Family History Story

When I was a kid, we had bats that made their home in our attic. In the evenings, we kids would go outside and watch them come out and fly around. Bats are cool. 

One night a bat escaped into the house through a hole in the kitchen ceiling. The timing was such that it was right in the middle of the family watching... Batman. The Tim Burton version (that was the Batman movie when I was a kid).

Ah, memories.

Recently I was going to watch that movie while doing menu planning (multi tasker here). Jet had different ideas. We're going to snuggle while watching, Mom.

On a different day, April 17, I started watching Batman Returns... for Bat Appreciation Day. 

It was also National Banana Day so there was banana eating.

It was also Blah Blah Blah Day. I think that's what my kids hear sometimes when I ask them to do things.

That day was also National Cheeseball Day. I made cheeseball and got it chilled in the fridge but forgot to get it out and shape it later that day so we didn't eat it until the next day. I never did shape it.

Here's another bit of family history but with my current family. One year Nichole shaped cheeseball like a bat to celebrate both holidays (National Cheeseball Day and Bat Appreciation Day). One of these years we just have to get her to shape a cheeseball like a haiku poem for Haiku Poetry Day, also on April 17. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Oh, I just looked it up that family history story of Nichole shaping the cheeseball to look like a bat. Ha Ha. That was just last year. My post about it was on June 10, 2023. And apparently, Jr. wrote a haiku poem about it. Heh Heh.

Charlie Chaplin's Birthday

Charlie Chaplin's Birthday was April 16. When telling the kids to set the table for dinner, I told them to set two forks at each place. The reason? I showed the kids a clip of Charlie Chaplin making rolls dance on the ends of forks from the movie, "The Gold Rush." Why couldn't we do it, too?

All Day Birding

I got to go on a field trip with Utah County Birders. My sweet husband held down the fort at home so I could go. He is so sweet to me and I appreciate how he encourages me and supports me. I do the same for him.

So this was my turn. It ended up being an all day birding trip from morning to night. We went East in Utah to Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, Pelican Lake Wildlife Management Area, and Starvation Reservoir State Park.

I got to see some first of the year birds and...

see my lifer dance?

I got to see an American Bittern for the first time. One of my nemesis birds. I've heard bitterns before but I've never seen one.

And this is about the look I got of it:

If you look really closely at the stick in the middle of the other sticks in the center of this picture, that is the bittern sticking its bill up in the air. It is a common pose in which to find those birds.

It took forever for the patient birders to point it out for me. But I saw it. Yay!

Other highlights of the trip:

Several first of the year birds including mountain bluebirds and pinyon jays.

Porcupine. Not a bird but always fun to see.

Lots and lots of loons. I never thought I'd say this phrase, "Oh, it's just another loon," but I did on this trip.

Also lots of sandhill cranes. At one stop there were 25-30 sandhill cranes that we could see.

Ospreys are always fun to see (especially when they're carrying fish. This particular osprey was not carrying a fish but I saw others that were).

A nicely posed Loggerhead Shrike on the way out.

It was a good trip. I love this community of birders.

Pizza Pizza (My 4 year old's title for this post)

When you're too busy to make dinner and your middle child brings home leftovers from an activity and shares with his siblings:

Have I mentioned I love my children?

Sandwiches!

April 11 was National Submarine Day. There was definitely some singing of The Beatles song, "Yellow Submarine," in our home. I was going to make submarine sandwiches but Jeremy picked up some croissants at the store so I made Asian Chicken Salad Sandwiches from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1, on croissants instead. As a side dish, I roasted some veggies in the oven. Jet was my big helper in the kitchen. I cut up veggies and he put them in a mixing bowl. We had apples to round out the meal. Yum.

 

April 12 was Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches.

March Cuteness

 

 

How high can you go?

 

I can fit. I know I can?

 

 

Morning snuggles!

Play Mario Kart, Mom?

Action Packed Day

April 10 was National Siblings Day. Each of our children did something "pop" related. It started with Jr. wanting popcorn. Nichole mentioned that she had already had a pop tart so... Jr. got popcorn. Later, Jr. had a pop, Lucky had a popsicle, and Jet fell asleep before he could have his lollipop so he had that the next day. So each sibling had a "pop" something and Mom didn't say anything to discourage them. "Mum's the word."

Other things that happened that day. A friend of ours was sick so we made her chicken soup, rolls, and brought them to her along with some Gatorade. She's feeling better now. 

Jet came with us to do this for our friend.

Jet also came with me for a walk to pick up Jr. Jr. from the bus.

While I was making dinner, a big wasp showed up in our house. I geared up to try to deal with it but it disappeared until the next morning when I dealt with it.

So we had a late dinner but the good news is we started on A Season of Family Meal Plans volume 2.

Tortellini Casserole and Easiest Italian Salad (with homemade croutons) and rolls (since I made some for our friend anyway). 

It was a busy day.

Battle of the Books

Lucky wanted to compete in Battle of the Books again this year. Like last year, he read all 20 books and was prepared. His team was called The Reading Unipenguipotterpuses. That may sound a little familiar if you look at my Valentine's Day post this year. The Valentine cards Lucky gave to his class had unipenguipotterpuses on them.

His team once again made it to finals against another team that was really good. This year however, Lucky walked away with a first place trophy and two new books (he got candy for participating earlier).

Way to go, buddy. Such a good reader.

Eclipse Colander

In 2017, we drove to Idaho to see the total eclipse the day before school started.

Last October, we drove to Fillmore to see the annular eclipse on a Saturday.

There was another total eclipse Monday, April 8. But we would have had to travel to Texas or somewhere else like that along the path of totality (not a one day trip). I didn't want to take the kids out of school and Jeremy didn't want to miss work. Plus I was super busy with stuff. 

We did get part of the eclipse here but Jet destroyed all of our eclipse glasses from October so no way to look directly at the sun. While Jeremy and the kids were all gone, Jet and I did go outside for a little while.

It did get a little darker and my sister reminded me of the colander trick. Have the sun shine through a colander and you can see the crescent shadows. We saw those through the leaves last October. We don't have leaves yet on our trees here.

Anyway, I was able to get a few eclipse pictures because of the colander so that was fun. And we did have that neat experience in 2017 with the total eclipse and the ring of fire in 2023. We're good.

Supporting Our Children

I support my children. I go to plays, concerts, take them around places they need to go. I do what I can when I can. My husband is the same way. So when our children say they need to go birding for a school assignment? Well, it's important that we support them.

I mean, our children have won awards in the past for bird pictures they've taken. So, yeah, birding is worth it.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Actually we're open to any excuse to go birding. Nichole had to create a project for her Biology class. She decided to go to a few different places, documenting the birds she saw, and write a paper about it. She chooses birding! I love it.

And it's good bonding time. Jeremy took her twice. I took her once.

Late Night Shenanigans

Jet's sleep schedule got all out of whack during Spring Break. Well, all the boys' did. They all stayed up too late and slept in too long. There were some late nights with Jet. Sometimes the boys stayed up to watch him, sometimes Jeremy, sometimes me. Sometimes we couldn't stay awake while he was running around in the middle of the night.

Two nights in a row he got up to some mischief- both when he got a hold of my phone.

The first night apparently he turned the camera on on my phone because we found several pictures like this-   

The second night, a text message in the middle of the night woke me. This is how it went.

From my father-in-law: Hi I think Jet might have your phone. We just got a call, Love you

My response: I am so sorry.

My father-in-law: It's not a problem. We were still up. I'm glad there is no problem. Love you

I'm so glad my in-laws have a sense of humor and are understanding.

Leftovers

 

This is why it's important to label the containers you put leftovers in.

General Conference Weekend

At the end of Spring Break, we had General Conference Weekend. We thought it would be great to go see the Sage Grouse since that has kind of become a Spring Break tradition.

We got everybody up really early in the morning and headed out. There was a chance of snow so we would turn around and go home if the weather didn't look good. It looked good. All the way through Provo Canyon, all the way past Heber, then all of a sudden it hit. Seriously, just sitting in the van looking out the front window, it was totally clear, when all of a sudden we jumped to hyperspace. Whoa. Snow coming right at us, hard to see the lines on the road, all the vehicles going slowly. We got toward the top of the hill by Jordanelle Reservoir and started losing traction. We had already made the decision that we would abandon our trip if this happened, we just didn't realize it would happen so suddenly. We found a pullout and just hung out listening to audiobooks and the boys played video games on their devices. 

Several snowplows went by and the snow calmed down a little bit. We were able to get to the next exit that thankfully had been plowed, and were able to get on the highway going back the way we came. Once we got down into Heber area again, it was clear all the way back home.

We went home and some of us slept then got up (picked up Nichole as she wanted to sleep instead of seeing the sage grouse), watched General Conference, ate nachos, some of us slept during Conference, and made brownies to start from the middle for the evening session.

O.K. Funny story before we left. My phone was connected to the van speakers via Bluetooth. I turned the van on to warm it up while we got the last of the stuff from inside. I had my audiobook on Libby on my phone in my pocket so I knew it would start playing through the speakers as I buckled Jet in. What I didn't realize is while the boys were sitting there in the van, all of a sudden they would hear, "Beast. Blood everywhere," in a menacing voice through the speakers before I paused my book. We all cracked up.

Sunday, April 7, besides being General Conference, was No Housework Day. Ha! I got up that morning to one child throwing up. So much for World Health Day. I think he was dehydrated because after that morning he was fine the rest of the day. 

Nichole made the comment it seems like somebody always gets sick during General Conference weekend.

It was a good weekend even without sage grouse.