First Week of March

March 1 was Share a Smile Day. Jeremy and the kids played and smiled together. 

Dr. Seuss' Birthday (Read Across America Day) was on March 2. We read books of course.

And we ate green eggs and ham. This time it was in the form of fried rice. I do like to find creative ways to celebrate.

 

March 3 was Soup It Forward Day and National Cold Cuts Day so we had Ogre Stew (from The Fablehaven Cookbook) and ham sandwiches.

March 4 was Grammar Day. There was some correcting of grammar that day, maybe some editing of someone's writing? If I don't have pictures or don't write it down, I don't always remember.

 

March 5 was National Cheese Doodle Day. Jeremy suggested people draw pictures of cheese. I did.

Oreo Cookie Day (Birthday of the Oreo Cookie) was March 6. Jeremy got creative. We actually sang Happy Birthday.

 

We celebrated National Cereal Day on March 7 with cheese and pickle sandwiches again. It's tradition.

 

 

Not a Chip on Your Shoulder

I've heard of a chip on your shoulder but a Kix on your shoulder? I have no idea how it got there.

Mommy, Look

Jr. Jr.: I think my cereal's trying to run away from me.

November 15

November 15 was Steve Irwin Day. Jet and I saw some living fish. I remembered to call them "gorgeous." I also thought about how their species have been around for millions of years.

November 15 was Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. We ate leftovers.

 

November 15 was Raisin Bran Cereal Day. Jet and I made muffins from The Fiction Kitchen Trio Cookbook. I love my baking buddy.

 

That was November 15.

Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day

Since Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day and Bram Stoker's Birthday are on the same day, November 8, I often cook something with garlic on that day. This year, however, I made Indian food. I'm trying to do more shelf cooking and I actually inventoried our pantry in October and found some items that I had forgotten about. One of those was a tikka masala simmer sauce so I started with that. I used an Easy Homemade Naan recipe from the Summer volume of A Season of Family Meal Plans. I didn't make it in the Summer so I wanted to try it with this. I made the naan the day before which helped. I also made chana and rice to go with the meal. Yumm. I love the smell of Indian food.

Since I still wanted to celebrate Bram Stoker's Birthday, the kids had Count Chocula cereal. Woohoo. Celebrated!

More Traditions

March 6 was National Frozen Food Day. For dinner we had chicken cordon bleu casserole that we had frozen a few months ago. I took some pinto beans from the freezer and made them into refried beans. We had lil' smokies in the freezer. We heated those up with BBQ sauce.. We steamed frozen broccoli. We drank ice water.

Yes, we know how to celebrate.

Earlier a few family members had root beer floats with ice cream that came from the freezer.

We love finding reasons to celebrate.

March 6 was also the birthday of the Oreo cookie. Early in the day, Lucky and I listened to Weird Al's "The White Stuff." Jeremy bought some more Oreos (we already had birthday cake Oreos at home) but we didn't eat them until the next day.

We had Oreos and I made rice crispy treats which we ate on National Cereal Day, March 7.

Then as is tradition for Cereal Day, Jeremy and the boys made cheese and pickle sandwiches. 

I went to a Relief Society Birthday Fiesta with a group of gals where we listened to Reyna Aburto speak then had dinner and entertainment by Somos Bolivia Group.

That was a fun time with those gals. (draw your own conclusions why...)

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What really happened

(yet another one of Lucky's conclusions)

(based on a true story)

 Once we made it to "Birthday Fiesta" the real partying happened. We grabbed a handful of peach cobbler and threw it at Reyna Aburto. Then Reyna threw it at someone else and then on and on. Once the food fight was over we took out a pinata and smacked it with a baseball bat that someone provided once the pinata broke out spilled little house elves that cleaned up the whole stake center. After the house elves cleaned up the stake center they announced it was the end and to exit out specific doors. When walking through those doors the house elves cleaned you up and made sure there was no sign of anything happening other than a nice quiet evening.

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Grain-Free Cereal?

Me: How do you get grain-free cereal?

Jr. Jr.: I know. Isn't cereal literally grains?

Me: I know.

Jr. Jr.: They could use bones. They are a great substitute for grains. As proved by giants.

Me (making a disgusted face)

Jr. Jr.: They don't have to use human bones. They can use rat bones. Giants just use human bones because they're the right size.

Me (making another disgusted face)

Then I looked closer at the picture. That's a walrus. I thought at first maybe it was the walrus and the carpenter from Alice and Wonderland. Maybe they use oysters to make the cereal. Then I realized the guy is riding on the walrus. Now I'm really confused.

Jr. Jr.: Maple waffle? Aren't waffles also made from grains?

Me: And what's with the walrus's eyes?

Jr. Jr.: We're just completely delving into the packaging of "Magic Spoon."

National Cereal Day 2022

National Cereal Day was on March 7. To go along with tradition we had cheese and pickle sandwiches for dinner.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my blog post from March 7, 2014, for why I originally had a cheese and pickle sandwich on that holiday. We've celebrated that way a few years since then.

I love finding reasons to celebrate. I love the creativity that comes in our family when finding ways to celebrate. I also love seeing what turns into traditions.

National Cereal Day 2021

It's become tradition. On National Cereal Day, March 7, we eat cheese and pickle sandwiches (or at least talk about eating cheese and pickle sandwiches). 

Some of the kids also ate cereal that day.

Mall Time with Mommy

Yesterday I wanted to get out, so Lucky and I went to the Provo Towne Centre mall to go up and down escalators, race coins down a hole, and play in the play area.

I pointed out different places in the mall and told him stories.  "Daddy used to work in a store that was in this spot."  "Daddy and Mommy used to make balloon animals on New Year's Eve on one of these bridges."  "I used to ride the bus here when I was in college to do some shopping."  And Lucky showed me the colored tiles he likes to dance on.

Good bonding time.

Today, January 31, is Backwards Day.  For breakfast we had spaghetti and salad (what we would normally have for dinner).

Lucky decided to wear his clothes backwards.  Jr. Jr. decided that for Backwards Day, he was going to wear his shirt frontwards since he often wears his shirts backwards.

Jr. wrote his name on his lunch backwards so you could read it the right way in the mirror.

While the kids were in school, Lucky and I took a trip to the Provo Library to explore.  It's been many years since I was a patron of that library.  I had more stories to tell Lucky (like yesterday's mall stories).  "This is where Nichole learned to crawl up and down steps when she was really little."
"Like this?"

At one point we were walking down a set of stairs when Lucky just stopped.  He told me, "I'm on an escalator."  Ha Ha Ha.  But it wasn't moving.

Ah, that's better.

After our library trip, we went to the mall again to play some more.

Later in the day, we had cereal for dinner (Backwards Day).

Nichole and I went to the Orem Library even later to pick up some books and for Nichole to fill out a goal sheet in the teen section about wanting to read 30 new books.  We picked out a few while we were there.

It was quite the Backwards Day.  Lucky was really cute walking backwards down the ramp from the parking lot to the library.  It was fun to celebrate.

National Cereal Day 2018

March 7 is National Cereal Day.
We ate cereal.

The End.

Celebrating with Books

Here's a way to catch up.  There have been a lot of holidays lately that could be celebrated with books so I did some planning and checking out books from the library to prepare.  I'll let you know what those holidays are and suggestions for books to read to celebrate.
October 21 was Reptile Awareness Day.  The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash (and its sequels).

October 22 was National Color Day.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

October 23 was National Mole Day.  The Wind in the Willows.  Lucky was so adorable that evening.  He opened the book and started making up his own story according to the pictures in the book.  It was so cute to hear.  I was tired enough, though, that I fell asleep in my room while listening to him read in the living room.  He was "reading" for a long time, though.  So adorable.

October 26 was Steven Kellogg's Birthday.  The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash (and its sequels).  I just couldn't help it with the cereal again.

October 31 was National Knock Knock Jokes Day.  I checked out a bunch of Knock Knock Jokes books.

November 1 was Vinegar Day.  The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle.

November 5 is Marooned Without a Compass Day.  In Search of the Castaways.  I tried another Jules Verne book last year- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  I only read 85 pages of it before I couldn't handle it anymore.  As Jeremy said, "A little more fiction, a little less science, please."  I'm already beyond that many pages and I'm enjoying In Search of the Castaways.  Family Home Evening activity tonight was watching the Hayley Mills movie.  It's fun to see how many scenes from the book they put in the movie even if they changed them a little.  Obviously there are more differences than similarities but I am enjoying the book and I already know I enjoy the movie.

Nichole earned a reward at school and picked out a little toy compass.  When it was time to take pictures with the book and movie, she couldn't find her compass.  "Oh no.  I'm marooned without a compass."  I love it.

Donut Cereal

September 14 was National Cream Filled Donut Day.  We got a little creative with this one.
We had donut cereal in the pantry and milk is close enough to cream.  I mean, cream is a part of milk, right?
Anyway, we added cheerios to the donut cereal, poured milk in it and voila.  Celebrated.

Cereal... Again

It's that time of year again.  Lots of reasons to celebrate with cereal.
We celebrated the anniversary of William Kellogg founding the breakfast cereal company on February 19 by having those individual boxes of Kellogg's cereal again... this time for dinner.

We had a decent breakfast and lunch so cereal for dinner totally works.

Steven Kellogg's Birthday

To celebrate Steven Kellogg's birthday on October 26, we read Jimmy's Boa Constrictor books (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) while eating Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (no relation).

Happy Birthday, Emily Post

I really couldn't resist.

October 27 is Emily Post's birthday and though I didn't have any plans to go to the library or the grocery store, that changed when Jeremy suggested this way to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Steven Kellogg

I couldn't resist. 

October 26 is Steven Kellogg's Birthday and I was going to the library and the grocery store anyway.

Let's Face It

You know?  My family is awesome.  Yes, it's true.  And we do a lot of neat things together.  Yes, we do.
But...
Let's face it.  Sometimes things are just not that great.
Today things were not that great.
One of my children and I did not get along very well.  That's a nice way of putting it.
After taking some time to cool off, I went to the kitchen to find that another of my children dumped cereal out all over the already messy kitchen.

Later on, another child decided to play in the cereal and spread it around even more.

I needed the motivation to clean the kitchen floor.  I got it.

I managed to throw away a lot of stuff that needed to be thrown away and I managed to sweep, but Lucky woke up before I had a chance to mop.  Oh well.  Save it for another day, I guess.
By the end of the day, though, the kids and I were getting along.  They even got to watch me play a computer game while we ate dinner in the living room since there was no room at the kitchen table.
Sigh.  Life.