Tigers! And Elephants! Sadly, No Lions.

A while back, I received an invitation in the mail for Dream Night at the Zoo. While this sounded all kinds of fun, and included things like balloons and face painting and even behind the scenes tours, I had no idea why we were invited. It was an after-hours event, by invitation only. When I RSVP'd, I was asked who invited me. The only other identifying mark on the card was Children's Hospital, so I credited them. My guess was that they went through their Frequent Flyer Cards and randomly drew names. Turns out, I was wrong. Last week I received a letter from Parent To Parent reminding me that Dream Night at the Zoo was coming up, and don't forget to stop by their booth while I'm there. They had something special for each of the families that they invited.

Huh. Mystery solved.

So Dream Night at the Zoo was Sunday night. It was way more crowded than I thought it would be, but the fun was so worth the crowd. And the crowd? It consisted of all differently abled kids and their families. That is my favorite kind of crowd ever. As soon as we got off the escalator Micah spotted a fursuit in the shape of a polar bear, and remembering Disney, made a beeline for it immediately. We didn't have a fun Special Needs pass like we did at Disney, so the wait in line was enough to make the happy boy grumpy, but he eventually got his picture taken with a fursuit. And from there, the fun escalated.

Someone cut in line just as Micah ran for his turn at the polar bear. He holds a grudge, that boy does. He wouldn't smile for the picture, despite being very happy.

Micah's very favorite animal in the whole wide world is the elephant. The boy absolutely loves them. And to his delight, he got to pet one and have his picture taken with it. Disney doesn't even have real live elephants to pet. He was in little boy heaven.

After the elephants, we strolled through the aquarium, where for the first time EVER it wasn't crowded. Micah watched the penguins for a while, then became fascinated with the water overhead. That lasted right up until the water made him have to go potty, and then it was a mad rush to find a restroom.

There were Hawaiian hula dancers performing, and inviting the kids to join them. We walked into the tiger cage area and saw where they live behind the scenes. There were gorgeous chalk drawings on the pavement that the kids just loved. We even saw the artist at work near the polar bear. 

Even despite the fun we had getting there, it was an awesome evening. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in hosting such a wonderful event for some of the best kids ever.