March and April

It hasn't been an especially busy 2 months but we do have some things to report.  My softball season officially got under way in March.  I ended up on the same team as my two good friends from school, thank goodness.  Ella is my catcher and her number is 99 so when we are on the mound and behind the plate, we are known as triple 9.  Which is kind of cool.  Our team is kind of stinking it up this year but in our defense, we are a very young team with several girls who have never even set foot on a softball field.  We play Circus Ball as I like to call.  That's where no one can make a throw, no can catch and the ball ends up all over the infield and the outfield and the other team just keeps running the bases and scoring.  We did manage to finally win a game last week though so that was kind of cool.  I'm actually doing OK on the mound.  I'm playing up a level this year so it was a big adjustment to the bigger ball and longer pitching distance but I'm striking people out and no one has gotten a good hit off me yet.  We still have 6 games left though so we'll see.....

In March, mom had a continuing education class on myofascial release for 3 days over a weekend.  In order to recover, she took some days of work and went for a hike.  It was a beautiful spring this year with lots of wildflowers and lots of run off from winter snow.  She kind of wants to win the lottery so she can do this every day.

I also had my Heritage Night at school.  That was actually more fun than we thought it would be.  Everyone in class has a different country and we had to research the government, the culture, the geography and we had to make some food from there.  I picked South Korea, where Grandma Sue is from and actually learned a thing or two.  Grandma was amazing and made my favorite dumplings which, I can't lie here, were a hit.  Mom and dad left so stuffed from sampling all the food- meatballs from Italy, cheese quesadilla from Chile, arroz con pollo from Costa Rica, strudel from Germany, bread from Ireland.  It was all delicious- ask mom.  Her mouth was never empty.

So, we bought mom a pasta maker for her birthday like 5 years ago and she never used it because it seemed kind of intimidating to her.  I've been giving her a hard time about so she decided she would try it but I would have to help her.  Turns out, it isn't all that hard......
We made spaghetti the first time around and the next week, we made ravioli.  It wasn't always pretty, but it sure was fun and tasted delicious!

For Easter, we headed out to a new campground with our camping friends, the Goods.  It was a spectacular weekend.  We got in late Thursday night so we had two full days of relaxation.  We camped right next to a lake that was nice and cool which was a good thing since it was like a bazillion degrees. Not really.  Only about 93.  We had shade, a picnic table, easy water access and beer.  What more could you want?

Madeline and I spent almost zero time on our electronics.  We spend most of both days catching tadpoles.  We even got Mr. Mike in on the action.  We decorated Easter cupcakes and then decorated Easter eggs and then had an Easter egg hunt and then crashed hard into bed every night.  It was great!

 Even Ginger got in on the action.  This will be her only bath for the rest of the year so we made sure she stayed in a good, long time.  She had a ball as well and slept for three days after we got back.

So that's it for now- hope you all have a great week!