Hot Days, Sleepless Nights

The weather has been stunningly hot lately. Bayside, it's been in the high 80's. Today in SF, it reached 91!! This sort of weather has us bee-lining for the water. We tried a new (for us) beach at Lake Temescal with friends Dean and Catie. Great way to cool down. A nice sandy beach complete with lifeguards (and not just the cute one pictured below)!
However, the unusually warm days mean unusually warm nights. Last night we "cooled down" during the night to 75-degrees from 78. Too warm for covers; everyone was up tossing and turning with sweaty pillows and bunched up bedsheets. It's warmer tonight, but we'll hope that the last sleepless night will keep them knocked out a bit more solidly.

Beeping Eggs

This year, I took the girls to "Do Good" with me and volunteer at the Blind Babies Foundation Beeper Easter Egg Hunt in Golden Gate Park. We were suppossed to be volunteering, but there were so many volunteers, we ended up acting more as participants than helpers. There was much to do and was a great opportunity for the girls to learn about the visually impaired.
We got to meet "Enrique," a one-year old puppy studying to become a Guide Dog. We took pictures with the Easter Bunny and then make a tactile photo frame in which to keep it. The SF Fire Dept also came out so we could feel all the different textures of the hoses, truck and tools and, of course, ring the bell. "Thumper" and all his friends from the adopt a bunny foundation were there and we could touch them, too. There was Play-dough and painting with golf-balls (roll the balls in a tray), face painting, and of course, there was the egg hunt! Ava & Bettina met a set of twins just 3-weeks older then them and got to help kids find the beeping eggs; they could collect 3 non-beeping eggs to keep for themselves.

Easter Pictures

Ava sporting her bunny tail.

So, this year, I wasn't as organized as I usually am. I was distracted by some house drama and, come 10:30 pm the night before Easter, I hadn't got anything for the kids' Easter baskets. So, tired and a little perturbed, I searched throughout the closets trying to find things to re-gift before crashing into bed.
Ava wakes up first in the morning and wanders downstairs. She is the first to find the baskets waiting for them at the breakfast table. "Mommy, Mommy! Bettina! The Easter Bunny came! Wake up!" she screams excitedly. After we all arrive, she announces, "I don't think he came down the chimney like Santa, though." "How did he come?" I ask. "He must have come through the basement," is her answer. "Why do you think that?" "Because all our presents are from the closet we're not supposed to play in." Whoops! I guess I'm not as clever as I think! "And he used the Easter eggs we made yesterday, too!"
Good thing nobody cares what was brought but just that something was brought. Regardless of my conscious, the girls excitedly peel and half-eat their Easter eggs and play with the re-gifted toys. After going to church with Grandma, we head over to Sylvia's house where we have another little egg hunt, again with mostly re-gifted toys and the leftover coins from our pockets. All is well!

Getting Sea Legs

Alessandro, now 9 and a half months old, is really getting his sea-legs under him. He can stand for quite awhile like he does here at Grandma's house, while contemplating and choosing a toy in Grandma's sun room. He's getting so big so fast, it's hard to keep up!

April Flowers