Last Days of School Pics

I got a picture of Nichole the day after finals.

I got a picture of Jr. the day after finals.

I got a picture of Jr. Jr. before school the last day of school.

I got a picture of Lucky and Jet before school the last day of school.

Jet and Lucky both made cards to give to their teachers along with a treat and a balloon flower. 

End of School Year Things

So much happened the end of the school year. Let me try to share some of it. This is not necessarily in order.

 

Field trips! 

Jet went bowling. Lucky went roller skating. The whole school went to watch Paddington at a movie theater. 

When I asked Jet what he liked about bowling, he told me, "I liked knocking down a lot of pins."

 

Reading Hall of Fame! 

Jet and Lucky both did enough reading for the Hall of Fame this year that they got certificates, posters, bookmarks, and a new book each.

Lucky got a special framed certificate and another book for doing the Hall of Fame all the years of elementary school.

 

Student Council Party!

Lucky was the secretary of the Student Council this year and they had a party at the end of the year. When I went to drop him and a friend off for the party, they started heading toward the door then all of a sudden ran the other direction and into the parking lot. A few other kids did the same. I realized, it was because they were helping carry food and things in for the party. No hesitation, these kids immediately went to help. I appreciate seeing this from these students. They are a good example to others (no wonder they were accepted into student council this year). 

Lucky brought home a service award "for outstanding leadership, character, and service."

 

Two of the aides in Jet's class retired this year so we went to a little retirement party held for them at the school and Jet made them cards.

Jr. Jr. also got a bunch of certificates for surviving junior high. He and I went to a celebration. Then we practiced some juggling afterward.

You saw the train he made, right? See my blog post from May 14, 2026. Jr. Jr. brought home a candy dispenser he made, too. 

 

I got to go to an assembly at the elementary school where Lucky was presented with a Hope of America Award. It was awarded to Lucky "who has demonstrated during this school year capacity for leadership, ethical and moral character and outstanding academic accomplishment."

I was talking with a mom of one of Lucky's friends who also got the award about how it was fun to see how several of these students were good friends. It's nice to know that they are good influences on each other. Keep up the good work, kids.

 

I went to the elementary school dance festival to watch Lucky and Jet dance. They both did great. Jet's first and Lucky's last.

What a cool kid.

Woohoo! We survived another school year. 

Jet's Turn

 

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What?

 

International Tea Day 2026

I loved what we did for International Tea Day, May 21, last year so much, I wanted to do something similar this year.

I asked family members what they wanted to eat with our herbal tea. Cucumber sandwiches, of course, were requested. Our favorite recipe for cucumber sandwiches is in Whisk Me Away by Michelle Wright.

We also had raspberry honey butter (also from Whisk Me Away) on English Muffins. My husband requested coffee cake so I made Carrot Cake Coffee Cake (recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe). 

 

Lucky and I made biscuits (also from Whisk Me Away) that he had with leftover sausage gravy.

  

We spent so much time making food that Nichole and I only had time to eat half a cucumber sandwich each before we headed out to a Relief Society activity. I stage my picture and ate when we got home.

 

Our activity was a walk along the Provo River Parkway with a few other ladies. 

I had self control and didn't bring my binoculars and camera yet still got distracted by birds and got way behind the others while I was trying to find a Yellow-breasted Chat I could hear. I never did see it.

Ah, birds... and going for walks... and herbal tea... and celebrating.

Volcanoes and Chocolate

May 17 was National Idaho Day. We had a baked potato bar.

May 18 was Mount St. Helens Day. I took the leftover baked potatoes and made them into mashed potatoes for mashed potato volcanoes. 

Jet had a lot of fun helping put together our volcanoes with dino nuggets and green foliage (broccoli trees and green pepper bushes) and "those poor people" raisins. I put mine on the mountain. He put his in the crater. We had fun with the gravy lava, too. 

I also told Jet to say, "This means something," referencing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

 

May 19 was the Anniversary of the Rubik's Cube. Lucky got points to spend in his classroom store. He saved them up to get a bunch of things at the end of the school year, including rubber duckies and a Rubik's Cube. 

May 20 was Eliza Doolittle Day. I ate too much chocolate. The kids didn't eat a much. The song says, "Lots of chocolate for me to eat." Me, not us. 

Nichole drew chocolate for the holiday.

Jeremy was very impressed with how she was able to do the foil.

 

Everybody did have some chocolate later on in the day. Jr. was asleep but Jet didn't want him to be left out so he kept putting round pieces of wrapped chocolate on his ear but they rolled off so finally a wrapped chocolate coin was put on his head and stayed there for a while. I don't know if Jet did it or someone else, but the next day, Jet made sure Jr. got that piece of candy to eat. 

Mommy, Look

Jr.: I seem to have found myself inside a box.

Barbecued Brine Shrimp... Ewww

O.K. Sometimes I get creative with my post titles when there are multiple holidays I'm blogging about. Sometimes it's not so pretty.

May 16 was Barbecue Day. While Jeremy and Jr. were out running errands, they saw little barbecuing gnome figurines. The gnomes were doing the barbecuing, not being barbecued. Ewww. My post title is getting to me. Each gnome held a hamburger in one hand and a grill spatula (what's the word for it?) in the other hand. Barbecuing gnome figurines. They each also wore a chef's hat in place of a gnome hat. The hat covers their eyes which I don't think is very safe while grilling. Do you?

Anyway... since May 16 is also National Sea Monkey Day, my talented artist daughter showed me her "doodle" page on which she drew a brine shrimp in the bottom right corner to celebrate. You know sea monkeys are brine shrimp, right? 

Thank you, my talented artist daughter, for celebrating.

And thank you to my talented errand-running husband and son for celebrating. 

Dinosaur Day

We've been celebrating Dinosaur Day on May 15 for many years. You know I like dinosaurs. According to Google, a more well known Dinosaur Day is June 1, so... we get to celebrate both now. I'm not complaining.

This year on May 15, though, while dropping Jet off at school, he let me know that he didn't want it to be Dinosaur Day (he used to be more into dinosaurs), he wanted it to be Leprechaun Day. I explained to him that Leprechaun Day was two days before that. Sorry we didn't do anything to celebrate that day (May 13). He made it clear that he preferred leprechauns to dinosaurs and I let him know I preferred dinosaurs to leprechauns and it's fine that we prefer different things. He let the teachers/aides know that leprechauns were green and he liked leprechauns. It really is okay for us to like different things.

After dropping him off, Nichole and I went for a walk to Bridal Veil Falls. We took binoculars and cameras so it ended up being a lot longer walk than it usually is. 

Earlier that week, I either walked by myself or Nichole and I walked to the falls, got our selfies, and walked back. Every time I thought, I should really bring camera and binoculars. So many yellow warblers and other birds but mostly yellow warblers. When I told Jeremy the time before this, I really need to bring camera and binoculars, he commented, I thought you were already planning to. Yeah, but I finally did on Dinosaur Day.

Nichole and I listened to Weird Al Yankovic's "Jurassic Park" on the drive there then got to try out my new selfie stick tripod at the falls. Note my shirt.

On the walk back, we saw lots of birds. Some posed for us and we even spotted a nest with a bird who kept flying away then coming back to it. I'm pretty sure it was a Warbling Vireo.

I love birds.

This Song Sparrow posed for us so nicely. It even sang for us.

 

You know that part in the first Jurassic Park movie where the power's been off at the compound so two of the characters are eating melting ice cream while having a discussion. Nichole and I continued to celebrate Dinosaur Day by eating ice cream later on.

That night, Jet wore dinosaur pajamas.

While we're talking about holidays, "On the 15th of May, in the Jungle of Nool..." we discussed watching Horton Hears a Who but remembered that our DVD of it doesn't work the best. Sigh.

We celebrated National Pizza Party Day. I made dough, Nichole rolled it out, Jr. put the toppings on. Teamwork for International Day of Families.

It was also National Chocolate Chip Day so I ate some chocolate chips throughout the day.

Celebrating lots of holidays is fun!   

We've Been Busy

End of the school year is always busy. It's Maycember. I'll tell you about some of this year's things later.

We can't always do our planned celebrating because there's this event or that event going on. We celebrate in other ways besides the holidays, see?

So in the midst of all of it, Lucky danced for me on Dance Like a Chicken Day, May 14. I appreciated it because I didn't even look at the Calendar of Celebration that day but he did.

Thank you, son. You are amazing.  

Eat What You Want Day

Once Screen Free Week was over, we spent too much time on screens. Sigh.

May 11 was Eat What You Want Day so dinner was FFY (Fend For Yourself) but I just so happened to make a new recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff if anyone wanted any.

Instant Pot Hawaiian Meatballs

Craveworthy for me, that's for sure. 

Mother's Day 2026

I feel like this Mother's Day, some of the celebrating was spread out over a few days.

A few days before Mother's Day, Jet brought home a card he made at school. 

Friday, Jeremy brought me Mother's Day flowers with a card. I love my husband.

Sunday, Jeremy made me breakfast.

Jr. Jr. drew a picture for me.

See. She's holding 5 eggs. I have 5 children. 

 

I got to teach a short Relief Society lesson then we had muffins and yogurt and fruit and socializing for the women.

When Jeremy was going to take most of the kids home (Lucky stayed with me for choir), Jet seatbelted a Mother's Day card in so it would be protected. 

Lucky gave me a card, a candy rose, and two pictures taken by high school photography students. Awww. I love them.

Jeremy gave me a present- a portable selfie stick tripod. I used it when I FaceTimed my mom for Mother's Day- hands free use of my phone. Although I picked it up and pointed it at different family members plenty. Tee Hee.

Later, I found Timothy, the banana slug, using the wrapping paper for a home. Have I mentioned I love my family?

I got to rest and spend some time looking at Jeremy's latest book.

I didn't have to make dinner. Jeremy fixed it for us. It was a hit with the family.

Jet entertained me using his Spidey powers.

I told everyone for Mother's Day, I wanted them to play D&D. They hadn't in a while and I knew Jr. was waiting very patiently to play again. The others couldn't play video games because it was the last day of Screen Free Week so they didn't have a good excuse not to. Bwah ha ha ha.

Jr. made chocolate chip cookies.

On Monday, I found out I missed a present from Jet in his backpack. He decorated a keychain for me.

Awwww. 

I enjoyed my Mother's Day(s) this year. 

I love my family.