We have had some fun and busy weekends around here.  We celebrated our first daughter's birthday on Sept. 7th with cake and flowers and gifts.  Then on Sept. 15th we celebrated her birthday and my birthday (coming up at the end of the month) by having a little tea party at the Chantilly Tea House in Tucson.  

We all made fancy hats and wore them to our tea.  We had individual salads, tea, of course, and all the fun little cakes and sandwiches that people have at a traditional "English Tea."  There were over 100 tea choices.  We chose "Ice Wine" and  a sweet green tea with pear.  We were all a little overwhelmed by the Ice wine tea.  It was extremely strong, bitter and overly floral.  Some of us added lots of sugar, which improved it somewhat, but most of us liked the green tea better.  Next time we will try 2 other flavors.  Last time we went, we chose chocolate mint and a vanilla jasmine.  They were both excellent teas.  

We also enjoyed cute little sandwiches.  Some were shaped like triangles with white bread and a shrimp salad filling.  Some were rectangle shaped wheat bread with a cream cheese walnut filling.  There were also open faced sandwiches and grapes. The sandwiches were followed by chocolate oreo scones and traditional sweet scones with lemon curd, clotted cream and raspberry preserves.  Weren't we stuffed by the time we left!  Then we walked it all off with a trip to Tucson's most prestigious mall, La Encantata.  

The Humane society was giving away lost and homeless animals that day.  My daughter found one she could not live without!  A cute little dog, he looks like a cross between a miniature Schnauzer and a Yorkie. He's about the size of a mini Schnauzer with the coloring of the Yorkie.  Turns out he is also housebroken and crate trained!  My daughter is thrilled with her little rescue and he loves all the grand kids too.

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, my friend and I took a trip over to the county seat, Bisbee, AZ.  It is about a 30 minute drive from Sierra Vista.  We visited all the little shops, historic buildings and the mine.  We had lunch at the Copper Queen Hotel. Very fancy and Victorian.  Bisbee is a fascinating historic town built on the side of a mountain just above the old Lavender Pit Copper Mine.  We also visited St. Pat's Church.  It was quite beautiful and filled with gorgeous stained glass windows.  After that, we went back to the mine and purchased a few rocks and arrow heads for the grand kids.

Our weather has greatly improved just this week.  The monsoon has finally died out and we are experiencing my favorite kind of weather, the reason most people move to Arizona.  It is cool in the mornings, about 59 degrees, then warms up as the day goes on to about 90 degrees with sunshine, dry breezes and high white fluffy clouds.  Wonderful!