Towel Day 2026

May 24 was Escargot Day. Nichole celebrated observed when she did art the next day and drew a snail, as well as a bunch of other cool things.

The grackle drawing was based on this photo Nichole took when we were at Tonaquint Nature Center in St. George.

 

May 25 was Towel Day. It was also Memorial Day so I made sure to bring a towel to our Memorial Day breakfast by the church.

I made sure I had a towel around for everything that day... except when I forgot to grab my towel when going to pick Nichole up from her afternoon of art. I told myself, "Don't panic." The drive home was okay because Nichole did have a towel in her bag. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I encouraged the kids to use a towel for everything, too. :Oh, they were so enthusiastic. 

It was also Brown Bag It Day so I made sure to put some recycling in a brown bag. 

 

Blast From The Past: Lucky Doodles

I started this post back when we were having at-home church.

 

From time to time, we would find messages or drawings on Nichole's white board left there by Lucky.

Here is one.

 

Superb Owl Sunday

It's Superb Owl Sunday! There was something called the Super Bowl happening today but I don't actually care about football so I don't even know who won. Wait, let me check.

Ah, the Rams won. The only reason I knew the Rams were playing against the Bengals was because of a food blog that mentioned it. Hey, food and snacks are a big part of a Super Bowl party, right?

Actually, one of the players for the Bengals used to go to the high school that my daughter goes to so that was a big thing from the high school wishing him well as well as the city wishing him well. Too bad it didn't work out so well for him and his team this time. They did make it to the Super Bowl, though.

But you know me. I'd rather celebrate Superb Owl Sunday.

It of course started with Jeremy drawing a picture during church. This is a spider owl. 

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

 

Jeremy and I went out for a nice relaxing drive and a nice relaxing walk. We saw a great horned owl, 

a black-crowned night heron that was in such a position it kind of looked like an owl, 

and a Northern harrier that has an owl like face.

We enjoyed seeing other birds, too.

I'd say it was a good Superb Owl Sunday. 

 

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, we decided to celebrate it today at home. Like last year, when we got home from our drive, the kids brought us in to have a candlelit dinner for two. Jr. Jr. and Lucky greeted us at our vehicle and led us in. 

There was a table set up, this time with a giant Valentine's card I had made for Jeremy. It had a message with different kinds of candy taped to it, you know that kind of note. The boys were so happy to have been a part of helping with that, having it there for Dad to see. Jr. Jr. and Lucky had also written a bunch of sweet notes for us.

The kids provided dinner and entertainment. I love that besides the candle, Jr. brought out the flower he made for me last Valentine's as a centerpiece.

I'd say it was a successful Superb Owl Sunday and Valentine's Day (observed).

Appreciate a Dragon Day 2022

January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day. We love dragons. Nichole especially loves dragons. And she loves drawing them. So throughout the day, I was shown more and more dragon pictures. Here are some of them.

Last year, we had Nichole's sewn dragon help us out with things. I didn't however, take a picture of the dragon picture she drew for the holiday. She showed it to me this year so I could compare the pictures she drew especially for this holiday from last year and this year.

2021 and 2022

Cuteness and Accomplishments

I do "Baby Cuteness" posts often on this blog. It's time to share some cuteness and accomplishments from the other children.

In no particular order:

Jr. Jr. got silver medal in the Read-a-thon for his class at school (It was Olympics themed). He came home and was so happy to show me his medal and to say how happy he was for the student who got the gold medal because that boy put a lot of work into reading so much during the event and he deserved it (Jr. Jr. put a lot of minutes in himself).

Jr. was a student of the month for November at the junior high. His English teacher praised him for helping out so much in class (helping other students, straightening desks and chairs up without being asked) besides doing so much more than the required work.

The youth in our ward put on a talent show. They wanted to show both performing arts and visual arts. Nichole brought some of her drawings. She made a coloring page for people to have. 

She also juggled and she and Jr. put on a puppet show with her crocheted puppets. Those two together put on some entertaining puppet shows.

 

The Young Women collected recipes then asked the girls to make one of their dishes to share when they got copies of all the recipes that were collected. Nichole sculpted a cheeseball. Well, she started with one cheeseball that turned into three fairies. She expressed that cream cheese is a lot easier to sculpt than clay.

When we were in quarantine, Lucky missed out on some projects at school so he colored a hinged skeleton at home and hung it on a door. It looked really good.

 

Jr. wanted to support a friend in the school play so he went to watch it and had such a great time. His friend played the Grinch in "Seussical Jr."

I mentioned that Nichole is taking a digital photography class this semester. One of the things she needed to do was get pictures of water splashing/flying through the air, that sort of thing. I was her helper. At one point I tried to throw the water straight up but I ended up throwing it more back than straight up. Oops. I guess that is more "cuteness" on my part but hey, Nichole was taking the pictures.

Moon Day 2021

We go to a lot of different parks. I realized that on this blog, I often say, "the park," or "a local park," but maybe I should say specifically which parks we go to as someone might like to know that information. I'll try to remember. Here goes.

July 20 was Moon Day. The kids and I went to Nielsen's Grove Park. 

While we were there I was thinking back to a long time ago when we went to the same park for Moon Day. It was 2011 (wow, that was 10 years ago) and the kids played astronaut tag. I tried to convince the kids this year to play astronaut tag for nostalgia purposes but Jr. explained how actually on the moon we wouldn't move like that but refused to let me take a picture of him demonstrating. Sigh.

Then I tried to get the kids to show me what it would be like if they were feeding the ducks like it would be on the moon. No takers there, either.

Eventually I turned to Nichole.

Me: What would you do if you were on the moon?

Nichole: Suffocate.

Well, that ended me trying to get them to do "astronaut stuff" for pictures.

We did have fun at the park, though some of them forgot to bring water bottles and apparently being overly dramatic about that is fun. I was able to get them some water when we got back to the van. And dad surprised them with woo-woo (milkshakes) when we got home.

We ate astronaut sandwiches later. Apparently I used to call them space sandwiches then started calling them astronaut sandwiches so either name works.

Birthday Macaroni

Like me, Nichole wanted to celebrate her birthday with a trip to nature. So for Father Daughter Take a Walk Day on July 7, Nichole and Jeremy got up early and headed up Nebo Loop. They listened for owls (and heard a few, though they didn't see any) and then took a walk/short hike to a spot where there was a water trough that birds like to come visit. 

Jeremy got one lifer and Nichole got two that day, red crossbills and an American three-toed woodpecker. I've still never seen a crossbill (but I want to) but I got to see a three-toed woodpecker when I went on a birding fieldtrip to Mirror Lake when I was pregnant with Jet.

When we were planning for the day, Jr. pointed out how last year for Father Daughter Take a Walk Day, Jeremy and Nichole walked into the music store to get her a new violin.

Jr.: You should do that again this year except get her a cello and then you should give me that cello on my birthday.

Mom: I think cellos cost more than violins.

Jr.: Yes, because they're better.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. That kid.

 

As it was National Macaroni Day, Nichole requested Jeremy make a macaroni and cheese he makes with polish sausages in it. As it was also World Chocolate Day, she requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

And because we were celebrating her Sweet 16, Jeremy and I gave her 16 sweets. She got a kick out of it, when I dumped a bag of 16 candies on her. All the boys wondered if they could have some so we told them when they have their Sweet 16. ;)

Nichole got a drawing book about drawing birds. It was one she had used before and was happy to now own it. Lucky made her a Rito, a bird person from some of The Legend of Zelda games. It was a certain one and Lucky positioned it so it was pointing up like in the game.

We discovered that day that someone else in the family really likes watermelon, which Nichole also requested for her birthday. 

We found him sneaking some that night from the bowl on the table. So cute.