I had the chance to goof around with Mim-Mim from the popular Disney Jr. cable network television show KATE & MIM-MIM this summer and have to say that bunny is sure a lot of fun to hang out with. Of course anyone who has seen this animated show for preschoolers that focuses on the friendship and adventures of a 5 year old girl named Kate and her favorite stuffed animal, a plush bunny named Mim-Mim already knows that. In the show, Kate and Mim-Mim travel to the land of Mimiloo for imaginary adventures where they are joined by magical friends that live in this land of make believe named Lily, Tack and Gobble. If you haven't seen Kate & Mim-Mim yet now is a chance to catch up on some of their past escapades which are being released on a new DVD coming out September 20, 2016. "THE MIMILOO ZOO" DVD will feature six fun filled tales plus a bonus video called "Mimiloo's Creatures."
In the story "The Mimiloo Zoo," Kate's trip to the zoo gets canceled because it's raining, so it's off to the fantasy world of Mimiloo! In Mimiloo, animals made out of bushes are being created for Gobble and Tack's AMAZING new fruit garden inside their AMAZING new hedge maze. When Mim-Mim accidently spritzes the animals twice with Gobble's powerful presto potion, they come to life and things quickly get wild. With the animals creating a bit of havoc, the gang needs to fnd a place for them to live and Kate knows the perfect location.
The DVD also features the story "Lily and the Unicorn." Lily has always wanted to see a unicorn, and now is the perfect time as beautiful shimmer flowers, which unicorns love to eat, are blooming. After searching all day, the gang finally locates a whole garden of flowers. When the garden starts to float away, with Lily, who can save her?
Additional stories included on "The Mimiloo Zoo" DVD include, To Catch a Critter, Follow the Leader, Kate's Turtle Drive, and Kittens & Mittens. The DVD run time is approximately 65 minutes. You can order the DVD online from Shop PBS or look for it at retail locations across the United States. For more information about this television series and its characters, visit kateandmimmim.com
We always make a special effort a few times per year to take a road trip with our kids to visit the TOLEDO ZOO because it really is a great park and a nice change of pace with different exhibits and animals on display to enjoy from our own local Detroit Zoo which with our annual membership itself is a pretty frequent destination for our family. So it really wasn't that much of a surprise when we heard that this Midwestern factory town's zoo was named by USA TODAY as the "Best Zoo in the USA" and "one of the top 10 zoos in the U.S." by Family Fun Magazine. The Toledo Zoo is home to more than 9,000 animals representing over 800 species. It also just completed a new 178,000 gallon aquarium so that a visit to the zoo not only lets you observe land animals but also takes you under the sea.
Because the Detroit Zoo is just a few minute drive from our house we've become pretty accustomed to that place so making a trip to the Toledo Zoo is always a special treat to check out new things. My kids favorite three features of the Toledo Zoo ( the hippoquarium, elephant exhibit & salt water aquarium) aren't available to see at our local zoo making the experience out of the ordinary and extra special for them. These exhibits really provide a close up views of these creatures allowing for some extraordinary experiences.
The Hippoquarium
Visitors to this exhibit are treated to a view of the underwater world of Nile hippopotamus. This 360,000 gallon pool has a filter system that cleans 8,000 gallons of water every 90 minutes to help provide a clear closeup view of the hippos as they lounge and wander about underwater. My kids always are thrilled when they have an up close encounter with these humongous creatures.
Elephants of the Savanna
Speaking of larger creatures, right next door to the hippoquarium is the elephant enclosure. Whenever my daughter brings up a trip to the Toledo Zoo the first thing she references is wanting to go see the elephants. The Toledo Zoo enlarged and renovated this exhibit in 2012 providing for expanded viewing areas for people and more stimuli for the African elephants that call it home including elevated feeders, enrichment walls and trees that creating a dynamic space for the animals.
The Hippoquarium and Elephants of the Savanna exhibits are part of a larger themed African Safari themed display area called the Tembo Trail. As you venture along the Tembo Trail in addition to elephants and hippos, you'll also encounter lions, white rhinoceros, spotted-necked otters, slender-snouted crocodiles, naked mole rats and meerkats.
Aquarium
After a two and half year closure for a $25 million dollar expansion and renovations just re-opened in the Spring of 2015. This
exhibit has transformed a 46,000 gallon aquarium that had mostly
displayed local freshwater varieties of fish into a 178,000 immersive
underwater experience where people can view more than 3,000 creatures
from a variety of ecosystems around the world.
We took a road trip this summer to the Toledo Zoo just to check out the new aquarium facility and I have to say it really is fin-tastic! CLICK HERE to check out A Geek Daddy's review of the Toledo Zoo's aquarium "Sea-ing the Toledo Zoo Aquarium is Fin-tastic!"
Playgrounds
It just figures though that my kids enjoy playing at the Toledo Zoo almost as much as venturing around observing all the wonderful animals. The zoo has a nice area called Nature's Neighborhood that has a playscape area featuring a kids only tree house to explore, rock walls to climb and a stream to wade in. There is also the Jumpin Junction indoor workshop area that has projects to do and presentations to see throughout the day all year long. At Jumpin Junction kids can see themselves on a large TV screen with backgrounds from the natural world behind them or they can play around with animal costumes and puppets for a fun experience.
During the warmer months there also are daily performances at 2 pm each day featuring Toledo Zoo animals at the outdoor Fisher-Price Discover Stage for families to enjoy or you can pet African pygmy goats in Nature Neighborhood's Goat Yard.
As part of the aquarium renovation, the Toledo Zoo also just installed a great aquatic splash pad play area directly behind that facility that also includes oceanic themed play structures like a giant crab holding a tire swing in its pinchers.
A few other highlights of trip to the Toledo Zoo include taking a train ride around Africa! which circles a field filled with zebras, giraffe, wilderbeest, ostrich, and wild dogs; trekking through the Arctic Encounter to view polar bears and seals; meandering through the Primate Forest filled with lemurs, monkeys, and red pandas; and a walk through the reptile house which features a giant saltwater croc. CLICK HERE for a map with a full layout of the zoo.
Of course we can't head home for the day until we've taken a ride on the old fashion carousel situated by the park's main entrance.
If you happen to be visiting the area the Toledo Zoo has a nice Out-of-town Visitor Guide on its website to help with planning a trip to the zoo. If you can make it to Toledo, A Geek Daddy recommends that a visit to their zoo is well worth it. You'll always discover something that will put a smile on your at the Toledo Zoo!
All my nieces and nephews who are around the same age as my kids were in town over the Fourth of July weekend so we decided to take them all over to the Detroit Zoo to go for a hike through the dinosaur exhibit. No not real dinosaurs or a display of fossils but rather through a 5 acre trail lined with lifelike animatronic prehistoric creatures.
The DINOSAURIA exhibit is open through Labor Day from 9:30 to 5pm (until 8pm on Wednesday nights) and you need to purchase tickets for an additional expense beyond the price of admission to the zoo to be able to hike with the dinosaurs. You can purchase Dinosauria tickets at the zoo entrance or at the exhibit itself for $5 per person for anyone older than 2 years old. Though if you have an annual zoo membership and ask at the Members Entrance you can purchase a four pack of Dinosauria tickets for $12 letting you get a slight discount so you'd be paying $3 per person. Hey it adds up that discount ended up saving us $24 dollars for our our group that day.
Walk through the fossilized remains of a dinosaur and through the mists of time to find yourself transported back to prehistoric times. The mist is actually water so be prepared to get a little wet as you venture through the dinosaur rib cage plus watch your step as it can be muddy and slippery in some spots.
The dinosaurs are created by Billings Productions which has created a niche for themselves in producing high quality aninmatronic dinosaurs and marketing them to zoos across the country to provide an enhanced experience for their visitors plus some extra revenue generation for the parks hosting the displays. CLICK HERE for a list of zoos that host displays featuring Billings Productions dinosaurs to see if there is one near you. The company also produces a line of giant bug animatronics that I haven't personally seen myself but look really impressive on their website that you may also want to keep an eye out for when visiting a zoo or theme park hosting a Billings Productions display.
My kids love the movie WALKING WITH DINOSAURS so were thrilled to see a realistic looking Pachyrhinosaurus with babies standing right in front of them.
They also had a blast running around the trail discovering new dinosaurs around every twist and curve of the path. WARNING! Two things to watch out for! First, two of the dinosaurs spit at you. I'm not going to say which ones so you'll enjoy being surprised if you visit but my nephew wasn't paying attention and got blasted right in the face. He was fine but really embarrassed. Secondly, there is a somewhat explicit scene of a predator eating its kill. As the kids ran up on that scene in front of our group of adults in the group we didn't have a chance to screen them for that. The kids weren't phased at all though and seemed to understand that animals get eaten in the wild. My nephew blurted out it was like seeing a lion eating a gazelle. So it obviously wasn't a big deal for our family but I understand it could be for others so I thought I'd give it a mention.
If you want to expand upon the educational aspect of your visit, there is also an augmented reality app you can download and use on your smart phone while hiking with the dinosaurs. It is available for Android and Apple devices and takes about 5 to 7 minutes to download so you may want to load it onto your phone before you head over to the zoo. When you arrive at the dinosaur exhibit open the app and in the drop down menu look at the specific zoo you are visiting and select that location. Then using the camera on your phone zoom in on the various informational signs posted around the exhibit. Wow! virtual dinosaurs will appear on your phone's screen through the augmented reality app that you can interact with. The app also provides you additional information on the dinosaurs to help you turn this entertaining experience into an expanded educational opportunity.
I have to say that the dinosaurs created by Billings Productions are impressive. The adults and children alike in our group had a fun and enjoyable time during our hike with the dinosaurs. From a parenting perspective the scariest thing I wanted to run away from during our visit was the gift shop you are dumped into at the end of the trail which results in children swarming you yelling out "gimme gimme" and grasping at you for your wallet. Oh the horror!
Seriously though younger children may be frightened by the shear size of the dinosaurs ... and their teeth ... that also roar at you, but we had a 3 year old, 4 year old, two 6 year olds and a 7 year old in our group and none of them were scared of anything we saw during our visit. Speaking of teeth I wonder if it is ok to feed a dinosaur a twinkie?
Because it combines entertaining and educational elements to promote an interest in learning, the Detroit Zoo's Dinosauria gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval. Plus those dinosaur robots are just darn cool!
Oh and the baby dinosaurs are pretty adorable too!
This year was the third year in a row that we've hopped over the the Detroit Zoo to participate in its annual Bunnyville activities. Taking place the Friday and Saturday before Easter, the zoo provides fun activities, games and entertainment for children that are FREE with paid admission to the zoo. Being that we live a fifteen minute drive from the zoo and have an annual family pass this egg-stravaganza is always a nice extra benefit of having a zoo membership that my kids really enjoy.
We started off our visit to Bunnyville with a stop at the Jelly Bean Jamboree where the kids rubbed on some temporary tattoos, built custom bracelets, and made bunny faces from paper plates and cotton balls while enjoying live music performed by Mr. Seley and the Troublemakers that put a rock spin on some popular children's songs like "Old McDonald Had A Zoo."
Next was a stop at the Ford Education Center for a sp-egg-tacular magic show by the Amazing Clark followed by a stroll around to view some of the animals and a zookeeper talk at the grizzly bears exhibit. Than it was off to the Children's Hospital of Michigan Whisker Painting Station so the kids could get their bunny faces on.
The Funny Bunny Games are always a hit. This year's activities included a hoop toss, floating duck contest, beanbag throw, and don't drop the egg walk for prizes that included dinosaur masks, a handheld pinball maze game, pencils, and some fruit gummy snacks. All of which thrilled and excited my kids.
Every year we've attended this egg-stravaganza my kids favorite part has been the Bunny Follies live play, especially when they get everybody in the audience to do the chicken dance.
The theme of the skit is on how Elmer the Bear wants to replace the Easter Bunny with the Big Brown Easter Bear. The show has some humorous gags and musical numbers that get the audience engaged and my kids talk about it for days afterwards.
The Bunny Follies really are egg-cellent!
Our family has really enjoyed the Detroit Zoo's Bunnyville activities during our kids preschool and kindergarten years. Based upon the activities though the event probably peaks out as being suitable for children in first or second grade so while Bunnyville has become somewhat of a family tradition it might not be that much longer lived as the twins move on to first grade this Fall. If you are a parent of a preschooler or kindergarten aged child that lives in the Metro Detroit area, Bunnyville at the Detroit Zoo gets A Geek Daddy Nod of Approval and I highly recommend hopping by to enjoy the festivities.
Spring is here, the sun is out and it is time to get your Vitamin Z!
