Our second visit to the Popcorn park zoo

As promised, we were back to the Popcorn Park zoo with friends this time. Our family friends from Atlanta visited us this fall. Anika, their young daughter was excited at the mention of the zoo by Gia and so we decided to visit the zoo again.

Being hardly twenty-five minutes from our house this place was a hidden gem until we discovered it a few months back. We grabbed our bags and off we went.

Looking at the zoo's rescue animals always reminds me of the goodness of people who care for these abandoned / injured / sick animals. It is a lesson that we all can learn and surely teach our own children - The value of empathy !

The once rejected animals are now a source of joy for all who visit the zoo.

Clifford visits Gia's home

Hello everybody, I am Gia's friend Clifford.

Gia ! I can't wait to visit you this weekend. Whoa, I got to spend four days at Gia's house this week. Gia and grandma took me home from school on thursday. Oh, what a nice day it was. Gia introdoced me to everone in her house including her Pooh bear, Mickey and even the Snow-white. I was so glad to see them all. I also got to see the naughty bunny rabbit that lives close-by and eats all the vegetables that grandpa plants.

Gia loves dancing and singing so we danced in the evening and at night time Gia made my bed so I could sleep tight.

Next day I went to see Gia's friends - Alex and Robbie. We carved pumpkins together for Halloween. That night we wnet to eat out at Houlihan's. I loved the pasta and beans. The chocolate cake and vanilla ice-cream were so yummy.

Saturday morning Gia's mom made us some strawberry pancakes. Umm.. delicious ! We played all day and in the evening we had some guests over for dinner.

Sunday is grocery shopping day. We went to Bj's with Gia and mom. We got a lot of stuff for the whole week. Wow ! the entire trunk was full of goodies.

It's Monday today and I have to go back. Gia is sad that I have to leave but I promised her that I will be back again soon.

Halloween Parade at the Early Learning Center

Early Learning Center had a Halloween Costume party today for children during their regular school hours. Parents were asked to send their children wearing costumes that were reflective of happiness and safety rather than scary or gore.

A simple stroll down the costume aisle can get parents thinking about much more than which costume is the best bargain or which costume looks warm enough for trick-or-treating. From pretty princesses to sexy witches, from cute little pumpkins to bloody vampires, there’s more than what an eye can hold.

My toddler wanted to be a ballerina this year. Well, she almost thought she was when we dressed her up in the fairy costume. But even with regular reminders, she insisted and declared that she is not a fairy but a ballerina. We gladly muted ourselves and let her think so J.

A little make-up with a pink flower hair-clip and her cute lil magical wand, there she was – my fabulous fairy princess.

In the evening we went for Trick-or-Treating with our neighbourhood friends.

 

Castle Park, Toms River, NJ

The closest favorite outdoor park from our house is Castle Park. Gia enjoys herself to the peak whenever she visits the park. We are lucky as Ocean County is full of fun places and we have a huge selection of parks and beaches.

Castle park is a popular place with lots of kids on a weather-friendly day. There are great swings and lots of castle  structures.

Gia enjoys her ride on the horse-back swing and then proceeds to play at the slides. It's hard to keep at a track of time when you are at this place. Time just flies. As usual it's hard to get Gia out of this place. So we make promises of re-visiting it again :)  

Re-visiting Dorbrook Park

We got a chance to re-visit the Dorbrook park, this time to celebrate Milo's birthday. This place is a big hit for summer birthday parties. It is a wonderful sprayground. It has huge area and is always crowded since its so popular.

All kids at Milo’s party got their own buckets to play with. They just loved it. Laughing, giggling, running around, throwing water on each -other and having all the fun in the world.   

This is an amazing place where kids can stay entertained for hours. What more can a parent ask for !

Dusshera Festival Celebration at Edsion, NJ

This Saturday we went to see the Dusshera mela in Papaianni Park in Edison. I could not believe how excited Gia would be to see the Mela and especially the burning effigy of Ravana. We also were able to grab the front seats and watch Ram Leela (thanks to our friends Kavita and Ritu).

Mehendi Fun at Wedding

Applying Mehendi on your hands is a symbol of happiness and celebration. What more fun can it be to see it on cute little hands.

Please Touch Museum

Wow! Please Touch Museum is a dream come true for any young child. My 3 year old was in heaven ! “Museum”, I thought when I heard the name, what would that have to hold a child’s interest.  But it turned out that it this place completely targeted towards kids is one of the best children’s Museum. Their mission is – “to enrich the lives of children by creating learning opportunities through play, enables us to lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning and cultural awareness.”

We were there for almost 4 hours but still were unable to cover the entire place. It is huge, and there are so many areas to explore. The best part is that everything here is kid-sized, kid-sized markets, river, cars, train, ice-cream stand and McDonald’s too. Among the various attractions in the museum, the ones that we loved the most were :

v  Alice in Wonderland 
v  River Adventures play areas
v  Space Station, which features a series of display cases with over three decades of Star Wars toys.
v  Roadside Attractions, a new locale with a SEPTA bus and actual car.
v  The Walking Piano
v  The Woodside Park Carousel
v  The McDonald’s Restaurant

The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, mostly aimed at children seven years old and younger.

Gia's favorite part of the Please Touch Museum and mine as well, was the ShopRite store, where kids can grab a cart and stroll the aisles for all grocery items, including fresh fruits, oatmeal, honey, fresh bread, deli meats, produce and even frozen Philly cheesesteaks!  There's a checkout area at the front of the store, where kids can delight on hearing the beeping as they scan their items and ring them up at a cash register. It was an absolute fun to see Gia move around busily around the store, filling up her cart with as much stuff as she could get her tiny little hands on!

The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, mostly aimed at children seven years old and younger.

Gia's favorite part of the Please Touch Museum and mine as well, was the ShopRite store, where kids can grab a cart and stroll the aisles for all grocery items, including fresh fruits, oatmeal, honey, fresh bread, deli meats, produce and even frozen Philly cheesesteaks!  There's a checkout area at the front of the store, where kids can delight on hearing the beeping as they scan their items and ring them up at a cash register. It was an absolute fun to see Gia move around busily around the store, filling up her cart with as much stuff as she could get her tiny little hands on!

Fun trip to the Philadelphia Zoo

We visited America’s first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo last Tuesday. I have fond memories of visiting our city Zoo every year with my cousins and parents as a kid. I loved exploring the zoo as kid and couldn’t believe that after so many years I still enjoy it to the core.

It was a pleasant summer day (thankfully not very hot) and we were beyond thrilled to experience the magical animal kingdom.

Big Cats exhibits was wonderful. We were charmed by the beautiful creatures – the magnificent lion taking a catnap, tigers playing in the water, cheetahs sprinting across their enclosure and pumas racing around the steep walls of their exhibit. It was also fun to watch the giant tortoise, the giraffe family including a baby giraffe , zebras and rhinos.

Gia’s favorite part was the primates section!  She loved the swinging monkeys and the orangutans. Oh, what fun! My daughter got so excited to see them that she started jumping like a little monkey herself. We could help but laugh our bellies out.

As an amusement park, the Philadelphia Zoo is pretty good.  There are lots of activities and play areas for kids. They have lots of great things like a petting zoo with adorable sheep, goats, and miniature horses. There is a lake as well with lovely Swan boats. 

Along with Gia, I also enjoyed the  the Zoo’s enchanting Amazon Rainforest Carousel. It is an all-wooden, hand-carved and hand-painted carousel was the first of its kind in the United States featuring endangered species found within the Amazon Rainforest. The Carousel includes 30 bird, reptile, mammal and amphibian "seats,” as well as two spinning snake chariots. 

The Lorikeet experience was one of its kinds.  There is a fair-sized aviary with many different lorikeets happily playing and flying back and forth.  It was fun to see the zoo staff feed the birds with a plastic syringe. Sometimes,  you can also expect a naughty lorikeet to land on your arm and or sit on your head.  We walked through the aviary silently  .

We missed the Balloon ride this time, but hopefully we will be able to actually ride that Zoo Balloon on a good weather day.

Although, we had planned to spend half a day at the zoo but wound up staying for the whole day. And even after that the little one did not want to leave and was gladly ready for a sleepover party with the monkeys.