Celebrating 20 Years of Fablehaven

I have made no secret that we are fans of Brandon Mull and especially the Fablehaven series. From listening to audiobooks on trips to Halloween costumes to recipes (you know I love my Fablehaven cookbook) and even book reports, we love to celebrate Brandon Mull and Fablehaven.

Last Monday, some of us were able to celebrate at an event at Provo City Library for the new illustrated edition of Fablehaven. Brandon Dorman, who did the original covers for the Fablehaven series, did the full color illustrations for this book. It was great to hear him and Brandon Mull talking about it, as well as hearing a little update on how things are going with the Fablehaven film. Yes, they're making a film!

We got our new book signed, got a commemorative pin to go with it, enjoyed seeing artwork by Brandon Dorman, and enjoyed activities and games while we were not in the signing line. We got a Fablehaven activity book and chocolate milk to drink. If you don't know what "Drink the Milk" means, read the book.

I'm glad we went to this. Thanks to all who put work into this event. My kids couldn't stop reading the illustrated edition that night. 

Other Things that Happened in June

We didn't just celebrate holidays in June. Here are some of the other things we did.

There was a neighborhood breakfast with games and food.

Lucky learned a new skill- making roses out of napkins. He made a whole lot, which I didn't mind because we had a huge package of napkins from the store so we weren't running out. And they looked cute.

 

There was lots of chess playing.

Annual Jugglers' Barbecue. It was so good to be around performers again.

Jr. Jr. and another boy got to give a lesson in Young Men. They worked on their lesson in our house. I appreciated seeing the time and effort they put into it.

We went to visit friends we hadn't seen in a few years. The kids had no problem playing with each other again. We, adults, had a great conversations.

 

The boys got some well needed haircuts. He are some before and after shots.

Lucky wanted me to cut off a huge chunk of the front of his hair. So I did. Then he wanted me to leave it that way. So I did. For several days. He wanted to go out in public like that. So we did.

The things I do for my kids.

Eventually I was able to give him a decent haircut.

I think Lucky's going through a grumpy face stage. He's not unhappy, he just wants to look that way for pictures. Sigh.

I took him and Jet to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point while the older kids were at Youth Camp and he looked grumpy again while riding a horse.

Besides riding a real horse, Jet wanted to ride every fake animal he could find. Lucky got involved with that with him.

Later Jet got to milk a real cow and Lucky got a squished penny.

And of course, Jet got to slide on the slide again.

 

I got a picture of all three of the older kids before they went off to Youth Camp but only a picture of Jr. when he got back. They all came back in different vehicles. Two of them got dropped off at home and one I picked up from the church.

Nichole crocheted a cat for her secret sister. She just sat down and crocheted it. No pattern. Just created it. That's talent.

Other things:

Jr. is learning to drive.

We had some fun with balloons. Jeremy had several sculptures to build so I delivered some so he could keep building.

Lucky got to use leftover balloons to make his own creations.

We got some of those balloon perks again. Jeremy brought home Chick-fil-a sandwiches for us after one event.

Another night he "crashed" Marcus's neighborhood barbecue to make balloon animals for the kids. It was a pleasant surprise. His wife sent Jeremy home with hamburgers. Yummmm.

Lots going on but I'm glad I'm finally getting around to catching up.

Peculiar People Day 2022

When my mom heard Peculiar People Day was on January 10 her response was, "I am proud to have a day just for me!"

That's right except she can't have it all to herself. She has to share it with us. This is one we can always celebrate without even trying but it's fun to try. 

If you've been to my blog enough times, you know that orange soda is kind of our family drink. It's chosen quite often for birthdays and when we eat Hungarian food (though sometimes it's a different flavor). So for Peculiar People Day this year we had orange soda with our dinner. We also had a special guest at dinner.

(Going along with peculiar people, it took me a while to figure out how to say that last sentence. We had a guest for dinner? We had a guest with dinner? Both of those sentences could mean we ate our guest, which could go along with who our guest was.)

Lucky was able to bring home the class pet and he chose that day specifically because it was Peculiar People Day. Jeremy and I have a thing about platypuses... platypi. "I've heard it both ways." I'm so glad Lucky brought Charm for a visit. 

Since Charm's favorite food is mushrooms, I actually ate mushrooms. I hate mushrooms but again... I'm trying to be a good example. The thing about mushrooms for me is the texture. It's like I expected the texture of escargot to be. So take a look at the picture of me thinking about eating escargot on my "French Dining Experience" blog post from June 22, 2020. That's what I look like when I eat mushrooms and can recognize the texture and taste. I will put cream of mushroom soup in things and eat mushrooms if they are on pizza.

Enough about my dislike of mushrooms. Back to the platypus. 

 

Charm joined us for a number of things that day, including opening packages that Lucky got from grandparents for his baptism. Charm and Lucky's new baptism dog became fast friends.

Thanks for visiting, Charm.

Since I didn't get pictures, I will let you know we drank chocolate milk on National Milk Day on January 11.