Bird park weekend

Advance warning no C and E pictures with this post as Z had the camera and we were at a BIRD park. We came home with a few blurry shots of the people and lots of outstanding shots of the birds. What can I say Z loves birds!

Z's dad came down for an overnight visit this weekend, to celebtrate the girls birthday. After a braai and a late night on Friday, Saturday we decided to visit a local bird park Z found on the internet. We'd been to another bird park a few months ago which we'd hated but this one was lovely. It was smaller and well maintained, it is set on a forested hillside (what a surprise there, we live in the middle of a heavily forested region) which meant that the approach through the trees was beautiful and it just got better from there. What I particularly liked was that they tried as far as possible to keep the cages as unobtrusive as possible. The parrots were not caged there was just a rail around their lawn, the storks had a fenced enclosure with no roof. The flamingo enclosure had wires strung across the top, to stop the birds from flying off but no cage between the visitors and birds, just a low wooden fence and drop off.

C and E had a fantastic time, they were really looking at some of the birds, the parrot and owls in particular fascinated them. They also had a great time in the petting enclosure chasing the poor little goats. Enya, in particular, kept trying to hug the goat kids. We finally had to drag them out of there when Ciara paddled her hands in the "puddle" one of the bigger goats produced, but I got lots of lovely video of them playing (I still can't figure out how to upload video!).

The bird park was also the end of Z's dads visit as he then continued home while we drove in the opposite direction back to our place. Sunday was another sunny but cool day so we had to cancel our plans to hit the pool again, instead spent the afternoon playing with the girls in the back garden. We have discovered if we sit the girls in the sandpit we get about a half hour of peace as they entertain themselves, although still need to be supervised obviously. Thankfully we slowly seem to be reaching the end of the investigating-everything-with-the-mouth phase. Z discovereed the Mirabelle were ripe so after plucking a bucket full of fruit he made mirabelle jam and even some compote for the girls breakfast.

And that was our bird park weekend!