At the zoo...

The girls had an excellent trip to the Oakland zoo today. They've been to the zoo a few times, but this was the first time that they "got" what it is all about . . . the animals! One of their favorite books is "Goodnight Gorilla" where the zookeeper puts all the animals to bed in their cages. So, it was pretty exciting for them to see all the animals from the book. Their favorites were the exhibits they could get close to like the lemurs and the snakes,frogs and lizards in the reptile house.


Uh oh. Lily somehow climbed into the mountain goat exhibit. Just kidding. This was at the petting zoo. They let the kids pet the goats. And Lily and Elsa showed no fear. They also got to practice their goat noise "Maaaaaa."


Lily trying to get the goat to come down and play with her. Lily's so cute, she's always ready for action. So far, she's been the twins' social director. In the mornings, we can hear Lily trying to get Elsa to wake up and play with her. We hear "up,down . . .up,down." They've invented a hide and seek type game where they pop their heads up and down out of view. They squeal and laugh when they find each other. So funny.


By far, the other kids were the most interesting animals at the zoo. Here are Elsa and Lily braving the play area with the big kids. They are planning their attack. In case you are wondering, the dresses were my idea. I bought them in Mexico. The pants were the girls' idea. And who is going to argue with two 19-month-olds ;) You must choose your battles wisely.


What could be cooler than giant bugs? Elsa greets a friendly caterpillar.


Lily scales a giant moth like it is Mount Everest. Lily's a climber. Lately, I keep finding her on top of the endtables. She stands up no-hands like a wild woman. She's also working hard on getting over the kitchen gate.


Elsa gives the caterpillar a big hug. Elsa gives great hugs and kisses.

Both girls are very loving and sweet. But they've also been stubborn little sprites lately. They've learned the power of the word "no." (Elsa especially). They have lots of opinions which is a good thing. Sometimes, their ideas make us laugh. Other times, they wear us out!


Finally, Lily going down the tree slide. Slides are both girls' favorite playground attraction. They usually prefer to go down all by themselves. But, this was a slow slide. Lily needed daddies help to go fast.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Lily and Elsa had a fun visiting with their Grandma and Grandpa P. last weekend.


Grandma and Grandpa were willing to read the "lift the flap" books as many times as the girls asked.


They also played in the sandbox and at the park with the girls. We will see them again next week on their way back from Hawaii. They are currently celebrating their 40th. We hope they have a great vacation.

It has finally stopped raining around here. Six solid weeks of rain have taught us not to take any sunny days for granted. Here are the girls enjoying the sunshine last week.


Lily says "look out below!"


Elsa gives Lily some extra coaching.



Big happy Elsa grin.

Happy Easter

Hunting for eggs in the backyard. Elsa is wearing her purple jacket. Lily is wearing pink.

Peeps and bunnies

The girls are already celebrating Easter.


Yesterday, Lily and Elsa were surprised with stuffed Peeps from G-Aunt Chris and Uncle Don. (much better for the teeth than the marshmallow variety). Check out their hair in this picture. It is really beginning to fill in now and is very soft and fluffy.


Today they received a box of goodies from Great Grandma and Grandpa A. Here they are putting their brand new bunnies in their Easter baskets. Thanks for the treats!


Then, we took the girls to the Albany Spring Festival to meet the Easter bunny. Here are Elsa and Lily waiting with Daddy for the bunny to arrive. The bunny arrived on a shiny red firetruck. The girls looked so cute and grownup in their dresses. We decided to make it an occasion and wear something special. The girls were proudly pointing to and saying "knee"all afternoon.


As you can see, Lily wasn't very interested in meeting the Easter Bunny. But, Elsa stopped to say hello.


The girls each got a balloon at the festival. Elsa really enjoyed her yellow balloon. She was dancing on the playground with it. (don't worry, Mom and Dad know we have to be very careful because they can be a choking hazzard).


And a serious Lily sitting on the front stoop. This is one of the girls favorite places to hang out.

So fast

Just one year ago today we celebrated Lily and Elsa's Baptism.





Can you believe how much they've grown. And how clean and white they look in those dresses. They wouldn't keep those dresses clean for five minutes today!

Not a whole lot to report this week aside from the fact that it has been raining a lot. We set a record 25 rainy days for March. It hasn't rained this much in March since the Gold Rush. The Panning family misses going outside. We are all going stir crazy.


Lily doing her happy-mail-dance. She got a card from Grandma! The girls love to open mail.


Elsa carefully checking out her special card from Grandma P. She's pointing to a picture of herself. Speaking of which, we'd love fresh family pictures from everyone. The girls really enjoy photographs. We want them to start associating names with faces. My ultimate plan is to get the pictures laminated into a flip book. But, if anybody wants to do their own book/video project, it would be wonderful.


Lily stomping around the yard in her rain boots.


The girls taking a silly self-portrait. Ahem. These are our model faces. (L,E)


Lily and Elsa crack up. I love Elsa's big grin.