When Kids Remember Past Creativity

Getting back into things after vacation isn't always the easiest thing. Luckily, I put together some freezer meals before we left so we were able to have food ready to go and Jeremy picked up a few things at the store such as fresh spinach so we were able to celebrate Fresh Spinach Day on July 16. We got tamale casserole out of the freezer to go along with it. 

Since it was Ginger Rogers' Birthday, Nichole remembered a time when Jr. Jr. got creative with letter rearranging (see my July 26, 2022 post about it) so we had a choice between ginger ale and orange soda to celebrate her birthday this year.

Since it was also Personal Chef Day, Jr. was our personal chef and made us pancakes. Later we watched the movie Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn because in it she is at cooking school. "One two three, crack. New egg." At one point she is also going to make food for him- be his personal chef for an evening.

 

July 17 was National Hot Dog Day and Yellow Pigs Day so of course we made pigs in a blanket with yellow mustard. Nichole wore her racing pigs hat which she won on Yellow Pigs Day 10 years ago (see my July 17, 2014 blog post about it).

 

July 18 was Sour Candy Day. Some family members ate sour candy.

July 20 was Moon Day. I had every intention of getting out Oreos for us to make phases of the moon cookies then I forgot. I do that sometimes. We did have astronaut sandwiches with dinner.

July 21 was National Junk Food Day and National Ice Cream Day. When kids came to me asking if they could eat certain foods, I would tell them, "I don't care. Eat whatever you want," to paraphrase Muppets Most Wanted.

July 23 was Vanilla Ice Cream Day. Jr. made S'mores Milkshakes from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. 

We are definitely getting a lot of use out of those books. It's actually pretty amazing how many recipes that work for certain holidays are near where I'm already menu planning from in the books (within a few weeks). I'm not talking about Easter and Halloween (though there are recipes for those holidays), either. It's holidays like Vanilla Ice Cream Day like I mentioned or Eat Brussels Sprouts Day (I blogged about that one on February 1, 2024).

 

Well, there you go. Creativity and meal planning.

Pacific Northwest Trip- Part 2

My parents were happy to help us celebrate while we were visiting. A couple of my brothers visited while we were there, too, and also joined in. Some of the holidays were celebrated observed because of schedules.

July 18 was National Sour Candy Day. We ate sour patch kids and made sour faces.

 

July 19 was National Hot Dog Day.

 

It was also Stick Out Your Tongue Day. 

We went to Shore Acres, did a little birding while there, then went down to the beach so we could introduce a couple of the kids to putting their feet in that cold Oregon ocean. Jet enjoyed it.

Lucky didn't want to take his shoes off to wade in the water so he "tried" to run away from the waves but just got his shoes and socks wet. Sigh.

We got to see some brown pelicans which was fun. We're used to seeing white pelicans in Utah. We've only seen one brown pelican in Utah before.

July 20 was Moon Day. We ate "phases of the moon" cookies and creativity took over. We had half moons, full moons, gibbous moons, moons with the Cheshire Cat smile. We had the man in the moon and the moon on the man. 

Nichole opened up a cookie and started eating it. I pointed out it was a full moon. And as she ate it she replied, "Yep. And now it's waning."

"It's the moon!"

 

We of course couldn't visit my parents' house without visiting the nature area that is down the road. I got the kids up and made them go out with me. We got our target bird- green heron- as well as plenty of other birds in the area. There were actually 3 or 4 green herons in that area.

My parents' ward had their Pioneer Day picnic while we were there so I got to see some childhood friends and give a hug to the woman who was the Young Women's President when I was a youth. My kids had fun running around and playing (or sitting reading depending on the child) and Jet had fun running around with his uncles.

It was a great trip to Oregon.

Another Barbecue

July 20 was National Hot Dog Day. Jeremy grilled us up some polish sausages and then we made s'mores.

That's all I have to say about that.

 

Except for something cute. When Jr. Jr. was little, he misheard when we said, "polish sausages." He called them "polar sausages." Even now when he wants one he will ask for a "polar sausage." It's cute. I'm trying to think if he ever even calls them "polish sausages," though he does know that's what they're called.

Chili Cheese Fries With Hot Dogs Again

It's that time of year again. July 13 is National Beans 'n Franks Day and also National French Fry Day so we had Chili Cheese Fries with Hot Dogs again just like we had for the past two years.

As it was Embrace Your Geekness Day yet again I gave Jeremy a big hug as we looked on the internet at a Star Trek Next Generation Bluetooth Communicator Badge. Fun.

Cow Appreciation Day was that day as well. The boys played a game called, "Bulls and Cows." Every time Jr. would mention cows in the game, I would say, "It's Cow Appreciation Day."

Chili Fries with Hot Dogs

Only after we celebrated on July 13 did I look at the blog from last year where we celebrated Beans 'n Franks Day and French Fry Day by having chili cheese fries with hot dogs. Ha Ha. This year we had chili fries with hot dogs (cheese optional). Ha Ha.

It was also Embrace Your Geekness Day (I always thought it was Geekiness, turns out I was wrong). So I hugged my geek of a husband but didn't get a picture. Actually, we did do some geek stuff. We recently started watching The Mysterious Benedict Society TV series. We like the books written by Trenton Lee Stewart so it's been fun to see them keep the feel of the books in the TV series. We watched an episode on Embrace Your Geekness Day. I would consider that fitting in with geekness because a couple years ago for Halloween, Nichole and Jr. both dressed up as characters from the books.

Days of Mashed Potatoes

May 17 was Idaho Day so we had mashed potatoes on hot dogs.

May 18 was Mount St Helens Day. We had mashed potato volcanoes with gravy lava, broccoli trees, and "those poor people" raisins.

Another Good Day

On July 30, instead of doing chores in the morning, we went out for a walk along the Provo River before it got too hot. As we were walking along looking for birds, what should fly past us at 10:45 in the morning? A bat. It flew past us and over to a tree and crawled into a hole to get some rest. That was kind of fun.

We had a good walk and did see and hear some birds.

We stopped at Utah Lake State Park to look at grebes before heading home. There was a juvenile who kept squawking and rushing over each time a parent surfaced. "I'm hungry. Give me food." Sometimes they had something for it to eat. It was fun to watch the grebes and for Nichole to get pictures.

When we got home, we had lunch, then the kids got to work on chores. They got done in a decent enough time and were able to have plenty of free time and enjoyed playing card games together. It was a nice feeling.

I also got dinner made in a decent enough time. We had chili dogs for the holiday, National Chili Dog Day.

Later after some of the kids went to bed, I celebrated another July 30 holiday, National Cheesecake Day, by making a microwave cheesecake. I goofed up a little but it was still yummy. I'll just have to make it again sometime and do it right.