Off They Went Again

We got Jr. Jr. back from camp, Jr. back from visiting family, then we sent them both out again. This time, they both went to FSY.

The day they left was Black Cow Day, June 10, but because it was a busy day (FSY was in Ephraim, Utah, not nearly as close as BYU for Nichole and Jr. a couple years ago), we celebrated it observed with rootbeer floats with chocolate syrup. 

Things we did without those boys:

Played games

Went to the Marcus' annual Jugglers BBQ. Good food. Good friends. Good fun. I got to see some new juggling games I hadn't seen before. 

Jet decorated me.

He was also my kitchen helper.

For National Movie Night on June 14, we ate pizzas and watched The Amazing Maurice again.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Goofing off on National Goof Off Day? I think not. On March 22, Jet decided to be a big helper and helped me make dinner.

I was making Green Goddess Pitas from "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1. He saw me putting together the cabbage filling, saw the spinach that I was going to use for the dressing, and decided to help by putting bits of spinach in with the cabbage. So we had whole pieces of spinach in with it. That's fine.

Since we did need the spinach in the dressing, I gave Jet a measuring cup and he filled it with spinach himself to put in the blender. He started to do more in the measuring cup so we had a bit more than just the cup of spinach it called for which is fine.

I love that he chooses to help in the kitchen. You know he's my baking buddy. He's also my cooking buddy. He likes when I hand him the measuring spoons and cups to dump ingredients into something. He wanted to help cut onions with a plastic knife but we put a stop to that once he started rubbing his eyes. Poor kid. I did give him pieces of cucumber which he was able to cut with a plastic knife.

Sometimes he really is a big helper. And sometimes... I mean he did help clean the wall the day before... after he took a pencil and ran it back and forth along the wall multiple times.

This is why I refuse to read my children the book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon", which is one I read in my childhood. It's a fun book but I don't want to give them ideas (especially Jet).

The pitas turned out well. It was my turn to make hummus to go with it and we had some left over for Chip and Dip Day on March 23. I also made tzatziki with sour cream (so good) for Chip and Dip Day. I used the recipe from the beginning of the year when we made pitas before. Some people had salsa with their chips.

Earlier that day, Jeremy, Nichole, Lucky, and I went on a Utah County Birders field trip. Unfortunately it was getting ready to storm so there wasn't a lot to see in the way of birds but it was still nice to be around my birding peeps (see what I did there, birding peeps? 'Cause small sandpipers are called peeps? Tee Hee).

We got a thunderstorm and hail later that day and the next day we got snow.

Ah, Spring.

The next day after that, March 25, was International Waffle Day. Jet decided to be my helper in the kitchen again and helped stir the waffle mix before I put it in the waffle iron. Then he was happy to help eat the waffles. Tee Hee.

Let's Face It

You know?  My family is awesome.  Yes, it's true.  And we do a lot of neat things together.  Yes, we do.
But...
Let's face it.  Sometimes things are just not that great.
Today things were not that great.
One of my children and I did not get along very well.  That's a nice way of putting it.
After taking some time to cool off, I went to the kitchen to find that another of my children dumped cereal out all over the already messy kitchen.

Later on, another child decided to play in the cereal and spread it around even more.

I needed the motivation to clean the kitchen floor.  I got it.

I managed to throw away a lot of stuff that needed to be thrown away and I managed to sweep, but Lucky woke up before I had a chance to mop.  Oh well.  Save it for another day, I guess.
By the end of the day, though, the kids and I were getting along.  They even got to watch me play a computer game while we ate dinner in the living room since there was no room at the kitchen table.
Sigh.  Life.

Mommy, Look

I'm making kitchen angels.