Nancy Drew Mystery Party

For Bailey's 11th Birthday she wanted to have a Nancy Drew Party! We lucked out and one of the office ladies at the school lent us her Nancy Drew Mystery Game for the party! We started preparing for the party by creating some fun invitations for the 10 girls from school that Bailey planned to invite. Once the invitations went out I had to get to work planning the details. The party was set to have 5 different stations that would lead the girls to solving the mystery. To begin I made each of our guests a Clue Book to keep all the information they gathered written down.

Then I planned to create a fun scene for each of the places for the Game. We staged Nancy's house in the living room, where all the girls could fit easily and listen to the CD for clues. Next was the Crime Scene, complete with Crime Scene tape we tipped over the chair, left the girls a series of clues provided by the game, and made sure to provide a handful of "red herring" clues to throw them off track (and boy did it!). They then were instructed to check out the Cyber Cafe, an area we set up outside with some clues, and a few traditional Nancy Drew snacks including Lemon Bars and Blondies for the girls to snack on while they researched the clues. Next they moved onto the Psychic Shop which was staged in the cabana behind the pool. We covered the table with a black table cloth, tarot cards, even a green garden ball that worked great as a "crystal ball"! Once we lit the incense the stage was complete! Finally the girls visited the "Police Station" to see who the police were considering as prime suspects! Once the girls finished the Mystery Game it was time for a little pizza and fruit smoothies, followed by Bailey opening her gifts. We rounded out the party with cake and started to watch the Nancy Drew movie, but the girls were way too wound up so we ended up playing in the backyard instead, even Belle got in on the action in a game of "duck duck goose". Bailey is really lucky and has some wonderful friends. To show our appreciation we gave each girl a new Nancy Drew book with a bookmark with the lemon bar recipe. It's hard to believe that Bailey is now 11 years old, and as fun as it was to plan this party for her, it's really nice that it's behind us! We'll just have to see what she wants to do next year!

Bailey's Birthday

We had a wonderful visit with Ryan's mom here for almost 3 weeks, honestly it was very difficult to let her go home! Sadly she wouldn't be here for Bailey's birthday so we decided to celebrate a little early and Grandma treated us to dinner at Bailey's favorite, Olive Garden! Bailey even convinced us to let her open a birthday present from Grandma a little early and was thrilled to be the proud owner of "Glinda the Good Witch" collector Barbie.
Just this morning the kids asked when we would be seeing Grandma again, she's been home for about 5 days now and our household seems a little empty without her. Hopefully it won't be too long before the next visit; I hear the Colorado Rockies have agreed to make Arizona their Spring Training Home so maybe we can convince Grandma to come back every year for Spring Training!

Spring Break Fishing

For a little Spring Break outing I decided to take the kids for a some Urban Fishing. I hear you real outdoorsy-types laughing, but in the Phoenix area, unless you have a boat, there's not a lot of finishing to be done except the urban variety. Anyway, despite the fact that Fish and Game claimed to just have stocked this lake with catfish, we didn't get so much as a nibble.


In fact if the kid next to us hadn't caught a little sunfish I would have been convinced there wasn't a living thing in that water! Well, now we have our Urban licence for another year so maybe we'll have better luck another day.

Holy Grapefruit Batman!

Bailey was invited to help a friend of mine, Shelly, and her daughter, Hannah, to pick grapefruit and oranges from a retirement community near here. It's not unusual for people to hire workers to pick the fruit from their trees and haul it away. Yes I said they PAY other people to pick the fruit and then the fruit picker TAKES the fruit home!
Bailey and Hannah decided to do it as a service project for Girl Scouts and earned several hours of community service. When all was said and done they had picked and hauled nearly 700 lbs. of grapefruit to Shelly's vehicle all to be donated to needy families in our area. Way to go ladies!

Visit from our Alaskans!

Spring is a time that just about everyone looks forward to, and we're of course no exception. Spring brings bright sunny days, dinners al fresco, new flowers in the garden and when we're very very lucky it brings a visit from our Alaskans! We always look forward to seeing Ed, Laurie and the kids when they escape the Alaskan winter with a trip southwest.

In the beginning I wondered how they would relate to one another. Jessie is the oldest, Bailey and Olin are the same age, and Collin rates as the youngest of the bunch...would they connect? Apparently I worry for nothing because from that first visit in 2007 (at our house) they seemed to have a connection that is purely natural. When I see them together it's funny how alike they all are.
In 2008 we decided to meet somewhere the kids could burn off a little energy and soak up some Arizona sunshine so we gathered at the Phoenix Zoo. Bailey and Jessie with their long statures are both so bright, beautiful, articulate and friendly that they could almost pass for sisters. Olin and Collin both fall into the younger brother category and seem to have the same knack for silliness, boyish charm and athleticism so they are instantly entertained by one another.
This year, 2009, we decided to meet at CrackerJax in Scottsdale to play a little mini-golf and then grab a bite for dinner. And like always the kids delighted me by connecting on sight once again. Maybe it's connection by proxy, Ed has always been a favorite personality in my life, my mom's baby brother was always, and I mean always fun to spend time with. Maybe the kids can just read that, or maybe they just understand that we're family, they have a connection that runs so deep that it would be crazy to think they wouldn't be friends. Either way, I am always grateful for the time we get to spend together. Today they're headed home to the North and we begin our week of Spring Break, getting together with them was the perfect way to kick off our vacation!

Chihuly at the Desert Botanical Garden

Debbie arranged a visit to the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden for Lorene, myself, Giles and Debbie, and Yvonne and Diane (Aunt from Wyoming and Cousin from California). When Debbie mentioned the special exhibit I had no idea who Chihuly was but had never visited the Garden so I was up for anything.

Well, Chihuly is a glass artist from the Seattle area who is known for his use of vibrant color in his glass work and this exhibit was to combine that with an influence from nature.
Throughout the entire Botanical Garden there were glass sculptures depicting everything from Saffron Towers, Wildflowers and even the Moon! Some of my favorites were ones that paired vibrant purple spires with the dusty sage green background of some of the desert's natural plants. In addition to learning about Chihuly, I came home with a list of new plants that I want to add to the yard and garden....we're supposed to be going "Green" after all right!? One plant at the top of my list was the Texas Mountain Lauren. It's a small tree (maybe a large shrub) that has the soft sage green that I love and it's flowers are a beautiful blue/purple not too different from Wisteria but what took it over the top was the smell of the flowers...grape bubble gum, delicious!
So after our long day in the Arizona sunshine we headed back toward home to meet Ryan and the kids at one of our favorite resturants; Lis Doon Varna. It's authentic Irish food in a building designed to incorporate all the parts of a real Irish village from the farmhouses, to the churches, and of course the pubs! It's one of my absolute favorite places and there aren't many things that beat a day in the Arizona sunshine followed by an ice cold pint of Guiness and a plate full of Bangers and Mash. After dinner we came back to our house where Bailey had a chance to get to know Dianne and Yvonne better, discovering that she and Dianne had quite a bit in common. It was a truly wonderful day of new experiences and old friends.

Spring Training

Until this year we've never taken in a Spring Training game...I hate to even admit that the last time we went to the team activities was in 2002! This year we decided since Lorene (Ryan's mom) was visiting that we'd treat her to a game with her favorite team The Colorado Rockies! We had the kids skip out a little early from school last Friday and we loaded the van with Ryan, Bailey, Collin, Lorene, Debbie, Giles and myself and headed to the Peoria Sports Complex, home of the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres. Today's game would feature the Padres and the Rockies in what would turn out to be a nearly perfect day at the ballpark! Our seats were only a few rows from the Rockies dugout and as a few of us non-Rockies fans admitted we were clueless as to who the players were Lorene said with great pride and enthusiasm that she "knew 'em all!"

For Ryan, the kids and I this would be our first experience watching a MLB game so to make it special I made sure everyone had a fresh box of CrackerJack and a shiney new pack of baseball cards to enjoy as we spent a day in the sunshine and watching the Rockies beat the Padres 13-11!
Bailey was given a Rockies practice ball by their stats keeper (it nearly killed Collin not to get one) and Giles had a pop fly graze his fingers as it came rocketing to the row behind us. I think it's safe to say we'll be itching for another game next year...I'm thinking Mariners all the way!
After the game we all headed back to our house for an All American Hot Dog Picnic...well an indoor picnic because it did get a little chilly outside.

Last but not least, here's a few pictures "from the vault" of our first time at the Sports Complex with the kids, you'll notice they've grown just a bit!
Bailey is just about to turn 4 years old in this picture. Gramma K and Grandpa came for a visit and we headed to see the Mariners and Ichiro for the first time.
Gramma and Grandpa never visit without bringing a little something for the kids so they both had new Mariners outfits to show our Seattle pride! Collin would only have been just over 2 months old...man how time really does fly!