First Days of School

I had both Nemo and CoComelon going in my head for the first days of school. Jr. went a day before everyone else again.

I got a picture of Jr. as he was about to the leave the van before going to where the cheerleaders and student council were cheering the students on about being back at school.

I also got a picture of him after school.

Jr. Jr. and Lucky got to meet their teachers that evening (I got pictures).

 

The boys helped decide what we'd have for the last dinner before the first day of school (for everyone). Yumm.

 

The next day I got a picture of all my students at once before school. Yay, me.

After school I got a picture of Jet who wanted to be like his siblings. So cute.

A Week of Celebrating

Monday, August 8, was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. We didn't but look what we harvested later.

 

Tuesday, August 9, was Book Lover's Day. There was a lot of book reading in our home. Go figure.

Wednesday, August 10, was National S'mores Day. Jr. Jr. had a special chocolate bar he wanted to use on his s'more so he did. The rest of us had milk chocolate or dark chocolate.

Thursday, August 11, was Sons and Daughters Day. I took my sons and daughter to the UCB potluck. Jeremy joined us a bit later but it was again nice to be around our friends, the birders.

The kids have had enough experience now with a number of these people, they aren't all strangers. I love it. Plus there was another toddler birder running around the kids had fun playing with.

 

Friday, August 12, was Middle Child's Day. Once again Jr. Jr. picked what we'd have for dinner besides julienne fries which I was going to make anyway because it was Julienne Fries Day. He was okay with that.

We also wanted to see the meteor shower like we saw last year. It was cloudy and there was a really bright moon and it was late so some of us stayed home and some of us went anyway. We only saw a few shooting stars because of the clouds and moon. A couple kids fell asleep on the drive and slept through it but they didn't miss much. Jeremy and I did have a little bonding time with our exact middle child and that was so nice.

This is the three of us... in shadow form. Notice if you can my bunny ears, thanks to my husband, not my middle child... this time.

The next morning, my sister heard a big boom that shook her house. It was decided later that it was a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere and causing a sonic boom.

 

For our at home potluck on Sunday, August 14, I fried up that zucchini from our garden.

Before, After, and After After

 

And this is the rest of what we ate:

Lucky wanted to learn how to make chicken Caesar salad wraps so I taught him for this. He did a good job, he just needed some help with rolling them up.

Nichole made a cheeseball that looked like a lizard on a rock because August 14 was World Lizard Day.

5th of July

The morning after the 4th of July celebrations, we sent the older two boys off to Young Men Camp.

Bye, boys.

Yes, I cried as I drove home.

I made a trip to the library, came home, sat on the couch and...

 

Eventually I got up and got some stuff done. Not as much as I would have liked but some.

 

I managed to make Hawaiian haystacks for dinner that night since the 5th of July was National Hawaii Day.

While we were eating dinner, Jeremy in a whiny voice said, "Please can it be the fifth? I really want it to be the fifth." I looked at the kids' confused faces and said, "He's pleading the fifth." Ohhhh.

World Tapas Day 2022

June 16 was World Tapas Day. What are tapas? I asked that same question when I saw that this was one of the holidays.

Tapas are Spanish appetizers. It's become common to put several together or make adaptations to make a meal out of tapas. So that's what we did to celebrate.

Since June 16 was also Fresh Veggies Day, we had lettuce on the side. The food was a hit and I ended up making the tomato bread again a few days later.

It was also World Sea Turtle Day so I took a picture of Nichole wearing her sea turtle shirt.

Sometimes Dinnertime is... Fun?

I made Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken and noticed the chili peppers looked like slugs as they cooked. 

Of course since it had chili peppers in it, it was spicy.

Mom: There's a reason it's called kung pow.

 

Some dinosaurs came to dinner as they often do.

At one point, Jet started flinging rice all over. Jr. helped clean it up.

Jr.: The spinosaurus is cleaning up. Can you clean up like the spinosaurus?

The stegosaurus started cleaning up.

Jr.: See. This is why the spinosaurus is a carnivore. It's much less messy.

Blueberry Pie

I did it! I deviated from my usual apple pie and made a blueberry pie to celebrate National Blueberry Pie Day on April 28. I don't think I ever made blueberry pie before that. Yay, me!

And it turns out it was simpler than apple pie since I used frozen blueberries and I didn't have to peel or cut apples. Yumm. 

It was also Terry Pratchett's birthday so the kids convinced me to let them watch part of Going Postal.

Cars, Water, Cars, Water

On John James Audubon's Birthday (also known as National Audubon Day) on April 26, Jet and I went out for a walk by the Provo River. We saw some ducks and I saw an American dipper. I love seeing dippers dipping in the water.

At one point we crossed a bridge where there was a barrier between the walking part of the bridge and the driving part. I lifted Jet so he could see the water in the river and he immediately got excited when he could see the cars going by. So we took some time looking back and forth between the cars and the water. Cars, water, cars, water.

A few days later, Jet and I went to the BYU botany pond. I haven't been there for many years, not since they made it the "botany pond." I used to pass it all the time when there was just a duck pond there when I was in college. 

Jet loved seeing the ducks and ducklings and the fence around the pond is the perfect height for a toddler. I saw Jet turning around at one point saying, "Cars, water, cars, water." I realized it was because we were between the pond and the street and he remembered from before. I thought that was pretty cute.

Back to Audubon Day, April 26 was also National Pretzel Day. Jeremy and I made soft pretzels after the kids went to bed (except Jr. Jr. made one pretzel because Jet kept running back to their room so Jr. Jr. kept bringing him back out). Jet of course helped with the dough. He is my baking buddy.

Some of the kids also had crunchy mini pretzels for after school snack.

The next day, April 27, was Babe Ruth Day so we had Baby Ruths after school.

Garlic and Fries

April 19 was Garlic Day. I made garlic bread to go along with lasagna that I didn't get pictures of. What I did get pictures of was the beautiful dough after it raised and before I shaped it into french bread loaves. I like baking.

I also got a picture of the ricotta cheese before I used it in the lasagna. The seal on it says EZPEEL. Sigh. I could NOT get any more of that seal peeled off. I just couldn't. So much for Easy Peel. I ended up scooping it out through the section I did get off. Sigh.

April 20 was Cheddar Fries Day. I was going to make a cheddar cheese sauce but I ended up just getting some nacho cheese out of the freezer and using that. Then I thought I'd add some chili to make it a good rounded chili cheese fries side dish.

I also spent I don't know how much time debating whether to run to the store to buy hamburger buns or not. There wasn't time to make hamburger buns and the rolls I made previously were too small for the size of hamburgers we had. I finally decided to use bagels we had in the cupboard. Of course later it finally donned on me- how many times in the past have we used regular bread when we had burgers? Duh. But the bagels worked nicely.

O.K. And I didn't get any pictures but April 21 was Yellow Bat Day and I did check out some books about bats at the library and Jet did look at some.

Velociraptor Awareness Day

April 18 was Velociraptor Awareness Day. Jr. Jr. and Lucky made me "aware" of where to find Jet's velociraptor toy. Then she spent the day with us.

 

All showered and ready to go.

Helping with chores.

Let's make bread.

Reading books.

Let's pick up kids from school.

After school snack of animal crackers for National Animal Crackers Day (also April 18).

Dinner guest.

Wow, that day was exhausting.