Xtreme Play

Xtreme Play (a bounce house facility in Mesa) is hosting a fundraiser for my mother-in-law on Thursday from 5-9 PM. Just mention that you are there for the fundraiser and you get a special price of $6.75/child. Children ages 1-12 can bounce to their heart's content! My kids went in March and LOVED it. They didn't want to leave, even after a full 2 hours! We only got them to leave because they were closing for the night. They were so tired, but very happy children on the way home. So come on out if you can make it! (Your kids will love you for it!)

Address: 1455 S. Stapley Dr. #12 Mesa, AZ (NE Corner of US-60 and Stapley)

Price: $6.75/child

Socks are REQUIRED

See the flyer for additional information.

Plays and Father's Day Highlights

Friday night's date was pretty fun. Texas Roadhouse was delicious - though I'm not sure if I finished even half of my food! The play started out a little rocky for me. April Ann and her brother and sisters had never seen a man before, and they suddenly see 2 on the same day. Needless to say they are all pretty awkward and hickish during the first half. The second half of the play had more of a story, more tension, and more of a cute love story, so by the end I felt it was a worthwhile evening. I probably wouldn't see the play again, but I did enjoy it.

Aaron and Rebecca had a great time at Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Saturday night. I curled Rebecca's hair, she wore her necklace she got at the Dentist, and she wore her black dress with sparkles and a bow. She looked so cute and was so excited to go with daddy. She bought ice cream for Aaron and herself (she insisted!) at McDonalds before the play, and Aaron bought her a kid's snack pack during intermission. The only disappointment was that Ethan and Tyler were gone by the time she got back so she felt like she missed out on playtime with friends. We'll have to have them over to play again soon!

Father's Day was a great day.

Highlight #1: I made blender waffles w/ ice cream, scrambled eggs, sausage, and orange juice for breakfast. Surprisingly, everything got done at the same time so we were able to take a nice hot plate of food to Aaron for breakfast. Doesn't usually happen that way, does it? I'm not a big fan of hot breakfasts, but Aaron loves it. I've learned how to make eggs just for him. Now thats true love right there, isn't it?

Highlight #2: Aaron had to go on his "treasure hunts" to find his Father's Day gifts from the kids. They each made Aaron a "Daddy's Helper" card and did 4 little things for him - like give him a hug, a kiss, sing a song, give a foot massage, etc. Even Anson sang his song.

Highlight #3: Chicken Salad Pitas. I got a recipe off of Allrecipes.com for a chicken salad. Its not a creamy one at all. It just has a bunch of vegetables and chicken mixed together, then you are supposed to put an oriental dressing on it and serve it in pitas or over a bed of lettuce. I put the dressing on it, but it was a bit spicy, so next time I think we'll just use ranch!

Musicals!

I love musicals. Aaron arranged a fun date night with some of his customers and his co-worker for this Friday night. We are going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, then to a play at Hale Center Theatre called April Ann. Doesn't sound that exciting to me, but you don't usually go wrong with a musical as far as I'm concerned! I guess the founders of the Hale Center Theatres wrote the play years ago and it is supposedly pretty popular at their theatres. I'll find out on Friday!

Aaron is taking Rebecca to another musical on Saturday night for their date. They are going to Gammage's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I'm babysitting some neighbor boys while they go, so that will at least keep Anson busy! I'll probably have my whole house sparkling by the time they get back that night. I love having kids over to play (at least kids that are old enough to play with my kids somewhat autonomously). I seriously get so much done when everyone is playing so nicely together!

I also bought our tickets to Wicked tonight. We are going on Thursday, July 23. Kind of crazy that we couldn't find a good Friday or Saturday night to go! It had to be a Thursday or we wouldn't have made it. I'm really excited for it!

Dinner/Auction Results!

Wow, its really been a long time since I have written anything. Just FYI, the dinner/auction was a HUGE success! Thank you, thank you to everyone that helped out in any way or that came to the event. Our goal was $5800 - 1 month's worth of medicine for Aaron's mother. We ended up making over $7000!

This event is really the main reason I haven't done any blogging. I was so busy with it! I really didn't know how much work goes into something like this. Aaron and I spent over 40 hours gathering donations. We had somewhere between 120 -150 items at the auction, most of which Aaron and I pounded the streets for ourselves. I was REALLY terrified to ask for donations at first, but by the end it was kind of fun. We dedicated quite a few date nights and Saturdays to getting donations, and luckily it was worth it! It would have been nice to have had more help getting the donations though.

The week before the auction, I stayed up from 9:00 PM - between 1:00AM and 3:00 AM every night getting the auction ready. It was a huge job! I had to redo the bid sheets after they were all done because we decided to change how the bidding took place, so that took up a lot of time.

Plus, I had to take care of 3 children in the middle of all this! Plus being pregnant, and you have a not-so-happy camper. Its times like this that I am really grateful that my kids like to watch movies. Usually I don't appreciate that fact. I don't let them do it much normally, but lets just say that they saw WAY more than they should have that week!

Needless to say, I was already exhausted when it was actually time for the dinner/auction! I didn't have anywhere near enough help at the event, so I seriously felt insane that night. Thank goodness for my sister-in-law Maria who helped me with everything. She even got her in-laws to help! I couldn't have survived the night without her help. I'm sure her in-laws think I'm a crazy person though!

I'm really glad it is over (though I have learned a ton of things to do next time - if there is a next time)!

You're Invited!

I just wanted to let everyone know about the upcoming "Italian Dinner and Benefit Auction" that is scheduled for June 5th at the Mesa Jaycee's Courtyard in Downtown Mesa.

You can purchase your tickets through PAYPAL or credit card on the top right corner of this blog. You can also call (480) 649-0562 for more information or to order tickets.

There are going to be some great items and deals at the auction. Click HERE for our growing list of auction items.

We will be auctioning off homemade goodies - your best one! - at the auction. If you would be able to help us with your culinary confections, please leave me a comment or email me directly.

We are also still looking for additional items for the auction. Please email Maria at onesmartchicken@gmail.com or Andrea at amanning24@gmail.com if you have something to donate. All donations are appreciated:)

Thank-you all in advance for your support. Our entire family appreciates it!

Baja Fresh Fundraiser!!!

Anson's 3rd Birthday

Anson turned 3 on April 20. He woke up to his "Birthday Door". We of course had to have Trix for breakfast and had to sneak in some Finding Nemo fruit snacks!


Anson's first present he opened was the movie "Toy Story 2" and a book about Toy Story. He was so enthralled with the book that he forgot he even had other presents! He also got a Buzz Lightyear, Woody doll (his old one had the string pulled out and wouldn't work anymore), and a yellow race car. We had to throw in that race car so it wasn't a complete Toy Story present birthday.



We went to the zoo in Tucson that morning. I recall taking pictures, but for some reason there aren't any on my camera. We must have used Aaron's camera there. We had such a great time, though it was a little short. We got Aaron to come with us, but he had to be back in time to go to an afternoon appointment. We got to see a bear walking around, the tiger and a polar bear swimming in the water (in different cages of course!), feed the giraffes - at least Aaron did, and see lots of other animals too. It was great!

That night we had homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream for our FHE dessert and had Anson blow out the candles. I wasn't too into making another cake - and we don't need it hanging around the house anyway!

Anson's 3rd Birthday Party

I asked Anson in February what kind of birthday party he wanted. He promptly told me a Buzz Lightyear party and talked constantly about his party for nearly 3 months! Every time we had a party or a gathering, he was sure it was time for his Buzz Lightyear party. Note to self: Don't ask a 2, almost 3 year old what kind of party he wants that far in advance. Ever.

So I planned the party well in advance and ordered everything I needed so I would not run into the problem of getting my packages the day of the party - like they did for Rebecca's 4th birthday party. Talk about unneeded stress!

Only problem was, I couldn't find a good date for the party. There was something going on every day I wanted to have the party for someone that was supposed to come. So I kept putting off picking a date until after I came back from Boston on April 14 - 6 days before his birthday. I finally sat Aaron down and we went through every day possible. Nothing was going to work for everyone. So we decided to do it that Friday - as in April 17. We called everyone, and surpisingly there was only 1 conflict - the one I knew about. My sister's brother-in-law was getting married that night, so Alana couldn't come. Also, my mom and brothers could only come for the beginning of the party. Besides that, it worked out great, and I didn't have to worry about the party until the day or two before! Works great for me!


So it worked out best for us to have the party at a park in Mesa. Nathan, Anson's good friend from our ward, was even out this way on this particular afternoon, so Aaron picked him up for the party and Tessa took him home at the end.


This is the Buzz Lightyear rocket ship cake I made. Anson wanted me to keep taking it off the counter and show it to him the whole day. Rebecca and Anson decorated the cupcakes with the leftover purple and green candy from the cake. I also conveniently got rid of the other colors of decorating candy by putting it in the treasure bags for the treasure. Sneaky, huh?


We started off the games with a treasure hunt. They look pretty excited to see what the treasure is! The older kids were definitely the finders and seekers of the treasure hunt, though we were able to get the 3 younger boys to join us to find the treasure.


Next was the Toy Story toss. The kids threw bean bags and tried to land them on different Toy Story characters. Of special note to throw at were the Prospector and the Evil Emperor Zurg.


We played Pin the Tail on Rex (the dinosaur from Toy Story), and the older kids were again much more interested in this one. I got 2 of the 3 younger boys to try it though. The other picture is of Anson's best buddy, Peter. Peter is also Anson's cousin, so that works out well. Too bad he lives an hour away. Anson is constantly asking me to play with him. Luckily Anson has some friends out here too, so he gets over not playing with Peter as much as he would like to. On a side note, Anson was in high heaven the last 2 weeks as he got to go to Father's and Sons with Aaron's side of the family and play with Peter, and then this last week he and Peter and Aaron and Jonathan (Aaron's brother and Peter's dad), went to Amazing Jakes for some father and son time.



Anson got some presents and wanted to get dressed up like Buzz Lightyear right away. He also got a fun big Lego racing set from his Aunts and Uncles. Thank you! He had his serious face on as he opened the presents.

And last, but not least, Anson blew out his candles, and probably didn't make a wish. Not sure that he understands about that part of it yet. He did a good job at blowing out the candles though!

Happy Birthday Anson! We love having you in our family!