Arizona Mama

Parks and pools are great but if you’re like me then Phoenix’s triple digits have you running inside for the air-conditioning. For those days when slides are like branding irons and pools are like bathwater, beat the heat with these 15 fun indoor activities for kids. An idioglossia is a language created and spoken by [...]

With as much as my kids and I enjoy reading, it was only a matter of time before someone chose to have a book theme birthday party. Since it was a teenager party, the structured activities were pretty low key, unless hanging out is a structured activity. But a theme is a theme and I [...]

We’re continuing to get out and about quite a bit this spring. April at the Desert Botanical Garden is a time for blooming flowers and a wide variety of butterflies in the Butterfly Pavilion. It is a beautiful place to enjoy a picnic lunch and spend some family time. I almost forgot we live in [...]

I’m noticing a trend in my choice of books over the last few months, Museum of Thieves, City of Lies – and now our latest Family Book Club pick, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. I hope this won’t be a bad influence on my children!  Actually I think they are a bad influence on [...]

Spring Break is still trickling through Arizona and this is our prime time to head outside to enjoy those glorious Arizona attractions.  One great place to spend a day with the kiddos is the Phoenix Zoo! Don’t all kids want to live at the zoo or be a veterinarian at some point? (Or was that [...]

Generally the thought of spring cleaning doesn’t make my heart leap with excitement; it makes me think of washing walls, scrubbing baseboards and other tediously time consuming jobs.  But there are those times that I’m in the mood to organize and purge. It can be so satisfying and exciting!  The only thing more productive and [...]

With Spring Break just around the corner, parents need some interesting places to take the kids and enjoy the spring weather here in Arizona.  This time of year is our reward for enduring the melting temperatures of the summer.  One great place to explore is the Superstition Mountain Museum and it’s several out buildings and [...]

I like to use any excuse to create a party for our family.  Leap year is a perfect example of a non-traditional event.  It doesn’t happen every year, so making it fun and unique is just a small part of it.  Having a leap year party is one more family memory that you can make [...]

I knew I felt busy lately, but we must really be busier because it took us a few months to read Science Fair for our family book club.  It wasn’t because we didn’t enjoy the book.  My younger children shied away from reading it on their own because of the odd names, preferring me to [...]

Every year the struggle with figuring out what to do with our kids during spring break begins sometimes in January or earlier.  For those of us who work, we need to figure out some sort of arrangement for care.  Some of us even have to use some of our vacation to make sure our kids [...]