My latest visit to AZ

While in AZ last week (February 3-9) I had the great honor, blessing, and, sometimes, challenge of caring for my sweet granddaughters while their mommy and daddy were working. I spent quite a bit of time alone with Katie while Madeline was in school. We had a blast playing "Go Fish", "Kitty", and excaping to Africa as we tried to elude the blue monster. We hid in Katie's closet (2.5' x 2.5' floorspace) and in the play house (2.5' x 2.5' x 2.5 ' floorspace and head space for me). It was chilly the week I was in Phoenix, but the close quarters during hiding warmed me right up!

Here are some of the many faces of Katie! What fun at almost 3 years old!

The next two are Katie pretending to be a kitty. She is crawling out of her kitty home made of a small table and couch pillows in the second one.

Madeline and I had fun creating valentines, playing Dora Memory, playing "Kitty", creating funny pictures with stamps, and challenging each other at creating objects out of numbers or shapes. She is very good at all of these activities!

Below is Madeline in her "cage at the pet store" where she was a kitty. Don't you just want to adopt such a bright-eyed kitty and take her home?

When I suggested we make a special cake to surprise Mommy and Daddy for Valentine's celebration, the girls were delighted to help! Looking at the pictures you can see one of the reasons they were eager to assist with the project!

The girls were very pleased with the finished product and their part in it! The heart shape - which we made from a square cake and a halved round cake, the pink frosting, and the red and white heart sprinkles made a festive cake indeed, and two very happy baker's assistants!

I came home exhausted, but very blessed to have been able to spend so much quality time with the girls individually and together! I trust they have many happy memories from the week. I sure do!

Besides granddaughter time, I enjoyed some special time with Emily and Franz (though limited, it was memorable). They graciously included me in an evening at the new Phoenix Broadway Dinner Theater for a wonderful production of Fiddler on the Roof, one of my all-time favorite musicals!

Though the weather was very cool in Phoenix, the hospitality was, as always, very warm!