Under the Sea and AZ Mail Call!

It fortunately stayed warm enough that school was in session today which meant the Bean and I got to head to see "The Little Mermaid" in Northville!  She has been talking about it for weeks (months, since Mrs Porto told us back in October when Kayla was Ariel for Halloween this was the show that we would be seeing.) and I'm thinking it lived up to the hype - she was captivated!  It was fun to see some local theater, the actress who played Octavia (the play's equivalent of Ursula in the movie) was especially good.  So much so that Kayla kept saying "I don't like here, Mama, she's creepy."  I enjoyed an hour of having the Bean cuddled up on my lap, taking it all in.

I know I said last night we'd be doing sopapillas for dessert tonight, but I was a little worried that it'd be cutting it a little close for the deep fryer's inaugural run with all the fun mail we were going to get to open and discuss from Arizona, so I settled on Navajo Peach Cobbler instead. (Sopapillas Thursday, promise!)  I came across this recipe last week when I was putting together my weekly menus and was really taken in by the lead-in write up which said "In the high desert canyons of Arizona, Navajo people tend their prized peach tree orchards. We were surprised that peaches, could grow in such a harsh climate of extremes, but they thrive next to the hot walls of the canyon."  Well who knew?  This was a tasty recipe and I liked the addition of cornmeal to the crumble topping.

We also got to open all of the mail we've gotten from Arizona so far.  Grant and I are both fortunate enough to have family in Arizona that helped us out with this one, and a friend of a friend also participated.  My Aunt and two cousins live in Sahuarita, which is about 15 miles south of Tucson and Grant's Aunt lives in Chandler, which is south east of Phoenix.  We also received a really neat postcard with pictures of the San Xavier Del Bac Mission from Tucson.  You'll have to check out below to see all the neat things we got!  Thanks so much to everyone who is helping us out - the kids are LOVING it!

School, coffee with a friend and PTA meeting seem like the highlights of tomorrow.  Whenever this polar vortext wants to MOVE away from here I'd be most appreciative.  Teeny tiny Kristi was much better designed for the Arizona heat and sunshine than the wind and bitterness of Michigan, I'm thinking.  Ah well, wouldn't change it for a second.  More tomorrow, but until then...

Arizona Fun Fact of the Day: The Castilian and Burgundian flags of Spain, the Mexican flag, the Confederate flag, and the flag of the United States have all flown over the land area that has become Arizona.

 Ready for the theater

 Waiting patiently for The Little Mermaid

 Some blurry selfies...

 Navajo Peach Crumble

 Finding Tucson - the postcard we got from there was a picture of the San Xavier Mission

 Aunt Mary sent us a ton of information on lots of the fun things to do in Arizona

 And she wrote the most incredible report on the area that they live, complete with pictures!  It was full of information on everything from the weather, the economy, the wildlife, the people, the celebrations - oh my gosh it was awesome!  Thank you thank you thank you to her for all the time she spent.  Noah really like the picture of the road runner and now wants to go to Arizona just to see one, even if it means possibly having to see a scorpion as well

 Aunt Sally sent us a package from Arcosanti 

 It was a beautiful bell that was crafted there

The chime sound it makes is so lovely - can't wait to put it outside and listen to it when the weather gets a little better.  In the meantime it's going to hang out with our friend Saguaro in the State Project room