If You Give Nichole a Medium...

She will create a beautiful new painting...

 

In VR.

What?

And she won't be distracted by the faces you make behind her.

A Room of One's Own?

January 25 was A Room of One's Own Day. I got maybe an hour or two total to myself in my room that day. I had such plans, too.

We got a new microwave delivered and Jet was so cute playing in the box.

He found some tongs and sat on my lap in my room to play with them.

Jr. decided to do homework in my room.

I just had to go out and see Nichole's artwork she was working on. She's taking a printmaking class this semester. If you give Nichole and medium...

Father's Day 2022

Father's Day was on June 19.

Kids made Dad breakfast in bed. 

The Primary sang, "Daddy's Homecoming," in Sacrament Meeting. Jet heard the music and started singing along with the introduction before the Primary kids started singing. Lucky was rocking out to the music while singing with the other kids on the stand.  

Some information about Jeremy was shared in a game in Primary. "Mystery Dad." Lucky got to share about his dad breaking a world record.

Jet got a picture of his family drawn by a nursery worker at church. Jeremy got a cinnamon roll after church from the Relief Society.

While Jeremy took a nap the kids and I made dinner for him. The kids each wrote a note finishing, "My dad is special because..." Sweet children. I stapled the five together so Jeremy was able to see them at dinner. 

The kids also decorated paper cups with messages and pictures for Father's Day dinner.

Jr.: What? You told us to put sharpies on the cups.

 

We used Lucky's lanterns he made us to add to the special dinner atmosphere.

Then the kids took turns passing my phone around under the table to text Jeremy digital Father's Day cards throughout dinner.

Nichole also made a comic on the computer. If you give Nichole a medium...

He enjoyed all of the food and notes he got for Father's Day. I'm glad we were able to make it a good one for him since he's the best.

Jeremy and I each called our dads to wish them Happy Father's Day as well. They're also the best.

Blast From The Past: Lucky Doodles

I started this post back when we were having at-home church.

 

From time to time, we would find messages or drawings on Nichole's white board left there by Lucky.

Here is one.

 

If You Give Nichole a Medium...

...She makes a dragon out of homemade playdough.

She's come a long way in her sculpting since she made a sleeping giant for National Play-doh Day in September of 2013. The sculpture class she took last semester probably helped.

If You Give Nichole a Medium...

Nichole is taking a sewing/quilting class at school. One of the assignments was to make a bag.

I absolutely love the inside and I'm not talking about the Terry Pratchett book in there, though that makes me happy, too. She's really gotten into Terry Pratchett books lately. So fun. But didn't she pick such pretty fabric for the lining?

You can tell these pictures were taken a while ago. We haven't had this much snow this Spring.

Quinceanera

Nichole and I went to celebrate the Quinceanera of a friend. Nichole decided to watercolor a picture of the birthday girl in her poofy dress. Because you know, Nichole happens to always carry watercolors and index cards in her purse. (If you give Nichole a medium)

It was so fun. Nichole gave the picture to the birthday girl before we left. 

I'm glad we got that mother-daughter bonding time that evening.

If You Give Nichole a Medium...

She will crochet her friend a "korok." Her friend is also a fan of The Legend of Zelda. Nichole was working on this when we celebrated the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda.

If You Give Nichole a Medium...

June 23 was Hydration Day. I suggested to everyone to put their name on a white cup and use it throughout the day for drinking plenty of water.
Nichole decided to write her name on her cup... and add the dangers of getting too much water... in picture form.

Creativity.

Kids Make Dinner: Take 2

We had a little more success the second time the kids were assigned dinner. I didn't do anything this time (besides take care of Jet. That's a lot of work itself). The older kids helped the younger kids and Jeremy also helped. He cut up watermelon which Jr. then decided to use as a side dish. Here's what we ate:

Lucky wanted BBQ chicken pizza without onions. I love that he specified that. Nichole made dinner rolls. But of course, she couldn't just make dinner rolls. If you give Nichole a medium... she will sculpt the dough into various shapes then after they are baked, she will put butter on them and sprinkle them with cinnamon/sugar.

Jr. as you know contributed watermelon but also helped a lot with the pizza. For dessert, Jr. Jr. wanted woo-woo (milkshake) so Jeremy helped him make it.
Great job, kids (and Jeremy). Keep up the good work.

If You Give Lucky a Medium...

He copies his siblings and adds his own flair.

If You Give Nichole a Medium...

Nichole's been letting us use her white board to write our hymn numbers for Sacrament Meeting on Sundays. Since it was already out...

More April Celebrating... With Food

Since we're so busy with school at home right now, most of our celebrating revolves around the menu plan.
April 13 was National Peach Cobbler Day. Oh, yes. Mmmm. It turned out well. And currently I've got peaches in the freezer for two more cobblers. Jr. Jr. turned out to be the biggest fan of this peach cobbler. It made a lot (not everyone in the family is a fan) so there were a lot of leftovers and he was happy to have some whenever he could.

April 14 was National Dolphin Day. We ate tuna loaf. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. We made sure to use dolphin safe tuna. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Mmm, putting this blog post together, I want tuna loaf again. I should put it on the menu plan.
April 19 was National Garlic Day. I made twisted breadsticks with butter and garlic salt and parmesan cheese on them because I was originally planning on making garlic bread but I didn't have French bread for it (I had made French bread but we were saving it for Monday's dinner) so I used a trick I learned from ourbestbites.com to season them after they come out of the oven and I used some dough we had in the fridge.

April 19 was also National Hanging Out Day. We do a lot of that at home with our family, not with friends right now.
April 20 was National Cheddar Fries Day. I made a simple cheese sauce from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and poured it on French fries (not homemade). Jr. used the French bread I made and made apple cinnamon French toast casserole from the book, Budget Bytes. Yumm.

April 21 was Tuna Rights Day. We didn't have tuna loaf. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. We had salmon patties. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

April 22 was Earth Day. Jr. Jr. drew and colored this fun picture for a school assignment and our family got out for an Earth Day walk together.

We didn't let the kids get out the bike and scooters this time and this was my interpretation of how some of the kids reacted.

April 23 was National Picnic Day. We had picnic food for dinner.

April 24 was National Pigs in a Blanket Day. Nichole had a lot of fun wrapping the bits of hot dog into fun blanket shapes. Creativity strikes again. If you give Nichole a medium...

April 25 was East Meets West Day. We had teriyaki with angel hair pasta (recipe from hillbillyhousewife.com) and watched Big Hero 6 (San Fransokyo?)

April 25 was also National Zucchini Bread Day. My zucchini bread didn't turn out as well as it normally does- the batter anyway. It still tasted good, it was just a weird consistency this time- more like a cookie batter than zucchini bread batter. Oh, well. I've got more zucchini in the freezer waiting to become bread.

I also forgot to take a picture of it before we ate half.
April 26 was National Pretzel Day. Homemade pretzels, yumm.

I took a break in the middle of making pretzels so we could go for a Sunday evening walk as a family. This is another thing we're encouraged to do as a ward. Go out for Sunday afternoon or evening walks, say hi, but don't get too close. It was nice to chat with some people while they sat on their porches or from across the street.

Lots of celebrating with food... and walks. Gotta work off all those food calories, I guess.
P.S. April 27 was National Tell a Story Day. We didn't celebrate with food but one of Nichole's assignments was to read her short story and have it evaluated, which she did on that day.