Rise and Shine, Campers

I texted my son on February 2. "Rise and shine, camper. It's Groundhog Day!"

Then, "Bundle up (in your new coat) 'cause it's cold out there this morning."

Then, "It's cold out there every morning. What is this- Miami Beach?"

Then, "Not hardly." 

I gave him enough time to respond between each of my texts but he didn't so I had to do all the (paraphrased) quotes by myself. 

It's okay. 

For dinner, we had imitation groundhog burgers (black bean burgers) and potato wedges (instead of tater tots, even though it was Tater Tot Day). Mmmm. 

Catching Up February 2025 part 1

Saturday, February 1, was World Read Aloud Day and Take Your Child to the Library Day so what a great day to go to the Orem Library's event, "Bring Your Child to the Library Day." Jet and I went to do some activities and get little stamps (stickers) in his "passport." 

His favorite was the dragon sticker. He noticed that it matched the dragon in the junior fiction area of the library and was excited to see it.

That day was also Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Sometimes I keep this holiday to myself. This year, we had some fun with it as a family. We all had ice cream in waffle cone bowls.

Sunday, February 2, was Groundhog Day and Tater Tot Day. We had our traditional imitation groundhog burgers but this year they were black bean burgers based on "Buckbean Burgers." We had tater tots on the side.

Monday, February 3, was Feed the Birds Day. How appropriate that that was closing night of Lucky's play, Mary Poppins Jr. For Christmas Lucky got a shirt based on a line in the play. Mary Poppins uses a measuring tape to find out that Michael is a "noisy, mischievous, troublesome little boy." Lucky's shirt shows a measuring tape and the shirt says, "I'm not really a '...noisy, mischievous, troublesome little boy.' I just act that way."

Tuesday, February 4, was Homemade Soup Day. I made Bowtie Minestrone Soup from "A Season of Family Meal Plans," volume 1, by Jordan Page.

Wednesday, February 5, was World Nutella Day. We had Nutella sandwiches. 

Friday, February 7, was Fettuccine Alfredo Day. We ate fettuccine alfredo with the yummy alfredo sauce we always make from ourbestbites.com, "Guiltless Alfredo Sauce."

Sunday, February 9, was National Pizza Day. Since it was also Superb Owl Sunday (we're not really sports fans but we are fans of birds), we started with pizza and ended with a big spread of appetizers and snacks. Yumm. I, of course, also wore the owl earrings I got as a prize from the UCB challenge.

Monday, February 10, was Cream Cheese Brownie Day. We made cheesecake brownie bites from "A Season of Family Meal Plans," volume 1.

That's enough catching up for now. More later.

Bye. 

Groundhog Day 2024

Okay. The last three posts? I couldn't help it. We were quoting the Bill Murray movie throughout the day on Groundhog Day. Jeremy and I listened to "I Got You Babe" by Sonny and Cher.

It all started Thursday, February 1, when Jeremy sent me a link to a commercial with Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in the movie Groundhog Day.

Happy Groundhog Lay's.

As February 2 was also Tater Tot Day, Jeremy went to look for Tater Tots on his way home from work Thursday. He walked in our door and said, "Tater tots were not a good price. But these were on sale and I thought, 'Groundhog Lay's,'" and set down a bag of Lay's potato chips. He then went outside and came back in with another package of Lay's potato chips and said the same thing. Then he went outside again and came in with one more package saying the same words. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. We all got a kick out of it. 

So on Friday, February 2, we ate a bag of those chips. Then Saturday, February 3, we ate another bag since it was "Groundhog Day" again. See previous three posts.

Friday morning I also mentioned it was World Wetlands Day. I'd have loved to go to a wetlands area but it was raining so I was driving on wet lands.

That evening was a funeral or celebration of life for my aunt who passed away recently. Jeremy, Nichole, and I went. It was so good to see so many relatives- so many cousins. I haven't seen most of them in years. Even though we don't get together as often as when we were kids (yearly family reunions at Grandma's), the love in our family is still there and always will be. 

My sister brought one of her kids so we got to represent my parents' family since the weather was not such that my parents could travel from Oregon.

I am grateful that my aunt doesn't have to worry about any of her health troubles any more. She is missed but she gets to be with her parents, one of her daughters, and two of her brothers again. I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation. Life continues after death and we do get to see loved ones again.

February 2, 2024

Happy Groundhog Day.

Get it?

Ground "hog"

Pork = Pig = Hog

Hahahahahahahahaha

February 2, 2024

 

Happy Groundhog Day.

Get it?

Ground "hog"

Pork = Pig = Hog

Hahahahahahahahaha

February 2, 2024

Happy Groundhog Day.

Get it?

Ground "hog"

Pork = Pig = Hog

Hahahahahahahahaha

And February Began

And here we are to February.

February 1 was World Read Aloud Day. Sandra Boynton has great books to read aloud.

February 2 was Groundhog Day. Since things have been chaotic lately, we didn't have our traditional imitation groundhog burgers and we didn't watch the movie, Groundhog Day. I did wake kids with, "Rise and shine, campers..." and "It's cold out there this morning. It's cold out there every morning. What is this? Miami Beach? Not hardly." We've had a lot of cold temperatures and snow lately so it was appropriate.

 

I wore a red shirt on National Wear Red Day, February 3.

2-2-22

Happy Groundhog Day. Phil saw his shadow so this is what we got:

 

We also got tater tots along with our traditional imitation groundhog burgers because February 2 is also Tater Tot Day.

 

I wanted to make sure not to miss the fun date of 2-2-22. Since I have a wiggly 2 year old, I wanted him to hold a sign just like Jr. Jr. did on 12-12-12. This is what I got:

 

We didn't miss it, though.

Happy 2-2-22, everyone.

It was also World Wetlands Day. We didn't go out to any wetlands but the world was definitely wet.

Groundhog Day!

It's February. It's cold in the mornings when I take Nichole to school. I often say, "It's cold out there this morning. It's cold out there every morning. What is this? Miami Beach? Not hardly." So when I woke up on February 2nd, I had the great idea of how to wake the boys for family prayer. Jeremy and I found the words used in the radio broadcast in the first waking up scene from Groundhog Day and read that scene for the kids. "Okay, campers, rise and shine," and "It's Groundhog Day!" Some of the boys were not that enthusiastic. But it woke them up. Tee Hee.

Nichole brought home a book from school that had a Groundhog Day type thing going on where it kept repeating. 

Since February 2nd is also National Tater Tot Day, we ate a quick dinner of tater tots and some hamburger (imitation groundhog), so I could go watch Nichole perform in an orchestra recital. Good job, Nichole.

And good job me for braving my separation anxiety being away from my baby that long.

The boys watched Groundhog Day while we were gone.

And that's how we celebrated February 2nd this year.

Groundhog Day and Groundhog Day Observed

I realized something recently. January and February this year have the same dates on the same days of the week as back in 2014. It of course will change in March since there is an extra day in February this year. In the meantime, some of our celebrating in January and February of 2020 parallels that of 2014.
For example Groundhog Day. As in 2014 we celebrated Groundhog Day Observed the day before since February 2 was on a Sunday.
Jeremy made imitation groundhog burgers again. This time he made salmon burgers.

The boys watched the movie.
In 2014, Nichole brought home a groundhog puppet from school. In 2020, Lucky brought one home.

And like 2014, we have a new baby in the home. What a joy. (comparison- first picture Lucky, second picture, Jet)

One thing that is different is that this year the date was a palindrome date. 02-02-2020. Those types of things are always fun.
And since we did imitation groundhog burgers the day before, on the 2nd, I tried out a new recipe to go along with dinner- sweet and sour chicken. It was from a Relief Society cookbook I got years ago in our old ward. There are some recipes in there that are our favorites. And this sweet and sour chicken?- Craveworthy! At least for me. Mmmmmmmmmm. Jeremy can't stand pineapple. More for me! I love pineapple!

Identifying Gulls But Not Groundhogs

Saturday, February 2, was World Wetlands Day.  Nichole and I went to Farmington Bay for a Gull Identification Clinic.  It was very informative and enjoyable.  I feel I know so much more now. 

Then we went out into the field to put our new identifying skills into practice.  We saw 4 or 4 1/2 different species (by 4 1/2 I mean that there is a species of gull that is technically all one species but the subspecies is practically its own species so they are both mentioned separately).

It was appropriate to be there on World Wetlands Day.

We went home to celebrate the other holiday, Groundhog Day.  Jeremy fixed us imitation groundhog burgers again this year.  What was even better was that we also had turkey bacon, which is another imitation hog.  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
I was just going to swirl my ketchup around on my bun but it happened to drip just right to become a smiley face.  Ha Ha.  How great is that? Totally unintentional.

That evening the movie, Groundhog Day, was put on.  Some people watched parts of it.
And sadly, I still don't know if the groundhog saw its shadow or not on Saturday.  How sad is that?

100 Groundhogs

Today was the 100th day of school and the 1st graders were encouraged to dress up as if they were 100 years old.  Jeremy let Jr. Jr. wear his tux jacket and take his dapper cane and an old bowler.
Lucky dressed up like a pirate (see previous post).  Jr. Jr. did a good job staying in character.  Cute... slow... kid/old man.

Besides the 100th day of school, it was also World Wetlands Day and Groundhog Day.
We celebrated World Wetlands Day by going birding, part of the time was to some wetlands.

We celebrated Groundhog Day by eating imitation groundhog burgers. 

We did a lot in January but we were also busy and I didn't blog that much.  Maybe I'll catch up again someday.  Who knows?  You'll just have to come back and see.

The Groundhog's Summer

Yesterday we were too busy to celebrate Ground Hog's day so we moved the celebration to today. How does one celebrate a giant rodent predicting six more week of winter? By pretending it is summer of course! Well that and Feb 3rd is the half way point of winter, so again... summer!

We made our usual imitation ground hog burgers (sometimes we do real ground hog burgers, but ground beef is usually less expensive than ground pork) and then we had other traditional summer picnic foods. Besides the burgers we had chips, melon, potato salad, and lemonade. We topped it all off by watching the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. No matter how many times you watch that movie it is like you've watched it forty more times than that. It's that good!

Groundhog Day 2015

I had a fun little moment picking up produce at the store today.  Jr. Jr. was asking me about the fruits and vegetables we were getting.  I told him we should get red apples and he suggested we not only get red apples, but green apples, too.  I told him that I used green apples when I made the pie recently for Pie Day.  I could make another apple pie.  Jr. Jr. wanted the green apples just to eat.
We needed to get potatoes so Daddy could make homemade french fries to go with our homemade imitation groundhog burgers (to celebrate Groundhog Day). 
We also talked about getting avocados and tomatoes so I could make 7-layer dip (for no particular holiday that we can think of- Jeremy was mentioning that he wanted some and avocados were on sale). 
Then we also had to get some strawberries to go with pavlova that I am going to make on Saturday for Ballet Day.
It was just fun thinking that we're actually making all these things (whether we have holidays to use them for or not).  Homemade burgers, fries, pie, bean dip, and pavlova (though that last one I'm actually going to try for the first time so we'll see how it turns out).  We make things.

I did not however make hamburger buns.  They weren't very expensive so I just bought some.  I have made hamburger buns in the past, though, but didn't have the time or table space today since Jeremy needed it for making the burgers and fries.  And we didn't make our own pickles, or grow our own onions, etc. etc.  And that's o.k.  But my husband is more thank o.k., he is awesome.

P.S.  My husband wrote that last sentence while I wasn't looking, but it's true, so I'm leaving it in.

Groundhog Day (Observed)

Tomorrow, February 2, is Groundhog Day.  Since it would be difficult to do some of our traditions tomorrow, we decided to celebrate Groundhog Day Observed today.
Our celebrating was much like it often is.  Jeremy made imitation groundhog burgers for us and we watched the movie.
Nichole made a groundhog puppet at school.  It peaks its head out from behind the mound.  Cute.  She made it a girl so it's Mrs. Groundhog instead of Mr. Groundhog.

Groundhog Day Celebrations

This year because of schedules (it had to be on a weekend, didn't it?), we split our Groundhog Day celebrating between a couple of days.
Jeremy thought ahead and brought home some Groundhog themed books from the library for the kids to read.  The kids enjoyed those on Saturday. 

Nichole also drew a picture of a groundhog seeing his shadow (it was a sunny day here) and Piglet thinking along with the groundhog, "Six weeks of Winter."

We didn't have time to watch the Bill Murray movie, "Groundhog Day."  Oh well.  But on Sunday Jeremy made us our traditional imitation groundhog burgers (and we had homemade fries as it seems we often do with this holiday).

Nichole really wants to watch the movie so we'll have to watch it another day.