Get the kids ready for summer with a free afternoon of swim lessons and warm weather fun at SWIMkids USA, where they’ll enjoy playing on water slides, eating hot dogs, and noshing on cotton candy and snow cones.

When you’re a kid summers are for playing in the sprinklers, taking long bike rides and going to the movies with your friends. Cross one of those pastimes off your youngster’s list with the weekly movie series beginning May 27 at Queen Creek Performing Arts Center, 22149 E. Ocotillo Road.

While Arizona is home to several upscale dining establishments that meet the most discriminating palates, the state is also home to several fun and kitschy places to nosh at as well. Whether diners are on a road trip or just seeking out the unusual, below are some suggestions for AAA One and Two Diamond restaurants known for their quirkiness as much as their food.

Conceding their lobbying arguments are inconsistent with those in court, state prosecutors have given up in their bid to regulate how products with marijuana are labeled.

If your goal is to lose weight, look and feel your best and live a healthy, vibrant life, be aware of the damaging additives and synthetic chemicals in the foods you buy and eat. Seventy-five percent of the average American diet is from processed and packaged foods, which equates to approximately 10 pounds of additives eaten annually.

April Pools Day: SWIMKids USA makes it easy to get ready for swim season with a day of free swimming lessons, hot dogs, water games, cotton candy and snow cones. Reservations are required at (480) 820-9109.

Eating right and healthy, and happy living are all a matter of mindful thinking, said local mindful eating expert and author Dr. Michelle May.

This month, every single resident in Ahwatukee Foothills and beyond (this means you!) is being asked to do one simple thing — give.

From the moment chocolate was discovered it was considered a valuable, divine and decadent treat. The first chocolate candies were invented in the 1860s by Cadbury, who was also the first to market them in a heart-shaped box for Valentine’s Day that same decade.

Thirty thousand black paper moths are perched on the walls and ceiling of the Phoenix Art Museum lobby. Some moths the size of a softball, others as small as a penny, greet visitors to the museum with their delicate wings and form a visual path that encircles guests and escorts them into the main exhibition.

Over the years, I’ve been invited to some over-the-top Oscar parties, where guests arrive in evening gowns and top hats, and popcorn buckets full of movie candy and DVDs are given away as door prizes.

Love is in the air this week, as Valentine’s Day rolls around again. During the course of your life, you’ve probably sent your share of flowers and candy. But if your valentine is also your spouse — and, in particular, your long-time spouse — you may want to go beyond roses and chocolates this year to give a gift that can help lead to financial security.

A state legislator wants to make it clear that marijuana lollipop you bought in a dispensary is not just candy.

Ahwatukee second-grader Dustin Henry loves random acts of kindness.

Deep-fried gator, barbecued turkey legs, monster baked potatoes, funnel cakes and cotton candy. These are just a sampling of menu items at Piggly’s at the Fair, a new restaurant in Mesa.

A handful of students at Desert Vista High School got to sneak a peak at newly arrived Circus Vargas in Phoenix during a special rehearsal last week.

A handful of students at Desert Vista High School got to sneak a peak at newly arrived Circus Vargas in Phoenix during a special rehearsal last week.

When most of the country is shivering in their boots, Mesa is bursting with blue skies and the smell of orange blossoms.

Looking for a few simple ways to freshen up the go-to dish of the Super Bowl? We cobbled together a mighty tasty basic guacamole, then came up with four ways to turn basic into unbelievably good.

Dustin Hoffman’s directing bow at 75 finds a perfect match in the well-heeled subject of “Quartet,” a charming tale of aging musicians whose passion for life continues undiminished in a stately English manor filled with humor, caring and of course great music. This optimistic fairy tale about aging and the continuing possibilities it offers for emotional satisfaction should strike the fancy of older audiences who turned the British indie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” into a breakout hit released around the world. Leading a cast of real-life musical veterans, Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay put the stamp of quality on a lush-looking production, albeit one that adheres to genre rules with an iron grip.