March Madness

About 2 weeks ago, Millie was ecstatic to have a visit from Lola (her grandma, Mike's mom). We always look forward to visits! Lola stayed several days with us and we are sad when she has to leave.

The day Lola flew in to the airport, so did the snow flurries. Just when we thought Spring was here for good, the snow and cold returned. I guess March is like that here in the Northwest...
We found these animal tracks on our front steps. We have been playing "detective" trying to figure out which animal they could be made from. Mike and I think it is from a raccoon. That may explain Deli cat's last 2 attacks and injuries. I heard a rumor that raccoons in this area have developed a taste for cats.

Millie was out and about in the snow, but was sad we didn't have quite enough snow to go sledding up and down the streets again...

But we did teach her how to make snowballs! Watch out, she's got a pretty good arm on her!

Another favorite pastime around here is painting. I learned an important lesson. Do not paint on the living room table anymore. The light tan carpet underneath is a bad idea, especially when purple paint spills all over it. Oh, and if the packaging says washable paints, it still does not completely come out of a carpet.

So from now on, we paint on our little table in the kitchen where spills are easy to clean up. Here is little Picasso hard at work on one of her masterpieces...

Happy Birthday Mike

Earlier this month, Mike turned 45. I think Millie was more excited than anyone. She picked out the Nemo balloon, helped me bake the pineapple cake and helped Mike blow out all his candles.

A Lazy Life...

Millie and I visit the North Bend Library every Tuesday and Thursday. It's especially a great place to come on those cold, rainy days. We both love Tuesday story time and my Thursday sing-a-long music group that I started for babies and toddlers. Millie is my assistant and we sing, clap, and just have fun being silly.

However, we've had gorgeous weather for the past few weeks, sunny and a pleasant 65 degrees by afternoon. (Alas, we are back to rain as I right this e-mail...possibly for the next week or more!) But on those amazing "spring" days we got out the bicycle and cart and just pedaled along the paths and to the parks with Millie. Very soon we'll have a 2nd bicycle so the whole family can ride together. Millie and Papa are off to try the path along the golf course.

After those fun days outside,we head inside for some snuggles with Deli. Good thing he is such a tolerant cat, he puts up with lots of squeezing, choking and tail pulling these days. You can't tell from this photo! They look like best friends....

We end our days around here with bubbles in the tub. Millie designed this bubble hat all by herself.

Afterwards its so nice to warm up next to the woodstove, wrapped up in a towel and snuggled next to mama. A drink of milk, a kiss goodnight, and it's time for bed...tomorrow's another day!

Sno-Park

Quick trip up to Hyak for some sledding. Guess living close to the pass does have its advantages. Well sometimes...

Millie's first sled ride.

Getting a bit tuckered out.

A busy day in the life of Millie

Doing the wash for Mama.

Cooking the dinner.

Balancing the household finances.

Decorating the fridge.

Taking care of some of Papa's to-do list.

Ah, so much work, so little time.

Back at it!

Hi Everyone,

Mama and Papa were so busy cleaning up after the second flood of the winter, that they weren't able to do a blog entry lately, so I guess its up to me! Here I am modeling the latest in ladybug designer clothing. More later, Millie

Winter Wonderland!

Millie wants to be just like her papa! As soon as she saw him with his binoculars to do a bit of bird watching, Millie ran to her room and grabbed her binoculars too!

We have bird heaven here outside our backroom. So many birds, especially now that food is scarce. They all seem to fly and flutter around our bird feeder. We go thru a lot of birdseed these days!

This photo was taken in the middle of the road looking out our house. You can't even tell where the road is!
As I write this blog, I can hear lots of dripping and sloshing outside as the snow is quickly melting. We had temps today in the mid 40s. But we did have over a week and a half of freezing temperatures and constant snowfall here in Snoqualmie. Since snow like this is rare, so is the snow removal equipment. The entire city of Seattle only has 27 snow plows. When Snoqualmie called a state of emergency, they were finally able to contract construction equipment to scoop some of the snow from the roads and dump it at the parks down the street.

Millie had a blast in the snow. I pulled her on this sled up and down the roads in town.

Here is just one of the many snow piles at the town park! The kids loved it and I'm kind of sad to see it go.

This was our road. As you can see the roads were pretty snow covered. Since the Seattle area does not normally plow, sand or salt the roads, most people just stayed off the roads. It was so quiet that week! No garbage collection, limited mail, blizzards, burst pipes, closed mountain passes, no bus service, cancelled airline flights, it truly was a December storm to remember.

Now that's a big snow drift!

Millie wanted to play with our neighbor's "christmas tree." She will really miss all the lights, presents, snow and sledding!

Looks like we almost lost her here! I haven't included any photos of the slushy mess in the roads now. These photos are so much prettier!