Family Home Midday- Talents

I mentioned before that my friend, Serene, was part of a group of blogs that gives monthly challenges for families to spend time together.  May's challenge was "Family Show and Tell Night."
We did this for our Family Home Midday Activity.  So, it wasn't show and tell "night," but it's the same thing.
We had a variety of talents or special "skills" shown.  Jr. did cartwheels and other "gymnastics."

Ta-Da.

Nichole showed how she could balance a balloon and showed some magic tricks.

Jr. Jr. played catch with a balloon and his siblings.

Daddy made a snake with his hands.

Aaaaaaagh.  It's got me!

I showed that I turned Nichole's rainbow pants into rainbow shorts.

It was a good Family Home Midday.

June Holidays Coming Up

Reasons to celebrate in June- that we've blogged about in the past and the links to those posts.

June 1st is Flip a Coin Day.
The Balloon Guy's Blog- Flip a Coin Day (June 1st)

June 14th is Pop Goes the Weasel Day.
June 14, 2011- Pop Goes the Weasel Day 2011
The Balloon Guy's Blog- Pop Goes the Weasel Day (June 14th)

June 14th is also Flag Day.
June 16, 2011- Catch of the Day- Flag Day

June 17th is Father's Day.
June 20, 2010- Happy Father's Day
June 19, 2011- Father's Day 2011

June 20th is International Surfing Day.
June 20, 2011- International Surfing Day 2011

For a list of more holidays coming up in June, see our Calendar of Celebration on The Balloon Guy's Blog.

And how about getting to celebrate Summer Vacation?  Nichole's school had their annual end of the year dance festival today where each grade got to perform a dance for parents/families and the rest of the school.  The first graders were asked to wear shorts for their dance.  We couldn't find any shorts at the store we liked, and Nichole's rainbow pants she wore for the first day of school were wearing through with a hole in the knee, so I pulled out the sewing machine again and turned those pants into shorts.

It was so great.  I didn't have to use the measuring tape at all.  I just had to fold, iron, and sew along the stripes.  Woohoo.  Reason to celebrate.  It would have taken a lot longer to turn a different pair of pants into shorts.  Thanks, Nichole, for wearing out your rainbow pants.  Have fun with these shorts.

P.S.  June 17-23 is Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove.
We usually watch the big parade on the Saturday of the events.  This year it's on June 23.
Last year, Nichole and I were in the Children's Parade.  I mentioned it on Day 1 of Park Week.  This year the Children's Parade is on Wednesday, June 20.

Joy Is...

Having things organized enough to just pull out the sewing machine and get to sewing in your room.

Joy is also sewing burp cloths for your daughter's teacher who is going to have a baby.

Bow Ties Are Cool

Yay!  Jeremy learned how to tie a bow tie.

Now I just need to learn how to make them.

Towel Day 2012

Yesterday, May 25th, was Towel Day.  Towels are very useful.  If you've read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you know just how useful they are.
Here are some of the good uses we found for towels yesterday:

Keeping warm and dry while picking up sister from school

or hiding under when someone's trying to take a picture.

Wiping frosting off your mouth.

Cleaning the floor as a service because Mommy accidentally spilled water.

Protecting the floor while eating and watching a movie at the same time.

Working with hot things as a hot pad.

Sleeping with it like a blanket.

What are some of the handy uses you've found for a towel?

What Made My Birthday So Great

I'll say this.  I don't intend to offend.  I don't intend to make anyone feel bad.  I know everyone's situation is different, so I'm sorry if anyone is offended or feels bad because of my post, but I'm going to say it:
I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!

Being married to him gives me reason to celebrate.  He is my best friend, my teammate (tag team sometimes when it comes to the kids), my partner (in business and in life).  He is awesome!
We recently celebrated our 9th Anniversary.  We went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and had fun.


These little guys make me think of Alice in Wonderland.

 Don't touch the water.  It'll turn you to stone.

Fragrance Garden.  Smell at your own risk.  Can you spot the bumblebee in this picture?  

click to make it bigger

Ha. Ha. 
This little guy was here last time we came in 2009.  He was in a garden with a fountain, but I don't think he ever got bathroom breaks.  He was still sitting there 3 years later.  

 2009 and 2012

We found little forget-me-not flowers that made me think of President Uchtdorf's talk, "Forget Me Not."   That is one of my favorite talks.  Those flowers are so tiny, but they are beautiful... and sparkly.

We had a great anniversary together.

Now, about my birthday.  Since my birthday is often around Memorial Weekend and since May is really getting into the busy season for Balloon Guy Entertainment, Jeremy is usually working on my birthday.  Memorial Weekend every year is the Day Out With Thomas event at Heber Valley Railroad.  The balloon twisters usually work all day for four days.  This year, however, they only needed the balloon twisters for three days.  So... Jeremy had the first day (my birthday) off and was able to spend most of the day with me.
I went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for my birthday dinner while Jr. and Jeremy started making my super rich chocolate birthday cake.  If you look at my previous post, you can see how that turned out.  Apparently, the cake recipe they used did not expect our size cake pans?  It's okay, because while the oven was cooling down and the smoke was clearing (hey, it happens to everyone from time to time- next time we'll just halve the recipe), Jeremy ran to Costco to get me a huge super rich chocolate cake... and paper towels, because we were almost out.  Told you he's awesome.
Jr. was happy because he got to watch a movie in my room while the smoke cleared.

Later, Jeremy and I worked together to clean burnt cake off the oven racks and bottom of the oven.  While we were at it, we had a nice conversation.

I took pictures of Jeremy and Jr. tending our little garden.  We didn't start any seeds indoors this year, so I was thinking we wouldn't be able to have a garden at all.  Fortunately, we were able to get some starts from a family Jeremy home teaches (the same family we gave our "garden" to last year) and we found out that with some of the other things we wanted to plant, the seeds could go right in the ground outside.  Hooray.

I watched and chatted with Jeremy as he transplanted our "pet" to a new container and her "baby" was put back in the original container.

That evening, the kids had french bread pizza then went to play at our home teachers' house while Jeremy and I made my birthday dinner together.  Skillet chicken parmigiana, cornbread battered fried vegetables, and filtered water from a birthday present from my visiting teachers. 

There was no complaining, no whining, nobody refused to eat.  Jeremy and I were able to work together, talk together, eat together, and just enjoy being together.

It was a great birthday spent with my husband.


I'll admit my husband is not perfect, but neither am I.  The important thing is we're both improving, and improving together.  And that again gives me reason to celebrate.

My Birthday Cake

Jr. and Jeremy got together this morning to bake me a cake.

And this is the final result

After a half hour round trip to Costco.

More birthday adventures to be posted later.

Typical Moment

This is a typical moment at the Telfords.

The kids reading books.  A balloon sculpture nearby.

I love my life.

Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse

You know I like finding reasons to celebrate.  How about a solar eclipse?

We knew that the solar eclipse was coming and that Utah would be a good place to watch it (though not directly as that can damage your eyes).  While talking with some friends' about it, they invited us to dinner at their house.  When we got there we found out they were as excited about the eclipse as we.  Dinner was in the backyard anyway, so they poked a small hole in a big bucket/tub/crate so we could see the sunlight shine through and the moon's shadow covering part of the light.

Click on the pictures to see them larger.

Every few minutes we would go back to see how it was progressing. 

At the main part of the eclipse, the moon was supposed to be in front of the sun but small enough that you'd still see the sun behind it, kind of like this

to make a "ring of fire."  Isn't that cool (the ring of fire, not my illustration)?   

One of the neighbors brought over special glasses so we could look in the sun's direction with protection. 

It looked so cool.  Pictures didn't turn out through the glasses, though.  Too bad.  We didn't have time to keep adjusting the settings to get it just right.

Though blurry, this is a picture of the eclipse through a welding mask with adjusted shutter speed.

Unfortunately, it got too cloudy, so we missed the main part of the eclipse.  Sigh.  Oh, well.  The company more than made up for it.

The sun came out at the end, so we were able to see the moon's shadow on the other side of the light shining through the hole.

It was a good evening.  It was fun to see part of the eclipse, and thanks to the neighbor, we were able to see it more directly than we thought we would.  But the best part of the evening was being with friends.

And friendship is definitely a reason to celebrate.

Mount St Helens Day 2012

We kept our celebration simple this year for the 32nd anniversary of the big eruption of Mount St Helens.
 
The kids and I watched the video we made with our friend, Nessa, a few years ago.  "Erupting Volcano Cake of Doom."
And we worked together to do a volcano themed word search.

And Nichole drew a volcano picture and wrote about it.  She learned about it from the Magic School Bus so she added that to her picture.

Those last two activities, I printed off from the Homeschooling guide on about.com.

Oh, and I also gave the kids a short lesson about what happened when Mount St Helens erupted on May 18, 1980.

Scratch paper.  Isn't it great?

Again.  Simple ways to celebrate, but fun nonetheless.

Catch of the Day

Going to the park to get cute pictures of my boys, I didn't realize this was what I was in for.