We were extremely lucky to be invited along to the Little Creatures Family Festival at London Zoo on Saturday.
We first took the kids along to London Zoo this Easter and they loved it so much - you can read about that here.
We took the train to Victoria, then it's just two quick changes on the underground to Regents Park. It is then a very lovely 20 minute stroll through Regents Park to the zoo entrance.
We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Sumatran tiger cubs but they were tucked away indoors, you can however see them on the tiger cam TV screen.
There are loads of activities going on for the kids, included in the entrance price.
Jess French, from Cbeebies Minibeast Adventures with Jess, was there to teach the kids all about minibeasts, taking them on an imaginative adventure to hunt for creatures. My children aged, 4, 8 and 10 years, all happily joined in with this answering questions and taking part in pretending to be different creatures.
There are huge magnifying glasses, giant beanbags, tunnels, skipping ropes, arts and crafts and an area full of pompoms and buckets. This is where the kids can help the dung beetle to collect all the 'poo'. This was brilliant fun watching all the kids roll a giant ball of poo along the grass.
The children also joined in with another interactive talk with a member of staff. This one was about butterflies, four volunteers got picked to dress up as an egg, a caterpillar, a chrysalis (my son) and a butterfly.
The children can also take a sheet and a magnifying glass and go on a walk looking for little creatures.
There is also a Jungle Jukebox puppet show.
In the Bugs room there are various displays throughout the day, the kids got to stroke a cockroach and we went and had a look at the spiders and saw the leaf cutter ants.
A must see if you are at London Zoo is the Land of the Lions and if you're lucky enough you may get to take part in a 'lion emergency' - do check with a staff member to find out what times it's happening as we missed it last time.
The forest rangers and veterinary team will announce over the speaker that there has been an emergency, they then carry a lion through on a stretcher.
We luckily were right at the front and my daughter got chosen to assist along with another boy.
The lion is a very good replica animatronic - it's chest moves up and down and it did fool the children. The two volunteers put on surgical gloves, whilst the vets check the lions heart rate and temperature. The children help to clean the wounds and give injections and also take a DNA swab from the lions mouth. It was an amazing experience for my 8 year old daughter. This happens a couple of times a day, so it's well worth making sure you are in the area when it's happening.
We love the butterfly tunnel, one even landed on my head! There are so many beautiful species darting about and nestled among the flowers.
In the reptile house the children were allowed to hold the skin of a reticulated python and also touch crocodile skin.
There are many animal enclosures to visit, you can walk through with the lemurs, the monkeys and the Rainforest creatures; visit the aquarium and stroke the farm animals and in the African area there are wild dogs, warthogs, okapi, pygmy hippos, zebras and of course the giraffes.
It's a great day out for the whole family and afterwards you can walk along the canal and take a look around Camden market. Take a look at this review by The Willow Tree, they visited London Zoo recently.