What?

Gate Will Open

Sign: Pull Forward Gate Will Open

Me: But it's a wall!

Chocolate Mint Day 2021

For Chocolate Mint Day on February 19, the kids got to chew on mint chocolate chip gum. Yumm. Simple celebrating again.

Pluto Day 2021

This Pluto Day, February 18, was cold. I made the boys stand out in the cold when it was time to take Jr. to school in order to make them celebrate the holiday. "Happy Pluto Day." Pluto is cold.

Actually, I made them stand out in the cold long enough to tell them to get in on the other side of the van. That particular sliding door does not like the cold so it's better to get in and out on the other side. At least that is the case in the morning. By afternoon and time to pick up Nichole, it doesn't have as much trouble opening and closing.

They warmed up on the drive.

Random Acts of Cabbage

There was enough cabbage (and egg roll wrappers and other ingredients) left over from Chinese New Year that we made egg rolls again for National Cabbage Day on February 17.

 

That day was also Random Acts of Kindness Day. We played a game where we rolled dice to tell us who in the family we would do an act of service for and what service we would do. There were things like drawing pictures or writing notes and other things like asking someone about their day, giving someone a compliment, and giving someone a piggy back ride. We did a lot of quick service and it was fun.

National Almond Day 2021

For National Almond Day on February 16 I made a broccoli salad to go along with dinner. It had broccoli, onions, dried cranberries, almonds, and honey mustard dressing. I got the idea from budgetbytes.com but I didn't use homemade honey mustard dressing. Bottled stuff from the store is just fine for me. Yumm.

National Gumdrop Day 2021

For National Gumdrop Day this year on February 15, Nichole made more cookie candy flowers (with heart shaped gumdrops left over from Valentine's Day and with gumdrops Jeremy got for this holiday) and put them in a vase for us to enjoy for after school snack.

Thanks, Nichole.

Valentine's Days

Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year so the kids had Valentines exchanges at school on Friday with the guideline to bring them a couple days early in order to "quarantine" them. So there was a lot of Valentine-ing(?) going on for a few days.

Both Jr. Jr. and Lucky made boxes for their Valentines to go in and brought home quite the haul. Jr. Jr. also brought home a red tissue paper flower he made for me and Lucky brought home a coupon book for Jeremy and me.

Jr. made a pink paper heart in a vase at school (the school library sometimes has activities for the students to do) and brought that home.

 

Valentine morning I brought Jeremy breakfast in bed (eggs in a basket had heart-shaped holes). He had set out gifts for me on a table: Roses. 4 new kinds of Panda Express sauces to try out. A 7 movie pack of all the Tremors movies. Nothing says, "I love you," like giant underground monsters that violently devour people.

Between church classes, Jeremy sang a hymn in Hungarian. It was pleasant to listen to.

My nephew blessed his and my niece's baby and we were able to watch through Zoom.

 

After church and the baby blessing, Jeremy found a heart-shaped note from me in the van when he and I went on a nice drive (with Jet) to go look for birds. The highlight- driving along and there was a barn owl sitting on a fence post right next to the road. We turned around to see it again but unfortunately couldn't get pictures because the camera wouldn't cooperate, there was another car coming, and it flew off. But it was right there and we got a nice close look at it. Beautiful bird. But that was our way of having a little date on a Sunday in the middle of a pandemic.

Another way of having a little date on a Sunday in the middle of a pandemic? When we got home, Jr. Jr. greeted us outside and welcomed us to "The Telfords' Valentine's Diner." He brought us to the door where there was a heart-shaped note saying "we love you," then ushered us inside to a table for two with a candle and a centerpiece made from candy cookie flowers in a vase (and decorations around)

There was a heart-shaped menu written in French with what we would be having for dinner and Nichole serenaded us with the violin while Jr. brought us what we would be eating:

 

Pain: les biscuits

Boisson: le chocolat chava

L'entree: les pates quec boef et confiture

Dessert: le pomme tarte

Jr. was able to use his French vocabulary and Nichole was able to practice her calligraphy.

Later, Nichole and Jr. switched roles and Jr. played cello for us while Nichole brought us another course. Later, they both serenaded us.

We had heart-shaped biscuits, hot chocolate, and for the main course we had spaghetti and meatballs on one plate while Nichole played "Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp of course.

For dessert we had slices of apple pie. It was Jr.'s first time making apple pie and he did a good job. Yumm.

 

Those sweet kids. It was a very relaxing evening and it was nice to have that time with Jeremy. It was also nice of Jet to sleep through the whole thing.

I very much enjoyed these Valentine's Days this year. I appreciate the effort the kids put into that special romantic dinner for us and I appreciated the love that was felt around our home.

I love you, my family.

Book Report

I really enjoy seeing the things Jr. Jr. comes up with for book reports at school. He often picks Brandon Mull books to report on, which isn't a surprise since Brandon Mull has such great books and they can be read over and over again. For projects Jr. Jr. has done posters several times, slide shows, and most recently he made an item that represented a scene in a book. In Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, there is a scene wear Kendra plays a game of foosball against the character known as The Sphinx. Jr. Jr. made a foosball table for his project that can work to push a marble around. 

Good work as usual, Jr. Jr. I love your creativity.

Tortellini Day 2021

February 13 was National Tortellini Day. Jet was given his introduction to chicken stew with tortellini. He enjoyed it. It was nice to give him so much variety of foods in one dish- a couple different kinds of vegetables, etc. He had fun slurping the broth, too.

Chinese New Year 2021

Year of the ox.

Chinese New Year was on February 12. We ate Chinese food and watched the live action Mulan movie. It was fun to notice little nods to the animated version. Throughout the movie, we kept mentioning things like, "Dishonor on you. Dishonor on your family. Dishonor on your cow."

 

I also learned that Jet loves chow mein noodles. He was my big helper while I was making the chow mein. I kept giving him noodles as I was cooking the food and he stayed pretty content.

Book Club

For bonding, Jr. Jr. and I signed up for a virtual book club this month through the Provo Library. We started reading the book together, taking turns reading aloud, and the rest of the family listened in. On February 11, as we were reading, we also ate peppermint patties to celebrate Peppermint Patty Day. Jr. also went around humming Charlie Brown music- get it? Because Peppermint Patty? Right? Right?

 

Anyway... earlier I told everyone to get creative with dinner since it was also National Inventors' Day and Thomas Edison's birthday. Lucky followed that advice.

 

Jr. Jr. brought home his propeller car he made in the STEM lab at school.

The next day, Lucky brought home his propeller car.

Have I mentioned I love creativity in my family? Because I do.

Cream Cheese Brownies! Yumm!

 February 10 was National Cream Cheese Brownie Day. Yumm.

What else do I say? Yumm.

Bagels and Pizza

February 9 was Bagels & Lox Day. I got out bagels, cream cheese, and a can of salmon and told the kids to use those however for after school snack. Close enough in my opinion.

That day was also National Pizza Day. Nichole made everyone tortilla pizzas for dinner. Thanks, Nichole.

I Love Nature!

Have I mentioned that I love nature?

I LOVE NATURE!

A Nutella Weekend

It was a Nutella kind of weekend. Friday the 5th of February was World Nutella Day so we had Nutella sandwiches. 

It was also National Wear Red Day. I kept reminding the kids all morning and even the night before, "Wear red. Wear red," then I went and put on a grey shirt without thinking and never changed to a red shirt even when I did think about it. Sigh.

I did however read aloud to Jet for World Read Aloud Day on that same day. You should have seen me getting into Hand Hand Fingers Thumb and drumming on a big can. "Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum."

For after school snack that same day, we celebrated Bubble Gum Day with gumballs that came through Nichole's candy dispenser THAT SHE MADE! 

She made it in one of her classes last year. How cool is that?

Saturday the 6th of February was the anniversary of when Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the moon. We ate "astronaut sandwiches" made with tortillas and... you guessed it- Nutella.

I also tried out a new recipe for macaroni and cheese to celebrate National Cheddar Day on that day.

Sunday the 7th of February some family members ate more Nutella. I told you it was a Nutella weekend. Nichole took some time to play Swan Lake music on her recorder to celebrate Ballet Day.

Groundhog Day!

It's February. It's cold in the mornings when I take Nichole to school. I often say, "It's cold out there this morning. It's cold out there every morning. What is this? Miami Beach? Not hardly." So when I woke up on February 2nd, I had the great idea of how to wake the boys for family prayer. Jeremy and I found the words used in the radio broadcast in the first waking up scene from Groundhog Day and read that scene for the kids. "Okay, campers, rise and shine," and "It's Groundhog Day!" Some of the boys were not that enthusiastic. But it woke them up. Tee Hee.

Nichole brought home a book from school that had a Groundhog Day type thing going on where it kept repeating. 

Since February 2nd is also National Tater Tot Day, we ate a quick dinner of tater tots and some hamburger (imitation groundhog), so I could go watch Nichole perform in an orchestra recital. Good job, Nichole.

And good job me for braving my separation anxiety being away from my baby that long.

The boys watched Groundhog Day while we were gone.

And that's how we celebrated February 2nd this year.

100th Day of School

Lucky brought home another "100 days brighter" hat from school for the 100th day. He loved last year's hat and he loves this year's.

Jr. Jr. brought home a picture of him as if he was 100 years old. He pointed out to us that he has wrinkles on his hair. Heh Heh Heh.

Mommy, Look

Lucky: The mountains look like zebras. Now they're called "Zebra Mountains."