Celebrating with Family at a Distance

July 22 was National Hammock Day. I wished my brother a Happy National Hammock Day. He makes his own hammocks and goes camping with them. He's put together several YouTube videos about it.

 

July 23 was National Gorgeous Grandma Day. I wished both my mom and my sister Happy Gorgeous Grandma Day. It was also National Vanilla Ice Cream Day.

 

July 24 was National Cousins Day. I wished lots of family members Happy National Cousins Day.

It was also Pioneer Day. We sent the kids to bed but I ran out to get a few fireworks pictures (I love that we can see them so well right outside our home). It was a laid back Pioneer Day (and Cousins Day) even though I got up early to go up Nebo Loop to the same place Jeremy and Nichole went to celebrate her birthday. Lots of birds, no crossbills, though. There were also squirrels, chipmunks, and a weasel (and plenty of cows and deer on the drive). And lots of bugs.

Oh, it was a lovely morning.

National Junk Food Day 2021

Me: Happy Junk Food Day.

Nichole: Good. I had Nerds for breakfast.

 

Are you familiar with Cocomelon? It's for little kids. It's animated. They have lots of songs, nursery rhyme songs, and songs based on those tunes. Go do a search for it on YouTube. 

Cocomelon has become a thing in my home with my toddler and my older kids of course will watch with him. Sometimes they just watch and sometimes they will point out how certain things are not entirely accurate or mistakes that were made. That's what happens when older kids watch little kid shows.

Anyway... one of the songs is about how Mommy or Daddy sneak to the kitchen in the middle of the night to eat junk food and the other parent catches them. The things they eat are pizza, ice cream, donuts, and candy. Finally the kids catch both parents in the kitchen eating junk food so they all eat carrots together at the end.

Of course my family is creative in celebrating so the kids suggested for National Junk Food Day on July 21 that we eat all the things from that video. We ate some of them but not all. I did make edible playdough to go along with a board game we played as a family that evening. We needed something for sculpting.

Creativity is fun. Family time is fun.

Moon Day 2021

We go to a lot of different parks. I realized that on this blog, I often say, "the park," or "a local park," but maybe I should say specifically which parks we go to as someone might like to know that information. I'll try to remember. Here goes.

July 20 was Moon Day. The kids and I went to Nielsen's Grove Park. 

While we were there I was thinking back to a long time ago when we went to the same park for Moon Day. It was 2011 (wow, that was 10 years ago) and the kids played astronaut tag. I tried to convince the kids this year to play astronaut tag for nostalgia purposes but Jr. explained how actually on the moon we wouldn't move like that but refused to let me take a picture of him demonstrating. Sigh.

Then I tried to get the kids to show me what it would be like if they were feeding the ducks like it would be on the moon. No takers there, either.

Eventually I turned to Nichole.

Me: What would you do if you were on the moon?

Nichole: Suffocate.

Well, that ended me trying to get them to do "astronaut stuff" for pictures.

We did have fun at the park, though some of them forgot to bring water bottles and apparently being overly dramatic about that is fun. I was able to get them some water when we got back to the van. And dad surprised them with woo-woo (milkshakes) when we got home.

We ate astronaut sandwiches later. Apparently I used to call them space sandwiches then started calling them astronaut sandwiches so either name works.

Mommy, Look

 Jr.: Someone's bought some grass burritos.

Sour Candy Day 2021

July 18 was Sour Candy Day. My husband said I should take a picture of the sour candy I got for this holiday then take a picture of the kids' sour faces when I told them they couldn't have any. 

Ha Ha Ha Ha. I love my kids. My son is so quick with his humor.

By the way, we all had some sour candy.

It was also Ice Cream Day. We had a big chocolate roll in the freezer that had cream in the middle. We got it out and had "iced" cream.

Bonding Time

July 16 was Ginger Rogers' Birthday. We didn't watch a Ginger Rogers movie that day but the kids were so funny and put on a quick puppet show based on the song, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, Shall We Dance? I put the video of them doing it on YouTube.

July 16 was also Personal Chef's Day so we had personal pizzas on tortillas just like last year.

Both Jr. Jr. and Lucky got bonding time with parents that night. Jr. Jr. and Jeremy went owling and ate "chuckles." They didn't see any owls but Jr. Jr. told me when they got home about seeing mice and deer and I could tell he had a great time.

Lucky and I played video games while wearing our bathrobes and Jet looked on. Lucky's choice. By the end I had to take my bathrobe off, though, because it's Summertime and soooo hot. Also by the end, Lucky decided that even though we were on the same team playing Mario Kart, he would try to defeat me. Bwah ha ha ha. Jr. made us all some popcorn to snack on as well. During a pause in the game, Lucky brought out a surprise. He got us each a can of pop (himself and me, not Jet). So cute. Jr. had ginger ale because of Ginger Rogers' birthday. Because Jr. was so helpful, he and Nichole got to watch a show in another room while Lucky and I had our bonding time.

STEM Boy

He did it! He did it! He did it! Jr. completed all 3 summers of UVU Prep and has learned lots of STEM skills.

He's even found interesting ways to use his skills.

 

Jr.: Alphabet Cow lives!

Mom: This is why Jr.'s doing UVU Prep.

Nichole: So he can bring decapitated children's toys to life.

We've had this toy since Nichole was a toddler. It's been stepped on, dropped, thrown, had heavy objects put on it, you know how it is with some children's toys. It's supposed to be "Alphabet Pal" but it sounds like "Alphabet Cow" so that's what we've been calling it for years.

Well, such is life, Alphabet Cow finally bit the dust. The head cracked and came off completely. Jr. decided to use his skills and tools he had and "bring it back to life." He managed to get it to play music through his headphones since originally the speaker was in the head and he managed to get the lights working. That's my STEM boy.

Jeremy and I were able to go to Jr.'s closing celebration for UVU Prep. We all went as a family the first year and last year they just had a drive-thru to pick up shirts since it was all online.

Jr. had a good experience with this program for three years both in person and online. He was happy to be back in person this year. Can't you tell by his smile how happy he was?

Like the first year the closing celebration was crowded but Jr. was able to show us some of the projects he worked on. He also got a UVU water bottle which he's been waiting three summers for. It's interesting the things he gets excited for. We all have things like that, though.

I'm so glad he enjoyed his time at UVU Prep and I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of things come from what he's learned in the future. Bringing more decapitated children's toys to life? We'll see.

When we got home that night, I quickly let everyone have a gummi worm since it was National Gummi Worm Day on July 15.

It was also World Youth Skills Day and I already commented on Jr.'s STEM skills.

Bastille Day 2021

For Bastille Day on July 14, we watched a Sandra Boynton video of a cat singing a song in French about hoping you don't understand French and saying some silly things in that language. So funny.

Yo Yo Ma played cello for it. Michael Ford (who has collaborated with Sandra Boynton quite a bit with her music) played piano. A little bit of accordion was also thrown in by Weird Al Yankovic. Love it.

July 14 is also Mac & Cheese Day. I made some.

It is also Shark Awareness Day so of course I had to dress Jet in some shark clothes. What a cutie. It's that Sharks and Jets thing again.

Chili Fries with Hot Dogs

Only after we celebrated on July 13 did I look at the blog from last year where we celebrated Beans 'n Franks Day and French Fry Day by having chili cheese fries with hot dogs. Ha Ha. This year we had chili fries with hot dogs (cheese optional). Ha Ha.

It was also Embrace Your Geekness Day (I always thought it was Geekiness, turns out I was wrong). So I hugged my geek of a husband but didn't get a picture. Actually, we did do some geek stuff. We recently started watching The Mysterious Benedict Society TV series. We like the books written by Trenton Lee Stewart so it's been fun to see them keep the feel of the books in the TV series. We watched an episode on Embrace Your Geekness Day. I would consider that fitting in with geekness because a couple years ago for Halloween, Nichole and Jr. both dressed up as characters from the books.

"Lookin at a Thing in a Bag"

How many of you are familiar with Homestar Runner? It was thing when I was in college (and beyond). A website for our generation, referencing things from the '80s (and the 30's?- not my generation- and the future?), but done nowadays (can 20 years ago count as nowadays?). Ever heard of Strongbad, Trogdor, Teen Girl Squad? All from homestarrunner.com You can find videos on YouTube of some of the cartoons and Strongbad emails.

We introduced our children to it a few years ago and every once in a while random quotes will pop out of my mouth (or Jeremy's) and our children sometimes know what we're talking about. They do know the Trogdor song by heart. And if we say, "Throw the baby in the lake," they don't worry.

Anyway, for Family Home Evening activity on Paper Bag Day, July 12, Jeremy came up with a few activities and we wrote them on slips of paper and put them in paper lunch sacks. We rolled a dice then whatever number that was we looked in the bag and did that activity. We only got through a couple activities but we had fun.

We showed the kids the "Lookin at a Thing in a Bag" cartoon from Homestar Runner. I made Kool-aid and got a picture of a cool guy looking at a thing in a bag with a drink.

 

Dinner was simple since July 12 was also Simplicity Day. We had tortillas with peanut butter, raspberry jello without any added fruit for Eat Your Jello Day and I think we may have had cut up apples as well.

Jr. Jr. didn't stay simple with his jello, though. He had fun creating cool patterns in it but did eat it.

Blueberry Muffin Day 2021

July 11 was Blueberry Muffin Day. I made blueberry muffins, normal sized ones for most of us, mini muffins for Jet. He devoured those things.

Since it was also Cheer Up the Lonely Day, Jr. tried to convince me to let him play video games because he was the only one that didn't get candy or a treat at church. He was all alone in that. Sniff Sniff. He hadn't earned it so I let him watch me play since I had earned it. Bwah ha ha.