Mid-Week Zoo Trip

The death of someone who is close to you really makes you appreciate the time that you do have with your family, so when my sister came into town we decided to make a day out of it. We braved the zoo on Half-Price Wednesday and it was surprisingly empty! We arrived fairly late (~3pm), so we decided to ride the train to the back of the zoo, then walk back to the front. They played in the sand box, pointed to lots of snakes, and their favorite thing - fed the parakeets!

Walt, Camryn, Kristin and Me on the Yellow Rose Express

Auntie K on the Yellow Rose Express

Checking out the Flamingos

A view from the other side (I held the camera over the fence)

So this is what the animals see...

Checking out the reptiles - I think this was a lizard, his head is poking out from behind the rock against the wall

This is our "Family Photo Spot" - Australia has the coolest animals!

Walt braved the sand pit and the girls couldn't get enough! They loved pouring the sand.

Sweet Cam

Aunt K helping Camryn feed the parakeets

Me and Kristin - she was stretching sooooo far...for so long...

Her arm got so tired, so she had to hold it up with her other arm because she was determined to feed that bird

Then they found birds on the ground that they could feed all by themselves

While we were in the Reptile House, the girls came upon an extremely active snake. Camryn kept trying to "pat, pat" the snake, while Kristin wasn't too sure that the glass barrier was really going to keep the snake away from her. Kristin is on the left and Camryn is on the right.

Still working on the video...

Sad News

The sad news...my grandfather (my mom's dad) passed away on 4/7 after battling with declining health for quite a while. I feel blessed that we were able to go visit him several times while he was in the hospital the past few weeks. Even while he was in the hospital, he would smile, give the girls high fives, and watch them play with all the fun things in his hospital room. Kristin and Camryn loved to "E.T." him - touch pointer fingers and had recently moved up to high-fives. He will be greatly missed. Here are a few pictures of him and the girls -

Bunny Ears

Walt has been taking the girls to Story Time at our local library each week. At Story Time, they sing songs, read stories, and make a craft. Sometimes the crafts are geared more toward kids a little older, but I think today's craft was just perfect. What do you think?

Camryn showing off her new bunny ears

Kristin's bunny ears

"Cheese"

Kristin playing the part of the Pouty Bunny

Camryn playing the part of the Angry Bunny

"Quit stealing all my Easter eggs!"

Body Parts

The girls learned a new body part today. Their tongues! They can now correctly identify (most of the time) the following body parts:

Eye and other eye
Ear and other ear
Nose
Mouth
Hair
Arm
Elbow
Hand
Knee
Leg
Foot
Toes
Belly
Belly button

Camryn pointing to her tongue

(also holding her new pink cup and sporting her new pink shoes)

Kristin with her new yellow cup

Squinting her eyes - She does this when we say "close your eyes", she peeks a little bit.

Pre-Blog Story

Tonight while I was getting the girls ready for bed, I was reminded of this incident from about a month ago:

We had gone to dinner (probably at Chili's) with the girls and I had ordered chicken strips. Well, the girls love to dip things, so I let Kristin borrow my gravy ramekin so she could dip her french fries. She continued to dip her french fries a few times, then she put her finger in the gravy. Great...she is going to start finger painting on the table. Oh well, it could be worse. So I keep eating, just watching her out of the corner of my eye. Well, she puts her finger in the gravy again, then wipes her finger on her leg. I tell her not to do that again, then I keep eating. She then proceeds to do it again! Big surprise, I know. So I pull her highchair out from under the table so I can survey the damage and what I see makes me burst out laughing.

She had shorts on, and she had indeed been wiping the gravy on her leg. The funny part connects back to our bedtime routine. While I put lotion on the girls, they "help" by dipping their finger in the lotion and wiping in on their legs. Well Kristin made the connection that the gravy looked just like a little bowl of lotion and decided she needed a little moisturizing.

Every day my sweet tiny babies amaze me more and more. They amount of information that they understand is unbelievable. Today I told Kristin to "turn around and set her cup on the window sill". So what does she do? Turns around and sets her cup on the window sill. How does she know what a window sill is? We don't even practice turning around, and yet she could follow each part of the directions after only being told one time. Remarkable. My babies are growing up.