Heat Wave! 110 Degrees in April?

The thermometer on our front porch at 4:30 this afternoon....

J setting up rather dusty fans for the first time ... no A/C in our home!

Keith's New Window

Keith is working on a second stained glass window for the Ademas, one that will complement the 1500+ piece window he created for their stairwell last year. This one will be in a sliding door for their bedroom, surrounded by dark wood. Keith has the difficult parts done: the two clusters of grapes and all the leaves, both of which match elements in the original window. From the hallway both windows will be visible, so having them complementing each other is vital. I can't wait to see this one when Keith completes it.

Easter Sunset

As we drove home from the cabin, we stopped and took a few quick photos of the gorgeous sunset....

Easter Morning Breakfast

Coloured eggs and lemon scones....

Holy Saturday Vigil

Icon of Jesus storming hell, conquering death


Father Acker and B, at Holy Saturday Vigil

Good Friday Ecumenical Stations of the Cross

At noon on Good Friday, the Alpine Christian Ministerial Association hosts a Biblical Way of the Cross. Several churches, Catholic and Protestant, over 100 people in all, joined together to walk the fourteen Stations of the Cross, listening to a Scripture passage and then singing a related verse of "Were You There" as we slowly walked to the next Station. Father Acker and his Free Teen Guitar Class (including J) accompanied the singing. It was a quietly meditative way of pondering Christ's suffering and death for us all, a truly valuable way to spend Good Friday. More about the day will be posted on my other blog, Meditative Meanderings.

Father Acker reads the Scripture at the First Station, Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives.

The Fourteenth and last Station: Jesus is Buried. J and Father Acker, along with the other Free Teen Guitar Class, accompany the final verse, "Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?"

E's 17th Birthday Slumber Party

For E's 17th birthday, she wanted a Mamma Mia! themed slumber party. She decorated the house with streamers and balloons in tropical colors and spent hours hand-decorating pink and lavender confetti cupcakes. Seven friends came to celebrate, and all had a wonderful time.


The cupcakes the E decorated so creatively.

Blowing out the candle on her cupcake

Opening gifts in her jammies, including her new Twilight (from Keith and me) and Devil Wears Prada (from the boys) DVDs.

Guest Photographer T at San Diego Zoo

14-year-old T loves photography, and he especially loves taking photos at the San Diego Zoo. And his favorite subject: Guess.... He took all of these yesterday with my camera in the Children's Zoo otter area. Thanks for being a wonderful guest photographer, T!

San Diego Zoo Field Trip

On Tuesday, the four kids and I descended upon Balboa Park, our favorite field trip destination, and thought we'd enjoy Free Tuesday at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, it being Spring Break, most of San Diego showed up as well. We couldn't even get into the Science Center as the line for entering stretched out the doors and past the fountain! We were able to gain immediate admittance to the Natural History Museum, but it was far too crowded to navigate with my electric scooter, so after checking out the remodeled downstairs exhibits and giving up on the second floor, we decided to hoof it to the San Diego Zoo instead. Our annual passes are very much worth their weight in gold! So we explored the much less crowded Zoo, and here are some of the photos I took while there:


Iguanas

Red-Headed Lizard

Indian Gharial

Cactus -- in addition to being one of the finest zoos in the world, the San Diego Zoo is also a botanical garden featuring rare plants from around the world. In fact, the botanical collection is actually more valuable than the animals.

Science Fair at Balboa

More photos from the Science Fair -- full story at Meditative Meanderings blog.


Botanical Garden at Balboa Park

Robot

IED Robot

Science Fair 2009

The boys and I spent Saturday afternoon in Balboa Park for the huge Science Fair. I was expecting crowds, but I was unprepared for spending as much time getting from the I-8 and 163 interchange to parking as I did getting from our mountain town 50 miles eastward to said interchange. But it was a gorgeous day to be outside, even if almost every family in San Diego was also present. In fact, when we first arrived, I could barely edge my electric scooter forward at all because of the crush of people. It thinned out during the afternoon, fortunately. I'll post more on Monday on my regular blog -- the boys had a great deal of fun with robotics, which is T's passion.

Above is the Casa del Prado Theatre, just as we were leaving the Science Fair in Balboa Park.