Belated Grandma Thanks!

Grandma Carol made awesome pillowcases for the girls ages ago. She's quite the talent at the sewing machine.  But it's taken until now to get the girls to want BOTH of their pillows to be encased in BOTH the pillowcases.  Here they are, stifling back the giggles and pretending to sleep, grateful for their pillowcases.

 

Thanks, Grandma!

Art & Wine Festival

We headed to A's parents house to hit the San Carlos Art and Wine festival.  Why?  Why not. 

The girls got face painting:

Because we were not particularly interested in art or wine, we checked out the children's book store there.  Robin read to Papa...

... Grammy read to Erin ....

... Brian read the inside of his eyelids. 

We went to dinner.  There's a lot of good eating in San Carlos, and we went to a favorite of Grammy and Papa.  The kids, of course, ordered Mac n'Cheese, and Erin enjoyed it. Robin took one look at her plate, then looked at Papa's (egg rolls and eggplant caprese) and ditched the noodles for the more flavorful fare. 

The girls wasted no time in enjoying their new books and plunked down next to a tree while waiting for Brian to get the car.  What a fun afternoon! 

Spread the love to Cambodia

Some had asked about the well my Mom bought in honor of Erin and Robin and their cousins.

This is the organization.

Helping other people, in whatever way it happens, is a beautiful thing.

Fancy nails

A little while ago, we took Grandma to get a pedicure to celebrate her birthday.  Erin came and got a polish change. 

Selecting their colors:

Pink sparkles, of course! 

All done, now to read Brides magazine while it dries.

Fancy nails!  The lady actually painted a flower on each of Erin's big toes.  Oh, and only charged me $5!  Fun and happy belated birthday Grandma! 

Belated Mother's Day Present

To honor Mother's day this year, my parents bought a well in a Cambodian village in our girls' and my nephew's name. So that other mamas could have clean water to drink and raise their babies healthy.  When my mom told me I cried, it was beautiful.

And here is a picture of the well:

I think I'm changing my Christmas gift list a bit.

Car-free Experiment

It's been my plan this summer to have one car-free week.  I've whittled it down to 5 car free days, and I get two exceptions.

The plan goes into effect tomorrow.  So this Mon-Fri, we only get 2 outings in the car.  Rules are, we don't get to drive ourselves, but if the girls are driven by someone else (Hint hint, Grandma/Grandpa, Grammy/Papa), it's OK.  The trailer and my bike are all set, the double stroller is good to go, I've got the bus and BART schedules, hopefully I won't be whining by mid-week.

 I quizzed Erin about alternate modes of transportation and she rattled off a long list of reasonable ones: bike, walking, scooter, BART, skateboard... then she happened upon Taxi.  She reasoned it was the best because it was the fastest.

Taxi wasn't on my list of options, but who can argue with that logic?

Preschool Graduation

Friday was a big day.  Erin graduated from her preschool, and officially became part of the class of 2025 (boy, did that statement start the waterworks from all the parents/grandparents!)

Some pictures:

Waiting for the start of the ceremony:

Erin and some of her BFFs:

Robin enjoying the ice cream afterwards:

And movies: 

Again, I can't hear the audio so not sure what's up with vimeo and my computer.  Hopefully you'll hear some of the cuteness.

Tape part II

Remember this?

It's morphed into this:



Tape ... who knew it could be such a fun toy?

And man, I love the sibling play.

**** OK, don't know why there's no sound on the video.  That's part of the extreme cuteness because Robin is chatting away the entire time.  Will work on that tomorrow.  If anyone else is getting audio, let me know.

Spring Rain

We've had a lot of rain recently.  The other morning brought a deluge.  I love the girls' reaction, and how even though Robin really didn't dig on it, the "monkey see, monkey do" in her couldn't resist Erin's glee.



Note: it's a little long.  Sorry, haven't been putting the effort into editing lately.

EASTER!!!! (picture and unnecessary detail heavy)

How I love this holiday.  We're not the most pious of households so the day is really about finding eggs and eating chocolate.  Lots and lots of chocolate.

The hunt:

They ate nearly all the candy in their baskets:
3 peeps
2 Cadbury cream eggs
4 eggs filled with Jellybeans and Cadbury's malted eggs
1 - 5oz (the big one) See's Chocolate Easter bunny.

 Good thing first Easter bunny of the day wasn't very generous.

About half an hour later was this:

The Easter Hangover. After a 15 minute freak-out by the eldest, we sat them down for a much needed Bob the Builder/Banana/Potato Patty/cheese stick rest. Note: this is now 8:30 AM.  Erin requested the shades drawn tight, her sunglasses, and a cozy blanket.

Then it was onto the next event: brunch at Grammy and Papa's club.  The girls met the Easter Bunny with much glee.

There was a baby-animal petting zoo too.  The caretaker told Brian a story about co-sleeping with a convelescing cow.  Hard. Core.  One more egg hunt too, but the candy factor was minimal.

I wish we had more pictures of them with their Miller cousins, but we were not taking the pictures.  *ahemDawn* can we get those? The girls ate themselves silly with bacon, berries, and pancakes, Oh, other than the 2+ chocolate bunnies plus loads of chocolate kisses provided by the Miller Easter bunny. We enjoyed the company of Grammy, Papa, Great Granny, Aunt D, Cousin C and K, Uncle Heath and companion Katie , and N&N.  Good times.

Then back across the bay to Grandma and Grandpa's house for another egg hunt, more candy, more cousins, and more fun!  The girls ran these boys ragged, and the UOMcF boys were awesome, as always, with the girls.

A delicious ham dinner with scalloped potatoes, asparagus, and amazing Jello salad was consumed.  Followed by, you guessed it, chocolate cream pie.  Awesome. 

I think the girls were finally worn out.

Spring Break: San Francisco Zoo by Robin

Mama says it's spring break.  I don't quite know what this means other than I get to spend more time with Erin. Today we went to the San Francisco zoo with mama and Grammy and Papa.  I've never been there! 

Erin likes taking funny pictures.

And we spent a lot of time in the petting zoo area.  I liked the goats.  They were soft.  I fed them a lot of pellets.  The sheep were not nice.  They were scary.  I cried a bit for mama, but Papa helped me escape them. Erin liked driving the little tractor.

We got to go on a merry-go-round. Grammy said one of her first memories was going around on this very same merry-go-round.

And we got pink popcorn.  Mommy said that was one of her first memories: eating pink popcorn at the San Francisco zoo.

There was a fun playground, and Papa pushed me on the swing for a long time.

I had lots of fun. So much that even two chocolates and watching Sesame Street on Mommy's iPad couldn't keep me awake on the ride home.

I hope we have Spring Break every day!

Sushi Date Night!

Grammy and Papa graciously came over to take the girls and Brian and I went out on a date!  Woot!  We went to a local sushi place, Blue Ginko, for some excellent raw treats.

Dinner was over very quickly.  Sushi doesn't take very long. My parents had taken the girls to Fentons, and we didn't want to get home before they did. So we went to Metro for a cocktail.  Then to Loard's for an ice cream cone.

Totally bursting at the seams, we went back home.  The girls were taking a bath, energetic and happy.  Very energetic.  Apparently Robin ate half her body weight in ice cream.  She was up until 10:45, long after we normally go to bed.  But she snuggled and watched my favorite show with me.

A great date night!

Snuggly Reading Time

The rules: children must be in bed, in PJ's.  Milk must be consumed in sippy cups.  2 books: the first one together, the second one with each girl tucked in.

Yes, the girls like to wear matching PJ's.  Here, they are actually wearing night gowns, the first they've owned so far.

Superbowl XLVI: live blogging edition

Erin: I'm voting for the PaintChips.

Ash: Great, that McDonald's commercial made me cry. (commercial just before kickoff)

K: I think the entire U.S. will be short of sequins for the next few months. (at halftime)

3rd Q Taste Test: Pigs in a blanket made with refrigerator croissant dough vs. biscuit dough.  Winner? Biscuit dough. Hands down.  Especially with catsup.

And how did it end up?  C says, "Suck it, Tom." word.

Sweet Big Sister

Erin is turning into a very, very sweet big sister.  It was a little hairy for awhile there, especially last summer, but since she's entered the 4's and since Robin thinks she's 4, Erin has been good natured, helpful, friendly, loving, and generally interested in her little sister.  They play together.  Erin helps her out, whether it's choosing the right color crayon or getting onto her tricycle.  Erin defends her.  Erin nearly always saves a bit of her candy to give to Robin, even if Robin has been given the same exact piece and would never give any to Erin.  Erin had a fit of cuddling with Robin last night at bedtime and asked Robin if she wanted to sleep in her bed together. It was the sweetest thing.

In exchange, Erin is Robin's favorite person.  She is the classic little sibling mirror of Erin.  It's like having Peet and RePeet.

In no way to I expect this sibling bliss to endure uninterrupted; no doubt they will have ups and downs.  But it's so nice to know they will have ups. And how sweet these ups are!

Sister Snuggles

Here's your RDA of cuteness.  

A tree cutting story, part 1

We had two Monterrey pines in on our property listing to the side, threatening to topple our neighbor's house.  Apparently, in the 50's, people planted these trees in Orinda, at a cost of about $0.19 apiece, to make it more scenic.  What they didn't think about was the soil here was poor for these type of trees. So, 60 years later, and about 1,200x the cost, these trees must be taken down.

We hired a local crew who said it could be done in two days without cranes.

Indeed, the men on this crew were acrobats and could easily climb up, chainsaw dragging behind them, and use only ropes and a pulley to fell even the largest of branches.  Many of these "branches" could be classified as trees in their own rights. 

Here you see the observation crew.  Grandpa couldn't pass up a chance to see this kind of arborist engineering at play. 

The results of 1 days work.  Astonishing.

Ribbon Dancers

Here's a video of Erin's second dance class (Mommy forgot the camera for the first). I love how the kids all get a deer-in-the-headlight look from time to time.  This teacher must have lots of patience.
  

Fashion Friday - Fuzzy Buns

And our youngest of models is showing the latest in cute cloth diapers, adjustable and adorable in lime green.



Oh, and we're trying to get her to be the youngest McMiller walker ever. She's got the will, but the coordination she's still working on.

An aside: the cute "shirt" Erin is wearing is really one of Robins dresses. Guess we'll get a few years of wear out of that one!

Rollin' Robin

Here you have it, folks. Robin rolling belly-to-back for the very first time. I grabbed the camera because her turtling was so awesomely cute. Then it looked like she was going for it. Then she did it! Then (off camera) she did it again!!!
then she was tired of Mama making her do all these tricks. Not bad for a 3 1/2 month-old.