Last Tuesday marked the return of church softball! A few new faces on the team this year but most of last year’s team too. Also new this year is that we have no veteran pitcher, so that fell to me for being the one willing to try it. Brooklynn gave it a go for an inning but she couldn’t get over being used to fast pitch and couldn’t get the ball to the plate in slow pitch. She’s going to practice, she says, but for now it’s me. I guess I was serviceable, I just tried to get it over the plate and didn’t worry about balls and strikes too much. We lost 20-3. Friday we went to Fort Wayne to do some clothes shopping, mostly for shorts for the girls since they have none that still fit them. Barnes & Noble afterwards, of course. Beth was at a women’s retreat pretty much all day Saturday, and I spent most of the morning just moving dirt around. I had picked up around a ton and a half of dirt from Superior Excavating, and while at first I thought ‘why did I buy so much?’ after a while I was thinking ‘I’m not going to have enough.’ And I don’t, quite. I filled in the low spots in the backyard (wheel ruts, stump holes, hollows under where the swingset was) but the ring of blocks around the tree in the front yard needs some more. And maybe more if the dirt settles more than I thought it would. I’m planning on getting some grass seed in the new dirt soon and renting a lawn roller. Anyway, the kids and I just did chores and such, and let Ruby run around with Nibbles outside since it was such a nice day. The kids and I also went for a country drive to do some geocaching, but the ones we found weren’t that great (hidden in the right-of-way of the road, mostly). But, they didn’t want to go too far from home so we got what we could. Beth took the girls to see “The Jungle Book” movie in the evening, without Alex and me. He wasn’t that interested and I decided I could do without. But all the ladies loved it. Sunday we rode out to the McCoys’ farm to pick up a bike…Travis had a girls bike that they had no use for, so they asked us if Natalie had a bike, which she does not, so they gave it to us for free. It needs work but hey, free bike.

Busy weekend. Friday was the carnival at Lincoln school, which Beth was working and I volunteered for since I had nothing better to do. The kids all went, Missy and Natalie found friends to hang around with but since Alex doesn’t go to the school any more he just wandered around by himself. Beth and I worked the prize booth, which worked out well since they were shorthanded, and we got rid of a lot of junk. Missy had a sleepover at Wrigley’s house immediately afterwards. Saturday I had softball practice (the season opener is only days away) for a couple hours…funny I always worried before that nobody would show up to the games, but this year the concern is that we’ll always have too many and never even be able to bat around. We probably have enough signed up for two teams. Beth had a perm which lasted pretty much all morning and a good chunk of the afternoon, but it was such a nice day we decide after she was finally done that we should take Natalie geocaching for the first time. Unlike the other kids, she was interested and excited about it. We headed for Goshen and were planning to get a few, eat dinner at the South Side Diner, and then get more along the river walk,  but decided at the last minute the diner was too crowded so we went to Chili’s, which was worse as it turned out, and they took so long that it was getting dark by the time we left. So, no more geocaching Saturday. We’ll get them another time. Sunday afternoon we headed up to Michigan to attend Julia’s birthday party. Beth’s whole family was there which is still awkward for Natalie, and we were only able to spend a little while because (once again) they have their parties Sunday evenings. Wish that would stop…if they want us to come up, any other time would be so much easier. We only left a half hour late, because Steph kept asking us to stay for this and stay for that. It was still earlier leaving than I thought it would be.

Spring break is pretty much over. We didn't do a whole lot with it this year, since we're saving up for the big trip to Virginia Beach later this year. Beth was trying pretty hard to find things to do with all 3 now kids during the week while I was at work, but there isn't that much to do around here. They went to Pottery Bayou early in the week: Alex made an Avengers box of some sort, Missy made a unicorn, Natalie made a princess bank, and Beth made a creamer to go with the sugar bowl she made a while back. Tuesday, all of our new appliances got installed. For the rest of the week there wasn't much going on, no FCC Kids since it was spring break, the big thing was errands during the week. But, on Friday we went to Chicago again! That's a spring break tradition, I guess. I took Friday off and we headed out in late morning, arriving at the aquarium by around noon (we purposefully did NOT eat at the aquarium cafe this time...McDonald's near Lake Shore Drive instead) and pretty much walked on in since we had bought tickets online in advance. We spent the entire afternoon at Shedd, saw the 4-D movie about coastal predators (the gannet is my new favorite bird), then headed to the mall for dinner at Cheesecake Factory (we were too full for cheesecake at the end) and some shopping, then to the hotel and the pool for the evening. Saturday we went shopping at IKEA for the morning and then the long long long drive back to the city to hit the planetarium. Again, nice to skip the lines with the advance tickets. It was pretty cool and not at all like I remember, but closed early at 5. We tried to go up the Willis Tower since it was so clear but there was a 2 1/2 hour wait just to get tickets. No advance tickets this time. We didn't want to wait that long so we headed home and will save it for next time.

Today was a good day. In the morning Beth and I left the kids to go shopping for new appliances (got the bonus check and tax return this week). We were intending to just get a new washing machine and dryer, since the washer stinks and the dryer is ripping holes in our clothes, but while we were at it we figured we could use a new dishwasher as well. So we spent $1695.95 on 3 new appliances that will be delivered and installed next week. Tonight was the Komets game vs. the Indy Fuel, a Zimmer Club event for which we got seriously discounted tickets.