Back To School Baby Bonding

The kids went back to school today which meant Jet got Mommy all to himself. And he didn't have anyone else to cling to so he was quite clingy with Mommy. We had some fun, though. We sang, we danced, we read books, he helped me with dishes, and he had quite a bit of fun playing with his dinosaurs. He loves those things.

When the kids got home from school he was happy to cling to them again as well while I made dinner.

Since January 3 is J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday, I asked Alexa to play "Lord of the Rings" music. She decided to play mostly "Harry Potter," music. I pointed that out to the kids.

For Family Home Evening, we watched Paddington 2 while eating orange marmalade sandwiches. Well, some of us did. Some decided they couldn't stand them and some named Jet devoured two themselves.

I kept making the kids stop the movie to make this comment, "Today is J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday, right? So and so in this movie played such and such in... Harry Potter." They got a kick out of that. I think I did it four times.

January 3 is also National Drinking Straw Day so I let the boys use the long straws to drink hot chocolate for after school snack. Those straws are fun.

I made sure to give Jet cups with straws today.

Giant Skillet Cookie

January 3 was J.R.R. Tolkien's Birthday. Nichole was reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Since Jr. filled up his service punch card, he redeemed it to himself for a giant skillet cookie. Last time he made a skillet cookie it didn't work as well coming out of the pan. This time it worked beautifully. And being the sweet kid he is, he shared some of his treat with everyone.

First Day of Fall

Everybody say, "First Day of Fall!"

September 22 was the Autumnal Equinox. I had Jeremy close the windows the night before... just in case.

It rained the morning of the Equinox. Ah, fresh. Jet and I went for a drive up Provo Canyon.

After school we drove up to Cascade Springs as a family, enjoying the Fall colors.

I commented to Jeremy recently how I'm not missing the Fall colors this year. I've been out so much in nature lately. I love it.

 

What a nice baby brother holding his sister's homework.

 

Jr. Jr. saw a few places where he wanted to get videos of me juggling. I love that he wanted to do that.

"You can't see me."

 

We all brought face masks and ended up using them. It wasn't too too crowded but there were enough people we passed and the paths are narrower than some places where it's easier to just keep to the side and turn your head. It worked out.

It was so pleasant. I love getting out in nature with my family.

 

We stopped at Deer Creek Overlook briefly so I could get a few pictures of a view you might imagine in a Tolkien novel. September 22 is Hobbit Day after all.

 

On the drive up, I commented to Jeremy that what I really wanted on this drive was to see moose. On the drive back down there were a few cars stopped on the road at one point and Jeremy called out that they were stopped because of the moose running along the side just down below us. They came up and crossed the road in front of us. Woohoo! We got some horrible pictures but I got to see moose like I wanted!

For a while on the drive down I kept exclaiming how excited I was to see the "meese," which sparked a little conversation about plurals of certain words. Goose geese. Moose moose. Mongoose mongooses. Octopus octopi or octopuses (either one is correct).

On the drive down Jeremy also told us a Jackerina story about the leaves on trees producing spores that make the Telford family sleepy. Jackerina called the North wind to help blow the leaves off the trees and when it got dark, the leaves couldn't photosynthesize and went to sleep. Yay! We were saved once again.

 

When we got home, we had caramel apple cider, a recipe I got from Stephanie O'Dea's slow cooker website, ayearofslowcooking.com

Mmmmm. Fall.

Quiet! I'm Tolkien here...

Today is JRR Tolkien's birthday. He is well past his hundred and eleventh year but his writings live as long and elegantly as his elves.

This evening my husband (who is awesome) was trying to do an author search on a local library catalog. He was trying to find a book on how to improve his writing by the author Dean Koontz. After doing the search the author's name came up along with the number of his books they have. Clicking on the link my husband was greeted with this...

Four pages of JRR Tolkien's book "The Hobbit." Each book the exact same copy. None of it had anything to do with Koontz or writing- the book's not even Silmarillion! Well played, library catalog. Neither Merry nor Pippin could have done it better.

Chocolate Covered Chair Day

January 3rd is J. R. R. Tolkien's Birthday.  Jeremy was mentioning this to me when this conversation happened-
Mommy:  It's also National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day.
Jr.:  Chocolate Covered Chair Day?
Daddy:  Yeah, we'll cover this chair with chocolate and then we'll eat it.
Jr. Jr.:  Can I get the chocolate and bring it to you?

We didn't get around to eating a chair, thank goodness.  And we didn't eat any chocolate covered cherries, but Jeremy made Tolkien jokes throughout the day.
He took the three older kids to Thanksgiving Point, but before he did, he gave them the option of wearing hats.  He wanted to wear his new hat.  

So out came the box of "special" hats.  He let the kids know they weren't allowed to just get into the box whenever they liked.  It was only at certain times.  He told them he didn't want this to become a "hobbit."  :Har har har.
After Jr. Jr. picked a hat to wear, Jeremy pointed out that there was even an "elf" in their company.

Jeremy brought us some donuts this evening.  While walking in, he mentioned that donuts have holes like hobbits have holes.

He made some more jokes, but I can't remember them right now.

The kids had fun at Thanksgiving Point and Jeremy let me know they were well behaved.  That's a good thing since they've been getting a bit of cabin fever lately.  They needed to get out.  Thank you, Jeremy.  And thank you, kids, for being well behaved.

So that was our celebrating today.

J. R. R. Tolkien's Birthday and National Chocolate Covered Chair Cherry Day.

And now Jeremy and I are watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as I write this blog post.  Earlier we watched Leonard Nimoy's music video, "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins."  Have you seen that one?  It is something.

Balloon Bag End

No more sneak peeks.  It is done.  Balloon Bag End. 
Jeremy built a room from Bag End from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" out of balloons.  It took up most of our living room and took 3 days to build.  It stayed up for a couple days then was demolished by our family in a couple more.
Jeremy and I had been working on putting together a time lapse video of it, and we finally finished.  Phew.
So here you go.