Lookee What I Made

I'm tired.  I have good reason.  Jeremy spent three days building huge sculptures at Thanksgiving Point.  Since he had another show on Saturday that he didn't have time to build a big sculpture for, guess who got the job.  That's right.  Little ol' me.  Jeremy has a lot more experience with these big sculptures which means I'm a lot slower.  So I gave myself plenty of time and I was still burned out at the end.  The more I do it, though, the better I'll get and the less burned out I'll get.

My wonderful husband helped me by building the hands, the stick part of the shovel that the hand is holding (because it went with the hand) and the hat (and belt).  I probably could have done it myself, but I was burned out and those parts didn't take him very long and he was home at the time.

Jeremy, of course, has reason to be very very tired.  At church today, two different people brought the newspaper article that was in Saturday's Daily Herald about him and his project at Thanksgiving Point.

And now it's all done.  I can be tired.  Too tired to blog.  Just in time to start Turnoff Week (a.k.a. Screen Free Week) tomorrow.  So don't expect any blog posts from me this coming week, April 29-May 5.  I'm going to rest and start to get my home back in order from the neglect of this past week.

Happy Hunting!

Nichole lost another tooth today... twice.  This afternoon, her loose tooth came out.  Yay! 

She put it in her tooth pillow to be ready for when the tooth fairy came.  This evening she checked her tooth pillow before she put her pajamas on and the tooth was there.  When she was ready to go to sleep, she checked it again and it wasn't there.  Ack.  So we went on a tooth hunt.  Jeremy checked on Nichole's bed.  I checked on Nichole's bed.  I looked on the side of her bunk, pulling up the mattress enough to check on the slats that hold her mattress.  We checked on Jr.'s bed.  We checked on the side of his bunk, pulling up the mattress enough to check on the slats that hold his mattress.  We looked under the bed.  Jeremy shined a flashlight from the edge.  I crawled a little way under, though not too far since my shape has changed a bit over the years and I was afraid of getting stuck. 

But Jr. and Jr. Jr. both crawled under the bed to look while I shined a flashlight.  We just could not find that tooth.  Nichole knew the tooth fairy would understand.  The tooth did come out, it just came out of her tooth pillow, too.  We told her to write a note to the tooth fairy explaining what happened.

Then Jeremy asked, "Has anyone said a prayer?"  Nope.  None of us had thought to.  Silly us.  So Nichole said a prayer and as she and I talked about it again, Jeremy went in to the kids' room to do some more searching.  In a little bit I went in there to check on him.  He had Nichole's mattress pulled up and was looking at the slats on the bunk.  He pointed something out to me and I reached for it from underneath.  It was Nichole's tooth... in a spot I had looked several times but didn't see it.  But as soon as Nichole said that prayer, there it was.  She said a prayer of thanks and we of course were grateful.

She still wanted to write a note to the tooth fairy so she did, put her note and the tooth back in her tooth pillow, and went to bed.

 "Dear tooth fairy,
I have wrote this to tell you I lost my tooth.  Happy Hunting!
I think you're great.
Love, 
Nichole"



 

Quite the hunt and a good reminder to pray always.

Daddy-Daughter Time

This afternoon, Jeremy and Nichole went hiking at Big Springs.  They got see a whole lot during this trip.  They saw several different types of birds, several different types of trees, and a whole lot of animal tracks.  They saw hoof and paw prints, nests, holes in trees from woodpeckers, and more.

At one point, Jeremy got a little too close to take pictures of a squirrel in a tree.  It began chittering at him angrily.

Nichole found a rock that had ridges on it like the ribs of her stegosaurus skeleton toy she got earlier today when the older kids went to a birthday party at Nickel City.

I'm glad Jeremy and Nichole got this time together today.  The kids need this getting out time with a parent every once in a while, and the parents do, too.

National Garlic Day 2013

Today was a good day.  Some highlights-
Jr. Jr. and I went for a walk around Manila Creek Pond.  We went to see the ducks and we saw ducks, swallows, fish jumping, Canadian geese, a killdeer, deer, a type of hawk, and another bird flying around that we didn't get the best look at.  We also saw some people fishing.  But it was cold so we could only make it once around the pond before we had to get back to the car to warm up and go home.

For dinner we had spaghetti and garlic bread since April 19th is National Garlic Day.  The kids helped make the garlic bread.  Jr. Jr. put the bread on the cookie sheet, Jr. spread the butter, and Nichole sprinkled the garlic salt.

We had Family Home Evening tonight and for the treat and activity, we opened a package of Bubblicious to teach the older kids how to blow bubbles.  It took a while, but by the end both kids were able to sort of blow a few bubbles.  We let them know it will take practice.  We'll get another of those good bubble blowing bubble gums sometime and do it again.  This one was strawberry flavored, but my husband and I both have fond memories of our childhood chewing grape flavored bubble gum.  Unfortunately, I cannot find any anywhere.  I can find strawberry, watermelon, and bubble gum flavors, but not grape.  Ack.  Does anybody know where I can find grape flavored Bubblicous/Bubble Yum/any of those good bubble blowing bubble gums?

Oh well.  It was a good day.

National Animal Crackers Day 2013

April 18th, National Animal Crackers Day.  Great chance to have animal crackers dipped in yogurt for after school snack.

The kids sure had fun guessing what animals they were eating.  Every time they came across one they couldn't identify, they figured it must be a rabbit.  So the kids ate plenty of rabbits.

Catch of the Day

Our Little Builder

We had some plastic glasses to use for sparkling cider at Chinese New Year (we had some bottles left over from December/January New Year).  Jr. Jr. decided to stack them up all by himself.  Not bad for the two year old. 

I love that "pleased with himself" look.

Connect

We had a lovely evening.  Jr. Jr. went to visit friends while Jr., Jeremy, and I went to see Nichole perform in her dance show, "Connect."  It was a beautiful show and Nichole did a terrific job.

All the kids were worn out by the time we got home.  Jr. Jr. had a meltdown because I wasn't making him something to eat fast enough.  After a long day of rehearsals and dance performances, Nichole's brain was a little frazzled and she couldn't even think of what she wanted to eat.  And Jr. fell asleep in the car in one of those interesting positions... with his hands in his pockets... and stayed that way as we carried him in and put him on his bed.

Jeremy and I are also tired so I should probably post this so we can crash.

KAT's Meow

The kids were watching The Incredibles and Jr. picked up on the phrase, "totally wicked."  So he went around for a while shouting that everyone was "totally wicked," because I told him he had to say it in an enthusiastic voice (which apparently means shouting).  The sweet voice just doesn't work when you're telling someone they're totally wicked.  Try it sometime.
After hearing Jr. doing it, Jr. Jr., who copies everything his brother does, came up to me and said, "Mom, you're Wookie."

Name Yourself Day 2013

Jr. Jr. had an appointment this morning and luckily the snow wasn't that bad here. 

Yes, the snow.  Yesterday short sleeves, today layers including jacket with a hood.

While we were at Jr. Jr.'s appointment, we had some waiting time so he and I had this conversation (paraphrasing).
Me:  It's Name Yourself Day.  I'm going to be KAT.  Who are you going to be?  What's your name?
Jr. Jr.:  I'm going to be Dog.

General Conference!

It's General Conference time again.  We set up the reverence tent again. 

It was cute to see all the kids at the beginning in the tent together as Conference started.  Jr. and Jr. Jr. only lasted so long until they were running around, playing, getting their sister frustrated because she was trying to be reverent.  I was impressed with Nichole.  She stayed in the living room the whole time to listen to Conference.  Part of the time she was in the reverence tent and part of the time she was out lying down next to me.

Before the second session, the kids and I took a quick trip to a park.  I considered four different parks before we went out and we were on the way to one when I changed my mind and went to one that was closer than the one I had picked because we were running out of time before the second session of Conference.  I'm glad I did.  It was lovely.  Ducks in the pond, people fishing, beautiful cloudy weather, a flat path for the kids to scooter on and I could push Jr. Jr. in the stroller.  He loved pointing out the ducks to me.

Both sessions were good and of course there were things that I needed to hear, some good reminders.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow, as well.

Fish Fingers and Custard Day 2013

We had been looking forward to this one for a long time.  Ever since we found out that April 3rd is Fish Fingers and Custard Day, the anniversary of when the Eleventh Doctor came on the scene to meet Amelia Pond as a little girl.  You Doctor Who fans will know what I'm talking about.  For those that don't, there's a scene at the beginning of the episode where the Doctor is trying out his new taste buds and can't stand any of the food the little girl gives him.  He finally figures out what he wants is fish fingers dipped in custard and happily munches away on that for a while.
That part of the episode is not too scary for our kids (it's silly), so we let them watch it while eating fish sticks dipped in pudding.

Later, while the kids were munching away on Easter candy, Jeremy and I ate shortbread cookies with fruit filling, similar to Jammie Dodgers, another of the Eleventh Doctor's likes.

"I was promised tea!"

For Family Home Evening activity we had our Easter Egg Hunt.  We don't like doing it on Easter day because we like to focus on the Atonement and Resurrection that day, but it's fun to do it as a FHE activity later in the week.

The kids each had an assigned color for their plastic eggs.  Jr. Jr. is pretty good with his colors so that worked out well.  He didn't go after the other colors, just his.  They also each got to find some hard boiled eggs.  And they each got a chocolate bunny.  Big for the older kids, not so big for the littlest.

It was a good family evening.
One other thing- Jr. Jr. had enough candy that he was running around the blue beach blanket that night after the older kids went to bed.  Sometimes he ran, sometimes he walked.  I reminded him that it was Fish Fingers and Custard Day, not Walk Around Things Day, which is today, April 4th.

Peanut Butter and Jelly! Peanut Butter and Jelly!

April 2 is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.  Thanks to my friend, Kathryn, for commenting and telling me about this one last year on April 2.

It's also International Children's Book Day, but the kids had friends over from morning until evening so they played Wii most of the day.  C'mon, it's Spring Break.  And no, they don't always play Wii the whole time they have friends over.

Wait, wait.  I just remembered.  They read a bunch of Winnie the Pooh books this morning.  And they'll read more books at bedtime.  My children are definitely readers.

Also there was a point during the day when I found Jeremy at the computer watching a dancing banana singing about peanut butter and jelly (the banana was singing, not Jeremy).

The song the banana was singing got stuck in the kids' heads, but luckily it's been long enough now they don't remember it.  Phew.

A Relaxing Easter

March did not come in like a lion, but it did go out like a lamb.  And I had a nice relaxing Easter.  Church was wonderful, of course.  The kids were great for the most part.  We only had a few incidents during Sacrament Meeting.  One that was funny/sad is that I went up to sing with the choir and halfway through the song, Jr. Jr. realized I wasn't sitting next to him anymore and was not happy about it.  So Jeremy had to take him out until I came back.  Then when I had to take Jr. out later, Jr. Jr. didn't handle it very well so Jeremy had to take him out again.  But overall, it wasn't that bad.


After church the kids were pretty well behaved. 

Jeremy made a lovely ham for dinner.  Nichole corrected me when I told her.  "No, Daddy doesn't make ham.  Pigs make ham."  Ohhhh.  So Jeremy cooked a lovely ham.

I made funeral potatoes.  We also had deviled eggs and apple slices.

Nichole showed her interesting style of eating deviled eggs with a knife and a fork.

 

It was a nice day.

On a different note, look at the lovely Easter basket I made out of balloons.  It was nice to brush up on my weaving since I have to get to build a whole large sculpture (by myself) the end of this month.