What's With This Kid?

Remember when Jet put that piece of pizza on my shoulder? Random. I blogged about it on May 12, 2022.

Apparently he's still into that sort of thing. He put a banana peel on Jeremy's head back in April this year.

He's a ham.

Catch of the Day

He looks so proud with his bread sandwich he made all by himself.

What?

 

 

Rationalizing Birding

I mentioned in January that Nichole was taking digital photography again. She entered several (about
11) pictures in a photography show at the high school. She got honorable mention for a Photoshopped photo of her brother as fairies.

 

That picture and one she took of a burrowing owl were on display in the art hall for a while before the show.

 

Here are some of my other favorites from the photography show:

 

One morning, Jeremy and I took Nichole out to Manila Creek Pond. You know... so she could get some photos of Common loons and Caspian terns. We just happened to enjoy watching the birds, too. The terns are so fun to watch as they dive in to get fish in the pond. We were there early enough to hear the loons calling, too. I loved it.

There were also Canada geese and mergansers and mallards and cormorants and a killdeer I kept hearing and finally spotted.

 

The things we do to support our children.

Better Than a Lava Lamp

Nichole took an AP 3D Art class this year. Final grade her teacher gave her? 150%. That's my girl.

Her projects were all based on fairy tales and meaning in fairy tales. She used several mediums including ceramics, paper mache, items she collected to add to the projects, and more. She won 2nd place for ceramics in a school art show for one of her fairy tale pieces (even though the ribbon says 3rd place).

She spent a lot of time on her projects. One of them was a Sleeping Beauty spinning wheel made of bones. She collected owl pellets, dissected them, cleaned the bones, and put together the spinning wheel. It was so tiny.

Nichole: The spinning wheel in the story symbolizes death. Nothing makes me think death more than bones.

One part of the process was cleaning the hair off the rodent bones in hydrogen peroxide and water. As they separated, certain parts would float and certain parts sank. Jr. Jr. got a big kick out of watching this process. He commented that it was "better than a lava lamp." I'm glad he got so much enjoyment out of it.

Family Time

I mentioned in my blog post from May 21 that we took a family outing one night to walk along a trail by the lake. Then Lucky and Jr. Jr. got a hold of my blog post and "finished" it for me. Those boys.

We did have fun that night- the night of the walk- even though we ended up with several bug bites.

We listened to frogs, saw plenty of birds (including a mama duck and her cute ducklings), took plenty of pictures, and enjoyed that family time together.

I love family time.

Mommy, Look

Jr. Jr.: It looks like an alien.

More April Holidays

We ate chicken nuggets for Tuna Rights Day on April 21. Nichole likened it to cows trying to get people to eat chicken.

 

On Earth Day, April 22, Jr. and Jr. Jr. helped with the city's Spring Cleanup for our neighborhood.

I did not get a picture of Nichole and Jr. wearing their Earth Day shirts.

 

We ate some picnic foods for dinner on National Picnic Day, April 23.

 

On National Telephone Day, April 25, we ate honey "graham" ice cream because Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. And Blue"Bell" is a brand of ice cream.

Jr. Jr. brought home some pretzels to eat on National Pretzel Day, April 26.

 

The kids started watching Going Postal on April 28, Terry Pratchett's Birthday.

Blah Blah Blah Day 2023

Blah Blah Blah Day was April 17. I made sure to make apples with honey peanut butter for the kids. That's been a thing since 2014.

April 17 was also Haiku Poetry Day, National Cheeseball Day, and Bat Appreciation Day. Nichole shaped cheeseball to look like a bat and Jr. wrote a haiku about it (see previous post).

So cute.

Cream Cheese Bats and Haikus

 that is a cute bat

it is made out of cream cheese

i will eat it now

Submarines and Head Banging

 April 11 was National Submarine Day. I made sub sandwiches with shredded pork and nacho cheese.

 

It was also International Louie Louie Day. For some reason the kids weren't getting my unintelligible singing. I had to put on the song, "Louie Louie," for them to hear. That got Jeremy mentioning another unintelligent song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. So I put that song on then "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al. And of course I couldn't listen to those songs without head banging.

A few days later, I was wondering if I had slept on my neck wrong because I couldn't figure out why it was so sore. Then I remembered. Head banging. Whiplash. Hmm.

Easter Fun 2023

Besides celebrating what Easter is really about by going to church and reading about the Savior's visit to the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, we had some Easter Egg fun on different days.

 

We went to a neighborhood Easter party. Games and fun and and Easter Egg hunt. This was Jet's first community egg hunt. He had a blast and at one point opened one of his eggs that had an elephant duckie in it. He was done looking after that. He was so happy to keep playing with that toy. 

For our own family Easter Egg hunt, we got some notes from the Easter Bunny after having a FHE lesson about consequences for our actions.

"Welcome Telfords

I have hidden eggs in the backyard

But first

I needed to make the bunnies were comfortable

So I kept them inside someplace warm

Find a chocolate bunny and when everyone has one

I will explain the next steps"

"The eggs are upstairs in the backyard

Everyone has 16 (except Nichole who has 17)

Pink eggs are wild and you may pick up 3 (except Nichole who can only get two)

Here are your colors

Jr.: Light Blue

Nichole: Purple

Jr. Jr.: Orange/Goldenrod

Lucky: Yellow

Jet: Dark Blue

Wild: Pink

When all the eggs are found ask for the next step"

 

"Last step

There is a bag with your name in it in the garage

Have fun!"

Last time, Jr. complained about his eggs being too easy to find. This year, he took the longest to find his eggs. Look very carefully in this picture and see if you can find the plastic egg that he wasn't seeing. He had to have hints.

 

Lucky's class at school learned to make Easter baskets at school so he brought home a basketful of treats.

Spring Break 2023

We didn't really have Spring for Spring Break. Our Winter went into April this year so we did mostly indoor things during Spring Break.

 

The kids learned how to play Phase 10.

We had some library time.

We did drive around one day and when we got home there was a spotted towhee in our front yard. Nichole got pictures.

Jr. found a recipe in my Shelf Cooking 101 book and wanted to try it out so we used ingredients we found around the house to make it. Yummm. I want them again.

April 3 was Fish Fingers and Custard Day.

April 6 was National Burrito Day and National Carbonara Day.

April 8 was Draw a Picture of a Bird Day.