald Dahl
This is one of my favourite Roald Dahl books (along with The Witches, Georges Marvellous Medicine...). The descriptions of Mr and Mrs Twit are fantastic and I always loved how Mr Twit was just so extra disgusting with food in his beard and you could almost smell how unclean they were from the descriptions. They hate children and they torment animals but as is the case in all Roald Dahl's books the mean characters always get their come uppance!
Roald Dahl's books also have the extra benefit that they have gorgeous illustrations by Quentin Blake - something I have blogged about previously here.
One of my things I want to do at some time in the future is go to the Roald Dahl museum, something to save for when Isla is older.
This post is part of the Listography Linky that Kate Takes 5 runs every week. Pop over to her blog to see her book suggestions and also a whole host of others!
