Some September Holidays

September 3 was Skyscraper Day. I made a couple skyscrapers out of mini jalapeno popper egg rolls. So good.

September 4 was National Wildlife Day. Jet and I saw some scrub jays on our morning walk.

Since Nichole went back to school and I've been getting Jet up when I take boys to school or buses, we've been going on walks often. It's nice bonding time.

Later we made a balloon delivery to Jeremy who was working on something special (more on that later).

That evening with our dinner we had two desserts since it was Eat an Extra Dessert Day. To go along with Shelftember, we had salad bar so we could use up spinach before it got too old and we got out salad fixins which haven't been used in a while. Our desserts were homemade cookies and otter pops.

 

Speaking of Shelftember, Jeremy was given food while working on the balloon build, so he brought me home leftovers which worked well for lunch. Yumm.

September 5 was Cheese Pizza Day and Be Late for Something Day. They boys were helping make pizza dough but were late taking the dough out of the Bosch. Tee Hee.

Besides our morning walk, Jet and I went in the evening for another walk, this time to Bridal Veil Falls. Jet enjoyed being in the stroller but did not want to get out when it was time to head home so we were late getting home. I guess he was just trying to celebrate the holiday.

He just wanted to play in the stroller. "I'm wearing a hat."

Grandma and Grandpa Came to Visit

Jeremy's parents came to visit again. I love my in-laws.

They were able to go to Nichole's Honors Orchestra performance. That was something Nichole did in junior high and she got to do it again this year in high school.

They went with us to the zoo. 

I wanted the obligatory family picture with the gorilla statue. None of the pictures got everyone looking at the camera and/or smiling at the same time. Sigh. This is my family.

The funny thing is Joshua stayed the same the whole time and I would have been perfectly happy with that if everything else was smoother.

Flap your ears like an elephant.

The red pandas were out and about this time.

Grandparents ate with us, including bread bowls with soup. Yumm. 

Jr. Jr. helped by punching down the dough... his way. He didn't take his fist out right away and it left a fist print.

Grandma and Grandpa went to church with us.

They did the grandparents thing and brought gifts. 

It was just nice having them come for a visit. They were glad they came.

Kitchen Klutzes of America Day

June 13 was Kitchen Klutzes of America Day. Nichole made pizza. Jr. Jr. made rolls and took out some of the insides and added honey and called them honey buns. Cute.

The next day, June 14, was Flag Day. I made sure to get a picture again with the kids and the flags.

 

I also made cinnamon rolls out of the leftover dough from the night before.

Someone didn't want to wait for me to get a picture.

Baking Buddies

Both Jr. Jr. and Lucky wanted to punch down the dough. I told them they both could.

Jet saw the balls of dough (he just instinctively knows when I'm baking or something) and the cookie sheet I got out. He knew what to do- enthusiastically throw balls of dough onto the cookie sheet.

The turned into very nice bread bowls (I used the Italian Bread Bowls recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe again) and Jr. Jr. was very interested in eating chili in one of them.

Jr. Jr. also ground wheat for me.

I mentioned already that Nichole helped me make cinnamon and sugar quick bread. Jet tried to help, too, but we had to quickly wash his hands after he stuck them in the raw batter.

Jr. made Chex Mix.

This was all done on the same day.

I love my baking buddies.

One of Those Days

We were preparing for our at-home potluck in October. I was helping Nichole with french bread (since I've made it once or twice or ten times) for her garlic bread when Jet got into a cupboard and came running with a mini rolling pin to help even though I was patting out the dough instead of rolling it out.

Later when we were going to make pizza dough, Jet grabbed the measuring cup of sugar, Jr. tried to stop him, the sugar went flying, and as Jr. got Jet away our glass bowl got knocked off the table and shattered. After time spent cleaning it up, Jeremy brought out a box we got for our wedding. It was a repeat of another set of mixing bowls and measuring cups and spoons. We've been using the one set since we got married. We lost one large glass mixing bowl and a 1-cup glass measuring cup years ago but we've been using all the other items until the smaller glass bowl broke that day. Jeremy just got everything out of the box since we know we're going to use them all (and it will be nice to have a 1-cup liquid measuring cup again since we can't measure out just 1/4 cup in all our liquid measuring cups). 

Anyway, I also cleaned up the sugar. I was going to have the boys proof the yeast in that mixing bowl originally then I figured they could just do it in the measuring cup. They put the water, yeast, and sugar in but took too long gathering the other ingredients so the yeast mixture just kept growing and growing and growing. Ha Ha Ha Ha. It was October, right? "It's coming to get you. Bwah ha ha ha." I'll make sure the boys proof the yeast in the mixing bowl next time.

I think that was it for the disasters that day. The food turned out well.

Speaking of food disasters, I love that Jet wants to be my baking buddy and my dishes buddy. As a toddler, though, he's quick. A few days before the at-home potluck. I decided to make baguettes.

I had a cup of flour out for putting a bit on the table at a time to work with the dough. I took the dough away to put in the baguette pans so Jet decided to dump out the remaining flour and work with that by itself.

Yes, I resorted to putting on a kids' show to distract him while I cleaned up. After I took him out of his clothes and cleaned him up with the sink, of course.

On a different note but related to him wanting to be a helper, Jet likes to help feed the birds. He takes a handful of peanuts to put out for the scrub jays. While we were out one day, the scrub jays came down while he was still laying out peanuts in different places. They used to do that with Jr. Jr. in the summertime.