and a tie on a day when the thermometer broke 90. I missed Tootle's game due to nearly identical schedules, but she scored her team's only goal of the day; her coach claims there was an invisible fence around the goals. After the games, we went to a school fair where the line to be dunked in the dunk tank was longer than the line to try to dunk people. I hope the heat breaks soon; April is too early to switch to AC.
that Doodle wore her hair in a ponytail for last week's soccer game. Doodle much prefers to let her hair hang loose or in a headband, so this was a major accomplishment. Doodle's team lost a heartbreaker so she's likely to tell me that the ponytail brought bad luck and can't be tried again.
Lately it seems like I can't keep up on the treadmill of life in the springtime. In addition to the activities that kick into high gear at this time of year with near the end of year school events, Scouts, and soccer, work has been extra busy and stressful as we all try to do more with less. I probably won't be posting quite as often until I catch my breath a bit.
The girls and I went back to school/work today. We spent the last four days of spring break with a house guest: my 85-year-old aunt whom we fetched from and took back to Pennsylvania. I'm not sure I want to make two runs to Pa. and back in a day so close together anytime soon, but Tootle sure hopes that I do. She wants her aunt to visit more often and reports that she knew it was going to be fun, but it was more fun than she expected. Doodle wasn't quite as happy: although she loved teaching her aunt to do Wii bowling, she didn't like the endless hours of golf on TV (Aunt G. really loves watching golf) and the higher than usual volume on the TV set. We played more games of Old Maid and Go Fish than we have in years, accompanied by lots of laughter. Aunt G. even insisted on helping me with some yardwork and enjoyed seeing how the plants that we've transplanted from her garden over the last few years are thriving in our yard.
We spent the first four days of spring break in New York City, finally taking the trip that had to be postponed last year due to a flu outbreak in our house. This was Doodle's third trip to NYC and Tootle's first. Tootle loved the Big Apple and would love to live there. We packed our days with activities: walking, playing on rocks, and taking a carriage ride in Central Park; seeing Shrek the Musical on Broadway; visiting the American Museum of Natural History where the butterfly exhibit and the planetarium show were huge hits; getting up early to check out the Today show in Rockefeller Plaza (we were treated to a demonstration of a Segway car); skating at Rockefeller Center; riding the giant ferris wheel in Toys R Us on Times Square; playing the giant piano in FAO Schwartz; and dining and shopping at a little girl's mecca, American Girl Place. I think we made some memories to last a lifetime.
The wind was fierce but that didn't stop both girls from playing their first soccer games of the season with great enthusiasm. Tootle scored a beautiful goal. After the games, we headed out to climb some cherry trees and enjoy the gorgeous blossoms; fortunately the wind didn't take too many of the delicate blossoms away.
