Wrapping up the week

Miss Mika had her final softball game on Tuesday. We were so proud of her because not only did she refuse to cry when somebody caught her pop fly, but SHE caught a pop-up later for an out. Woohoo! She was the only person on her team to ever catch one of those - the entire season. We took her to the Dollar Tree to celebrate (that's their favorite store to pick things out - aren't we lucky?) by letting her pick out a few items.

But don't worry, folks - you don't have to wait until next spring for more sports highlights. We signed them up for AYSO this morning - officially. We handed over the check and everything - I couldn't handle waiting for a month to see if they processed our application. Besides, we are within walking distance to the soccer park, which is really cool!

Wednesday was a lovely weather day. Marika and I went to the park, where she demonstrated that she can now climb up and over that climbing wall - something she couldn't do last year. It's nice not having to worry (anymore) about any of my kids flipping off the playground equipment. Now, I only have to worry about them getting beaten up or chased! =) Marika was a little scared when another little boy kept following her around. I told her, "this won't be the last time this happens!"

On Thursday, Marika had a double field trip. First, we stopped by the fire station, where the kids got to handle the fire hose and slide down the pole (not all the way!). They had a great time, obviously!

Afterwards, it was off to a ceramics studio, where the kids got to pick out what they wanted to paint. Since it was a "Mother's Day" kind of trip, we picked out some bugs. Do you see how absorbed and focused she is? They allow walk-ins, so I think I'll be taking the girls there over the summer... Marika should get her project back within 1.5 weeks - I can't wait to see what they look like!

And last but not least... I decided it'd been a long time since I tried out a new recipe. Daddy Dude loves the Food Network, so I decided to try the Shrimp Scampi with Linguini, since I had a bag of frozen shrimp. I still had to buy a bottle of white wine (I wanted dry sherry, since I use that for my Chinese cooking, but I couldn't find any, among the zillions of bottles). THEN, because Daddy Dude was so late coming home, I had to watch a video on the internet to figure out how to use my (single-lever) corkscrew to open the bottle of wine. Yes, I'm almost middle-aged and I'd never opened a bottle of wine before in my life! Apparently, Daddy Dude was always around to do it for me. Well, there's a first time for everything, right?

The dish was quite tasty and very easy to make. We had zero leftovers, which is always a good sign!

And since one of you asked... Daddy Dude has been temporarily sidelined from baseball, in an attempt to let his knee recover but my leg ligaments appear to be doing well. I joined a new soccer team for Monday nights (short-field 7x7) and though we lost 5-3, I'm pleased to say that I scored two of those goals. Heh heh... for once in my life, I'm the leading goal scorer on the team! =)