Happy Father's Day 2013

What says "Happy Father's Day" more than running 26.2 miles?  Not much.  Brian ROCKED the San Francisco Marathon today, with a time just shy of 4 hours.  Fantastic! The girls and I hustled out to meet him at the finish line.

With flying feet and big grins, B finished one of the toughest 15 marathon courses with a fantastic time.

The girls were ecstatic to see the medal him at the end.

And because he is hardcore parkour, we went to the SF zoo afterward with my folks to spend some quality time with the carousel and petting zoo. 

Happy Father's Day y'all! 

Oakland Half and Kids Run, 2013 style

Brian and the girls did a race this morning, the Oakland Running Festival. Brian did the half marathon. (!) The kids did the "fun run" - a quick 150 yard dash past roaring crowds and the big finish line. The Oakland Raiders cheerleaders were there, the kids got a space blanket, t-shirt, snacks, and a medal. And total bragging rights.

Brian ran really well.  He kept a super even pace, looked easy and comfortable the whole time, and got to draft behind this guy for the last 3 miles.

All in all a fun, well-organized race.  Nice work, Oakland!

Of course there were pictures:

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Robin Rides, Erin Instructs

There's so much going on in this movie, I won't spend time talking about it. Just will tag it with a bunch of things and let you enjoy!

Champagne and Chocolate Women's Half Marathon

That's right folks!  Dr. A ran another women's half marathon, this one sponsored by See Jane Run.  It took place in the lovely, flat Alameda, CA on a mild California morning.  While the race organization could have been improved, the course was lovely, the drinks/goo was plentiful, and all the participants were very, very gracious.

A few pictures from my sweaty self:

The 3 mile point.  We crossed a bridge.  It was lovely but smelled like estuary and skunk.

Hard to make out, but we actually had a beautiful view of downtown SF and the Bay Bridge.

Oh, and did I mention the GIRLS RAN A 1 MILE KIDS RACE?  1 Mile people. This is not a fun run, if you're in the 2-4 age group.  This is serious business.  Both girls did great and apparently were self-propelled the entire time. Here's Brian and Robin coming into the home stretch: 

Honestly, I'm so proud of my girls for doing this race.  It's way farther than most kids fun runs, and if I'd known it was a whole mile I might not have signed them up.  But they were spectacular.  Hopefully B will upload some of his pictures and video of Erin crossing the finish.  It was a sight!

Knitting project 1: Baby Squash Hat

Pattern was from here.  A fast, cute little hat in infant size.  Size 5 round needles, and used a fancy yarn, Cascade Yarn 220 Superwash color 893.  This one is going to my Cousin who is due with a little boy in April.

It's gonna be a long week

 Brian left last night for a week long training in PDX. This is the longest he's been away since Robin has been born, and the second longest time he's been gone since Erin was born.

But.... he's thoughtfully set me up with so many playdates and outings at grandparents/cousins houses that we will be reeeeaaaaally busy.

Also he left this:

a present for each girl, for each day.  That's 12 presents people!

Brian is an awesome Dad.

And he also got a present for Mommy each day: 

I love this man. 

This week might go faster than I think. 

And just like that. . .

. . . it's Christmas season!

Brian and Erin put up the outside lights:

And I and the girls trimmed the tree

We may have to rearrange some ornaments later after the kids are asleep ... there is a high density of decorations on the lower 2' of branches. 

A Very Crafty Sunday

It's raining and chilly over at the Orinda branch of Casa de McMiller.  We decided to take a lazy Sunday and just relax a bit.

Relaxing here means doing projects, of course!  And thanks to my newest obsession, we had lots of half-finished projects on the docket.

A few things we did:

Autumn leaves from coffee filters and washable pens,

A height ruler from a 1"x8"x6' board, some stain and a sharpie,

An earring holder, and repurposed Balinese-sculpture-as-ring-holder, 

And with this morning's leftover oatmeal, a delicious oatmeal snack cake with broiled frosting.  It smells soooooo good, it's difficult to wait until it's cool enough to eat. 

Sigh.  What a relaxing day. 

Easy skirts, attempt 5

Every girl in Erin's phonebook will get skirts this year for their birthday.  I made this one last weekend for her BFF Ella.

 Cute fabric, no? I made Erin a matching one, since it was her BFF and all.

I liked the fabric so much I bought 2.8 yards of it, all they had.  And for the size all the girls are now it's just about perfect: the width of the bolt is a tad bigger than the recommended 2x waist size.  The heart pattern is length-wise so I figure I can get about 7 skirts out of the deal, costing about $3 per skirt (including the cute pink trim).

Orders anyone?

New wheels

We scored ourselves new bikes.  Now, hopefully, we can make use of this fancy trailer we bought when Erin was small.  Inaugural ride to the "cocoa" store went smoothly on the way there, but Brian had to go get the car because Robin just wasn't having it on the way back.  Erin was chillin' like Bob D. Any tips for getting Robin more comfortable in the trailer? 

A very DIY Saturday

Nothing new in this post, only today was a very PDX kinda day, Orinda style.

One new skirt made (yes, it is addictive).

Homemade pizza & calzones made. 

Plus it rained and rained and rained (hence the PDX).  But we had to drive everywhere (hence the Orinda).

Look, Amber!

I did it!  It was super easy!!!!

Thanks for the pattern.  Now to make matching ones for me, Robin and Erin.

Reason # 28 why I love Brian

He'd win the extreme babywearing competition.

Thank you, Freecycle!

What? You've never heard of Freecycle?

This week I gave away an exersaucer for which we no longer had need. And I received a water table, which I was ready to buy. Two more large, plastic-y kid toys kept out of the waste stream.

That being said, the water table was emptied and left outside to enjoy the rains we've been having. It's about half full. We're pretty soggy here right now. *

Other than swapping cool kid toys, we've also received a microwave, crib mattresses, and have given away twin mattresses, beds, cat food, towels, soap, and lots more stuff I can't remember now.

*Revised post:  I wrote this on Wed. night.  By Thursday afternoon, the water table had filled to the top and has been overflowing.  We've received more than 10" of rain this last week.

Crayon Project

We had a jar full of broken crayon stubs.  Erin and I set to work this morning peeling off the paper, putting chunks into a mini-muffin tin, baking for a few minutes, and were richly rewarded with new, chunky, Kandinsky-esque results.

Maui 2011

It's taken an entire week to blog about this.... the first week in Feb found the McMillers in Maui, HI. We had a wonderful week at this place with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa.  There were beaches, there was snorkeling, there were chi chis, there was pool time, there was whale watching, both from a boat and just from our condo, there were turtles, there were hikes, there were volcanoes, there was fun.

And there were pictures.
I still have more pictures and videos on the other camera to work through, so consider this part 1.

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November Blogging Completed

And thus concludes a full month of blogging.

I'll leave you this month with one silly picture of Robin in an adorable outfit that really didn't fit at all. But I couldn't help but squeeze her into it for a photo op.  Then I had fun with iPhoto:




Oh, and Robin is officially crawling.  But she still doesn't have to most of the time, because Erin just brings her the toys she wants.  Siblings are cool that way.

Pre-Turkey day Weekend

What a busy weekend!  We didn't get photos of everything, but here were the things the McMillers did:

* cut/laid pavers for a path to the water meeter for the nice meter reader
* cleaned up ivy in the yard
* LOTS of laundry
* general house cleaning
* watched a movie start to finish, with few interruptions
* played board games with Grandma and Grandpa



(this ladybug game is harder than it looks!)
* Cooked and ate a delicious dinner of slowcooker pork with cider and prunes



* watched an awesome thunder/lightning show followed by hail
* made 2 runs to the dump
* hit the farmer's market
* more laundry
* paid bills
* ate an awesome pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Grammy and Papa's house, followed by ice cream sundaes



* took a bubble bath (the kids, not everyone)

* battled renegade ants

* snuggled and read new books

Phew!!!  Now it's time for bed. 

New Seat

We saw one of these in action by another family in Yosemite - they clipped it onto the picnic table and viola!  Instant camping high chair.  So of course, we had to get one for our little Robin.  It came today and the verdict is.... total win!




A bit hard to tell from the photo, but we have it clipped onto our countertop.  Erin is in her Learning Tower.  The three of us did a "cooking show" (made some baked goods) and Robin laughed and chewed the measuring cups the entire time.  This is gonna be great.

Which brings me to the soap box portion of this blog post.  There's constantly new innovations in baby gear (and everything else too).  Most of the new products are unnecessary, but sometimes something comes along, such as this little seat, and it's just radtastic.  These probably were around when Erin was a baby, but we were unaware.  I know we'll get lots of use from this.  And for those people who are on the fence about having a second child (I'm tempted to post a link, but I'll respect your privacy.  You know who you are.) just think about the new, interesting, beautifully designed, wonderful things have been put on the market since your first little one was a baby. Just sayin'.  Shopping opportunities abound.

Yosemite, here we come!

The challenge:  Get all of this gear . . .

plus two adults and two small children into this Prius. . .

Can it be done? 

Not pictured was the nonperishable food and toiletries box, some kitchen items, 2 comforters, and Erin's Cowie.

Drum roll, please. . . 

 

We're ready.  Now someone please tell the littlest one she needs to go to bed and let Mom get a good night's sleep.  We leave at 0-dark-30.