Watercolors

Cheerful paintings to brighten a winter's day. These were sent home in the girls backpack this morning. Art is still one of their favorite activities.


By Elsa


By Lily


By Lily


By Lily

Snow Day

Finally some snow. Yesterday, the girls had their first snow day of the year. It wasn't a ton of snow, but it was heavy and wet and perfect for building things.

The giant tree in our front yard in all of its winter splendor.


Elsa enjoyed making a slide out of the tree trunk.


Lily poking her head out of a snow tunnel they built with Daddy.


Lily and Elsa tried to make snow angels, but the snow was more slushy than fluffy.


Elsa and Lily posing with "Tall Man, the snowman." Fun.

Happy Valentine's Day 2008

The girls are back home after having a smashingly good time at their class's Valentine's Day Party. As the official "room parent" my job was to organize a little potluck lunch for all the kids and their families. The kids have been preparing for the past couple weeks doing all sorts of Valentine projects and decorating the room. We covered all the tables with fancy red table cloths to make the room festive. The girls and I even made a red and pink punch using my Grandma N's (Elsa Senior's recipe). Everyone loved it. The rest of the food was fabulous, too. There were finger sandwiches, quiche, asian noodles, heart-shaped watermelon and even homemade flan. Yum.


A girl after my own heart, Elsa skipped the buffet and headed straight for the dessert table. She's my girl with the biggest sweet tooth. Chocolate milk, icecream and cookies. Pure bliss.


Lily shows off her Valentine's Day crown. Could their be anything cuter than a herd of 3 and 4-year olds in festive party hats? I don't think so.


The girls had their first experience with Valentine Cards today as the class did an exchange. Lily and Elsa picked out their own cards. (Elsa=Sponge Bob and Lily=Mickey Mouse) Then, they practiced signing their own names. They made it through about half of their cards before the asked me to take over. After we got home from the party, the girls had so much fun opening all their envelopes from their friends. Can you believe how many of the kids made their own. Will have to remember that for next year. So sweet.

Happy Valentine's to all. Hope you're having a great day.

XO
The Pannings

Bubble Divas

The divine Miss Elsa


And the fabulous Miss Lily

Where or where did this little blog go? Oh where or where could it be?

I'm afraid that I left everyone with the mistaken impression that we were all well and healthy after my last postings. 12 hours later, Elsa came down with a very nasty stomach bug and she was out of school for four more days. Meanwhile, Mark was on an epic journey to a job interview that involved canceled flights on either end, a two hour drive on rural interstates at midnight, arriving at 2am before a 7am faculty breakfast and then there was a snowstorm and an extra night spent at an airport hotel. He made it back road weary and travel worn just as Elsa was starting to get back on her feet. We spent the weekend trying to catch up on the laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping that fell by the wayside when you're tending to a sick kid (especially while solo-parenting).

That was quite a week.

But, I'm glad to say that this week has been going much better. The girls made it an entire week of school without missing a day. This hasn't happened since before Xmas break. And they are doing things like eating and sleeping again. Both girls are alarmingly skinny after being so ill. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when Elsa hopped on the scale and it said "25lbs." That is super skinny, even for them. Usually, they are somewhere between 27-28lbs. It will be an exciting day when they finally crack the 30lb threshold. (I'm pretty sure Uncle John managed to do that by his first birthday...I'm hoping it will happen by the girls' 4th!)

Mark's taking his show on the road with another interview this week, too. It was with great trepidation that we said goodbye at the train station. Utter shock and amazement as his plane took off without delay. Everything seems to be going well so far. But please send good travel thoughts that his return flight tonight goes just as uneventfully.

And that's the news from Lake Wobegon. And regarding the bubble pictures above, no need to send me any warning emails about the dangers of bubble bath. That was just a very rare treat for the girls. Learning to make a bubble beard is an important rite of passage for 3-year olds everywhere. And Elsa and Lily clearly enjoyed themselves.