A Few August Celebrations

August 5 was Work Like a Dog Day. I made the kids work hard...

with the occasional dance break.

It was also Night Out Day. The van needed gas so Jeremy and I took a quick jaunt out to the gas station together that night.

 

August 7 was Raspberries 'n Cream Day. We didn't have raspberries but we had fresh blackberries our neighbors picked so I made cupcakes which we topped with whipped topping and blackberries. Close enough.

August 8 was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. Nobody put any on our porch but friends gave us some zucchini later so we could celebrate the holiday observed. Sweet friends.

Hug a Bear Day and Friends

November 6 was National Nachos Day, not to be confused with International Day of the Nacho which we celebrated on October 21. We ate nachos both days.

November 7 was Hug a Bear Day. I said we should hug anyone who was being grumpy that day. We hugged teddy bears. Not that the teddy bears were being grumpy, it's just that they were the kind of bears that we did hug.

That day was also Color the World Orange Day so we had fajitas with orange bell peppers.

November 10 was Vanilla Cupcake Day. I made vanilla cupcakes. It was also Guinness World Records Day (GWR Day). I encouraged people that day to watch my playlist on YouTube of when Jeremy and Thanksgiving Point broke a world record in 2015.

November 12 was Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day. I made the dough and Jr. made a BBQ chicken pizza and a pepperoni pizza for us.

Raspberries 'n Cream Day 2022

August 7 was Raspberries 'n Cream Day.

I figured frozen mixed berries have raspberries so that would work with whipped topping. Then I made cupcakes so we could have a sort of strawberry shortcake with mixed berries.

Sigh. I seriously thought we had mixed berries in the freezer. I found multiple bags of blueberries and strawberries but nothing with raspberries.

So we celebrated Raspberries 'n Cream Day with strawberry/blueberry shortcake.

Later that night, Jeremy blew a raspberry at me... you know... to celebrate.

 

That day was also National Sisters Day so I wished a Happy National Sisters Day to my sisters.

When Things Don't Go As Planned

November 10 was National Vanilla Cupcake Day. I thought, "Great. I'll make those cupcakes again that I made for Alfred Hitchcock's birthday." I couldn't remember where I got the recipe, though. I checked several websites where I thought it might be. No, not there. I probably would have put a link on my blog about it. Oh, it must be in one of my cookbooks then. So I found a recipe in a cookbook that I figured must be it. It became clear as the thick batter was climbing up the beaters of the electric mixer that this was not the recipe. Oh well. They turned out as cupcakes anyway but I think I liked the recipe from before better, especially for not having to stop and push the batter back down the beaters so often. I looked in another cookbook and ta-da. There was the recipe I used. I recognized it. So the next time I want to make cupcakes from scratch I will remember that the recipe I used for Alfred Hitchcock's birthday was in the Betty Crocker cookbook and not in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Or I'll turn to this blog and find this very helpful information right here on this post. 

November 12 was Pizza With the Works Except Anchovies Day. I had great plans. I had taken pizza toppings out of the freezer. Jeremy bought artichoke hearts to go on some pizza. I was going to make different kinds. However... it didn't work out. Nichole ended up making everyone tortilla pizzas. Thank you, Nichole, because Mom was having trouble.

Well, sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. That's life. Moving on. 

What They Missed- August 13

Thursday, August 13-
I had another rant I wrote down on this day's notes that I am again not going to put on here. Instead here is a sculpture Lucky made out of puzzle blocks.

It's a person sitting on a couch watching TV. It even has couch cushions.

We sat down to dinner of sweet and sour chicken (since Jeremy wasn't there and he can't stand pineapple but I love it) and talked about The Food Nanny and sitting down to dinners together (as a family, not with the food nanny).

We also talked about a little riddle thing from the Gospel Living app. It was originally from The New Era magazine from June 2017.
You figure out a word that fits two different clues with different meanings. The example they gave was "1/60 of a minute and a silver medal." The answer is "second." Get it?
Jr. Jr. got creative after we went through all of them and came up with a few of his own. They all ended up being about bowling but that's just fine. He's clever. Themes are fun.
Here's what he came up with. See if you can figure them out and I'll put the answers at the end of this post.
1. "Water comes out of me when it rains."  "Dang it! I missed all the pins."
2.  "Could you leave a few cookies?"  "Yes! I got the last two pins."
3.  "Ow! That really hurt. You hit me with a bat."  "Yes! I got all the pins in one try."

After dinner, we celebrated Alfred Hitchcock's birthday with cupcakes. We put a candle in one and took turns blowing it out after singing "Happy Birthday" to Alfred Hitchcock each time. I took pictures.

I had too much fun trying to get different angles with the knife and reflections, not unlike how Alfred Hitchcock would direct the cinematography in his films.

I also watched three different versions of The Lady Vanishes (one of my favorite Hitchcock films). One in the middle of the night/early morning, one in the middle of the day, and one late that night/early morning.

We fed the birds at sunset and saw the evening star while it was still pretty light out. The evening star is actually a planet- it's Venus. That's always fun.
We didn't stick around or come back out to look for meteors or UFOs that night.

Did you figure out the answers based on Jr. Jr.'s clues?
Here are the answers.
1. Gutter
2. Spare
3. Strike

Raspberries n' Cream Day 2020

August 7 was National Raspberries n' Cream Day. We had whipped topping in the fridge left over from topping our butterbeer. We had frozen berries in the freezer because I love having frozen berries available to go with yogurt or oatmeal.
So I made some cupcakes and we put whipped topping on them and those of us who wanted raspberries (or multiple kinds of berries) were able to celebrate the holiday. Not everyone in the family cares for berries. Some of us LOVE them.

Catching Up- May

May is always crazy anyway with the end of school. This year, with the boys' school closing and combining with another, there was a week toward the end of the school year where they got out early every day so their teachers could pack up their classrooms and have everything moved to the new school building.
But for now I'm going to start with earlier in the month.

Let's talk about May the 4th. I mentioned about how in April, Jeremy did balloon sculptures for the Tulip Festival. For the Tulip Festival in May, Jeremy was asked to do something May the 4th related. This is how it turned out.  I love it.

Throughout the year, Orem is celebrating its Centennial. We celebrated the kickoff party in January. May 4th was the birthday celebration. Even though it was really close to where we live, I was having a day and didn't feel up to taking the kids over there.  We did, however, watch the fireworks that night.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a new enchiladas recipe. Everybody liked it and we've had requests for it since then.

This year was the Museum of Natural Curiosity's 5th Anniversary. Jeremy made an arch with their monsters on them. I like how it turned out.

Our family joined in our ward campout and had a nice time.  The kids had been wanting to go camping since we didn't go camping last year. We all helped set up the tent, even the two youngest, until they got distracted with an earthworm.

The kids made me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day on May 12. Jr. was in charge and directed everyone as they helped. Jr. Jr. gave me a card he made at school.

The day after, Jeremy sent me off on a birding field trip with Utah County Birders.  It's a long day trip. I love it. It's a great Mother's Day gift. He did the same for me last year.

Nichole had another orchestra concert.  This time it took place on May 14 which is Dance Like a Chicken Day. We kept telling her she should get up in the middle and start dancing like a chicken but for some reason she didn't do it.

We were invited to an author's tea in Jr. Jr.'s classroom.  Each of the children wrote a book about an animal and was able to read it in front of the class and parents. The books were even hard bound and the children were able to bring them home. Jr. Jr. did a great job reading his book about seals. His voice was very clear.

Lucky and I took some time to play at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. Lucky went on all the rope bridges in the jungle by himself. I was there to meet him at the end. Great job, Lucky.

Jr. did a report about Switzerland. He had a lot of interesting information and afterward, he was able to share Swiss cheese and Swiss chocolate with his class. And us.

Just like at their old school in PG, Jr. and Jr. Jr. had a dance festival at their school here in Orem. They did a good job. Way to go, boys. You've got good rhythm.

Jeremy and I went on a few dates to celebrate special occasions in May.  We went to see Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame and Jeremy took me out to eat for my birthday.

We also spent an evening out birding, just the two of us. That was relaxing.

For my birthday, the boys helped me make cupcakes.  I wanted to combine my cake with scripture study (from The Friend, May 2019, "Family Night Fun"). The boys wanted to help frost the cupcakes.  It was fun to see how they decorated them.

I couldn't find enough candles for my age so I just blew out a scented candle. Then Jr. played "Happy Birthday" for me on his ukulele.

My ministering sister brought me flowers and fudge for my birthday.

We made a new friend in our yard.  A racing pigeon.  It showed up a couple times in our backyard and just casually walked around. It got close enough were able to get a good look at its band and report it to the American Racing Pigeon Union (AU).

For Memorial Day on May 27, we went up to visit Grandpa Telford's grave. We took time to talk to the kids about their great grandfather and a little about their heritage and namesakes.

At the end of the school year, there was an awards assembly at the elementary school.  Jr. received a few awards then participated in his 6th grade graduation. Great job, Jr.  Great job.

The kids went to their last day of school (I have pictures of the first day of school in my post on November 30, 2018) and the rest of that day we spent getting Nichole ready because the next day, her grandparents came to pick her up to take her on a trip with her two cousins her age to Oregon.

Farewell, Nichole.  We'll blog about you more in June... along with other things that happened.