Family

On Friday, I attended California Academy of Sciences SuperNatural Halloween party. Although this was a kids’ party, my colleagues told me I had to come in costume. The last time I dressed up for Halloween was pre-kids and let’s just say, they were not kid-appropriate costumes. Since I had to come up with a last-minute Halloween costume, I settled on an easy cat makeup tutorial I knew I could pull off with only a few beauty products.

Italy is more than just major tourist destination to me. My grandparents are from a small village in southern Italy, so this a story about the search for my southern Italian heritage, and the family roots I have been dying to explore.

Fall is my favorite season and I love Halloween. Honestly, I’m not much for decorating, though. Don’t get me wrong, I like Halloween and fall decorations, but I generally only focus on Christmas decorating.

It’s already that time! Well, not quite, but I’m already thinking about Christmas and all the Christmas cookie recipes I want to make. The minute it turns into fall, I can’t help but think about all the baking I intend to do. I’m extra excited to bake this year because I finally (finally!) have a stand mixer.

Most Arizona kids already went back to school last week and my kids’ preschool started today. I’m so glad my kids love their school and they are always happy to go back. As we chatted about school, I decided it would be fun to create a craft symbolic of the back to school season. Nothing says back to school more than apples, so I created an apple stamps craft using real apples.

It’s 1 pm and I’m sitting at my computer when the phone rings. I don’t pick up. Who answers their cell phone to an unknown number? Then there’s the ding of a voicemail. “Hi, this is your preschool calling about Rocco….” That’s never a good sign. I immediately call back, as thoughts race through my head about what it could be. “Rocco stuck a bead up his nose.”

Back to school is right around the corner! When HP offered us their brand new HP Deskjet 3636 All-In-One Printer, we were really excited to finally have a colored printer again, and also to think of creative ways to prepare our kids for back to (pre)school. My hubby created free printable letters with wild animal pictures on them. We thought it was a fun way for our kids to practice their letters while also learning about some animals they haven’t seen or heard of before.

Summers in Phoenix are hot. Like really hot! We have a zoo membership, but it gets hardly any use in the summer because I assumed it would be too hot to visit. I was wrong. The zoo has a lot of cool summer activities, like snow in July! A couple weeks ago, we visited the zoo bright and early on a Saturday morning and our kids had the chance to experience their first snow at the Phoenix Zoo winter in July event.

During the summer, I often travel overseas for work. When I come home, catching up with my babies and husband is a priority. But, after a long trip, jet lag has me dragging my body around like a zombie. Lastly, I live in Arizona. In the summer, temperatures routinely reach over 100 degrees before 10 a.m. Putting this all together for you, when I think about summer activities for toddlers, I need: 1) fun, 2) easy, and 3) cool – literally.