My Little Ballerina

I'm so proud of my little girl.  She had a dance show tonight and it was wonderful to see her doing ballet, including a solo in her class's number.
It's been fun to see her dancing progression over the past few years that she's been able to take classes.  From her mad dance to her pioneer dance to her princess dance to this year when she was a night fury... in a pink dress.  Way to go, my little ballerina.

It Just Seems Wrong

Well, January 29 is usually our Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day.  However this year, our freezer is too full to fit bags and bags of taco soup in it.  Hooray for the blessing of having a full freezer.  Instead of our big pot, we made a normal sized batch of taco soup. 

It felt weird to only put in so many cans of beans and tomatoes (only 2 cans of tomatoes, for example, instead of 14).  And to have it in the normal pot instead of the big stock pot.  I kept having to ask Jeremy if it would all fit in such a small pot.  It did.
Oh well.  It was still yummy and we still have enough ingredients that I can make another pot in a few days.
And besides January 29 being National Corn Chip Day (which is why we make taco soup on this day), it is also National Puzzle Day. 

Lucky had his first introduction to puzzles and at the end of the day, I managed to find all the pieces to all the board puzzles except one.  Why is it the elephant is the one that always goes missing?

Play Date and Family Time

Yesterday, the kids and I got to visit a friend of mine from college (well, technically it was when my husband was going to college, but we lived in student housing so a lot of the people were in college) and her kids.  It was so fun to chat with her while the kids played nicely.  They have a nice backyard and the weather was good so we got to play outside.  Of course I forgot to bring Lucky's coat.  Silly me.  But my friend let me borrow one from her son and a hat for him.  So nice.  Thank you, friend.

This evening, we had some family time.  We went to the Bean Museum on BYU Campus, saw some stuffed animals, and got to watch their live animal show.  The show was about Utah's Diversity.  Nichole was like Hermione Granger in Harry Potter.  She knew all the answers and every time a question was asked, her hand shot up in the air.  I was impressed.
After the show, Nichole, Jr., and Jr. Jr. got to pet the ball python, a couple of them pet a box turtle's shell, and Jr. and I had a tarantula crawl across our hands.

So much fun.
We hadn't been to the Bean Museum since they redid it so this was a new experience for all of us.  We didn't have time to see much, but we'll definitely go back.  We were mainly there to watch the animal show tonight anyway.

Mommy, Look

I'm a metal bender.

Pie Day 2015

January 23 was Pie Day.
We ate pie.

The End.




Just kidding.  Not the end.
I made apple pie to celebrate Pie Day.
I also sang the first part of "That's Amore" to the kids.  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore."  Except I sang it, "That's a moray," and brought out a little toy eel.  

I then told my kids that my mom used to have a shirt with a moray eel on it (well, more like a drawing of a moray eel- if it had an actual eel on it, that would be creepy).  The shirt said, "That's a moray."  I think that was my first introduction to that song when I was a kid.
Anyway, then I told my kids how at my mom's house, one time my brothers made 25 pizzas in 24 hours.  Pizzas.  Yeah.  You know like the song.  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..."
And you see now we've come full circle. 
Circle, like a pie.  Yep.
And that's how we celebrated Pie Day this year.
The Actual End.

Joy Is...

playing a board game with a middle child.

Hug a Penguin

Yesterday, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day.
Jr. Jr. and I had some fun discussing penguins in Antarctica as he played with some penguin (and sea lion and whale) toys in ice water.  Just like the penguins in Antarctica, these guys got to swim around the ice flow.  I showed him how the penguins will sometimes pop up out of the water and that a lot of times when they get to the water, there is still a lot of ice around.  I made him aware of several things about penguins.

Lucky was able to join in a little later.

After running some errands, we came back to find that the ice had all melted, so I told Jr. Jr., "Now it's like the open ocean."  He got a kick out of that.
Later that day, we watched some of March of the Penguins while eating penguin snack crackers. 

I didn't know they made them in penguin shapes.  I knew of goldfish and whales but recently a sister I visit teach told me about the penguins.  How great since Penguin Awareness Day was coming up.

Today, January 21, is National Hug Day.  I got to go on two dates today.  And get lots of hugs.  Woohoo.  Earlier in the day, Jr. Jr. and I got to go on a Mommy-Son date.  We went to a park and to University Mall to throw coins in the fountain, see the fireplace, and play at the tree house and dinosaur bones.

This evening, Jeremy and I got to go out on an actual going out date.  Woohoo.  And hug.  Lucky's old enough that we can actually leave all the kids with friends now.  Yay!
I like National Hug Day.  Don't you?

SMOOTHIE!

Nichole made us smoothies for Brew a Potion Day, January 19.

Jeremy and Jr. had a Father-Son date.  They made a fort in Jeremy's office and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  Also appropriate for Brew a Potion Day.

Jr. had a coupon for a Cravings cupcake so they also went and got that for him.

Jr. Jr., Nichole, Lucky, and I had a dance party, which doesn't quite fit in with Brew a Potion Day, but that's okay.  It's fun anyway.

But other things that do fit in with Brew a Potion Day- Lucky brought out a laundry basket and Nichole said, "That can be our cauldron."  The kids also ran around "flying" on brooms.

Some other ideas for celebrating Brew a Potion Day are:
Watch Hocus Pocus or The Wizard of Oz
Make dry ice root beer
Just remember.  If you let the kids brew their own potion on this holiday, make sure they have adult supervision.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day 2015

Yesterday, Jeremy and the kids spent a lot of time cleaning up the living room while I was shopping and Lucky was sleeping.  Thanks, guys.
And after celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh Day, this is what the living room looked like today, January 18.

That's right, we got out Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals and Winnie-the-Pooh books and the kids had a fun time with it.
Nichole even made up a song to sing about reading Winnie-the-Pooh books and she danced around singing it.

Originally when I went to the kids room to get out some stuffed animals, Lucky came with me.  I got them out of the closet one by one and he grabbed them and played with them.  I figured it would be easiest to carry them back to the living room if I wrapped them all up in a big piece of cloth.  As I was setting them on the cloth, Lucky sat down right in the middle of them.  He had a blast as I bundled him up with the stuffed animals and carried him to the living room with them.

You can't tell in the picture, but he really was enjoying himself.

And with dinner we had honey along with our cornbread.
And the books and stuffed animals did get picked up at the end of the day.
Some other ideas for celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh Day are:
Play with My Friends, Tigger and Pooh toys
Color Winnie-the-Pooh pages or coloring books

I Yam What I Yam

Since January 17 is Popeye's Birthday, I thought it would be good to have spinach for dinner.  So I made lasagna with spinach in it.  Yumm.
I started singing the "Popeye the Sailor Man" song to the kids at the table and they asked me who Popeye was.  So I explained that Popeye was a comic or comic book character who has a squinty eye and when he's getting attacked by bad guys and is losing he squeezes open a can of spinach and eats it and that makes his muscles pop and he's so strong that he's able to beat up the bad guys.  "He's good to the finich 'cause he eats his spinach."  Nichole then asked me what finich means.  And I had to explain that it's not the start, it's the finich.  See, 'cause it rhymes with spinach.  Yup.
Sometimes I don't explain a lot of background to our celebrations, but this time I could at least explain who Popeye is.

And since January 17 is also Kid Inventors' Day, the kids watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  Which is more of a dog inventor, but close enough.

Appreciate a Dragon Day 2015

January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day.
After school, I showed the kids a picture of a house that looked like a castle.  That goes along with dragons, right?

This evening Jr. and Jr. Jr. watched The Reluctant Dragon while Nichole and Daddy had a date.  Jeremy taught her how to draw a dragon.  How fun is that?

Jeremy decided to draw a dragon head, too.

Some other ideas for celebrating Appreciate a Dragon Day are:
Write a note/letter telling a dragon how you appreciate it.
Photograph toys as seen from a dragon's view (above) and appreciate the dragon for not eating you.
Make a princess, knight, and dragon out of balloons or pipe cleaners to play with.

Smile For the Camera

Jeremy and I took the two younger boys to see the temporary exhibit at Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Ancient Life.  Right now it is an exhibit about dinosaurs.  Yeah.
I made sure to get a picture of the boys with my favorite dinosaur.

Jr. Jr. showed me his dead dinosaur face.

Which is funny because it's similar to the face he showed me the other day when we went to the duck pond and I told him to "Smile for the camera."

He's a hoot.  He reminds me of someone else who made interesting faces when I told him to "Look normal."

Cuteness

So, January 14 is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day.  We usually have hot pastrami sandwiches on this day every year.  But this year... we did again.  Although they weren't very hot by the time we got to eating them.  I had to put the rest of dinner together which took some time.
On a different note, Jr. and Jr. Jr. got a hold of a couple of Daddy's hats and went around saying, "I'm Daddy." 
They were so adorable.  And of course Nichole was also adorable even if she wasn't wearing one of Daddy's hats.

Rubber Ducky Friend

January 13 is National Rubber Ducky Day.  To celebrate, we invited a friend to come play with us at the mall.

And look what Jeremy spotted as we were walking along.  I had to get a picture of the kids with the sign.

We had some fun.