It's a little known fact...

...that on both sides of my family, everybody has the innate ability to fall asleep anywhere. No, we're not narcoleptic or anything, but really - we can sleep anywhere! It was a very useful trait during college, when those 15-minute power naps in the library could help you make it through a long night of studying... looks like Marika is in good shape for those overnighters!

And in other news... we harvested our first cherry tomatoes. We had almost forgotten they were out there - which is why some are a wee bit wrinkled (apparently, there is quite a bit of weeding to do - again). Originally, we had one more tomato, but I accidentally knocked it out of Mika's hands and it bounced into Daisy's cage - where it was immediately pounced on it and devoured! :)

They're here! They're here!

And straight from Florida, we have... (drumroll, please)...

Our painted lady caterpillars arrived today from Florida! We just sent off for them about a week ago and they're already here. Lucky for us, the day was cool and overcast, so there was no chance of them roasting in our mailbox! The caterpillars came in a little plastic cup (with food), in that little cardboard box. Hopefully their postal journey wasn't too traumatic...

I'll have the girls keep a science journal of observations. They may not find it too interesting except at the milestones: chrysalis formation, butterfly emergence, and butterfly release. However, it would be pretty cool if we could get them to lay some eggs and start a new generation!

Stay tuned! Our ladybugs are due any day as well... :)

All good things must come to an end...

Once a week, I go in to Mika's classroom to help out in the afternoon. Usually, the routine is to help the kids paint and afterwards... listen to them read or set them up for computer quizzes.

Today was my last day as the Wednesday mom. Next Wednesday, the kids will be celebrating the end of the year with a huge water party (now THAT will be interesting!). It's been really interesting and fun to watch the kids over the time span of a year. Some kids were more delightful than others, but I can honestly say I've seen each and every one of them grow positively in at least one direction.

I was extremely fortunate that the teacher allowe me to volunteer with Marika. She also enjoyed her time in the classroom and knows each and every one of the kids by name. They were all very kind to her (which surprised me), for which I was very grateful.

The Daily Grind (literally)

If you're familiar with the movie Top Gun, then you know what a wing man is. Marika is my wing man and a good one, too! I trust her to do a lot of things (some of which I wouldn't necessarily trust her big sister to do), such as handle Daisy by herself, take pictures with my camera, strip basil plants to make pesto, or help make my coffee.

For Mother's Day, DaddyDude surprised me with a beautiful French press coffee maker. He also knows I like shiny things, so I was doubly delighted. :)

Marika helps out by watching my 4-minute timer and then pressing the coffee when it's time. I allowed her a tiny taste this morning (it was caffeinated, after all) and she exclaimed, "it's good!" Uh, oh...

I love her desire to help me (it's so sweet!) and especially love to watch her being sooooo extremely careful. She only smiled for me because I asked - other than that, she was intently focusing on her task, carefully switching to the two-handed maneuver near the end.

Thanks, little helper o' mine! I love you! :)

A Cold Stone kind of night...

DaddyDude has been working A LOT over the past year, due to his added responsibilities. I can only imagine he will continue to get busier and busier. Sometimes it feels like I'm a single parent, he's hardly around! He is working hard for our family, I know - but it just makes our time together that much more precious.

Last night, he was supposed to have a business meeting after work (and wouldn't have been due back until 8 pm or later), but for some inexplicable reason, it was cancelled. He was excited to get some extra time with his girls, so we headed off for dinner, where he kindly bribed the girls with Cold Stone ice cream if they agreed to eat fast food Chinese food for my sake (versus Chick-Fil-A to see "the cow", their favorite place). Isn't he a sweetie? The girls aren't stupid so they agreed. Actually, it was kind of funny - during dinner, they excitedly proclaimed, "THIS IS THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER!" over and over again. Glad they were happy, that's all I can say! Me, too, because I didn't have to cook. :)

Cold Stone ice cream is always a hit with them. They always enjoy playing around the water fountain. One of these days, Mika is going to fall in, I am sure...

Before going out, I was treated to a puppet show. On the left, you can see the rapt audience. On the right, there's the stage. Pretty elaborate, eh?

The first show was called, "The Little Mermaid". I had to laugh, because Aerial was some Barbie doll (it was a gift, okay?) wearing a fabric scrap tied so that two ends looked like a fish tail. Clever, right? The girls apologized that none of the other characters had costumes. Sebastian the Crab was played by Batman (still in his regalia), Buddy Boy (the tan dog) was Titan (Aerial's father), and the white dog (no idea if he has a name or not) was the Sea Witch.

Silly, yes, but I am grateful that the girls are creative and can engage easily in free, independent play. They were even creative enough to have "music" accompanying their production! The second show, "Thumbelina" (named after one of the bunnies), featured the vocal stylings of Marika. :)

It's good to try new things...

What's the only thing more fun to photograph with a macro lens than flowers? Why, bugs, of course - but the darn things won't sit still! Always nice to have the camera handy while DaddyDude is running errands somewhere...

This past fall, we learned that you could plant the white part of the green onion, and you'd get new green leaves very quickly. Perhaps, too quickly. Half of my garden is now composed of bolting green onions! So, it was time to do something with them. I'd had a craving for green onion cakes for the longest time, but little incentive to make them.

Thank goodness for bolting green onions and the internet! I googled around and found a tasty-sounding recipe: http://sum.ptuo.us/roller/ks/entry/how_to_make_green_onion.

With a slightly spicy dipping sauce (http://www.sunshinerecipes.com/greenonioncakes.shtml), these were divine! Just like a restaurant! Even Mika absolutely loved them, declaring them "scrumptious!"

It's so nice that kids are at the point where they can play together and leave me with enough time to cook something "gourmet". We rarely eat out, because it's so expensive and we are trying to be frugal (and okay, yeah, the girls' table manners don't make me proud yet).

And speaking of the kids, DaddyDude went outside and discovered that the kids had built an "ant track". Who knew it was a real sport? And apparently, with spectators, too! ;)

By the way - for you scrapbookers out there - I finally got off my tush and started listing my remaining store inventory on Ebay - whew! So, you might want to check things out by clicking on the "3MG Scrapbooking" icon on the left. My goal is to have sold everything off by the end of August. I cannot wait to get rid of all the packing materials in the study! ;)

Visiting the Aquarium

On Saturday, we headed off to Long Beach to meet up with my college buddy Michelle at the Aquarium. As some of you may know, Michelle is a studly scuba diver who gets to play in the Aquarium tanks as a volunteer. She's great to have along at the Aquarium, because she is very knowledgeable about the animals and their life histories. And if you know me, you know I like to talk biology whenever I can... :)

And in case you couldn't tell, I took lots of pictures, experimenting with the newly discovered high ISO setting on our camera (just click on the collage to see the pictures in greater detail!).

It's such a beautiful aquarium... and I feel the girls learn so much more than they do at any zoo (but perhaps quite a bit of that is due to Michelle's expertise).

Ah, more practice with the camera! Here's DaddyDude at his Sunday game, batting left-handed. Can you see the ball whizzing towards him on the right? It's a white blur just below the homerun line on the back wall...