St. Louis Zoo

Changing Light

I’ve already shared a look at the Animals Aglow lantern festival at the St. Louis Zoo; now I’m sharing one of my favorite details of any lantern festival…seeing how the lanterns change with the changing light!

I learned from the lantern festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden almost ten years ago that there’s a beauty in seeing the structures while the sun is still up, and then looking at them again in the dark, and it’s still true. You notice different details as the light changes, and each is beautiful in its own way!

Animals Aglow

It’s already been two weeks since we’ve been to the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival at the St. Louis Zoo, and it was such an amazing experience…I’m really excited to share some of the pictures I took of the amazing displays!

As the name suggests, most of the lanterns are, of course, animals. We walked two laps through the displays, and it was really cool to see them before the sun set, and then as it got really dark, as well.

There are also quite a few insects:

The centerpiece of the event is the dragon, which is a tunnel and also set off “smoke” periodically:

There was also a “Year of the Dragon” special at Starbucks while we were there, which had mango, dragonfruit (of course), and matcha foam…it was delicious!

There are a few other walk-through displays, as well…the flowers are especially cool!

And some botanical pieces in addition to the animals and insects:

There is also a really cool rain cloud that you can stand inside:

Another beautiful display is the butterfly tree, which had a ton of movement and shifting colors:

I loved the lanterns that are on the water:

The best example of this, in my opinion, is the swans by the south entrance…the reflections are outstanding!

This was a really fun event, and I’m glad we had the opportunity to see it!

Chickadee Thursday

Last night, we went to the “Animals Aglow” lantern festival at the St. Louis Zoo…it was so much fun! Chickadee really loved all the interactive exhibits and photo spots.

Sartorial Saturday–Oktoberfest 2023

Time for a look back at the outfits I wore to various Oktoberfest celebrations this year! I attended a record four Oktoberfests, which means I got to wear 2/3 of the dirndls in my wardrobe. I wore my very first dress from Rare Dirndl to Belleville’s Oktoberfest, but with a fairly new apron:

I wore one of my newest dirndls to St. Charles Oktoberfest, but I again switched out the apron:

I decided to go for a lot of color at Zootoberfest at the St. Louis Zoo:

And I paired my new “Surprise Me” apron with one of my oldest dirndls at Oktoberfest at Das Bevo:

Looking back at the places I went, I can say that Belleville’s Oktoberfest is still the most disappointing to me, while St. Charles is the biggest and best. Surprisingly, though, the zoo had the best pretzels!

St. Charles might have the best Oktoberfest, but you just can’t beat the setting of Das Bevo. It was the smallest one I attended, but just look at that gorgeous building and fun tent!

I’ll leave you with everyone’s favorite call for a toast!

Chickadee Thursday

Even if it hadn’t been Zootoberfest, Chickadee would have had a great time at the St. Louis Zoo last weekend because she got to see the entire elephant herd!

Chickadee Thursday

This has been a Big Week. We said goodbye to Bunny when we dropped her off for college, and I didn’t think Chickadee was going to let her go:

To distract ourselves from missing her, we visited the St. Louis Zoo on what was probably the nicest August day I’ve ever experienced in St. Louis! It was the kind of day that makes you believe that eventually it might be autumn.

Happy World Penguin Day!

In honor of World Penguin Day, here’s a look at some of the penguins we saw at the St. Louis Zoo last month:

And I can’t mention World Penguin Day without taking a look at my very favorite penguin pal, Roald!

2022-23 School Year–Week Sixteen

Following our extended Christmas break, we finally got back to work this week! But we started with something fun…a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. It was the perfect January day to visit, because many of the animals were very active!

We also did actual work. Ladybug did a lesson on ratios in algebra 2. She started reading To Kill a Mockingbird. In history, she read about the life of Muhammad and the continuing decline of the Persian Empire. She identified noun clauses in grammar. She wrote a short play in creative writing, using Stitch from Lilo and Stitch for her inspiration. In chemistry, she worked with the concept of stoichiometry, and found that the math wasn’t too intimidating!

Chickadee worked on identifying polygons and drawing circles with a compass in math. She started a chapter about ungulates in science, beginning with her favorite animal, the elephant. All of her grammar this week was review, which was convenient after so much time off! She read about Greek mythology, and also some of the battles of the Greeks, as well as the first marathon, in history. We started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and we made Turkish Delight!

We hit the halfway mark in both math classes this week, so it’s all downhill from here!