All the Things Spring

When trying to decide how to name this blog post, I struggled.  I apologize that I can find no common thread in the things you are about to read.  So, enjoy a glimpse of our spring, which featured: crumpets, dinosaurs, roses, flying cars, paint parties, make up, wicked witches, donuts, new recipes, and Japanese spider crabs.

My Book Club read a lovely book set in London in WWII, so I had fun buying all the crumpets, scones, tea, and English Toffee that I could find at Trader Joes to compliment our great discussion!

Ella the Artist was my hero once again, donating a morning of her valuable to time to help me paint my ridiculous dinosaur shirts.  It's not my favorite school project, but she makes it much better. 

Our next drama production is already underway and Delia was happy when we found the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car visiting a local car museum.  When we went to visit, we even heard the car's PR lady proclaim that "The car IS the most important character in this play!"  Fun news for the girl cast to PLAY THE CAR in May.

The window for perfect, not fried in the CA heat, roses AND rain is small. I love when they collide.

Ivy up to her antics!

Easter Sunday, where we celebrated Jesus' resurrection with an absolutely packed sanctuary and a hopeful, bright future for our church.  And with some relaxing family time and delicious food-- including this new recipe which is a fresh take on the old Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O "Salad" using mascarpone, honey and just-picked strawberries.  A win!

Donuts and Dogs!  It's not a legit break without a drive to the good donut shop in our jammies with Ivy!  

Delia's love for color and fashion combined with Ella's love for art has given the girls a new interest-- fun makeup!  We first spent a little time at the beauty store browsing all the bold eye shadow pallets and then spent the afternoon trying on dramatic eyes.

Delia and her creative friends planned a Paint Party and had a blast one day creating and enjoying each others' company.  Meanwhile, Ella and her creative friends spent a day making a fancy Spring Break breakfast and then mastering the art of cream puffs.  Do I love that a good time to my girls and their friends is getting together to make stuff?  Yes, yes I do.

One Spring Break activity was finally enjoying the girls' big Christmas gift-- tickets to see Wicked in Sacramento.  We had a wonderful night enjoying dinner and strolling through the nearby Capitol Rose Garden.

Seeing Wicked with the girls, Delia especially, was super fun!  The music is familiar, but it was their first time seeing the show.  Delia gripped and grabbed me, her eyes big with excitement throughout.  We were blown away by the spectacular production design (elaborate sparkly costumes, constantly moving sets, cool lights, and even characters flying on ropes and harnesses!).  It was a neat thing to share with our drama-enthusiasts!  And to be back in a theatre enjoying a real Broadway show felt special too.

Without any big Spring Break vacation plans, we did ask the girls what their dream outing would be and both enthusiastically answered, "The aquarium!"  It's been 7 years since we've been members, and the girls wanted to revisit some of their best childhood memories.  The magic of the aquarium is for everyone, if you are in kindergarten or high school!  We marveled over our God of Wonders and His amazing underwater creations.

But, it was these Japanese spider crabs, in a brand new "Into the Deep" exhibit, that stole the show for us!  These are real.  I feel I just need to say that because when we walked up to their tank, that was my first question, "YO, are these FAKE?!?!"  They are monster crabs, with a "wingspan" of 12 feet, weighing as much as 40 pounds (larger than one of my students), walking around their tank both fascinating and terrifying us.  We are still thinking and talking about them.

Admiring jellies and tornados of sardines.

Petting decorator crabs and bat rays.

That clamshell is shrinking! ;) (For reference...)

Enjoying the salty ocean air.  We watched mama and baby otters and seals from the aquarium's deck.  We found Pacific Grove's famous "purple carpet", which looks especially stunning in the spring. 

We even dug our toes in that soft, white Asilomar sand.

There are about 5 more weeks of school left, which will fly by with all the usual end-of-the-year fun, including Ella's Robotics Assembly and Junior/Senior Banquet (another formal just for upperclassmen-- like prom) and Delia's play performance!  Cheers, Spring!  You've been good to us!