Mother Nature's Practical Joke

You know how March is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb? Both the beginning of March and end of March this year were kind of meh.

But the beginning of April? Mother Nature decided to play an April Fool's joke on all of us. After such a mild Winter, we got snow the beginning of April. And of course I didn't take pictures. And that's okay.

It cleared up and we've had some sunny days since then. 

I don't have pictures of the weather, but here is a picture of Jr. Jr. learning how to pass juggling balls with me. 

It's a lot more effective when I'm not trying to take the picture and juggle at the same time. Tee Hee.

That was not a sunny day as you can see. 

I Got Her

She commented that it looked like someone had already had some of the Koolaid. Then she tried to pour it out. She actually tried for a while but it wouldn't come out... because it was Jello. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I also made "garlic bread", some of it having garlic salt, some of it having cinnamon sugar. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

My kids are okay with the April Fool's jokes where we can all laugh but still get something good out of it.

I Forgot

I'm always telling my children, if I don't write it down I won't remember it. Unfortunately, even when I remember to write things down, sometimes I forget to read what I wrote. Sigh. This happens with my to do list as well as writing down what we celebrated to later blog about.

Here's an example. I wrote this down more than a month ago. Recently I was going through things I had written down to catch up on my blog and completely missed it even though it was right in front of me. I was blogging other things but not this. It's not a big thing but I did intend to blog about it. And here's the fun part about showing my personality while blogging. This whole introduction thing is longer than the whole thing I wanted to share.

 

Tell a Joke Day was August 16. 

On that day, Jeremy said this: Wow. That 30 seconds went really quick. It didn't feel more than half a minute.

 

There. I got it out of my system. And to leave you with another something, as Jeremy was getting ready for yet another trip, Jet wrapped himself in Jeremy's suitcase and insisted he was going. I told him he had to stay home because he had school. His response?

Jet: I'm going on a trip. Daddy's going to school. 

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This morning, Jr. let me know that he woke up to a spider crawling on him. Ew. I asked him if it was a big one or a little one. He told me it was a big one. Yuck. I told him I can relate to spiders crawling on me. Then he told me, "April Fool's!" Ho Ho. He got me on that one.

For after school snack, I made "muffins" for the kids. Ha Ha. Joke's on me. They were more like drop biscuits than muffins. Oh well. Nichole watched as I put a couple chocolate chips on the top of each muffin before putting them in the oven. "Oh, chocolate chip muffins. Yumm." Then she kept expressing how they smelled so good and she and Jr. were anxious to have them. But I made them wait until the younger boys got home from school so they could all eat them together. Heh Heh Heh. Joke's on them. They were cheddar and dill muffins (with chocolate chips on top). Ha Ha Ha. Joke's on me again. The kids didn't have a reaction. Finally Lucky asked what kind of muffins they were and people expressed their thoughts about them but in the moment, nobody said anything. Sigh.

I also told the kids, "Joke's on you. Mom's not making dinner. Fend for yourself. You can have colored flavored sugar water, though." Nichole got the pitcher out of the fridge and tried to pour herself some then stopped and said, "Ha Ha," sarcastically. Ha Ha, indeed. I couldn't believe I got her. She said it wasn't colored flavored sugar water. I assured her it was colored flavored sugar water, just gelatinous colored flavored sugar water. The kids enjoyed eating it with a spoon. I've been doing this jello/koolaid thing for so many years, I'm amazed that I actually do surprise the kids.

Jr. Jr. came home with a word search for his parents to do. None of the words listed were actually in among the letters. Ha Ha Ha. He didn't get me, though. I suspected it. He said his teacher did it to them at school.

Later in the evening, we told jokes and listened to jokes. Family joke night. Woohoo.

Unicorn Headphones

We needed to get headphones for both Jr. and Jr. Jr. for school. Jeremy found these light up unicorn headphones from the store and had to get them.
When Jr. got home from school, Jeremy told him the headphones were on the computer desk. He pulled them out of the box, commenting how awesome they were. He tried them on then said, "I'm going to put these away and then go search for my old ones."

When Jr. Jr. got home, Jeremy again told him the headphones were on the computer desk. He pulled them out of the box and asked, "Is this a joke?"

Since neither of them were excited about taking them to school, we got out the other regular headphones that Jeremy bought. Now we can use the light up headphones for our computer as sometimes it's hard for people to hear what's going on with six other people all making noise. And a lot of people need to use the computer for school and work (and blogging).

The KAT'S Meow

Mom:  Here's pasta and here's sauce.
Jr.:  Is this macaroni and cheese or just macaroni?
Mom:  Just macaroni but the sauce has cheese in it.
Jr.:  I don't really like the sauce.
Mom:  Have you ever tried it?
Jr.:  No, which means I hate it.
Mom:  Ah, guilty until proven innocent, right?
Jr.:  Yes.


Jeremy:  Why did the sheep smile when it was having its wool removed?
Kristin:  Why?
Jeremy:  For the shear pleasure of it.
Kristin:  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Jr. Jr.'s Jokes

What did the duck say to the bird?
There's a quack in that tree.

What did the duck say to the frog?
You eat flies?  I eat cheese and quackers.

Later-
Mom:  Jr. Jr., I really liked your duck jokes.
Jr.:  They made me quack up.
Mom:  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Where do cars and boats meet?
At the sea park.

How did the bird in the water fly?
I don't know.  It couldn't.

Alphabet Pizza

September 8 is International Literacy Day.  While menu planning I wanted to figure out what food would work for dinner on this day.  The family helped me come up with the idea for Alphabet Pizza.
Pizza with toppings for all the letters of the alphabet from A-Z.  It took us some time and creativity but we did it.  It also took some time to prepare.  We had some of the ingredients, but others we had to buy specifically for this.

We ended up with 5 pizzas with these toppings/ingredients:

A- Artichoke Hearts
B- Bacon
C- Chicken
D- Dough
E- Eggs
F- Fennel Seed
G- Green Pepper
H- Ham
I- Italian Seasoning
J- Jalapenos
K- Kielbasa
L- Lemon Pepper
M- Mushrooms
N- Nacho Cheese
O- Olives
P- Pineapple
Q- Queso
R- Red Pepper
S- Sausage
T- Tomatoes
U- Uncooked Spinach
V- Very Good Pepperoni
W- White Sauce
X- Xtra Cheese
Y- Yellow Pepper
Z- Zucchini

Some of these (dough) we used on multiple pizzas but here is generally what pizzas we came up with:
Artichoke hearts, bacon, chicken, white sauce, yellow pepper, lemon pepper, tomatoes, uncooked spinach

Eggs, fennel seed, green pepper, queso, sausage

Italian seasoning, jalapenos, kielbasa, mushrooms, red pepper, zucchini

Nacho cheese, olives, very good pepperoni, Xtra cheese

Ham, Pineapple

 
I didn't think about it until today (even though it's on the calendar) and a friend was mentioning it on facebook, but today is also the 50th anniversary of when the original series of Star Trek aired.
Of course we had to celebrate that.  After alphabet pizza, you only have so much energy, though.  So we watched the first episode of Star Trek (the one that aired 50 years ago today) while eating our pizza.
Jeremy also got creative and came up with some Star Trek jokes while helping me make pizza.

What happens to a Vulcan when he gets sick?
He becomes "ill" logical.

Where do Klingons like to fish?
On a Worf.

What is the number one cause of death in the Federation?
Wearing a red shirt.

It was a fun evening.

Tell a Joke Day 2016

August 16 is National Tell a Joke Day.  We went to pack meeting for cub scouts and the whole way home the kids were making up and telling jokes.

Jr. earned several belt loops toward his Wolf.

Before we got in the van, however, we saw that the moon was up. 

I mentioned the man in the moon and Lucky asked about it.  I told him the moon looks like it has a face, a man's face, so it is known as the man in the moon.  Nichole then told him, "Yeah, the moon goes through different faces."  Ohhhhhh, good one Nichole.  Faces- phases.  Ha Ha Ha Ha. 

The Calendar Played a Joke on Me

A while back, I was updating our dry erase wall calendar.  Since there's nothing to celebrate on April 1st, I was trying to write the celebrations for April 2nd on that date and skip April 1st.  There were several to write down and I accidentally wrote them down on April 1st.  Whoops. 
I erased them so I could put them on the 2nd.  I wrote them down only to realize that I had again written them on the calendar for April 1st.  Sigh.
I erased them again and wrote them again... on April 1st.  What?  Really?
Fine.  I was NOT going to write them ALL again.  So I put an arrow from April 1st to April 2nd and wrote, "Just kidding!  They are supposed to be here"

Looks like I was April Fooled.

Dinosaur Joke

Jr. Jr.:  What did the blue pachycephalosaurus do when he saw the green pachycephalosaurus pack his backpack with his lunch box?
Mommy:  I don't know.  What did the blue pachycephalosaurus do when he saw the green pachycephalosaurus pack his backpack with his lunch box?
Jr. Jr.:  He runned away and told his mom pachycephalosaurus that he saw the green pachycephalosaurus.

A Golden Evening

August 16th is National Tell a Joke Day.  Jeremy checked out a joke book from the library and we were telling jokes throughout the day.

The best part of the day was no joke, though.
This evening we got to celebrate my aunt and uncle's Golden Wedding Anniversary.  That's right.  50 years they've been married.  That really is something nowadays.  A lot of marriages don't seem to last that long (mine will, and longer, just like my aunt and uncle).  It was beautiful to see so much support for my aunt and uncle.  Big family get together.  Most of my cousins were there.
Since my aunt and uncle have made a lot of quilts during their life together, that was the theme for the evening.  There were dozens of quilts (that they'd made) around the room.  It brought back good feelings from my childhood to see some of them. 

Jeremy was asked to make a quilt out of balloons for the celebration.  It had a big golden 50 in the middle and was popular for photos.

Once again I was able to get pictures of Lucky and me with a couple of my cousins and their babies.  One set was different this time.  So don't be confused if the cousin and baby look different than last time I got pictures like that.  There's a reason.  Four of us had babies within 6 months of each other and we're not always around each other at the same time.

Lucky's expression isn't nearly as cheerful in this picture as last time.  Oh well.  He's still cute.

After the event was over, the balloon quilt was taken down and the grandkids of my aunt and uncle got under it like... a quilt.  It was fun to see the adults trying to get pictures of all the kids under it and the whole quilt.

Jeremy saw the kids lying there and commented, "Sorry I didn't make balloon pillows."  Ha Ha Ha.  National Tell a Joke Day, right?

It was a golden evening.

The KAT's Meow- Joke

Jeremy:  What do vampires like to have in their home entertainment systems?
Kristin:  What?
Jeremy:  Plasma TVs.
Kristin:  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Jeremy:  Laffy Taffy, I've got one for you.