February Fun!

Our February was full of activities and frolicking. We celebrated Purim by making delicious hamantaschen cookies and pizza pockets. We enjoyed exploring northern Arizona wine country. We also toured Phoenix's downtown street art scene. We spent time with friends. And the kids learned how to clean the upstairs one Saturday morning in our attempt to teach them some important life skills as they are growing older.

This year I attempted to make hamantaschen cookies for the first time on my own. They may look yummy, but sadly, I misread the recipe and used baking soda instead of baking powder. Ugh! That will be a lesson I remember for next year.

However, the savory hamantaschen turned out much better. The kids had fun stuffing their pockets with a multitude of toppings. There were toppings for pepperoni pizza pockets, buffalo chicken pockets and even a Mexican themed pockets. It was a fun and different family dinner experience.

One Saturday morning in February, the kids were assigned to clean the entire upstairs. How did this come to be you may ask? Well, for a couple of weeks, the kids had become lackadaisical in cleaning their rooms, the upstairs bathroom and playroom in preparation of the house cleaners. So, I decided that instead of having the upstairs cleaned one Friday for them that they would be in charge of cleaning the entire upstairs themselves. We wanted them to have a greater understanding of what it takes to clean the upstairs. They certainly did! We figure it is a life skill that they will eventually have to learn anyway. Might as we start now.

This winter, Josh gained a new client up in Cottonwood, Arizona. On several occasions, he had to drive up north to visit the property. We always wanted to make one of his work trip in tandem with a wine tasting trip. In February, we finally were able to make this happen. With a little coordination, we were able to arrange all day playdates for the kids and we headed up north to the Verde Valley. We first stopped at Josh's property so that he could do a showing and meet a potential buyer. After that, we headed out to wine taste. Our first stop was DA Ranch. It is a beautiful property full of trees, a pond, livestock, live music and tons of area to enjoy nature while sipping their wines. We really enjoyed ourselves. We then headed into downtown Cottonwood to Burning Tree Cellars. Again, we enjoyed the ambiance of the boutique wine tasting venue even if the wine wasn't our favorite. This is where our day went a little sideways. As we were heading to dinner, Josh realized he didn't have our car key. Figuring he must have dropped it at the tasting room, he ran back to get it while I waited in line at the restaurant. He didn't find the key. We searched downtown Cottonwood next. No key anywhere. It had to be a Burning Tree Cellars. Sadly, by the time, we circled back to there another group of patrons were where we were previously sitting. We decided to wait until they left to tear apart couch where the key must have fallen. In the meantime, Josh is frustrated. I am starving. And we started to research ways to get home just in case the key is no where to be found. The other group finally left and luckily, with the help of a couple of the winery's staff members, we found the key. We literally had to shake the couch to retrieve our key. Now with the key found, we headed to dinner to salvage the remainder of our trip before we had to get the kids. Even day trips become an adventure for the two of us.

One Friday afternoon in February, Josh and I decided to check out the street art scene in Downtown Phoenix. We took the RoRo Street Art Tour. It was pretty neat to finally hear the backstories to graffiti that we have seen so often and never questioned.