seedlings

more beach pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Golden Gardens on Sunday.  I'm glad we enjoyed the sun while it was here...Seattle is back to 50 degrees and rain with no end in sight.  Sigh.

sunny afternoon

We're feeling very fortunate that spring has finally found Seattle.  We enjoyed this sunny day eating lunch by Lake Union at Ivars.  Cade was excited to be perched below the I5 bridge while Deacon was psyched about the unobstructed view of the Space Needle (he's taken over his brother's obsession).

Next we headed over to Gasworks park to fly the kite we picked up in Seaside, OR.  Both boys were able to keep the kite up in the sky and we enjoyed taking in the cloudless view of the city, bridges, take-offs and landings of the seaplanes.

Here's one last picture of me and the boys.  As you can see, Deacon was pretty over it by the time we left.  It was way past nap time and I'm pretty sure the kiddo is coming down with an ear infection.  Poor kid...at least he got a little fresh air before he hit the sack.

tball!

Last Wednesday Cade had his first t-ball game.  Despite only having one official practice, and very little understanding of the game, the kids pulled it together and did a really good job on the field.  We found out that Cade is really good at hitting the ball, and has super speed when running the bases.  His catching and throwing could use some work but I'm pretty confident in saying that this could offer him a college tuition. :)

Here are a few hitting and running shots:

Here he is, bringing it home:

The cheering squad:

One final picture:

easter egg hunt

Our neighborhood has an Easter tradition that has gone on for the past 36 years: The Volunteer Park Easter Egg Hunt.  We've participated in years past but this year we were actually the coordinators for the event.  800 fliers, 80 kids, 460 eggs, and an Easter Bunny.  The event went really well and we were fortunate to have beautiful weather.  Here are some pictures from the "drop-off" the day before:

On the morning of the event Jared and I brought all 80 baskets that we filled the night before to the park.  We had some volunteers there to help us hide eggs but were foiled by the sneaky birds who, upon putting out the first eggs, flew off with entire eggs in their mouths.  We had to put off hiding until the last minute then had volunteers run around with large sticks shooing away birds.  It was a mad rush in the end!

The Easter Bunny was a huge hit with everyone but Deacon.  He wanted NOTHING to do with him, which was funny to me considering it was his own Dad!!  Yes, Jared played the coveted roll this year and the kids loved it.  He even got a carrot and card from a couple of kids.

friday night: belated birthday

On Friday we headed to a friend's house for "Friday Night Spaghetti Dinner" night.  Before leaving, we had one of the most beautiful sunsets, the ENTIRE sky was pink.  This "Friday the 13th Sunset" even made the evening news.

After having a delicious dinner with our dear friends, Bob and Karin, they pulled out a birthday cake for me.  I got to blow out candles and everything!

Another great part of the evening was how well the kids behaved.  It's so nice to be able to let the kids head to the basement, fairly confident that there will be no fighting, crying, mayhem.  They watched a movie, read, and even had decent table manners.

the hazards of the holiday

This past holiday season didn't pass without injury.  The first happened on Christmas day when Deacon decided to pull down one of the stockings, with it the iron stocking anchor.  This resulted in a pretty good bruise on the forehead and gash on the nose.

Deacon's eating a pickle to calm down :)

Two days after Christmas Jared took the boys to Spokane for a day trip to visit with this Brother and family who flew in from NYC.  Their family had suffered from the stomach flu before Christmas and the nasty virus decided to attack everyone in it's path.  Two days later Deacon was throwing up, the next day it was Cade and on New Year's Eve, Jared.  By act of God I stayed well.  Here's a picture of poor sick Cade:

Now all are back in working order, school has restarted and all is well again in the Miller world.  Hope your holidays were healthy!

scorpio

Meet the newest addition to the Miller family: "Scorpio" the Scorpion.  For the past six months Cade has been BEGGING for a pet scorpion.  Looks like Santa finally relented because on Christmas morning this little creature was wrapped with a big red bow:

I should refrain...he's really not all that little, in fact when stretched out he's about the length of my hand.  This took me by surprise since I was imagining a tiny creature the size of my pinky finger.  This thing reminds me of a crayfish, not an arachnid!

I guess Santa thought that it would be a pretty low maintenance pet.  Give it some water, a cricket or two and call it a day.  Well...it's been a bit more challenging than that.  In order to maintain a warm environment we're using a heating pad as well as an infrared lamp 24/7.  This only gets the environment to 65 degrees since our house is SO COLD.  We're also spraying the tank with water a couple of times a day to keep the humidity hovering around 70%.  He eats meal worms and crickets so we need to keep these on-hand, and alive, at the house.  So in the basement we've got a "cricket cage" filled with live crickets and food to keep said crickets from croaking.  Meal worms are in our basement fridge.  Yuck.

Scorpio comes out to play (well, prey) at night so that's when the action happens.  Most days he's snoozing in his log house so it makes "showing him off" to friends a little underwhelming.  But it is quite a show when the sun goes down.  Here's a short clip:

 

Let me know if you want to come over for a live show :)

potlatch

Before school ended last week the kids celebrated the end of their Native American unit by having a Potlatch at school.  This celebration consisted of story telling, eating, dancing and singing.  The kids wore their button blankets, head pieces and masks, and went by their totem names: Cade's was "Brave Swimmer." 

Snack consisted of smoked salmon (luckily we're feeding a classroom of Pacific Northwest kids so this went off without a hitch) and popcorn.  The parents were invited to come for the dancing and music.  The lights were turned down low and the kids danced around a glowing "fire" made of chili pepper lights :)

the cutting of the tree

This was our 7th annual tree cutting adventure.  Jared and I started this tradition before the kids were born and it's become one of our favorites.  This year was markedly better than last because Cade didn't, upon our immediate arrival, come down with an ear infection.  It was also a beautiful sunny day out on the tree farm and it was nice to get away from the standing fog that's blanketed Seattle for the past 2 weeks.

Cade was pretty excited because he chose the tree this year.  As you can see above, it's a pretty nice tree and actually fit the space in the house perfectly, just missing our ceiling by an inch.

Deacon didn't like the actual cutting of the tree.  In fact he shed a few tears.  However, once we got it home and decorated he became a huge fan.

belated thanksgiving

This was the first year that we hosted the big event.  Jared's mom came out, along with various aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends.  This was also the first year that I've attempted to cook a turkey.  Not a small feat considering I was suffering from a head cold that left my taste-buds lifeless.  Usually I taste as I cook and this was simply impossible.  So I was a little hesitant to serve the gravy and homemade stuffing...although everyone said it was good.  But who knows :)?!  I DO know that the turkey was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  My Martha recipes always pull through and this brown sugar and fresh orange glaze was a hit:

Sadly I didn't take many pictures of the big event.  My cousin, Alana, was in town and I didn't get a single picture of her!  Here are the few that I DID take:

Our dear friends, Jeff and Leah were also in town and we got the whole gang together at Jeff's parents house for some traditional Hot Pot.  This is Cade and Jared's favorite meal.  While we've been attending this traditional meal for years, the atmosphere has changed.  It's definitely gotten crazier as the kids have gotten older!  This year was total chaos!