Catching Up August 2025 part I'm not even going to number them this time

August 6 was Wiggle Your Toes Day. I wiggled my toes. Luckily that is an easy one to celebrate because August was crazy and like July, we skipped a lot of things we normally celebrate.

Jeremy and I took a walk around the local farmer's market and saw how crowded it was.

We're still cute. 

Afterward we went home and had root beer floats for Root Beer Float Day.

August 8 was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors' Porch Night. I really wanted to celebrate this with zucchini from our garden. The timing didn't work out. Bummer. One was close but it didn't work out.

What I did do that night was go to a Girls Gather activity. Spa Night.

Nichole, Stephanie, and I got together for a relaxing evening. We soaked our feet. We did some meditation. We ate snacks. We played games. We talked and talked.

Oh, I love Stephanie. She is such a good friend and good example. She taught me the following: How do you thrive through trials? Embrace a spa. S=Scriptures P=Prayers A=Affirmations. 

I needed that night and I'm grateful for taking the opportunity to breathe and relax.

 

Like Nichole and Jr. did in July, Lucky took swim lessons in August.

August 10 was Lazy Day. I wasn't that lazy but I did have a moment of resting that day. Jr. came and joined me in my room showing me on his phone what Lucky was doing in VR Golf. I got to watch with Jr. as Lucky made an impossible shot, bouncing off the railing of some stairs down into the area it was supposed to be, maybe even into the hole. I don't remember exactly. It was awesome, though.

Another day we played VR Golf for Family Home Evening. It was my first time ever doing VR. Obviously other family members have done it. Kind of crazy the first time. Lots of "Whoah."

 

August 11 was Play in the Sand Day. I chose not to because of the algal bloom in the lake. I did look at the sand, though, and got a nice morning picture in my spot that I like. 

 

August 13 was Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday. We watched two Alfred Hitchcock movies that day. I slept through one of them.

And Then Things Got Crazy

After Jeremy and I had such a nice relaxing anniversary celebration, our family then had a crazy busy week.

August 13 was Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday. It was also my nephew's birthday, my brother's anniversary, and a good friend's anniversary. Hence the bow earrings.

There were back to school nights and first days of schools.

When taking Jr. Jr. to back to school night, it was fun to see Nichole's ceiling tile was still up right outside the library.

Lucky's teacher has a Harry Potter themed room this year so he got to run through the "wall" at Platform 9 3/4 to get into his classroom to meet his teacher.

I asked what the boys wanted for first day of school breakfast. "Apple Pancakes" from The Fablehaven Cookbook. Are we surprised? No.

Jr. Jr. had two first days of school pictures because he had two first days. 7th grade day and everyone's first day.

We also went to a Utah County Birders potluck that week. The kids had fun running around and one of the birder's little boy joined in the fun.

We celebrated National Fajita Day on August 18.

We had a neighborhood end of Summer party for our ward that week as well. It rained pretty hard and was windy while we were there.

Crazy busy. I tell you.

What They Missed- August 13

Thursday, August 13-
I had another rant I wrote down on this day's notes that I am again not going to put on here. Instead here is a sculpture Lucky made out of puzzle blocks.

It's a person sitting on a couch watching TV. It even has couch cushions.

We sat down to dinner of sweet and sour chicken (since Jeremy wasn't there and he can't stand pineapple but I love it) and talked about The Food Nanny and sitting down to dinners together (as a family, not with the food nanny).

We also talked about a little riddle thing from the Gospel Living app. It was originally from The New Era magazine from June 2017.
You figure out a word that fits two different clues with different meanings. The example they gave was "1/60 of a minute and a silver medal." The answer is "second." Get it?
Jr. Jr. got creative after we went through all of them and came up with a few of his own. They all ended up being about bowling but that's just fine. He's clever. Themes are fun.
Here's what he came up with. See if you can figure them out and I'll put the answers at the end of this post.
1. "Water comes out of me when it rains."  "Dang it! I missed all the pins."
2.  "Could you leave a few cookies?"  "Yes! I got the last two pins."
3.  "Ow! That really hurt. You hit me with a bat."  "Yes! I got all the pins in one try."

After dinner, we celebrated Alfred Hitchcock's birthday with cupcakes. We put a candle in one and took turns blowing it out after singing "Happy Birthday" to Alfred Hitchcock each time. I took pictures.

I had too much fun trying to get different angles with the knife and reflections, not unlike how Alfred Hitchcock would direct the cinematography in his films.

I also watched three different versions of The Lady Vanishes (one of my favorite Hitchcock films). One in the middle of the night/early morning, one in the middle of the day, and one late that night/early morning.

We fed the birds at sunset and saw the evening star while it was still pretty light out. The evening star is actually a planet- it's Venus. That's always fun.
We didn't stick around or come back out to look for meteors or UFOs that night.

Did you figure out the answers based on Jr. Jr.'s clues?
Here are the answers.
1. Gutter
2. Spare
3. Strike

Appreciate Hot Chocolate

January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day.  We had fish sticks for dinner since some dragons like fish (How to Train Your Dragon).  We didn't do a lot else to celebrate the holiday.  Most years we watch Pete's Dragon or How to Train Your Dragon.  This year since it was a day off school, I asked the kids what they wanted to do.  Some of them gave their opinions. 
Jr. wanted to play Minecraft and let anyone else who wanted to play play. 
Jr. Jr. wanted to try out his new recipe for hot chocolate (which he came up with for a homework assignment).  Take as many flavors of hot chocolate as you want and combine them then add toppings such as ice cream, whipped topping, marshmallows, and candy canes (the candy canes sink so they're not really "toppings").  We had 5 flavors of hot chocolate to choose from.  It was fun.

The kids all did get to play Minecraft.  I watched Alfred Hitchcock movies.  I wasn't planning on introducing my children to Alfred Hitchcock movies so soon, but when they came in just in time to see the death scene with the scissors in Dial M for Murder, I figured they could handle it.  So we watched To Catch a Thief and later The Man Who Knew Too Much with James Stewart and Doris Day.
Jeremy did some birding and shopping.
In the afternoon/evening we went out for a drive.
Now it's the end of the day.  Kids are going to bed and Jeremy and I are going to see if we can find a dragon-themed movie to watch.

Cheeseball and Pastrami

My friends and I decided to do Girls' Night for Friday the 13th and watch a scary movie- well, suspenseful movie.  An Alfred Hitchcock movie.  I thought it would be fun to bring cheeseball and crackers and you know I like making shaped cheeseballs (I've made death star cheeseball more than once, for example).  So I couldn't resist when I thought about Alfred Hitchcock's famous profile.

My friends got a kick out of the cheeseball and we had so much fun talking that we never even got around to watching the movie.

Saturday the 14th is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day.  We ate them like we usually do for the holiday.  It was a busy day so it's great we had something simple on the menu plan.

Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday

August 13 is Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday.  I told the kids we were going to visit the Wonders, but we were going to do it mysteriously.

Petra looks so cool.