Adam's 2nd Birthday

Adam's second birthday was celebrated by just the four of us with a scrummy chocolate cake (that I hunted high & low for in one of the big malls here, that felt like it was the size of Asia itself! - the mall, not the cake).

We decided to go to Manila Zoo as a birthday treat (we know how to treat our kids in style!!).It only cost 50p each to get in (not even that for the boys), so we weren’t expecting Whipsnade, and we weren’t disappointed!!

After seeing the elephant, tiger, hippo and zebra (yes, only one of each), we were told that the giraffe had died! Then we saw the snakes, monkeys and crocodiles. We thought that some of the crocs were stone statues, because there seemed to be so many of them and they were so still. (we were stood there for a long time looking at them!). Until they all moved and we all burst out laughing. This brought even more attention to us, since we were the only white people there, and we were being stared at all the way round the zoo!

There was another part to the zoo called the "Kiddie Zoo". You paid an extra 40 pesos (about 40p or so) each to get into this bit, but you were treated to a different experience!

There were Lego statues (see pic). I don't know what these have to do with a Kiddie Zoo, there were Lego animals there too, but the statue of the lady (if you can call it that) was just too bizarre not to take a photo of (massive boobs!), and the boys really liked sitting in the little train that was made of Lego.

As we walked around this part of the zoo, a man who worked there came up and kind of guided us around by telling us which animals we could pet/hold/sit on - all while he took a family photo with said poor animal!

No one wanted to sit on the turtle. No one wanted to touch the ostrich. The boys and I would have absolutely nothing to do with the baby aligator, but as you can see, John was happy to oblige, as well as hold the parrots!!

Even John drew the line at holding the snake though. Adam did have a huge butterfly land on his head in the butterfly house and stood still long enough for me to get a shot (but then he didn't know it was there!!).

For his birthday. we got Adam a scooter (that he doesn't realise is his, because Bradley rides it all the time!), and some soft balls that he can kick/throw around in the apartment without fear of doing any damage. He also got given some playdough from Grandma & Grandad, and some of his favourite DVDs (Bob the Builder & Brum are current must haves!) from Nana & Grandad. He was also really lucky to have a couple of presents from friends, so it was lovely that he had lots of presents to open.

We finished the day with a birthday tea followed by said chocolate cake and a round (or three) of "Happy Birthday"!!

Adam revelled in the attention (as he always does!) and tried his best to get enough puff to blow out his number 2 candle - as you can see.

Hope you enjoyed sharing Adam's birthday with us - 'til next time!