Here's Some More Catching Up

May 13 was Leprechaun Day, Crouton Day, Fruit Cocktail Day, and Apple Pie Day. Guess what. We celebrated.

Ah, homemade croutons and homemade apple pie. Mmmmmm.

Besides given ourselves "gold" coins for Leprechaun Day, we also turned on Irish music and had some fun moving to the music. 

Lucky decided to use his fruit to make a kebab. Why not? 

 

May 14 was Dance Like a Chicken Day and Buttermilk Biscuit Day. We made Biscuits and "Gragy" from Shelf Cooking 101 by Jordan Page.

Of course we danced like chickens.

 

May 15 was Dinosaur Day, National Chocolate Chip Day, and International Day of Families. We had Dino nuggets and chocolate chip pancakes with our family.

 I also got out for a walk that morning with a friend I haven't been able to do anything with for a while.

Catch of the Day

That poor chicken.

Holidays

May 13 was Crouton Day, Apple Pie Day, and Fruit Cocktail Day.

I made croutons and apple pie and I opened up a can of fruit cocktail and put it in a bowl.

May 14 was Buttermilk Biscuit Day. I made Biscuits and "Gragy" from Shelf Cooking 101. Leftovers rounded it out.

It was also Dance Like a Chicken Day so one of my kids walked into my room dancing like a chicken. Have I mentioned I love my kids?

Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches

Wow. My life really does revolve around food... and I'm not even a food blogger. I blog about reasons to celebrate and ways to celebrate. And one of the easiest ways to celebrate is with food. Well, easy to plan to celebrate with food. Sometimes the food takes a long time to prepare like when I make Indian food.

Anyway, here's more celebrating with food. 

January 30 is National Croissant Day. I happened to be looking at my calendar before I went into Costco the other day and saw this so I picked up some croissants so I could make chicken salad croissant sandwiches. Mmmmmm.

It was the kids turn to make dinner but I did want these sandwiches so I contributed and the kids did the rest. Good job, kids.

Late Night S'mores

August 30 was National Toasted Marshmallow Day. There were late night s'mores... for some. Some went to bed (that would be me).

August 31 was National Trail Mix Day. We had trail mix for after school snack.

September 1 was Chicken Boy Day. We had chicken drumsticks. It was also No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day which is as good an excuse as any to put together a puzzle while listening to a radio mystery show. It was a 100th Anniversary Pleasant Grove City Strawberry Days puzzle from an Eric Dowdle painting (that's a mouthful).

Repeat Day 2021 Repeat Day 2021

We had such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa we forgot to celebrate the anniversary of when Babe Ruth retired on June 2. Oh well. The next day, June 3, was Repeat Day so we repeated certain things as if it was Rotisserie Chicken Day like having BBQ pizza, salad, and french bread again. 

So we could celebrate as if it was the anniversary of when Babe Ruth retired or we could repeat Babe Ruth Day (which I blogged about on May 15). In any case, we had Baby Ruth candy bars again. Anything to rationalize candy, right?

Here's the baby with the Baby Ruth again.

While I'm at it, how about I mention that the next day, June 4, was National Cheese Day. It was also the birthday of Socrates (possibly). Jr. figured out how eating impossible cheeseburger pie fit with both of these. Obviously with Cheese Day but Jr. figured out that we should eat impossible cheeseburger pie for Socrates' birthday "because Socrates was a Greek philosopher and Greeks figured out Pi." Jr. is so clever.

Grandma and Grandpa Come For a Visit

My parents came for a visit... finally. They wanted to come last year for a big family reunion to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary but it wasn't safe then. Now things are calming down and people are getting vaccinated and they were able to make the trip. Yay. I love my parents.

 

They were here to talk about Nichole starting to drive.

They didn't go to any concerts but Nichole and Jr. played violin and cello for them.

They had lunch with us then dinner to celebrate National Rotisserie Chicken Day. We had BBQ pizza which everyone likes. We also had salad and french bread.

 

Jet had fun with his other grandparents while they were here and played with them. This time Jet went to my dad and had him pick him up and give him food. Then he played with Grandpa for a little while then fell asleep.

We had a really great time when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. I'm so glad it worked out. I'm also glad they finally had a chance to meet Jet. He had fun with them as did the rest of us.

May the Fourth Be With You

 

We had more things planned out for Star Wars Day but they didn't all work out. We did have Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps because Caesar was "the emperor." We made Porg Cheeseball. Jr. played Star Wars music on the cello for everyone when they came home. We also had orange juice for National Orange Juice Day.

Wolfenoot 2020

"Have a howly Wolfenoot."

We learned of a new holiday created a few years ago by a kid in New Zealand. Wolfenoot. It is celebrated on November 23 every year. You can find out more about it on the official website wolfenoot.com where we got ideas for our celebrating this year.

According to the website, Wolfenoot "is when the Spirit of the Wolf brings and hides small gifts around the house for everyone. People who have, have had, or are kind to dogs get better gifts than anyone else. You eat roast meat (because wolves eat meat) and cake decorated like a full moon."

We had chicken drumsticks.

Jeremy made and decorated a cake to look like the full moon (with craters).

The four oldest kids went around the house and found treats for each of them. That doesn't mean the rest of us aren't kind to dogs. We were just okay without the treats.

The kids and I also watched some videos about the Fibonacci Sequence in nature and in music because November 23 is also Fibonacci Day.

National Junk Food Day 2020

July 21 was National Junk Food Day. Nichole had been wanting to try a recipe we saw on YouTube, BBQ Chicken Ring, so she did that day. Yumm.

Lucky: It looks like a sun.

Later that night, Jr., Nichole, Jeremy, and I watched some Doctor Who and ate pretzel sticks, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. Yumm.

Speaking of junk food, we celebrated actual National Hot Dog Day on July 22 with some of us eating hot dogs.

On a non junk food note, I wished my mom and sisters a Happy Gorgeous Grandma Day on July 23 though they are not all grandmas. It was a group text so they all got the message.

French Dining Experience

Back in March, Jr. was supposed to go on a field trip with other French students to a French restaurant in Sandy. Unfortunately, it was postponed and later canceled altogether as things in the state were shut down and the students completed the school year online. Jr. of course was disappointed. He put in some of his own money to go on this field trip (luckily it was refunded) and he really wanted to try escargot.
Jeremy and I really wanted to let him have a French dining experience, even if it ended up being in our own home. We contacted his French teacher even before school was out and she was so helpful in giving us ideas of what we could do for that experience. She suggested decorations, phrases we could say in French to him, food ideas including recipes for a four or five course meal. It took us some time to plan it all out and find a day when we could do it, but it eventually came together and was a nice surprise for him.
We got the other kids involved because it's always a fun idea to do service like this for a family member. We gave Nichole some sheet music for "La Vie en Rose" so she could serenade him on the violin while he ate. She and Jr. Jr. and Lucky all colored papers to look like French flags which we hung up along with Christmas lights. We also added to the atmosphere with a YouTube video of Paris ambience. There was a carousel with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Jr. didn't realize what we were doing cooking in the kitchen all day (Jeremy did most of the work. My hero). It was June 13, Kitchen Klutzes of America Day. Good thing we were making French food.
The other kids knew what was happening but only let on that we were doing something for the library Summer Reading Program (not a lie- we were able to use what we did for one or two of the library activities, even if it wasn't specifically the reason we did it). The boys stayed back in their room playing on Jr.'s device while we finished up preparations. Then we told everyone to get dressed up in their church clothes, Jr. thinking we were still just doing something for a library activity. Bwah ha ha.

Jr. Jr. and Lucky brought Jr. out to where we greeted him and brought him to his seat. Nichole was right there playing "La Vie en Rose" and various other pieces for him.

And he got his five course meal. He ate just a little bit of each (Jeremy commented how he had given him American size portions so it wasn't surprising that he didn't eat everything) with the boys running in to check on him every few minutes to take away one plate and bring him another. They were having a blast. Jet did well, too, not being the center of attention for once. Jr. Jr. did entertain him and I think he was also entertained just watching everyone run around.

Here's how the meal went:
Appetizer: Escargot. Yes, we did. Jeremy found canned snails at Walmart and learned how to prepare them (with a lot of butter and garlic and herbs). We decided not to order shells to put them in, which worked fine because of the brioche bread that turned into a crouton with each snail.

Soup or salad: Salade niçoise with lettuce, egg, tuna, potatoes, green beans, and olives (Jeremy forgot to put the tomatoes on. Shhh. Jr. didn't know).

Main course: Poulet au cidre. Chicken with onions and apples in apple cider with rice pilaf on the side.

Bread and cheese: Homemade french bread/baguette with Boursin cheese.

Dessert: Chocolate mousse.

It turned out well. Jr. appreciated it and was definitely surprised when we served him escargot. He had to ask a couple times if we were serious when we told him they were actual snails.
He also had to deal with us doing things a little more informally (just a little) with the boys running around and me snapping pictures all over the place. "Souvenir photo, monsieur?"
We may have been informal, but Jr. took it pretty seriously and he was so polite. He knew so much more than we did. They had gone over etiquette in his class and so he knew how the place setting should have been. He also let his brothers know how to tell if he was done with a course or if he was just pausing. He also knew how to eat his bread with a fork (I had no idea. My son is so cool).

At the end, I also wanted to get a picture of "the staff."

It was a really good evening. There were plenty of leftovers (including escargot- go figure. Some of us did eat a whole snail each. Not bad. Just don't think too much about what it really is).

 This is me thinking too much about it even before I took a bite.

Thanks to all the family members who helped to make this a neat experience for Jr.
And thanks to his teacher who helped us figure out how to put something like this together. "Merci, Madame Snell."