Spring

 

It's Spring!

Since it was a mild Winter, Spring just sort of showed up. So many blossoms with it. So many sneezes.

I've gotten out for a few walks, including walking home from choir practice after church. Lovely lovely Achoo. 

I've also taken walks at the lake again. It's been a while. 

I want to go for more walks. 

On the first day of Spring, March 20, I spent some time debating what to make from the Fablehaven Cookbook (it's tradition). We ended up having sandwiches- some fluffernutter types- and ate some more of the caramel biscuit bars. 

 

Other May thins

Went out for a walk and some birding. Could only go so far because the Spring bugs got annoying.

The birds sure enjoyed them. It was fun to watch them snapping at the bugs while sitting in the tops of trees.

 

Lucky is a voracious reader and got even more rewards from school for reading different genres.

Libby the Librantula was out several times when I visited the library. It is always fun to see her out of her burrow.

It's Spring

You can tell it's Spring because there's green on the hills.

Palindrome Days

It's always fun when there are interesting dates on the calendar. Remember 2-22-22?

Or 12-31-23?

 

I recently told my brother of an experience I had.

Me: Happy 04-14-24

Paco: That's a good one! Happy sequential day to you, too!

Me: Thanks. It was funny how I realized it. I was putting away dinner leftovers and as I was putting the date on the label, I saw 4-14-24, thought it was cool, and quickly added a 0 to the front.

Palindrome dates are fun, too. We had fun in January of 2021 with 1-21-21 and 1-22-21, etc.

 

My brother and I texted each other a few times during recent "palindrome days." 4-20-24 through 4-29-24 or 42024 through 42924. Palindrome days!

 

4-20-24 I'll blog about later. But here's a hint.

 

4-21-24 Tuna Rights Day. Lucky ate tuna. Bwah ha ha ha!

I walked home after choir after church.

4-22-24 Jelly Bean Day. I had a handful of jelly beans.

 

4-23-24 Cherry Cheesecake Day. I made Cherry Cheesecake from a box. Jr. Jr. loved it. He ate more than anyone else.

4-24-24 Pigs in a Blanket Day. I made Lil' Smokies in a Blanket.

We also got Nichole home from BYU!

My brother texted me: Happy 42424! Not as cool as the last one, but is a palindrome for Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

 

Speaking of Life, the Universe, and Everything, Jeremy and Nichole went to that writing conference in February. During these Palindrome Days, they watched some videos online from another writing conference for fantasy. And Nichole shaped a cheeseball that looked like a dragon for them to snack on while watching classes.

4-25-24 Telephone Day. Nichole used a cell phone in a video game. 

Zucchini Bread Day. I made zucchini bread (and the next day I took some to a friend who I knew liked zucchini bread). 

World Penguin Day. We had fish sticks (and zucchini bread). 

National Plumbers Day. Jr. played Mario music on guitar. 

Perfect Date Day. It was nice weather until it rained. My sister and brother-in-law went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I didn't but here's a picture of tulips.

4-26-24 I text my brother again to wish him Happy 4-26-24

 

4-27-24 I made baked donuts but... filled the batter too much so they had muffin tops. So Lucky and I pulled off around the outside parts to make them a little bit more donut shaped.

4-28-24 Terry Pratchett's birthday. Look for a blog post about that soon. 

4-29-24 We had family home evening while I was making dinner so the kids colored pictures while sharing the table with ingredients.

 

Those were our recent Palindrome Days.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Goofing off on National Goof Off Day? I think not. On March 22, Jet decided to be a big helper and helped me make dinner.

I was making Green Goddess Pitas from "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1. He saw me putting together the cabbage filling, saw the spinach that I was going to use for the dressing, and decided to help by putting bits of spinach in with the cabbage. So we had whole pieces of spinach in with it. That's fine.

Since we did need the spinach in the dressing, I gave Jet a measuring cup and he filled it with spinach himself to put in the blender. He started to do more in the measuring cup so we had a bit more than just the cup of spinach it called for which is fine.

I love that he chooses to help in the kitchen. You know he's my baking buddy. He's also my cooking buddy. He likes when I hand him the measuring spoons and cups to dump ingredients into something. He wanted to help cut onions with a plastic knife but we put a stop to that once he started rubbing his eyes. Poor kid. I did give him pieces of cucumber which he was able to cut with a plastic knife.

Sometimes he really is a big helper. And sometimes... I mean he did help clean the wall the day before... after he took a pencil and ran it back and forth along the wall multiple times.

This is why I refuse to read my children the book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon", which is one I read in my childhood. It's a fun book but I don't want to give them ideas (especially Jet).

The pitas turned out well. It was my turn to make hummus to go with it and we had some left over for Chip and Dip Day on March 23. I also made tzatziki with sour cream (so good) for Chip and Dip Day. I used the recipe from the beginning of the year when we made pitas before. Some people had salsa with their chips.

Earlier that day, Jeremy, Nichole, Lucky, and I went on a Utah County Birders field trip. Unfortunately it was getting ready to storm so there wasn't a lot to see in the way of birds but it was still nice to be around my birding peeps (see what I did there, birding peeps? 'Cause small sandpipers are called peeps? Tee Hee).

We got a thunderstorm and hail later that day and the next day we got snow.

Ah, Spring.

The next day after that, March 25, was International Waffle Day. Jet decided to be my helper in the kitchen again and helped stir the waffle mix before I put it in the waffle iron. Then he was happy to help eat the waffles. Tee Hee.

More April Holidays

We ate chicken nuggets for Tuna Rights Day on April 21. Nichole likened it to cows trying to get people to eat chicken.

 

On Earth Day, April 22, Jr. and Jr. Jr. helped with the city's Spring Cleanup for our neighborhood.

I did not get a picture of Nichole and Jr. wearing their Earth Day shirts.

 

We ate some picnic foods for dinner on National Picnic Day, April 23.

 

On National Telephone Day, April 25, we ate honey "graham" ice cream because Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. And Blue"Bell" is a brand of ice cream.

Jr. Jr. brought home some pretzels to eat on National Pretzel Day, April 26.

 

The kids started watching Going Postal on April 28, Terry Pratchett's Birthday.

Easter 2022

It was a lovely Easter at church. Jeremy missed it because he was staying home with a couple sick kids but they were able to watch Sacrament Meeting online still. I'm grateful for that. We've had so much sickness this school year. I thought we were finally getting out of it (you know- Spring) but four of my kids have missed school because of sickness in the last couple weeks (and I only have four school age kids, the fifth missed church). This is what I get for mentioning about getting out of sick season to some people. I jinxed it. But Easter was still nice.

So like I said, church was nice. Lucky got to sing with the Primary in Sacrament Meeting. I got to sing with the choir. There were a couple Primary age girls sitting next to me in choir so those girls got to sing every time. They did a good job, too.

We had a pleasant Easter dinner (we made some last minute substitutions and that's okay).

Since April 17 was also Blah Blah Blah Day, we made sure to read a book to Jet about the busiest brontosaurus who just wants to talk and talk and talk. "Blah blah blah blah blah." 

It is one of three board books that Grandma and Grandpa gave to Jet while they were visiting. Jet looooves those books. He will bring them to us and have us read them to him over and over and over. Sometimes he will get the matching dinosaur toy out to "read along." Grandma and Grandpa also gave him a new triceratops which he will hold while we read the book about the tricky triceratops. Jet's triceratops will even look at the pictures. It is soooooo adorable. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa. You hit a home run on these gifts.

P.S. I learned how to make a bunny out of a napkin.