First Thunderstorm

It started raining out of the blue last week and in true AZ fashion, it really rained. For less than an hour. Naturally, we took 100 pictures and restrained ourselves to 40 to put on the blog.

At first she was a little scared

Then fascinated

Then she started having fun

 Then she wanted to go inside

 

But mostly she was just cute

Please note the adorable curl

Mother's Day Cards

J had a great time making them.

Photos by Husband

Clifford Party

My niece turned 3 and my Big Sis threw a fabulous Clifford party. As in the big red dog, not our childhood friends the Cliffords. I took some pictures of it so she can feel like the party she did just as magical as anything found on a blog.

The drinks were J's favorite part

The muddy buddies in a dog bowl. Genius

The coloring and snack table

The favorite quote from my niece: "Look! I Bella!" as she puts her face into the bowl to eat the Reese's Puffs

Big Sis did a great job on the cake 

These were the party favors since Big Sis cashed in her book order points

They searched for these "dog bones" around the house as a game

Grape Soda

She has already come to the conclusion that soda from a bottle is superior. So young for such life lessons.

Retirement Party

I don't think I announced it here, but my dear mother and father are headed to Malaga, Spain for a 2 year mission come September. Mom will be the mission nurse and Dad her assistant :) This excitement means he is retiring from Mesa Public Schools after 30 years. 50 if you count his education.  I helped organize his retirement party and had to go a bit over board since he has done the same for other colleagues. This is the reason I haven't made time for blogging lately. Here are some of the fun details.

 We found an invitation we liked online and recreated it.

I actually had an original idea to make the party special, not stolen or inspired from somewhere on the internet. I made a giant timeline of his life, focusing on the various jobs he's held and paired food with the significant areas. It turned out to be 20 feet long since he works so hard. Or is so old  :)

Since his first job was at a Chinese restaurant, we had egg rolls.

 Empanadas from his mission to Chile.

The mascot for one school was the jackrabbits so we had platters of rabbit food.

Chips and salsa for the new adventure in Spain and cookies for the sweet retired life.

 It was a fun idea and would have been cool if anyone actually picked on it. Oh well. Here's the spread as a whole.

 

We also had a marvelous quartet of music teachers playing for a very appreciative audience.

Although I think she was more entertained by the walkie talkie