I Got Her

She commented that it looked like someone had already had some of the Koolaid. Then she tried to pour it out. She actually tried for a while but it wouldn't come out... because it was Jello. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I also made "garlic bread", some of it having garlic salt, some of it having cinnamon sugar. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

My kids are okay with the April Fool's jokes where we can all laugh but still get something good out of it.

A New Twist on an Old Joke

It's tradition for me to play a Kool-aid joke on my kids for April Fool's Day. I've been doing it for years. Originally, I put gelatin in cups with straws and let it set. When the kids tried to drink the colored flavored sugar water, they were in for a surprise. They did get colored flavored sugar water. It was just gelatinous colored flavored sugar water. I did that for a couple years and got them each year. Other ways I've fooled them is by putting actual Kool-aid in the cups so when they were expecting Jello, they got Kool-aid. I've put Jello in a pitcher. I've put Kool-aid in a pitcher. 

This year, Jeremy suggested something different and it worked. I put food coloring in regular water so when they poured Kool-aid from the pitcher then drank it, it just tasted like water.

I told people I was not making dinner again that night (besides the drink) so they helped out. Jr. Jr. made peanut butter sandwiches with a surprise inside- graham crackers and pancake syrup. They tasted good.

Jet played a joke on me that day. Normally when it's time to take kids to school, he's willing to get up and get in the van (especially if he brings a dinosaur with him). That morning he did not want to get up at all and he made it very well known that he did not want to get up at all. It was definitely something trying to get him ready and out the door. Sigh. Oh well.

 

That morning I also made lunch for both Jeremy and Nichole and wrote notes on their bags saying, "Didn't think I'd make you lunch today, did you? April Fool's!"

Here is a picture of a couple of April Fools.

 

Halloween in Quarantine

The kids missed Halloween at school this year on Friday, October 29. We also never finished putting together costumes. Nichole's dragon she started on I Love Yarn Day is still waiting. 

But I was determined to get so much done on Saturday, October 30. It was the kids last chance to get school stuff done before going back in person. There was a ton of things I needed to do myself. Then I woke up at 3am with a sick baby so when we finally got to sleep a little after 7am, we just kept sleeping til noon.

We did do some of our plans, though. We celebrated Jr. Jr.'s birthday again, this time with the dinner he requested and the cake and ice cream he requested. We let him blow out candles this time and we sang to him again. He also got to play the game he got for his birthday again.

That day we found these on our doorstep, a bucket of candy for each child with a note that said, "Happy Halloween from your favorite neighbors." Aww. 

The kids took their buckets and went from door to door down the hall to celebrate Trick or Treat Day. They later had candy corn for Candy Corn Day and we stayed up way too late to watch a movie.

Lucky threw together a costume for himself even if it wasn't what he originally planned. And Jr. Jr. recruited some of Nichole's puppets to help him out.

What Lucky said about his costume: It's Pumpkin Who... or Doctor Pumpkin... but I like Pumpkin Who better.

 

The neighbors put up cool decorations on the lawn again.

Sunday, October 31 was National Knock-Knock Jokes Day so we had Siri and Alexa telling us knock-knock jokes. We were actually able to put together a Halloween themed dinner this year so that was fun. We haven't done that in a while.

Pizza mummy, Ramen loaf creature/face/thing, banana ghosts and mandarin orange pumpkins (we got that idea from a friend on Facebook), and Vampire's blood... or what vampires drink, except the black cherry Kool-Aid doesn't look as dark in a clear goblet. Oh well.

Nichole and I went out for a drive up Provo Canyon, up Squaw Peak and South Fork Road, and said farewell to Bridal Veil Falls for the next six months. It's not like we could go down to the falls right now anyway since there's been construction for a while but we were able to stop at the overlook which is now closed until May. I like relaxing Sunday drives.

"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.

March 32, 2020

There is a tradition in our family for me to fool the kids by making "Kool-Aid" with dinner on April Fool's Day. I make Jello and let it set in cups with straws. Last year I let it set in a pitcher and watched the kids' reaction as they expected the drink to just flow freely.
This year I even heard Jr. Jr. earlier in the day mentioning that we were going to have Jello with dinner. Little did he know what I had planned. I prepared dinner and had the kids set the table, except for cups. Mom would take care of cups. That made them suspect Jello all the more. So when we all sat down to dinner, this is what we got:
Actual Kool-Aid. They were able to suck it up so easily through the straws. "Wait. Is this Kool-Aid?"
Red-and-White Mostaccioli from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner. I used a few different types of pasta in the dish for a little April Fool's fun. (I also used homemade alfredo sauce and homemade spaghetti sauce not from The Food Nanny recipes)
"Garlic" bread. I made two loaves. The first loaf the kids got into turned out to have cinnamon sugar instead of garlic salt. Surprise. When they asked to have some from the second loaf, they were surprised again to find it was actually garlic bread.

These are the kinds of April Fool's Day jokes I like. Nobody gets hurt or mad and everyone gets something good out of it in the end.

National Punch Day 2017

Another holiday celebrated with food.  For National Punch Day, September 20, I tried a new recipe:  crockpot chicken cordon bleu.  Oh, and we had tropical punch colored flavored sugar water.

Legend of Zelda Dinner

February 21 is the Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda so we planned a lovely Legend of Zelda Dinner.  We took ideas from several different games.  Some items fit into multiple games.  Here are some of the things we ate:
Tasty meat (chicken drumsticks)

We also thought of the drumsticks because there are birds in Skyward Sword (ewww) along with clouds (mashed potatoes).

Red chuchus with hearts inside and green chuchus with magic inside (jello jigglers made in mini muffin tins with red or green runts inside)

Magic milk

Blue potion (Kool-Aid)

Deku scrub cheeseball

We also ate carrots since you can feed Epona (horse) carrots to make her go faster.
Some other ideas we came up with but didn't make:
magic refried beans (from magic beans)
salmon burgers (because of fish you can go fishing for)
While we ate Jeremy played The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for us.

I love going with a theme like this.  It's fun to celebrate.

Don't Step on My Blue Kool-Aid

Yesterday, January 8, was the birthday of Elvis Presley.  To celebrate, we had blue kool-aid with dinner and sang songs about having a "blue kool-aid without you," or "I'll have a blue birthday without you."

Lucky is a ham.  But he was a big help stirring up the kool-aid.

I Got the Kids Again

Two years ago for April Fool's Day, I set gelatin in the kids' dinner cups with straws.
I did it again this year and surprised them again.

Lucky kept saying, "Mom, help please," when he couldn't get it to suck up through his straw.  He was the most confused.  He was too little when we did it last time.
I guess the joke was on me in the end, though.  The kids took forever to eat their Jello.  And we got a late start on dinner because we were out this afternoon for a drive looking at birds again.  Sigh.

Almost Missed It

Yesterday, October 15, was the birthday of author, P.G. Wodehouse.  Jeremy and I had talked about celebrating, but we got so busy with things yesterday.  We didn't even check out any of his books at the library while we were there.  Can you believe it?  So I thought we wouldn't actually celebrate.  Oh, well.

However, after I put the older kids to bed last night, I found Jeremy in the kitchen making brownies.

A while ago Jeremy and I made a non-alcoholic drinking game for the TV show, Jeeves and Wooster (based on books written by P.G. Wodehouse).  We made lists in three categories.
For things that happen in most episodes, such as when Jeeves says, "Very good sir," you take a bite of a snack or a sip/drink of a beverage.  For other things that are somewhat common, but don't happen as often as in the first list, such as when one of Bertie's friends falls in love at first sight, you take two bites or drinks.  The last category is for those things that rarely happen, such as when Aunt Agatha makes an appearance without calling Bertie a name, and you get to take a handful or gulp of your snack or beverage.
Our snack of choice for this game is brownies and our beverage of choice is colored flavored sugar water (a.k.a. Kool-Aid or the like).  That explained Jeremy's brownie making in the kitchen.

So after the older kids were in bed we sat down with our brownies and Kool-Aid and watched the first episode of Jeeves and Wooster.  By the end we were a little sick to our stomachs, but just a little.
It had been a while since we played that game and it was fun.