On This Special Day

Nichole, I am so proud of you.  Thank you for making such good choices and being such a good example to your younger brothers and your parents.  I love you.
Love, Mom

Banana Lovers Day 2013

For Banana Lovers Day, August 27th, I made banana boats for the kids.  Bananas baked with marshmallows and chocolate chips inside.  I hadn't had these in years.  The August 2013 issue of The Friend Magazine had instructions for making them so I thought it would be perfect for the holiday.  I did them in the oven.  They were yummy.

Catch of the Day

National Waffle Day 2013

August 24th is National Waffle Day.  This is the first year we've actually been able to celebrate this holiday since Jeremy didn't get a waffle maker until Christmas last year. 
Before whenever we would see the holiday on the calendar but remark that we couldn't make and eat waffles that day, Jeremy would comment about how we could be wishy washy and not make up our minds about something in order to celebrate (look up other definitions of waffle if you don't know what I'm talking about).  We never got around to it, though.
This year we have a waffle maker so for dinner on National Waffle Day we had...
WAFFLES!

The kids were pleased and got right down to concentrating on eating so there wasn't much conversation until it being National Waffle Day reminded them about other holidays and they remembered that there is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day (March 26th).  They started suggesting a whole bunch of holidays.  I let them know when they came across ones that were actual holidays, such as National Chocolate Day (September 13th).  They were excited to hear that one was coming up.
It feels good to be celebrating again as we kind of got out of it this Summer.

Dance Party!

To celebrate Gene Kelly's birthday, August 23, and to celebrate surviving the first week of school, after school we had a dance party.

Good exercise... and fun.

It was also kind of rainy today, so when Jr. Jr. and I picked up the older kids from school, we got to do a tiny bit of singing in the rain.  It was just sprinkling at the time, but we still had fun.

The KAT's Meow

After putting honey on Jr.'s bread, he said, "Wow.  This is like a maze for my tongue."

First Day of School Excitement!

This was the scene a year ago when Jr. started his first day of kindergarten.

And here was after school for him.

This was the scene this year on the first day of school.

And here are the kids after school.

While the kids were at school, Jr. Jr., Jeremy, and I headed to the library and Costco.  It wore Jr. Jr. out enough that when we got home he was asleep and stayed that way until Jeremy left to pick up the older kids from school.

When they got home, Jeremy told me, "Guess what little boy lost his lunchbox on the first day of school."
"Not Jr.," I replied.
"Yes.  And guess what little boy later found his lunchbox."
Apparently, his lunchbox had fallen down from the top of the lunch crate and hadn't made it out of the cafeteria.  Jeremy and the kids went in and found it right after school.  Jr. was very happy about that since it was a very special lunchbox that Jeremy painted to match the backpack he painted for him last year.

In all the excitement and commotion, however, no one asked Nichole if she had her lunchbox.  She was so excited for the first day of school that she forgot to pick it up and take it home with her.  So, she'll be taking a brown lunch sack to school tomorrow and we've reminded her to pick up her lunchbox immediately when she gets to class and put it in her backpack.

In other after school news, here is something cute Jr. said to us:
"Can we have an after school snack? Can we have an after school snack? We haven't had an after school snack all summer!"

It was a good first day of school.

Creativity

Whatever works, right?

My Family

Yeah, that's us.  We're awesome.  I admit it.

National Relaxation Day 2013

Today, August 15, is National Relaxation Day.  And what could be more relaxing than going to a park to feed the ducks then going home afterward for ice cream?

 It was quite relaxing.

Aloha!

The kids got to play at some friends' house this evening while Jeremy and I went to a Relief Society activity, a luau.  The Relief Society sisters could bring an adult guest, so of course I invited Jeremy.    They invited us to wear tacky tourist clothes, so we brought our cameras along with us to really look like tourists.

It was great.  It was like a date.
There was good food, good company, good decorations, and a Polynesian dance group from Orem came to entertain us. 

Unfortunately the lighting was also good because there have been fires in Utah again this Summer.
There was a pink flamingo backdrop set up with dress up clothes for taking pictures. 

We had a great time.  Thanks, Relief Society, for putting this on. And thanks, friends, for letting our kids play at your house again.

Catch of the Day

Middle Child's Day 2013

I really wanted to celebrate this day.  We have a middle child.  I'll admit sometimes it seems that the oldest and youngest get the most attention.  Nichole is the first one to do most things and Jr. Jr. is still the baby even though he's not a baby anymore.  He gets a lot of attention.  Poor Jr. sometimes doesn't get enough attention.  But not today.  Today was his day.  Middle Child's Day, August 12.
So we celebrated.  We celebrated by letting him vacuum when he volunteered.

We celebrated by me reading a book to him, just him and me.

We celebrated by letting him play a Wii game of his choosing.

We celebrated by letting him pick the cart when we went shopping.
We celebrated by letting him get away with a few things.

We celebrated by going to a barbecue.  But not just any barbecue.  A barbecue for jugglers.
Look at this guy's face when he saw what some of the jugglers were doing.

It was so nice to go to the barbecue.  It felt like old times for Jeremy and me, just like being back in the juggling club at BYU so many years ago.  In fact one of the other people there was one of our former clubmates from YJuggle.  Good memories.

Jeremy and I both had the chance to juggle, since our kids were thrilled with the bounce house set up.

 

 click on the picture to see Jr. Jr.'s face behind Jr.

Our middle child enjoyed his day.  He especially liked going to the barbecue.  Here is what he said about it:
"The best part of my day is the barbecue.  The food, mostly the bouncy house, mostly watching the juggling, and mostly having fun."

Two out of the three kids were asleep by the time we reached home.  It's nice that they were tuckered out from having so much fun.

It was a good day.

Kids, Get Out of the Yard

What would you tell the kids if you saw this in the yard?

"Get out of the yard.  Stay on the deck."

In a place where seeing deer and even moose in your yard are not uncommon, it wasn't a surprise when one of the kids said, "There's a raccoon in the yard."  We visited my cousin and his family in Wyoming recently and I was very impressed when the oldest child explained how he thought through and figured out that this was a raccoon.

"Oh, wow.  Yeah.  O.K.  Kids, get out of the yard.  Stay on the deck.  There's a raccoon over there by the shed.  It is a wild animal so we don't want to mess with it."

The kids did a really good job of listening and staying out of the yard.  A little while later my cousin's wife, Annie, came back from shopping and her son told her about the raccoon.  She came to the yard to see it.
"Is that a raccoon?"
When I looked back at the raccoon, this is what I saw.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.  Some cat trying to fool us into thinking it was a raccoon.  But c'mon, if you saw that, the shape of the body, coloring, ring tail, wouldn't you have deduced it was a raccoon?  Heh Heh Heh.

KAT's Kreation- gecko earrings

Years ago, I made a lot of beaded jewelry- bracelets, earrings, etc.  As you can imagine, with little kids, I don't do nearly as much with those tiny beads now. 
One of my favorite pairs of earrings I made was a pair of geckos that I still wear often.

For Nichole's birthday this year, I wanted to make her a pair of gecko earrings in colors she liked.  Since she doesn't have pierced ears, I found some clip-on earring attachments at a Jo-Ann store so she could wear them on her ears like me.

She was very happy with the result  Unfortunately, her ears are not used to having things clipped on them, so she can't wear them for very long at a time.  She does like them, though and I'm happy for that.