Sunday fun

This entertained them for a good hour or so!

Love it when the myrtle blooms!

Natalie's first pony tail.  She just HAD to be like Mommy and big sister.

Yard Sale and Market

Today was the big neighborhood yard sale and this year we participated.  We took the time to purge our house... baby stuff, toys, boxes of knick knacks unopened since we moved in 4 years ago... LOTS of stuff.  Having to move everything in the basement for the waterproofer provided ample incentive!  Thanks to the beautiful weather, (and Mommy's very weak negotiating skills!) we sold practically everything we put out by noon, and a majority of it was bought by the very many pregnant tummies that visited our house. It feels good to know that your child's playthings will be loved by another baby.  

Our house mid-sale.  Many of the big baby items (swing, bouncy) were gone in the first hour.

Another key to our successful sale: every third house in the development participated!

Many friends stopped by... day care teachers, students of Chris's, the Zooks, the Sensenigs...  

Zack didn't want to leave so his dad said he could sell him.  We put him in the $.25 bin and decided it was time to leave after all!

Mommy and Daddy thought it might be less traumatizing (i.e. EASIER!) to sell the girls old toys if they weren't around.  Nonna and TOF graciously took them for the morning.  Keeping our tradition of Saturday morning Market, they all ventured downtown.  Since Jill knows our routine so well, we thought she might be able to handle our weekly shopping, especially if we made her up a reading optional shopping list.  So Mommy spent (more than!) a small amount of time downloading pictures and making the list.

We gave her a little money pouch and the list and a verbal OK to buy Nonna flowers for her birthday (we didn't want Nonna to know about it!).  And she did GREAT!

And they had a lot of fun.  A couple of the stand workers recognized them, even calling them by name.  WE LOVE MARKET for reasons like that!  Then they walked around the square watching the cars, saw a magician and got balloon flowers made for them. (So happy the summer weather is here again so these people are around!)  Then, as they were leaving town, they saw the Race for Racism was underway and stopped to watch.  A couple people running by recognized Nonna & Tof and shouted as they went by.  What a fun morning!  They all had a great time! 

Our new neighbors

This evening, Daddy went to shoo away a bird from the outside water sink and discovered that Mama Bird had made a little nest there.  She took refuge in the tangled mess of our downed clothes line and built a home for herself and her babies-to-be.  We're excited to be their hosts!

Guess we'll be buying some new clothes pins...

Mama warily watched us inspect the nest.  She was certainly on the defensive...

If anyone can tell us what kind of a bird this is, we'd appreciate it.  Mommy tried to look it up but despite 12 years of Girl Scout experience, she just can't understand bird indentification.  

Natalie

Our little girl is getting so big!  Besides being her sister's shadow, she also thrilling us with little things almost daily.  

The other day she informed us that Daddy was using the 'triangle' cup and wouldn't you know his cup had triangles on it.  So, we started testing her. She certainly knows circles, triangles and diamonds, but she calls all rectangles squares. But we're definitely getting there!

She's getting pretty good with her colors too, but after a couple she gets silly.  She'll shrug her shoulders, put up her palms and sing "I don't know" with that sweet little dimple showing.  It just melts your heart.  You know she knows her colors but is just done with the quizzing and knows cuteness is her out!

And she seems to be able to commit Dr. Seuss books to memory after just a few readings. The girls got Mulberry Street and I Can Read with My Eyes Shut two weeks ago for Easter and she's already reciting it while Mommy and Daddy read to her.  The girl loves the good Dr. no doubt about that!

Then this evening we went out for ice cream.  Daddy must have said something she liked cause she pulled out a good old "woo hoo!" just like her Mommy.  It was adorable!

And just to please those Seuss fans in the house, we had a very special dinner last night...

Green Eggs and Ham (ala Mommy)

Has spring sprung?

Its been a busy week here. Mommy and Daddy went to the PA TSA conference in Seven Springs while the girls hung out with their grandparents. We all were just exhausted by Sunday! But we did get some time to play...

Moments of happy play together... priceless!

Our silly girls finally decided to wear the bunny ears... the weekend AFTER Easter!  

Or, rather, Jillian decided, and her little copycat merely filed suit.

Daddy bought these red bins to put stuff in, like laundry and toys.

However, the girls thought they made great hiding spaces and chairs.

Natalie and her favorite... the bubble mower

Other weekend fun

Here's our bruiser!  

We went to put Jill's tights on for mass and found a multitude of bruises on her lower legs.  

She told Mommy how she ran into this and that on the playground at school. A dainty little girl she is decidedly not!

Where are the girls???

Playing in their 'cave' behind the sofa!

Easter Sunday!

Easter morning, very early.  Note: it is still dark outside.  We did mass at 7:30AM!

Modeling their new PJs.   

The bunny brought those, some books, watering cans, new pairs of Crocs, bubble bath AND a wee bit of chocolate!

Looking pretty in their dresses.

Yes, that's a pink Cadillac.

Jill loved this car we saw on the way into the club for Easter dinner.  She took the camera from Mommy and snapped seven (identical!) pictures of it.  But she was much to shy to talk to the owner.  She said it was like Flo from Cars, only not green.

Family picture.

In between the ten bathroom trips during dinner the girls found some time to twirl their pretty skirts with Daddy.

Saturday Easter Fun

Saturday morning Nonna and TOF took the girls to the club for the Easter egg hunt. Unfortunately again this year, it was a very rainy day, so we missed the fun of an outdoor hunt. And this year, we even missed the inside one too!  Our favorite toliet-training two year old had to make a potty call at a very inopportune time.  Jillian had accompanied Nonna and Natalie to the bathroom so they all missed the .2 seconds it took for all the eggs to be found :(  But thankfully, there are some very, very nice staff at the club who saw fit to drop a couple eggs in our baskets!

Silly Daddy!

Showing Mommy our eggs!

Then Saturday night we were honored to have Grandma, Pap and Great-Grandma Blauch down for a Easter dinner.  Yummy ham, pineapple stuffing, "thanksgiving" potatoes and beans.

Here's Natalie attempting to dress herself.  She's showing Pappy she can do it.  We all wanted to see how she was going to get those long john PJs over the tutu!

Its Easter!

It's officially Easter time in the Miller house... we dyed eggs! 

Stay tuned for more Easter fun!

Our first hides!

Well, we've found over 50 caches now in the short 3.5 months we've been caching and we thought it was about time we hid a couple for others to find.  So we went on eBay and bought some supplies and put two out this weekend; one in our neighborhood and one at one of our favorite ice cream shops.    (Now that you Sensenigs found them both, we can finally post this! We KNOW you are lurking here!)

Here's a snapshot of our bison tube uncapped on a 'leash' and the logs...

below is one of the caches planted in the back of a landscaping wall, just waiting to be found!

The first one published Sunday evening around 10:15.  As soon as it came up on the website, Daddy raced out of the house to get to the location to watch (i.e. stalk!) the first cachers as they showed up trying to get those coveted First To Find bragging rights.  It took about 20 minutes for someone to arrive.   Daddy gave Mommy (home with the sleeping kiddos) the exciting play-by-play as the cacher searched all around for our tiny little bison tube. It took him a little while, but he finally found it. Our second one posted Monday morning and our friends, the Sensenigs, jumped on that and got the First To Find there.  Its fun to get the email notices that someone else found our caches!  YAY!  (Oh and the girls say "hi" to the cache every time we drive past its location.  Too cute.)

In other weekend news... Mommy (and Daddy, the crumb coat master) did some caking.

10" round layer cake for Cade O'Hara's 1st birthday.  Buttercream Cookie and fondant sign.

6" layer cake, buttercream with fondant plaque and stripes for Mommy's friend Stef's husband's (got that???) birthday.  Stef drew the artwork and Mommy did her best to recreate it on the cake.  

Happy girls

The girls have been the best of buddies lately.

At market, holding hands on the way to the donuts.

Showing a preview of their Easter dresses.

Just being silly!

And there's our curly haired angel!