Captain Orange Veggies Fudge

June 16.
Captain Picard Day.  We didn't watch any Star Trek, but Jeremy and I joked about telling the kids to "make it so" when they wanted to help with things.

National Fudge Day.  The kids did help me make fudge.  The recipe came from the June/July 2015 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.  Creamsicle Fudge.  Yum.  Oh, and I just realized something.  The recipe says to refrigerate the fudge for the final time before eating it.  I put it in the freezer.  Maybe that's why the pieces came out of the pan like this.

Oh well.  I just put the rest of it in the fridge and maybe it will be easier to get out in the morning.  Still tastes great, though.  Also, the recipe says to take it all out of the pan before cutting it into pieces and I only wanted to take a few pieces out for pictures.  That's fine, though.

No Orange Clothes Day.  None of us wore orange clothes.  Although 3 of us wore red shirts, which is more of a nod to the classic Star Trek series than Next Generation.

Fresh Veggies Day.  I made sure we had fresh carrot sticks and celery sticks to go with dinner.

Bunny Blondies

You know I like to try out recipes and crafts from FamilyFun Magazine.  A while ago I made "Bunny Blondies" from the September 2012 issue.  I completely forgot to take pictures and they didn't last long because they were so good.
Well, I made them again.  Correction- Jr. Jr. and I made them today.  We got some Mommy-Jr. Jr. bonding time.  It was great.
And they tasted so good again.  I made sure to get a picture this time.

And the recipe is online so you can make them, too.  Although, they don't call them Bunny Blondies.  They call them "Carrot Cake Blondies." 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Well, it's St. Patrick's Day so wear some green,

have a St. Paddy's Day treat,

and see if you caught a leprechaun in your trap.
I didn't want to do leprechaun traps this year.  Too much work.  Instead I found a cute little craft from FamilyFun Magazine- March 2015 issue.  The magazine said if the kids hang up this "Lucky Charm," the leprechaun will leave gold coins in the pot.  I thought when I suggested it for Family Home Evening activity, we'd do one for all the kids, but Nichole, Jr., and Jr. Jr. all started making the letters with stencils and cutting them out so... yeah... one for each of them.

Excuse the picture.  We used fishing line so they were kind of twisted.  They each say, "Lucky," and have a pot underneath for the leprechaun to put the gold in.

After the leprechaun came and weighed the pots down with gold chocolate coins, the charms hung much better and I was able to get a better picture.
So there you go.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Polar Bear Cupcakes

International Polar Bear Day was February 27.  We made "beary cute cupcakes" from the December/January 2015 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.

They were really easy and really cute. 
I did make one substitution.  They called for pink bubble gum for the tongues, but I used a sour strawberry rope thing instead.

Cute polar bears.
Jr. wanted to make his look more like a dog.  Also so cute.

 And this guy is not a polar bear nor a dog, but he's definitely cute.

I Can't Think of a Title for this Post

April Fool's.
The kids got a surprise when they tried to drink their "Kool-aid" at dinner.  It wasn't long before I heard, "Is this Jello?" 

Yep.  The kids were with us when we got a box of gelatin at the store yesterday, but they didn't guess that when I made it I would pour it into cups with straws and let it set in the fridge.
I got the idea when I was reading the April 2014 issue of FamilyFun Magazine and somebody said they had done that to their kids for April Fool's Day. 
I found out later that a friend of ours had done the same thing to her kids today.  Ha Ha.
Our kids did have a lot of fun eating the Jello with straws.  Some of it was sucked up through the straws, some of it scooped.

The last laugh was on me, though.  I had to clean the Jello stains off the table and off Jr. Jr.'s face.  And I had to start Jr. Jr.'s clothes washing in the washing machine.

Jr. lost another tooth at school today. 

This evening he told me he was going to play a trick on the tooth fairy.  He put a note on his tooth pillow that said:

 I lost my tooth.  Can you find it?  April Fools!

The note had an arrow pointing to his treasure chest with his tooth in it, which was not in his pillow.

He got a big kick out of telling me the joke he was going to play on the tooth fairy.  I love it.  I love his creativity.  I hope the tooth fairy gets a kick out of it, too.
Happy April 1st!

Moon Golf

On February 6, 1971, Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the moon.  To celebrate the anniversary, I watched a youtube video of a NASA video of it.  I didn't know I could actually watch it.  Thank you, Google.
I showed the kids the video this evening.  This is what I heard when the kids saw the astronauts in their space suits-
Jr.: They look like giant teddy bears.
Daddy: They must be gummi bears with how they're bouncing all over the place.
Jr. Jr.: To the moon!

Then Nichole and Jr. played a couple rounds of "moon golf."  It's based on an idea from the September 2012 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.  "Table golf" is where you draw a golf green and hole with flag on one edge of a piece of paper and a tee on the other.  Then you close your eyes and draw a line from the tee toward where you think the hole is.  Then it's the next player's turn.  The person whose line is farthest from the hole starts at the end of their line and tries to get closer.  You count the number of times you have to draw and whoever has the least amount wins.
For moon golf, we drew a picture of the moon with craters.  One side of the moon had the hole and flag and the other side of the moon had the tee.  We didn't worry about winning or losing.  The kids just had fun.

When they finished, the kids got some drawing time on the paper.  Jr. Jr. was able to join in on that.

We'd never celebrated this one before so it was pretty fun to find a way to celebrate such an anniversary for the first time.

Craft Project with the Little Guy

The other day, Jr. Jr. and I got to do a craft project together.  No Mess Sponge Painting, an idea from the September 2012 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.  Great for 18-months and up.

Dip pieces of sponge in different colored tempera paints, put them on a piece of cardstock inside a ziplock bag, closed and taped to keep it closed.  Let the little guy push and move the sponges around.  After he's done, take out the picture and let it dry.

Enjoy the artwork.  And enjoy the easy cleanup.  No clothes (or hair) washing necessary.

And Sometimes You Don't Combine Them

September 15 is Agatha Christie's Birthday.  It is also Make a Hat Day.  If I really tried, I could combine the two.  You know I could.  But we had other plans.  So I did celebrate both, just not together.

This morning found me starting to read Agatha Christie's Autobiography.  I'd been meaning to read it again for years and today was the perfect excuse to start.

This afternoon/evening found me hiking with my family at Big Springs to look at the Fall colors.

 Remember, click on the pictures to see them bigger

Since it's early enough (Autumnal Equinox is a week away), but not too early (we didn't want to miss the colors), we were able to see green, yellow, orange, and red leaves, some of them on the same tree.  That was cool.

We didn't get to go there to see the Fall colors last year, so the last time we did was when I was pregnant with Jr. Jr.  I went a lot faster when he was still in me.  That boys loves to play in the dirt and throw rocks.  There were so many times I had to go back and pick him up and carry him to catch up with the others because he would just stay in one spot playing in the dirt and throwing the rocks.

 
But you wanted to know about Make a Hat Day, right?  I started with an idea from the September 2012 FamilyFun Magazine.  In a section about family hiking, it suggests putting a loop of packing tape (sticky side out) around someone's wrist, then they can stick the treasures they find along the way to it.  I thought that was a fun idea, but since it was Make a Hat Day, I thought it would be nice for the kids to stick things to a hat instead of a bracelet.  Now, I didn't just stick a loop of packing tape around their heads.  That might be a little uncomfortable.  Since we picnicked at the park before going hiking, I took unused paper plates, cut out the inside part and stuck the remaining loop on the kids' heads.  You would be amazed at how much those kids liked those "hats."  They all kept them on the whole time (even Jr. Jr.).

Nichole and Jr. Jr. were both content with the hats as they were, but Jr. liked it when I added some of the treasures he found to his hat.

Nichole enjoyed collecting rocks in a bucket (we only let her keep three at the end) and Jr. Jr. was happy to throw rocks or add them to Nichole's bucket.

Did I mention he likes playing in the dirt?
Unfortunately at one point, he was going too quickly downhill, tripped, and ate it... literally.  I don't think he minds getting dirt all over his face, but not in his mouth.

I'd say celebrating Agatha Christie's Birthday today was successful.  I'd also say that celebrating Make a Hat Day today was successful.

I Love Second Chances

I mentioned in August that I didn't have time on National Lighthouse Day to make the mini lighthouse from FamilyFun Magazine.  Well, lucky me, September 14th is the anniversary of when the first lighthouse in America was lit in Boston in 1716.  Hurray.  We had enough time for planning this time.
This project was also in the August 2011 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.

We made 2 1/2 lighthouses.  The 1/2 is because halfway through making his, Jr. Jr. decided he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.  So we paused and as soon as I got him down from the table, he started running around with the other kids.
I put on Pete's Dragon (because a lighthouse has a big part in it) and the kids sat down to watch.  Pretty soon, Jr. Jr. leaned over and fell asleep on the couch.

We paused the movie and the older kids finished their lighthouses (with some help from Mom).

They did a great job.

I love finding reasons to celebrate.

Eat Your Jello Day

O.K.  I live in Utah.  Growing up somewhere else, there was always a joke about Utahns putting weird things in their Jello.  Lime green Jello with grated carrots, anyone?
I'll be honest, I haven't seen that much weirdness with Jello since I've lived in Utah.  I'll admit to putting some mandarin oranges in my orange Jello as I let it sit and whipped topping on the top when it's done, but that doesn't seem so weird.  Does it?

Well, I do have something I want to try with Jello.  It's from the June/July 2012 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.  I couldn't find it on the website so I took a picture of the page in the magazine.

"Star-spangled Parfait."  You just layer red gelatin with whipped topping several times then make the last layer blue gelatin.  Simple, but it looks like fun.  What a great way to eat it.

What are some other creative ways you've seen Jello used?
Or weird ways?
And remember, July 12 is Eat Your Jello Day, so I want to hear edible ideas.

Dinosaur Day 2012

When Jeremy got home from taking Nichole to school, we revealed to each other that we had the exact same thought.  To celebrate Dinosaur Day, May 15th, we wanted to go down to the Paleontology Museum at BYU.
It never happened.  It was one of those days.  Instead we went to Nielson's Grove in Orem.  We spent most of time watching the little ducklings in the pond. 

They were soooooo cute.  Jeremy took A LOT of pictures.

The boys played on the playground a little.

This evening for Family Home Evening we went to another park.  Heritage Park in Cedar Hills.  I wanted a park with shade.  That one has it.  It was so relaxing to listen to the stream and watch my sweet family.  We even played Pooh Sticks.

We finished the night with our FHE treat of Sweet Dutch Baby, a recipe from the April 2012 issue of FamilyFun Magazine.

We explained to the kids that they were basically Ancestor Pancakes with apples in them.

We finally got some dinosaur themed activities in- reading dinosaur themed books.

I read "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?" by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague to the kids before bed.

It was a good family day.

Solar S'mores

We learned this one from FamilyFun.  Solar S'mores.  Jr. and I made the solar oven out of a pizza box, but we didn't have a sunny day to go with it.

We were too busy on the sunny days.  So we took it out on a cloudy afternoon (a little late in the day, I think) and got melted chocolate with our non-melted marshmallows and graham crackers.

We still enjoyed eating them, though.  Chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows.  Who cares if they're really melted, right?

I am interested to try it when there is a sunny day again.  For now, I'm enjoying the cooler weather.