It's Art

Look what's going to be hung up at the Orem Library for the start of the Summer Reading Program.
Jeremy had been anticipating this for a while once he found out the theme had to do with art.

Starry Night by Van Gogh... with balloons?  Cool, right?
He and another balloon twister named Jelly Otis worked on this one.  Thanks, Jelly.
It took them 3 days to complete.  It's about 23 feet by 16 feet and it will be hanging at the library starting Monday.  Come see it.  You know I will.

Memorial Day 2014

This was the first Memorial Day in I don't know how many years that Jeremy didn't have to work.  We took the opportunity to go visit Jeremy's grandfather's grave.  We also showed the kids other graves in the cemetery of relatives such as great great grandparents.

While we were in the area, we took the opportunity to visit the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  We drove their 12 mile loop.  It took us about two hours.  Normally you don't want to take two hours to travel 12 miles, but there was so much to see and we drove really slowly and stopped many times.  Since we got home late, I didn't have time to sort through all the pictures we took.
So here's a picture of some pelicans for now.

Towel Day 2014

May 25th is Towel Day.  I made sure to have a small towel in the diaper bag throughout church... just in case.  Lucky slept through most of church, but when he woke up he was happy to hold on to that towel.  Even after church, he still enjoyed holding on to it. And of course Jeremy went around mentioning that if you don't know what Towel Day is, "Don't panic."

P.S.  I didn't blog about this before but May 23rd was World Turtle Day.  Jeremy and I started watching the movie, "The Color of Magic," which is based on some Terry Pratchett books.  If you're familiar with the Discworld books, you'll know about the "world turtle" we watched in the movie.

Catch of the Day

Lots of Chocolate for Me to Eat

A few months ago, I had one of those "I'm cute" moments.  I was working on something in the kitchen, cleaning off the table or something and I had words to a certain song going through my head.  The song was "Just you wait, 'Enry 'iggins," from My Fair Lady.  In it, Eliza is singing about how the king will proclaim the 20th of May to be Eliza Doolittle Day.  While the words were going through my mind, it all of a sudden struck me that on the calendar Eliza Doolittle Day is May 20th.  Yep, it took me how many years of having that on the calendar to make the connection?  That's why May 20th is Eliza Doolittle Day.  Because of the song.  Yeah, I'm cute.
So for the first time, we actually celebrated Eliza Doolittle Day.  Everybody was going around singing, "lots of chocolate for me to eat."  Since Jeremy, Lucky, Jr. Jr., and I were out running errands today, we stopped at the store and picked up some bulk chocolates and chocolate covered treats.  We didn't go overboard, but we got enough to qualify as "lots of chocolate for me to eat."
So the kids and I ate some chocolate this evening while watching part of My Fair Lady.

 I love finding reasons to celebrate.

It's Hungarian

Google informed me this morning that it's the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube.  How did I not know that?  Did you know that the Rubik's Cube was invented by a Hungarian?  That I did know.

Happy Anniversary, Rubik's Cube.

Family Hike

We haven't been hiking in a while.  So today, since Jeremy got home from work in the early afternoon, we made a family trip to Big Springs in the late afternoon.
We made a stop at Vivian Park so the kids could play on the playground, then we headed up to take a little hike at Big Springs.

It was a terrific evening for hiking.  There was so much to see and hear.  Besides the babbling brook, we heard hummingbirds, crickets (lots and lots of crickets), and the wind rustling through the quaking aspens.

The kids were able to explore a bit and Jeremy pointed out a lot of neat things to them.
A couple ant hills, tent caterpillars, horsetail plants, seeds on trees, a bird nest, a millipede.

There was a butterfly that landed on a branch and let the kids get pretty close before flying off.

On the trail there were hikers, cyclists, dogs, and we actually got to see horses this time.  Jr. Jr. was more intimidated by the little dogs than the horses.  I guess it helps that he's ridden the ponies at Farm Country so many times.
On the way back down the trail, Jr. discovered a snake.  Jeremy tried to get a picture of it, but it didn't work out.  I was very impressed that Jr. spotted it.  Way to go, Jr.

It was a good family hike.

D Is For Dinosaur

May 15th is Dinosaur Day.  Jr. Jr. and I spent some time with dinosaur themed activities, including practicing the letter "D."  "D is for Dinosaur."

I was impressed with how he did since we hadn't really practiced writing letters with him before.  Just drawing shapes. 
Way to go, Jr. Jr.

Catch of the Day

 

Hey, Let's Not Fly a Kite

Today was windy.  Great kite flying weather.  How appropriate, since May 12 is Kite Day.  We did not, however, fly a kite.
What we did do was go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity again.  Since the grand opening is this Thursday, May 15, they are having a few days before when they're letting people in who have Thanksgiving Point memberships.  Today was the day that worked for us.  We spent almost as much time this time as last time, got to see some things we didn't see before, but still didn't see everything.  There's so much.
Here are some pictures of our time this afternoon:

Discovery Garden (which was not open last time we went)

 (They had no idea I was dancing behind them while they played music)

Water Works

(It's a tornado!)

Rainforest

We didn't even make it to Kidopolis this time.
If you want to see more from the museum, check out this youtube video we made about it.

The KAT's Meow- 3 Year Old

Mommy:  Let's change gears.
Jr. Jr. (while wiggling his ears):  I'm changing my ears.


Mommy (singing for Lucky):  I only have eyes for you.
Jr. Jr.:  And he only has a nose, too.


Jr. Jr.:  I have a funny joke.  Knock Knock.
Mommy:  Who's there?
Jr. Jr.:  Why did the car crash into the table?
Mommy:   Why did the car crash into the table Who?
Jr. Jr.:  Why did the car crash into the table- I need a drink of water.


Mommy:  Do you love your little baby?
Jr. Jr.:  Yep.  I love him so much that I'm not going to eat him.


Jr. Jr. (while playing archery on Wii Sports Resort):  I have a great joke about this.  Why did the arrow land on a thing that was like a circle?
Mommy:  Why did the arrow land on a thing that was like a circle? 
Jr. Jr.:  Because it had no ways to go on the grass. 

That's Not How I Would Do It

Such a simple reminder.  I talk about loving my children's creativity, but sometimes I forget to let them be creative their own way and think my way would be better.  In some cases, yes, my way is better.  I have more experience and I can teach my children that certain choices will lead to certain consequences so certain choices are better to make than others.  But when Jr. Jr. decides to stick all of his stickers on the cover of his coloring book, I shouldn't stop him.  He's not putting them on the furniture or the walls.  He's putting them somewhere acceptable.

It may not be the way I'd do it.  My way would be to hoard my stickers and only use some of them for special projects which I'd never get around to doing.
So no, my way is not always the best way.
From time to time I need this reminder.  If it's not dangerous or disrespectful (and time and resources allow) it's okay for my children to do things their own way.
Let the creativity flow.

Mommy, Look

We're like Daddy.

Purple

My very purple girl.

Fun With Food

Jr. is so creative.  One day when he was doing menu planning, he let me know he wanted pizza salad.  You take a slice of pizza and put lettuce on it.  "Pizza salad."  Unfortunately when it came time for that for dinner, I was having a crazy day and wasn't able to do both pizza and salad.  When the time came again to have pizza, we did have lettuce cut up in the fridge.  I had forgotten but Jr. reminded me that since we had both, we could have pizza salad.  Hooray!  So we did.

One time while we were at the store, Jeremy found that "roasted peanuts with honey" peanut butter was the same price as the regular peanut butter.  Yumm.  So we got some.  "You know what this means," Jeremy told me.  "Cut up some apples to go with it and you have instant Blah Blah Blah."  Yes!
So for after school snack one day I gave the kids sliced apples with that peanut butter.  I showed Jr. the jar and he got excited.  "Blah Blah Blah!  Nichole, we're having Blah Blah Blah!"

Ah, creativity and fun with food..

Poor Chocolate Bunny

Based on past experiences, I decided to try something new this year.

Trip to Cabella's

One of our Family Days last Summer was visiting Cabella's.  Jeremy had been there before so he knew what to show us.

The big aquarium with lots of fish.

The taxidermy animals from different continents.

The fish that we could feed.

We even got to play a little in the shooting gallery with lasers to shoot at targets that made noises and such.

It was a good family day.

The KAT's Meow- Bedknobs and Broomsticks

We recently watched the movie, Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  Some "interesting" things were heard while the movie was playing.


At the part where the main characters are "bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea" while fish are swimming around-
Nichole:  Wait a minute.  How are they able to breathe?
Mommy:  You see, they're fish.  They have these gills that...
Nichole:  I mean the people.
Mommy:  Oh, the people.
Daddy:  It's magic.
pause
Nichole:  What about the pressure?
Mommy: Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Daddy:  Nichole, these are very good questions.
Daddy:  It's make believe.
Mommy:  It's magic.


At the part with the cartoon animals playing soccer-
Jr.:  Hyena.
Daddy:  I'm sure the Ena's saying Hi back to you, Jr.


At the part where they get back from the island-
Angela Landsbury's character:  I should have realized that it would be quite impossible to take an object from one world into another.
Mommy:  Except for a magic bed and people.
Daddy:  Hee Hee Hee.


At the part where Mr. Brown leaves them to go home-
Nichole:  I wonder why Mr. Brown needed to take the train to London.  He could have just gone on the bed with everyone.  Then when they got to London the rest of them could have just gone home.
Jeremy:  You are very good with your critical thinking.


Toward the end of the movie-
Mommy:  This is a good family film, Jeremy.
Daddy:  Yep.  There's nothing like witchcraft...


Nichole:  Hey, Mr. Brown reminds me of Mr. Banks.
Mommy:  From Mary Poppins?
Nichole:  Yeah.
Mommy:  Same actor.
Nichole:  Oh, that explains why their voices sound the same.  And the mustache is the same.


After the movie was over and we were eating dinner-
Jr. Jr.:  Can I have another breadstick?
Jr.:  Can we watch Bedknobs and Breadsticks again?

Balloon Guy... Pop!

Jeremy had an event at the Spanish Fork Library today.  It was a comic con theme.  Lots of people dressed up like comic book characters.  Jeremy did, too.
Interestingly, today was also free comic book day.  People could go to comic book stores and get a free comic book.
We didn't.  Too tired by the end of Jeremy's event.  But we had fun with our very own superhero.

And the older kids read.  That's what you do when you go to a library, right?  You don't dress up in a balloon costume and chase the 3-year old around.
Well, my husband does.  I think our children are a little too used to it.

Baby Day 2014

May 2nd is Baby Day.  I had fun celebrating, snuggling with my baby.

And now I'm watching the Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn movie, "Bringing Up Baby."

May Day

May 1st, May Day.  When I think of May Day, I think of flowers.  When I was little, my brothers and I used to pick flowers on the way home from school on May Day to give to our mom.
This year, Jeremy had another sculpture to take to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, so he, Jr. Jr., Lucky and I took a little stroll among the tulips again.  This is the last weekend of the Tulip Festival.  Jeremy built a tulip princess since there is going to be a Tulip Princess Promenade on Saturday.

Later in the day, while the older kids were working on homework, I told Jr. Jr. he could draw a flower picture for his mom for May Day.  He did and even added stickers.  He's so cute.

So this May Day had flowers.  Some year I'd like to do a May Pole with the kids.  I think that would be fun.  We just ran out of time to get materials for it this year.
But I got a picture drawn by my sweet little boy.