Welcome Diner Film Contest

Super proud of my Phoenix family! My brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their theater group Howl Theatre participated in a film competition for the Welcome Diner downtown and they WON!

We went to watch the screening last week but it was too hip for us, they didn't start the movies until way too late and Chompy refused the sleeping.

You can watch the video here through the link or down below on the blog!

Soupe: Welcome Diner Winner!

Week 8: Decorate Cookies

This past week my family got together for annual Grandparents Camp, which is a chance for all of the cousins to get together and do fun kid stuff together when we're not all overwhelmed with a special occasion like Christmas or New Years or a baptism or birthday. It's just an excuse to get together and do fun stuff, so everybody comes up with great entertainment ideas, so for the next few weeks I'm stealing everybody else's. I'm too worn out after this week anyway!

Ages 2, 5, and 6, all enthralled!

This is related to the cook with your kids, but even better, actually. My kid Chompy is absolutely interested in cookies, ALL OF THE TIME. So decorating cookies is a hit. The age range of kids decorating cookies was 18 months to 9 years, and everybody had a blast.

 I cannot take credit for this idea, this one comes from Auntie Bean, who made the cookies in advance and stored them in a plastic container to be available at all times. She also had the brilliant idea to make many different colors of icing and put it in clear squeeze bottles like these available from Amazon.

You can also buy them from Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, pretty much anywhere. They're pretty cheap, too. 

I'm not sure what kind of icing Bean put in these, but I know milk, powdered sugar and food coloring  mix together to make a good squeezable icing.

Those are some professional cookies!

Auntie Bean actually made amazingly delicious sugar cookies from scratch, but in case of a cookie emergency, you can also buy the ready made ones, or the dough you just have to pop in the oven like these.

Grandmother helps the littles

Cookies go well with milk!

Stinko watches his big cousin put on the finishing touches.

We decorated the heck out of these cookies ALL WEEK LONG! It's a great activity for a rainy day in Ohio, or a scorcher here in Phoenix, and they keep really well. Brilliant! Sprinkles are a bonus!

Special thanks to the rest of the Duck family for letting me use pictures of your absolutely beautiful kids!

Week 7: Go for Ice Cream! Melt is Phoenix Fabulous.

Melt in Downtown PHX

Nothing beats a cool treat on a really hot day, and Phoenix is hot. Although I don't really understand why the weather guys are freaking out over 114 degrees Fahrenheit. Is there really such a big difference between 107 and 114? I don't think going down to 111 should be allowed to be referred to as "cooling off" but whatever guys.

There's a super hip area in Phoenix near Roosevelt strip. I'm not very hip or super, but I do know some people who are, and they told me about it. It's full of funky art shops, a tattoo parlor and vintage stores. One of the most popular places on this strip is Jobot Coffee shop. I was told it was fabulous by my awesome artsy friends and family, and I guess it was a little too hip for me. I went in when I was 8 months pregnant, because my husband needed a caffeine boost before our home birth class with the midwives. We bypassed McDonald's because hey, go local, right?

When we arrived at Jobot we were ignored for a good ten minutes by the barista who was obsessively, lovingly cleaning a chalk board with the intensity that only someone stoned out of her mind can muster. There was only one other customer. My husband ordered a latte, and I tried to order a decaf coffee. The withering look that come out of the barista's eyes was backed with every ounce of her 22 year-old know-it-all scorn.

"We don't HAVE decaf coffee," She snorted through her condescending smirk.
because why would ANYONE EVER order a decaffeinated coffee.

Oh honey, at that moment I cursed her with every ounce of my 8 month pregnant in 110 degree weather in the summer of Arizona rage, and darling, that's a lot of rage. I wished upon that young girl the joy of being being pregnant in August, after having endured the worst morning sickness imaginable. I wished upon her heartburn to keep her up all night in tandem with severe sciatica. I also added in a baby that liked to move around and keep her awake, and a bladder so over active that she couldn't sleep for longer than ten minutes at a time. Hemorrhoids, varicose veins and insomnia were added to my mental list. In short, I wished that woman a world of future pregnancy hurt.

So that's when my Jobot boycott began. My husband continued to go, but I made fun of them. A lot. There is such a thing as being too hip, and I felt like Jobot had crossed the line (I mean, even my mom has decaf coffee at  her house, and she's not running a coffee shop).

plenty of nice comfy seating

This post is not about Jobot, however, this post is about Melt, the ice cream shop on the same strip, that happens to be owned by the same person, John Sagasta, and even though the ice cream girl was super hip, she was also super nice and awesome, serving up samples of fruity pebbles ice cream to my two year old with a smile. Also, it's all decaffeinated, so it won't keep my 7  month old breastfeeding baby awake, either (oh man I forgot to curse that girl with clogged ducts, we'll just add that to the list).

So skip Coldstone at the Arizona Center and take a walk down to Roosevelt and 5th Street and have some local Superstition Farms  ice cream down at Melt. It will cool you off, AND it will make you cooler.

great selection!

Chompy sharing with Stinko!