Celebrating My Birthday

My birthday was in May. A few days before, I got together with some friends who have birthdays in May and June and we had lunch together. That was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Stephanie had these pictures taken with her camera. 

 

On my actual birthday, I was going to take a nap but ended up finishing The Duke's Bargain by Megan Walker. 

I did an online book club with her for Lakeshire Park and Miss Newbury's List where she shared things about her writing of those books and I got to meet her and get a hug from her when she came to Utah in April. 

In May, I was part of a different online book club for The Duke's Bargain. Megan shared a few posts on there about her writing of this book. I love that the two main characters in this book were the antagonists in the first two books. I also love that the main characters from the first books made appearances. It was fun to see the growth of the "villains."

I got to participate in an online live event to finish out the month's book club and got to learn even more from Megan. 

 

Back to talking about my birthday- Jeremy made lots of pizza for me (and the family). I LOVE pizza!

 

We had cake and ice cream. Jeremy put the candles in the shape of a heart. He's so cute.

I opened my birthday present, which was a tea kettle! I wanted one. Since there's been so much herbal tea drinking with all the Seeking Persephone movie watching and Proper Romance book reading, this was perfect. 

 

P.S. Jeremy was so pleased with how this picture turned out- there was still a tiny amount of flame on the candles. Have I mentioned my husband is cute?

 

P.P.S. Jeremy texted me the day before our Southern Utah trip saying he wanted to give me my birthday present early because it would be helpful getting ready for our trip. He had previously told me he debated about giving me my Mother's Day present early because it might be useful while we were out celebrating our anniversary. I like to take selfies when Jeremy and I are out birding together. Ultimately he gave it to me on Mother's Day and you know I've definitely used it since. So he told me he decided to give me my birthday present early and had Nichole bring it to me unwrapped when I got home.

"Dad told me to give you this." As I was opening the box for the portable vacuum cleaner (to help clean out the van), she told me this, "Dad also told me to tell you he'd never give you a vacuum as a birthday present. You'll have a different one on [your birthday]." 

Ha Ha Ha Ha. He really is cute.  

Alice in Wonderland Jr.

And that's a wrap. 

It's been a busy few months for Lucky with rehearsals for the play, Alice in Wonderland Jr.

He's worked hard and it's paid off. Last week was the busiest with set work, dress rehearsals, and performances. Monday night this week was closing night.

We missed a few holidays and observed others. I didn't even take pictures of the waffles we had on a day other than International Waffle Day, March 25. 

 

Last year, Lucky was able to play Michael in Mary Poppins Jr. This year, he played a Cheshire Cat. There were two casts so the other nights he was in the ensemble. He had another good experience.

Jeremy took most of the kids to watch him on Saturday and I took Jet to watch him on Monday. 

 

I also got to watch him Saturday evening in the ensemble. I like to see both. 

Monday night, we had friends sit with us, which added to the enjoyment. Jet did well and enjoyed the show.

Stephanie was sweet and got the following pictures with her camera. Thanks for sharing them, Stephanie.

 

I'm proud of our boy and glad he is enjoying pursuing his interests. It doesn't hurt that as a theatre kid myself growing up, I know how fun putting on a production can be.

And a fun thing I found out that I didn't have on my calendar but I do now... opening night was World Theatre Day, March 27. Woohoo.

Here's a little treat Jeremy put together for Lucky to say congratulations. 

Galentines

Party time!

Nichole and I went to a Galentines celebration with friends. We had a potluck dinner and did some getting to know you activities.

Our friend, Stephanie, shared some things with us to remind us that our best Valentine, the one who loves us most, is the Savior.

After those activities, a few of us stayed to watch a movie. 

It was another great night with friends. 

 

P.S. That morning I got out for probably my last walk at the park before the lights are turned off.

Other October thins

Other things we did in October:

Nichole, our friend, and I went to support another friend at her faculty recital. She is a voice teacher at BYU. That was a beautiful event.

 

I was letting a blanket air dry and since it was a big blanket, I spread it across several chairs to create a fort. I thought Jet and I would read books like we've done in the past but Lucky used it for playing a video game and Jet sat on the outside of the fort in a chair while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas because... "this is Halloween."

Jet really wanted to have a lunch in his lunchbox so for dinner one night, I put his dinner in his lunchbox (it's okay, it was a sandwich, etc.) and we set out a picnic towel in the living room. Lucky requested watching The Mandalorian so the kids got to watch that while having their picnic. It's fun. 

I wanted to play MarioKart one night (I don't always get to play video games) and Jet wanted to "help" me. It matters more to have fun time with my little one than to win the races. I love being a mom.

We continued trying recipes from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page with substitutions and adaptations.

Woo hoo! Yay for October. 

Catching Up March 2025 part 4

March 23 was Chip and Dip Day. We finally got to do something we'd been wanting to do since they put up "Dip Ahead" signs in our neighborhood. Thanks to our friends, Stephanie and Kels (and thanks for letting us use some of your pictures), we set up a table with chips and dip for passing neighbors and us to enjoy.

We had hummus, salsa, and tzatziki with potato chips, corn chips, and tortilla chips.

 

It was a great fellowdipping activity.

 

March 24 was National Cheesesteak Day. We made our chilly pheesesteaks. 

March 26 was Make Up Your Own Holiday Day. A while back, Jet decided that he wanted certain silly holidays instead of the actual holiday (I don't remember which it was). He told me, "Happy Row Row Row Your Boat Day," and, "Happy Scratch Skeleton Day." I love that kid. He is so much fun, such a ham. I said we could celebrate those on Make Up Your Own Holiday Day. So we did. We sang "Row Row Row Your Boat" and Jr. Jr. had pictures of skeletons on the computer we could "scratch."

 

March 29 was Vangelis' Birthday. We watched Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean performance of "Chariots of Fire" from the London 2012 Olympics.

 

March 30 was Take a Walk in a Park Day. I took a quick walk in a park. 

March 31 was National Tater Day. We had Aloo Gobi (Indian cauliflower and potato dish) and Pad Thai Chicken.

Catching Up February 2025 part 2 (more like 3 because my Valentine post fit in with the catching up)

February 17 was President's Day. Jet helped me with the flag picture that day.

It was also National Cabbage Day. I made egg rolls one of the days around that holiday.

 

February 18 was Pluto Day. I watched one of the many episodes of Psych where Gus said, "You heard about Pluto?" The subtitles had it wrong, though.

 

February 19 was Chocolate Mint Day. I had another Peppermint Patty.

February 20 was National Muffin Day. For dinner we had... muffins again. We made all eggless muffins again. Cornbread muffins, blueberry muffins, and raisin bran muffins.

 

February 21 was the Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. The kids requested Deku Scrub Cheeseball, which I made. Because Nichole is the one who usually sculpts the cheeseballs nowadays, some of the boys were surprised to learn that I was the one who made the original Deku Scrub Cheeseball way back in 2017. Jet helped put the bay leaves on top.

Jet and I haven't had a chance to do as much baking together as we used to. When we do get the chance it's so nice. I've missed it.

He helped me grind wheat one day, which was nice. My big helper. 

Jet also enjoyed making tracks in the snow (when we had snow. We've finally made it to Spring but I'm still blogging about Winter).

Speaking of snow, a few of us made the trek to the Snow Goose Festival in Delta this year. It was so foggy at first that we couldn't even look for the geese in the fields and when we got to the reservoir, we couldn't see anything there, either.

We entertained ourselves while we waited for the fog to lift.

Finally the fog lifted and just like last year, we found out that the geese had landed on the other side of the reservoir. Except that this year they were so far out, we couldn't get a good look or good pictures.

We did get to see a few fly in from time to time but we've had more exciting years. Oh well.

 

The day after the Snow Goose Festival was National Banana Bread Day, February 23, so we had some banana bread Pop Tarts.

It was also National Rationalization Day so Jeremy made something he'd been wanting to make for a long time- bangers and mash. 

That night was a multi-stake fireside with Camille N. Johnson, the Relief Society General President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A couple friends and I walked to the building where it was being held. I did not get a good picture. There's a better picture of us when we had banana splits back in January.

Bad picture aside, the fireside was really good. I appreciated the things Sister Johnson shared with us. One of the things she shared was that every morning she has her own personal devotional with President Nelson, prophet and president of the Church. She will put on a talk that he has given in the past and will listen to that while she's getting ready. After that, so many sisters in our stake, including me, took that same challenge and started listening to President Nelson every day. It was talked about when we gathered together for the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting a few weeks later. I went with my ministering sisters.

 

February 24 was Tortilla Chip Day so we had tortillas and dip of course.

 

Jeremy's birthday was in February. Jet wanted to put the candles on the cake so he decided how many of each color and placed them. What a sweetie.