Mother's Day and lemurs

For Mother's Day we have a little tradition of going to the zoo (we've always gone to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago to enjoy the live concerts and Mother's Day celebrations!) so we decided on this HOT and sticky day to do the same. I can't believe we are in May and it is already in the 90s and oozing humidity!!! We had an encounter with a zookeeper near the lemurs that was the highlight of Vivi's year. She talked to us for a good 15 minutes about lemurs, what zookeepers do, and that if Vivi wants to be a zookeeper she would need to study hard and later volunteer with animals. Vivi soaked up every word and asked really intelligent questions: "Why is the sifaka and her baby the only ones in the cage if they like to live in groups?" "Because the other sifakas got into a fight with the mommy sifaka and accidentally bit off the baby's tail, so they are in isolation until the baby can fend for herself better." woah. Vivi impressed her with random lemur trivia: "The mommy is in charge- she decides who eats what and when and where they sleep. And she always wins all of the fights." The zookeeper asked her if she knew where lemurs live and Vivi almost rolled her eyes until I shot her a look to be nice "Madagascar, of course! They live in the deserts AND the rain forests, whever there are trees." It was really funny:). The zookeeper also told us that as a birthday present, you can buy a special behind the scenes tour of certain animals, and she thinks we would be able to ask for a lemur one (although she said it isn't listed because it isn't as common as elephants or giraffes:). Sssshhh, this may be Vivi's birthday present this December!!!


It really was a nice Mother's Day- steaks and asparagus on the grill, sweet potato fries and a salad from our garden. Enjoying Vivi's interaction at the zoo, and then watching the kids swim in our pool- seeing my kids happy is the best Mother's Day present:)!!!