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House Party

Our house is meant for entertaining. We knew that when we bought it. We do have a big family, and we easily could fill the space with kids, but we choose to have our kids share bedrooms so that the casita is open for guests. We have a game room with tons of toys, a big yard with grass (not so common in Arizona), and a pool. It’s pretty much like a resort. Add to that the fact that a lot of super fun people live at our house and every day is a potential party. 

Our kids forget how blessed we are to have this space until somebody else points it out to them. Through March and April, I can’t tell you how many times I heard, “I’m bored. I don’t know what to do.” I almost always answered, “What’s not to do?”

And then we learned that we would have guests. Our kids counted down the days. Our guests were super excited to play with our toys, run in our yard, swim in our pool, and hang out with super fun people. Our house became fun again. Here’s some of what we did:

Learned new tricks:
Rock collecting and painting:



Lots of good food thanks to my master chef friends. 

Games:


Capture the Flag on Mt. Lemmon:



Lots of swimming which I didn’t get pictures of because the one day I sat out there my eyes swelled up like balloons. And s’mores at the fire pit, which I wore goggles for because I didn’t want to miss it and I wanted to be able to open my eyes the next day. 




My favorite quote from the fire pit party was from Emily: “To roast the perfect mallow, you only get it close enough to the flames for a kiss, not a bite.”

We had a good time with our friends. So good, in fact, that we’re doing it again this week with the same crew plus a few. 



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