Miriam and Dad day

Spring is here!  We might live in a light industrial area, but the road to our street has got to be one of the prettiest around Arlington this time of year.  This is the view from Anastaya's bus stop.

facing North, Haggen is hidden on the right, you can see some of the cars in the parking lot

standing in the same spot, facing West

Miriam has been waiting for her special day for a long time.  Today, it was finally here!  Dode took her to the Children's Museum in Everett, planning to stay just for an hour or two and ending up spending four hours there.  He said she was like a kid with ADHD, bouncing from place to place.  After that, they went to the China Buffet in Everett where she loves the huge chandelier, pizza, and jello squares.  (There's nothing like a chinese buffet for finding great pizza!)  Then, it was off to swimming at Forest Park.  One of the best parts of the day in Miriam's opinion is riding with dad in his truck.  There's no airbag and she gets to ride right next to him.  It's quite a treat for her.  (I wish I could still find it a treat to ride beside my husband in my 18 year old truck, the glamour of the truck is long gone for me.)

We had a busy co-op morning.  We had 83 baskets, our biggest yet.  The truck was 1 1/2 hours late which meant my driveway was beyond full.  People were parking in the street, the grass, everywhere.  People were leaving and coming back.  People were asking in hesitant ways if they could use my bathroom (of course!).  We had kids in the tree house, kids on the zip lines, kids in the house, it was quite a party.  Everyone seemed to take the wait with good spirits.  When the truck finally got here, it was a complete zoo trying to give the volunteers jobs to do.  Hopefully everyone got an equitable amount in their baskets.  One of my friends sat inside and watched.  When I ran in to grab something, she mentioned that she couldn't believe the chaos.  It's crazy, but I kind of like it.  (As long as my children don't keep coming up to me and asking me questions totally unrelated to what I'm trying to do, things like "Do we have any more milk?" or  "William is making funny faces at me, can I send him to time out?") Here's what we got this time, I was worried everyone would grumble about the parsnips, but several people were pleased. 

Now I have to figure out what to do with parsnips.  I have a delicious eggplant dip recipe I'm going to make.

Miriam and I finished off the day with a soak in the hot tub.   

Here she is in her new swimsuit from Old Navy.