Extra Stay Home Day

Today, Mommy and Daddy took off work to spend the day as a family.  (To the girls this is called an Extra Stay-Home Day, even though we were not home but for a 2 hour nap!)

Our first stop was to see Dr. Meyer for the girls annual checkup.  

They are both super healthy!

Then to ease the pain of the shots, we picked up some of our favorite snacks... soft pretzels.  

We were so excited to see the special Phillies pretzels.  How cute!  and yummy...

Next it was off to visit our friend Justin at his shoe store, 

where the girls got special attention from their favorite shoe guy! 

Here's Jillian in the stock room, helping Justin find her new pair of shoes.

Halloween

Today was the big Fall Festival at day care.  As is to be expected, Mommy worked late into the night to get the costumes ready!  Here's a quick peek at the history of Miller Girl costumes...

  

And now, on to cuteness from today...

Jillian with Miss Dawn and her friends Annalise and Michael.

Running to see Mommy!

Look a little odd?  Getting treats from people in lab coats?

They aren't even costumes!  Our daycare is attached to Lancaster Labs.  

Each year the kids get to go trick or treating through a department or two.  

Random update

Things have been busy but here's some random fun from our house lately...

Jillian has been setting the table almost every night.  She loves using a table cloth and cloth napkins.  Somehow she doesn't seem to care about the extra laundry she's making for Mommy!

The girls had babysitters over the other day and Natalie got her nails painted!  

Just sparkles, but if you look really close you will see them.

Natalie's grape-tastic sandwich creation.

Bread with grape jelly AND grapes on it.  Yum!

Mommy went to Pittsburgh for Homecoming!

Birthday Part II

This evening TOF and Nonna came over to celebrate with the girls.  We had made up a special game for the occasion, "What is older/newer than TOF?". Mommy ran to Goodwill, the dollar store and Target for items, and Jillian scoured the house for other things.  TOF scored a 60%, but we all had fun.

Here's Jillian modeling a TV remote.  (For the record, it was newer than TOF.)

TOF celebrating a correct guess!

The things on the left are older than TOF.

The right, newer than TOF.

The cake.  So much better in theory than in practice!

When Jill was little, he taught her to say he was old as dirt.

So it is supposed to be a 'dirt' cake, with oreo cookie dust.  It is much harder to use than Mommy expected!

Helping blow out the candles.

Jill got to help open the present... only because Natalie was in bed! 

Happy Birthday TOF!

One of our favorite grandfathers/fathers turned 60 today.  Happy Birthday to The Old Fart!  (Yes, he chose this nickname.)

Last night Mommy and Daddy joined Nonna and TOF for a lovely adult dinner (reservation at 8PM... huh? That's bed time!).  It was so yummy and lots of fun.

Nonna made a beautiful photo album as a gift.

The adults feasting at Belvedere Inn.

Pumpkin Day

Today we made our annual trek to Funk's Farm in Millersville.  It was a crisp fall day, perfect for cider donuts, a hayride and pumpkin picking!  It was smaller this year, without pony rides and the inflatables to play on, but it was still a fun time.  What made us sad was driving past by the old neighborhood of our friends the Chunkos, on the way there.  We sure do miss them!

Sticker Fun

Some silly sticker fun with Natalie this evening after tubby time.

Mommy needed some happy faces on her happy face it seems.

Her "boo-boo bandaid" fingers.

Just for fun, here's a picture from Jillian at age one and a half...  Perhaps this is a Miller rite of passage?

Weekend at the Mountains, part 3

On our way to our last cache of the weekend. 

This one was hidden underneath this large tabletop rock.

Putting the cache back where we found it.

Near our final cache, at Splash Dam Pond.  

How beautiful was this place?

Making our way back.  There was some bushwhacking involved.

Oh, and some rock walking over a stream...  The kids did great!

Weekend at the Mountains, part 2

On our introductory geocache.

Aren't they all just adorable?

The found cache.

Quite possibly the moment we became hooked.

Checking out the loot inside.

Or, the minute the kids became hooked!

More cuteness. They were so happy playing cards.

A little fashion show. Excellent use of plastic link toys.

Just to prove it wasn't only Jillian inventing costumes!

The first cache for the Millers.

Here's our experienced field guide showing us where it was, magnetized to the inside of this guard rail around the corner from the house.

Checking the log to see all the people who found it before us.

Team Sensenig was about 10 people ahead of us.

Weekend at the Mountains, part 1

We were invited by our friends, the Sensenigs, to spend a weekend with them at their family's home in the mountains of PA.  What a fun weekend!  We visited the Sullivan County Fall Festival, saw beautiful views of the leaves changing color, enjoyed our childrens antics and were introduced to our newest family obsession - geocaching.  We had such a great time!

Jill and Will acting goofy in the car.

Decorating pumpkins at the Fall Festival.

Intently decorating her pumpkin.

Happy Natalie!

Ice Cream... yum!

The view from High Knob.

Beating up Mr. Mike!

The finished pumpkins.