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. 

Balloon Bonding

Real quick- August 22 was Be an Angel Day. It's become tradition to have angel hair pasta that day with alfredo sauce and chicken. Yumm. 

 

Now to what I really wanted to blog about.

 

Every year, Jeremy volunteers to build a balloon sculpture in the children's section of the Orem Library for the Summer Reading Program. He's been doing it for over 15 years. This year, because of construction, they didn't have him do that. He and Lucky did teach simple balloon animals at the Kid's Art Gala and in August, they built a balloon sculpture to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the children's wing of the library.

I'm very impressed with how Lucky is picking up the balloon sculpting. He built the number 30 and the hat. Way to go both Jeremy and Lucky. I love that Lucky's getting into this and they are getting to have this bonding time together.

Since they were building on Gene Kelly's Birthday on August 23, when I went to deliver some missed items to them (I'm also a helper), I found Lucky dancing around to celebrate.

Later to also celebrate Gene Kelly's Birthday, I wore my bow earrings and pirate ship necklace and we watched "The Pirate" which Gene Kelly was in with Judy Garland.

 

That evening, we went to an end of the Summer neighborhood barbecue. I had a great time socializing. I love our neighborhood.

Catching Up June 2025 part something or other

Who needs pictures of people when you can have pictures of food? 

June 17 Eat Your Vegetables Day

We're still using A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page. Love those cookbooks. We had Sausage Potato Hobo Packs and made cornbread (a recipe I have in a recipe box) for a side dish. Yumm. 

June 18 National Splurge Day

We decided to have a barbecue and spent money on some things for it. We had Polish Sausages and Jeremy brought home some marinated veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, onions) from Marcus' barbecue which we put on skewers and grilled. For dessert we bought waffle cones to make waffle cone s'mores. One of the activities for library Summer Reading was "make something tasty together for a BBQ." A friend stopped by and joined us for a while. It's nice to share.  

June 19 World Tapas Day

We tried some new Spanish appetizers. We had a different version of Pan Con Tomate. We had Orange and Avocado Salad. We had Spanish Garlic Cauliflower. 

June 20 Vanilla Milkshake Day

We had vanilla milkshakes but with chocolate powder and peanut butter in them, so our usual woo-woo drink. I also told people they could make fluffernutter sandwiches with whatever bread they could find since it was the Summer Solstice. We had baguettes left over from our tapas.

June 21 National Selfie Day 

I didn't take any selfies that day. I was planning to celebrate, it just didn't happen. 

June 22 Meryl Streep's Birthday

I wore my bow earrings. I did not wear my pirate ship necklace because I couldn't think of any pirate movies she was in.

June 22 was also National Kissing Day. Jeremy and I celebrated. 

June 23 Detroit Style Pizza Day

Detroit Style Pizza is kind of like upside down pizza. The sauce goes on top after the cheese and toppings. 

June 24 International Fairy Day

We kept it simple with Easy Fairy Folk Tortilla Pizzas from The Fablehaven Cookbook. 

More Summer Reading Activities

You know we love doing Summer Reading Program activities with both Orem Library and Provo Library. Some other things we've done lately are these:

The kids and I went to watch a movie at Orem Library. They were playing the 1973 cartoon, Robin Hood. Such a cute movie. 

Another day at another Summer barbecue, they were handing out bubbles so we had a bubble party! They also had sidewalk chalk. Fun.

After that barbecue we went out in nature to do some birding before we went home.

Lucky participated in a tween activity with the Orem Library. It was a Percy Jackson inspired "Camp Half-Blood" where he was able to participate in different activities/events such as archery, capture the flag, a lightning bolt scavenger hunt, even some Percy Jackson trivia. Doing different activities earned him different beads to add to a necklace. Way to go, Lucky.

Summer Reading activities are awesome.

My Kids Crack Me Up

When I mentioned to Jr. Jr. that May 16 was Sea Monkey Day, he told me, "Mom, you should make your bread have ears because... monkey sea, monkey dough."

I laughed so much.

He didn't know that I already had on my plans for the day to make monkey bread but since his comment I just had to do it this way:

He was quite pleased when he saw them.

It was also Barbecue Day so we had BBQ chicken pizza.

May 17 was Pizza Party Day so we ate pizza and played video games. 

 

That day was also Something Other Than a Backpack Day at the high school where students are encouraged to bring something... other than a backpack to put their school supplies for the day. This year students brought such things as laundry baskets, a toy shopping cart, sports bags, and one student carried a small canoe or some sort of boat thing.

Jr. took his guitar case with guitar inside. He was able to fit all his necessary stuff for the school day in the outside pocket. He didn't need much as he was going on a field trip to the Utah Symphony that day so could leave his guitar and case in the band room at the school.

Fablehaven Cookbook

Another day in August, I took the kids to the Provo Library for the launch party of The Fablehaven Cookbook.

We got there nice and early so we could get our copy of the book and get good seats.

We got signatures from the authors, Brandon Mull, and his sister-in-law, Cherie Mull, as well as signatures from characters from the book series. 

We got to sample some treats (so good) from the cookbook and since then we've used the book a lot. Lucky even insisted on making "Fairy Toast" as soon as we got home that evening after the event.

I'm so glad we went. It was such a neat experience hearing what Brandon Mull and Cherie Mull shared about creating the cookbook and it was fun to see so many characters walking around.

I told you we're Brandon Mull fans around here.

The next day was National Book Lover's Day, August 9. I started the day off listening to an audiobook while going for a walk. 

There was plenty of book reading by my children throughout the day, including on the way to and at a barbecue.

We ended the day with some "Goblin Glop Trifle" which Jr. made. Guess where he got the recipe? That's right. The Fablehaven Cookbook.

Oh, and August 10 was National S'mores Day. There is a recipe for "S'mores Pizza" in the Fablehaven Cookbook so of course we made that.

And that morning I had "Grandma Sorenson's Egg in a Hole."