Cars, Water, Cars, Water

On John James Audubon's Birthday (also known as National Audubon Day) on April 26, Jet and I went out for a walk by the Provo River. We saw some ducks and I saw an American dipper. I love seeing dippers dipping in the water.

At one point we crossed a bridge where there was a barrier between the walking part of the bridge and the driving part. I lifted Jet so he could see the water in the river and he immediately got excited when he could see the cars going by. So we took some time looking back and forth between the cars and the water. Cars, water, cars, water.

A few days later, Jet and I went to the BYU botany pond. I haven't been there for many years, not since they made it the "botany pond." I used to pass it all the time when there was just a duck pond there when I was in college. 

Jet loved seeing the ducks and ducklings and the fence around the pond is the perfect height for a toddler. I saw Jet turning around at one point saying, "Cars, water, cars, water." I realized it was because we were between the pond and the street and he remembered from before. I thought that was pretty cute.

Back to Audubon Day, April 26 was also National Pretzel Day. Jeremy and I made soft pretzels after the kids went to bed (except Jr. Jr. made one pretzel because Jet kept running back to their room so Jr. Jr. kept bringing him back out). Jet of course helped with the dough. He is my baking buddy.

Some of the kids also had crunchy mini pretzels for after school snack.

The next day, April 27, was Babe Ruth Day so we had Baby Ruths after school.

April Showers Bring... Snails

 

It's that time of year. We're starting to get snails around again. We love snails. Sometimes they're our obsession. Don't step on the snails, take pictures of the snails, name the snails, move the snails who are trying to get in our house, don't eat the snails (except on special occasions).

 

We took a lot of pictures of snails last year.

Did you know snails come in different colors? I didn't. Not until I started really looking at them. And not just the shell colors (though there is enough variety in those) but the flesh, too. Some are light. Some are dark. Some are grey. Some are pink. There are even bright blue snails.

And of course they come in so many different sizes. I did know that.

Perfect Date Day

April 25 wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold. Jeremy wore a light jacket. I didn't. I just wore short sleeves when I went out. It was warm enough for that. Have you seen Miss Congeniality? One of the contestants in the beauty pageant scholarship program is asked what her idea of the perfect date is and her answer is April 25. Heh Heh.

April 25 was also World Penguin Day so the kids ate fish sticks and watched some of Penguin: Spy in the Huddle. Jeremy and I had our perfect date food- Winco salads. It's become our thing.

For Family Home Evening treat that night, we had fortune cookies to celebrate East Meets West Day and Nichole explained to us that fortune cookies are an American invention based on a Japanese recipe.

Blast from the Past

A friend of mine recently sent me a picture from a memory that popped up on her google pix.

We ran into her when we went to FanX in 2019 and she took this picture.

Ah, good memories. Lucky still talks about that one guy in movies. He remembers we saw Warwick Davis at a panel there and I still tell the kids what a cool person he is.

Pigs in a Blanket Day

April 24 was Pigs in a Blanket Day. Kids made dinner... sort of. Nobody wanted to be in charge of fruits or vegetables. Nichole wanted to use up the open containers of ice cream and call that good for dessert. Lucky helped Jr. make pigs in a blanket so he didn't want to be in charge of something else so he finally made Kool-aid. Jr. Jr. wanted to make braided rolls again (admittedly they turned out cute, braided and snails). So that was our dinner. Pigs in a blanket, rolls, Kool-aid, and ice cream. 

 

Jeremy made a suggestion to me later. Like a rotating chore chart or our family home evening chart, we should make a rotating chart with food assignments: main dish, bread or other grain side, fruit or veggie, dessert, and drink can be extra if someone wants something besides water. I used to ask the kids in advance what they wanted to make when they were in charge of dinner so we had all of those covered. I didn't this time. Sigh. I like the rotating food assignment chart idea. That way it can be different than a potluck where anyone can bring anything.

 

Looking back at my blog over the last couple years, we've had some of the dinners kids make that haven't been so successful. I guess I've been seeing how well our at-home potlucks are going. Those kids just need more practice.

National Picnic Day 2022

April 23 was Celebrate Trails Day and it was National Picnic Day. Since Jeremy and Nichole were off on another birding field trip, the boys and I talked about going hiking and taking a picnic with us. Jr. really wanted to play Frisbee, though, so we compromised. We went to a park with walking trails where Jet and I walked around while the boys played Frisbee. Then we joined them for a bit before having a picnic on top of a hill. I was surprised Riverview Park wasn't as crowded on a Saturday afternoon/evening. I guess since it's not Summer yet... and there was a bit of wind... and it did rain the day before and looked like it could rain again... and it was jacket weather... Who knows?

First picnic of the season. I'm hoping we have a lot more picnics like we did last year.

 

When we got home, Jr. Jr. made us trail mix to go along with the Celebrate Trails holiday. Then I made cherry cheesecake to celebrate the other holiday that day, National Cherry Cheesecake Day.

Aaagh. I got a splinter in my hand. 

Nichole didn't know how to react to that. I really did get a splinter in my hand then I got it out myself before putting the cherry topping on the cheesecake. I just needed her to get me some paper towels.

Here are some of Nichole's pictures from Jeremy's and Nichole's trip (they got to see sharp-tailed grouse this time):

       

Earth Day 2022

Jet really wanted to get out so he and I went out for a drive in Provo Canyon while the kids were in school. It was a rainy day but the rain made things so fresh. I got out at one spot and the birds were very vocal. It was so nice.

It was nice to enjoy our beautiful world on Earth Day, April 22.

Speaking of birds, Jr. submitted a bird photo to the Earth Day contest at school again this year and won third place. Nice, Jr.

Woodhouse's Scrub Jay

 

And I kept with tradition and got a picture of Nichole and Jr. with their Earth Day shirts. To compare, here are pictures from the last couple years, as well. 

2020, 2021, and 2022

Jr. loves to see how much taller he's getting while Nichole has slowed down on her height growth.

Garlic and Fries

April 19 was Garlic Day. I made garlic bread to go along with lasagna that I didn't get pictures of. What I did get pictures of was the beautiful dough after it raised and before I shaped it into french bread loaves. I like baking.

I also got a picture of the ricotta cheese before I used it in the lasagna. The seal on it says EZPEEL. Sigh. I could NOT get any more of that seal peeled off. I just couldn't. So much for Easy Peel. I ended up scooping it out through the section I did get off. Sigh.

April 20 was Cheddar Fries Day. I was going to make a cheddar cheese sauce but I ended up just getting some nacho cheese out of the freezer and using that. Then I thought I'd add some chili to make it a good rounded chili cheese fries side dish.

I also spent I don't know how much time debating whether to run to the store to buy hamburger buns or not. There wasn't time to make hamburger buns and the rolls I made previously were too small for the size of hamburgers we had. I finally decided to use bagels we had in the cupboard. Of course later it finally donned on me- how many times in the past have we used regular bread when we had burgers? Duh. But the bagels worked nicely.

O.K. And I didn't get any pictures but April 21 was Yellow Bat Day and I did check out some books about bats at the library and Jet did look at some.