[celebrate] meet the animals

After quite a bit of deliberation, we chose the Catawba Science Center for Jack's birthday party this year.  We are huge fans of the Science Center as it is and this party just made us love it even more.  We opted for the larger special events room in the new Aquarium and Planetarium addition.  We weren't sure how many people we would end up with so this room, although a bit more expensive, had room to spare if we needed it.

The theme Jack chose was "Meet the Animals". Jonathan was our presenter.   He was great with the kids and super helpful.  First were activities.  There were three stations, animals tracks with cool stamps,

masks that the kids could decorate,and a giant map showing where animals came from.

And then Jonathan introduced the animals: a blue tongued skink

a rose-haired tarantula, hissing cockroaches from Madagascar and a very cool corn snake.

We learned all about all four animals including that insects had 4 or 6 legs which meant spiders were not insects, they were arachnids.  And a whole bunch of other cool stuff.  We all got to touch the animals  and Jack even got to hold the corn snake.

The next thing we knew it was cake and present time.  And if that wasn't enough, the party came with free admission to the Science Center for all of the guests. It just so happened right after we finished up the presents that they were feeding the sharks and rays in the aquarium so the kids got the see that, too! (This was definitely a benefit of having the party in the special events room which is located in the new addition - the smaller birthday rooms are in another building separate from the Aquarium.)

I'm sure there are lots of awesome places to have birthday parties, but the Science Center has got to be one of the best.