Eat What You Want Day 2021

May 11 was Eat What You Want Day. Jr. had some fun getting creative with this one.

Mother's Day 2021

I love being a mom. I really do. There are times I don't get along with my kids but I always love them and I know they love me, too.

Then there are those times when we get along really well and have great times together. I still love my kids during the good times.

For Mother's Day this year, both Jr. Jr. and Lucky brought me things they made at school including coupon books, cards, Lucky made me a flowers in a vase picture, and Jr. Jr. decorated a tile and included things in the drawing that have significance to our family.

Have I mentioned I love my kids?

Primary Activity

Our ward had a Primary activity where we were encouraged to make chalk drawings in certain parking stalls at the church parking lot. Then later people could go around looking at the different chalk drawings that families did.

My kids had a lot of fun working together on a theme. 

Jet joined in for a bit then had more fun running around. 

The chalk drawing turned out great. 

Lucky added a few of his own drawings to fit the theme.

Jr. Jr. worked mostly on eggs in a nest.

I am very impressed with my kids and their artistic creativity.

And creativity in general.

Muffin Night

Muffin Night is becoming more frequent. We recently had a Mix-In Muffin night. We made Mix-In Muffins way back in 2012 for April General Conference. That was before our nachos tradition started.

This Muffin Night I didn't feel like making a bunch of different kinds of muffins. I was still tired from running around earlier in the day. 

Jet was helping me do dishes earlier and when he decided to be done, he went into the living room and climbed into his car seat. That was my cue that it was time to go out. So he and I made the drive to Bridal Veil Falls. I love Bridal Veil Falls. Maybe you know that. I pushed him around in the stroller then when it was time to go he was upset that I wouldn't let him run around. Yeah, I didn't want him running into the river. So we drove to a park where he could run around. He had fun. He found a pine cone "ball" and threw that around a little but also enjoyed pushing the stroller and crawling around on the ground. We had fun.

So that evening we had Mix-In Muffins. The idea came from the March 2012 Friend Magazine. I just got out a whole bunch of things you could put in muffins and let everyone put in what they wanted. There were both sweet and savory choices. The most unique combination? Jr. Jr. had a pepperoni and marshmallow muffin.

So that was our Muffin Night.

Bonding Time

While Nichole was taking an AP test, Jr., Jet, and I went for a drive. We stopped at a park in Provo Canyon where we saw some American dippers. 

Then we went to another park and played frisbee. Well, Jr. and I played frisbee and Jet slept through it. It was nice bonding time with Jr.

Catch of the Day

The Things Brothers Teach Each Other

Lucky was practicing his spelling words by tracing them in sugar. Jet decided to join in. When Lucky finished his words, he decided to eat some of the sugar... or lots of the sugar. Jet decided to join in.

Oh, those boys.

May the Fourth Be With You

 

We had more things planned out for Star Wars Day but they didn't all work out. We did have Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps because Caesar was "the emperor." We made Porg Cheeseball. Jr. played Star Wars music on the cello for everyone when they came home. We also had orange juice for National Orange Juice Day.

Grandma's Birthday

We wanted to celebrate Grandma's birthday, so we asked her what we should eat kind of like we did for Paco's birthday in January. Mmm, Grandma had some good suggestions.

We also had mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolatey cake with candles- one for each grandchild. When we showed her the pictures later, she figured out that we did that with the candles. Since she wasn't there on her birthday to blow out the candles, Lucky did.

Happy Birthday, Mom/Grandma! We enjoyed celebrating for you.

Day, Day, Day, Day

May 2 is a great day to celebrate.

The kids and I went for a nice Sunday drive up the canyon so we could all see Bridal Veil Falls. This time we just stopped at the overlook to get some quick pictures. 

Having fun like that was appropriate for World Laughter Day.

My precious!

 

For dinner that evening, we celebrated World Tuna Day and Baby Day with snowman sandwiches with tuna filling and baby carrot noses. We saved the rest of the lemonade from Paco's birthday so we could celebrate Lemonade Day on May 2.

May Day 2021

May 1 was when Bridal Veil Falls area officially opened back up. Woohoo. I'd been waiting six months for that. Jet, Nichole, and I went up the canyon that morning to visit the falls. 

We had to cut our trip short because there was a half marathon going through the area. It started out with a few people jogging by then all of a sudden... explosion of people. We finally managed to get back to the van, maneuvering the stroller through all those people. Phew. How appropriate that they were having that race on National Fitness Day.

Nichole took the time while we were waiting for runners to pass to sketch another leaf. I love it.

 

We had so much fun making pretzels for National Pretzel Day that we wanted to do it again. Lucky requested that we make the pretzels into letter shapes to spell out the words "May Day." 

This time, however, the kids weren't as enthusiastic about helping. They were distracted by a TV show. So it took a lot longer with me doing everything but in the end we got soft pretzels. Yumm.

What?

Some More April Catch Up

So much catching up to do. Wish me luck.

Monday, April 27, was Babe Ruth Day. We had a little snack of Baby Ruth candy bars (even though Baby Ruth candy bars have absolutely nothing to do with the baseball player, Babe Ruth). Here's a fun picture of the baby with the Baby Ruth. He didn't get any, though.

Tuesday, April 28, was Great Poetry Reading Day. Jr. read a poem in a book then the other kids started reciting "The Jabberwocky."

Nichole (while holding a bag of Parmesan cheese): It's kind of hard to recite poetry when at the same time you're reading, "Shredded cheese the way it's meant to be," over and over again.

 

End of April- Springtime. Outside time. Time for playing with sidewalk chalk 

and going for walks at the park, especially at a park with a lot of trees on Arbor Day, April 30.

 P.S. Baby ducklings are sooooo cute. Spring!