Solar S'mores

We learned this one from FamilyFun.  Solar S'mores.  Jr. and I made the solar oven out of a pizza box, but we didn't have a sunny day to go with it.

We were too busy on the sunny days.  So we took it out on a cloudy afternoon (a little late in the day, I think) and got melted chocolate with our non-melted marshmallows and graham crackers.

We still enjoyed eating them, though.  Chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows.  Who cares if they're really melted, right?

I am interested to try it when there is a sunny day again.  For now, I'm enjoying the cooler weather.

Celebrations We Missed

As you know, we've been busy, busy, busy. I blogged about a lot of the ways we've been celebrating, but I missed a few holidays we did celebrate. Now's my chance to catch up.

January 23 was Chinese New Year.

Food, friends, and our Chinese dragon even made an appearance.  Chinese New Year started the Year of the Dragon- my husband let me know it is the Water Dragon.

January 31 was Backward Day.

We ate pizza backwards. Jr. wore his clothes backwards. The boys switched places on the way to dance class. Jr. fell asleep and Jr. Jr. stayed awake. Usually, it's the other way around.

You already know about the mini rose Jeremy got me for Valentine's Day.

He also made heart shaped pancakes and a heart shaped pizza. He got us Joe versus the Volcano (love that movie). I left love notes for him around the apartment. Nice day.

March 7 was National Cereal Day.

 I took a picture of a bowl of cereal.


March 19 was Poultry Day.

I took a picture of our dinner of orange chicken.  Yumm.

And I've pretty much kept up with the April holidays we celebrated.

Phew, now I can stop thinking about catching up and move on with my life.

May Holidays Coming Up

O.K.  Suggestions for celebrations in May and links to those posts.

April 30- May 6 is Screen Free Week
April 27, 2011- Turn Off Week

May 1 is May Day
May 1, 2010- May Day

May the 4th is Star Wars Day
May 4, 2010- May the 4th Be With You
May 2, 2011- May the 4th Be With You
May 6, 2011- Star Wars Day 2011

May 5 is Cinco de Mayo
May 5, 2010- Cinco de Mayo

May 13 is Mother's Day
May 9, 2010- Happy Mother's Day/Anniversary

May 12 is Kite Day
June 21, 2010- Kite Day
May 13, 2011- Kite Day 2011
And a snack idea on The Balloon Guy's Blog- Kite Day (May 12th)

May 18 is Mount St. Helens Day
May 19, 2010- Volcano Party

May 19 is Armed Forces Day
May 21, 2011- Armed Forces Day 2011

May 24 is National Scavenger Hunt Day
Suggestions on The Balloon Guy's Blog- National Scavenger Hunt Day (May 24th)

May 25 is Towel Day
One day Nichole brought home a book from school called, "Don't Panic."  Since it had those words written on the cover (this is a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, which is what Towel Day is about), Jeremy couldn't resist.  He got a towel and put it around his shoulders.  The kids did the same. 

The next few times Nichole brought a book home from school, the kids ran to get towels to hold while reading.

May 28 is Memorial Day
June 5, 2010- Visiting Thomas and Friends

My birthday is also in May
May 24, 2010- Happy Birthday to Me

For a list of more holidays coming up in May, see our Calendar of Celebration.

Arbor Day 2012

April 27 is Arbor Day this year.  Nichole learned about the Butterfly Life Cycle in school (click on the picture to see it bigger).

So cute.

She learned how to make leaves at school for the pasta to go on.  Since leaves grow on trees, she wanted to show us how to make leaves at home.  So she and Jr. drew leaves and decorated them with glitter glue.

 So cute.

Oh, and our avocado pits are starting to crack.  Maybe we will get avocado trees from them.  Who knows?

So cute.

National Pretzel Day 2012

 

My parents brought this holiday to my attention a few months ago (they know we like finding reasons to celebrate) and I've been looking forward to it ever since.  National Pretzel Day is April 26 every year.

We made homemade pretzels based on a recipe for CTR Pretzels from the January 2012 issue of The Friend Magazine.  As we made them, I got to share with the kids something from Grandma and Grandpa's experience.

While my parents were visiting Europe, they were able to see people making pretzels.  They rolled them out into long ropes then quickly flicked them into the pretzel shapes.  The pretzels were often eaten by dipping them in mustard and they were eaten along with sausages and "beverages."

 
We didn't have any sausages tonight.  We'd just eaten dinner so homemade pretzels were our snack afterwards.  Jeremy and I dipped ours in mustard and the four oldest of us had cream soda with our snack.

Jeremy read online the suggestion of boiling the pretzels for 30 seconds in a solution of baking soda and water before putting them in the oven, so he used 3 cups of water with 1 1/2 Tablespoons baking soda and boiled a couple of the pretzels so we could see if there was a difference.  There was a difference.  The boiled pretzels had more of the soft pretzel taste on the outside compared to the others which had more of the breadstick taste.  We also sprinkled course salt on the pretzels after they came out of the oven, though Jeremy read online to do that after they're boiled, before they go in the oven.  Next time we might try that.


And we couldn't just keep to the pretzel shape.  We also had to make a C-T-R in there.

So, Mom and Dad, anything you want to add in here?  Or correct?  I'm not that great at explaining things second hand.  But I am glad you made us aware of this holiday.

A Batman Theme Party!!!

It's been a while since we've done a theme party with friends that doesn't revolve around a holiday.  This evening, we had our chance.  We had some friends over to introduce them to Lego Batman for the Wii.  One of them is a big Batman fan so we couldn't pass this up.

Besides playing Lego Batman:

We had decorations up:

The Bat Signal in our window

The Riddler's Wall of Riddles

Harley Quinn's hats

The Penguin's umbrella and top hat

 

The Scarecrow made an appearance (with a little makeover from Jeremy with a construction paper mouth and eyebrows- it's not nearly as menacing normally)

 Even our computer decided to get in on the celebration with it's desktop background

 Snacks:

 The rest of the bread from the cucumber sandwiches became Wayne Manor's "Upper Crust."

Toys for the kids to play with:

The Batmobile with Joker barrels to knock over

Batman action figures

Batcave balloon pit

And we had Batman themed clothing and accessories:

I pinned this cape up the other day since it was too long for Jr., but he didn't wear it during the party.  It was just hanging by the stairs.  Another decoration, I guess.

Jeremy has this awesome Batman shirt and my sister gave me this pin years ago.

Our friends also brought over the makings for some fabulous yummy pizzas.  I forgot to get pictures of the food, but I piled a plate with leftovers and took a picture of that.  Yummm.

I love theme parties.