Snuggly Saturday Morning

McMiller Puzzle Sunday

The girls love jigsaw puzzles.  Erin will happily do and redo and redo the same one over and over.  She can do up to 100 pieces.  The cutest thing is how she now helps Robin do puzzles, offering her the correct next piece, suggesting tips to get the piece to fit, encouraging her to look at the colors and designs on the pieces ... she's a patient teacher. And Robin loves the Big Sister attention.

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. 

Drew and Marta get Married

Last weekend, McMillers drove all night to get to PDX to attend the wedding of Marta and Drew.

Somehow, we got no actual pictures of the bride and groom.

But, there were plenty of pictures of the kids. And there were a LOT of kids.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Congrats to Marta and Drew!!  Thanks for having us. 

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. 

We had a busy weekend! by Erin

Transcript compiled from Erin's running commentary this weekend:

We had a busy weekend.  We went to a party for Aunt Sharon.  She has cousin Petunia in her tummy. Then we went to GwammaGrammpa's house.  I had rib bacon and smashed potato with sour cream. I love sour cream.  Then Daddy and I camped in the sleeping tent outside. Then we woke up and had butter croissants.  I said "Aloha" to Cousin Petunia.  I love cousin Petunia.  Then we went to Grammy and Papa's house.  I went in the swimming pool.  I made a big splash and jumped with Papa.  I put my head under the water.  Two times. My nose got water. I ate a cookie. I took a rest.

On Telegraph, Ur-ine for a Real Treat

The McMillers hit Berkeley today for a walk. Highlights include (but not limited to):

• More urine than you can shake a stick at. And I can shake a lot of sticks. It was early morning, before most shops had opened up, and before the street vendors had set out their hand-made hemp-and-bead wares. I guess it was before the daily hose-down.
  
• Crappy doughnuts. Berkeley, really: how could you?
  
• An amusing jogger wearing a sports bra, running shoes, and sheer pantyhose that went up above her belly button. That's it -- no shorts. And no, it was not a butt that needed viewing.
• The portion of the trip unanimously voted Most Exciting Disaster: A broken water main causing this huge river down like five separate streets. We're into natural disasters like that.