Aloha Festival

We spent part of Sunday at the Arizona Aloha Festival in Tempe Beach Park. We’ve never been to either the festival or the Beach Park, so I thought it would be nice to do both in one visit.

I was looking forward to one thing, and one thing only…

Hawaiian Shaved Ice!!

Terrence got blueberry-watermelon and I got strawberry-mango. It was delish!! Perfect for the hot and sunny weather.

Can you tell I enjoyed it a lot??!?

I am banning myself from the use of jeans between the hours of noon and 7 p.m. It is just too hot to wear jeans now at those hours. I would have been more comfy in a skirt or short dress (and Miggz and Daddy in shorts). FYI, Sunday’s weather in our part of the world was in the upper 70’s. It had been cooler days earlier though…even up to Sunday morning, so we didn’t think too much about wearing jeans at the festival.

As you can see in the next pic, our entire party all wore jeans. Too hot!!

At the Aloha Festival, Miggz got to hang out with Auntie Anna and Uncle Jon…

Miggz tried on some Bruno Mars-type hats at the Hawaiian marketplace with Auntie Anna.

At the Beach Park (it was actually a lake), there is fishing and paddle-boating and all sorts of watercraft. Miggz and Auntie and Uncle and Daddy went canoeing…for FREE!! I passed on this activity–I did NOT want to be in the sun doing all that work! (I must remind myself to throw in the sunscreen in my purse from this moment onwards.)

They seem to have enjoyed it!

At the festival, we got to sample some Hawaiian coconut oil and body soufflés made of cocoa butter that smelled of sweet gardenia, plumeria, mango, and other scents.

Of course, we took some home!! Spring might have just started, but gardenia soufflé on my hands first thing in the morning just fast forwards everything to summer.

And if you live in our part of Arizona, summer’s not just fast-forwarded. It has begun!

WHAT Happened to Spring?

Today marks the date when the rest of the country–except for us here in Arizona (and Hawaii)–moved their clocks forward for Daylight Saving Time (DST). In many ways, I am glad we don’t have to change time. It’s something I’ve always hated and never got used to when we lived back in Jersey (and we lived there for 15+ years!) I did not like having to adjust the time one hour ahead in the spring time (done on the second Sunday of March) only to revert to Standard Time, or “Fall Back” on the first Sunday of November.

The twice-a-year changing of the time, for me, disrupted the things I’ve grown accustomed to on a daily basis: my no-matter-how-abnormal sleep cycle, mine and my hubby’s crazy morning and evening (non-)routines, the untouched clocks on our walls. DST just threw us off. Every. Single. Time. It’s the expected unexpected curveball…you know it will happen, but it messes you up anyway…(kind of like the MANY things that you encounter during Motherhood.)

Which brings me to this blog post’s title, WHAT happened to Spring? The changing of the time in our previous home state’s timezone–no matter how disrupting–gave us something to be expected. DST signaled not just more daylight, but the promise of a new season. In March, that meant warmer weather was just in the horizon. In November, snow (or more snow to come).

Here in Arizona, I am expecting gorgeous 70-degree days right about now, to coincide with a lighter and fresher wardrobe. I am not one to be a fashionista or a trend-follower, but spring always brings something I welcome, which is girly-girl comfort in all the right mix of not-too-winter-heavy, and not-too-summer-showy outfits.

The Arizona weather, it seems however, has decided to throw us a curveball, and bring us straight right into summer.

Here is our town’s forecast for the next five days:

I am still hoping for spring-like weather. I’m not quite ready to welcome the scorching heat yet, even though I know it is to be expected.