Spinach Days

March 26 was National Spinach Day. It was also Make Up Your Own Holiday Day and Jeremy wanted to make up the holiday, I Don't Have To Go In To Work Day, but it didn't work. Poor guy.

But we did celebrate Spinach Day. To go along with Spinach and salad dressing (our kids are into simple salads- spinach with or without dressing, lettuce with or without dressing), I made Creamy Garlic Pork Chops, Classic Mashed Potatoes (both from "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1), and applesauce. 

I don't make pork chops (I didn't even know pork chops could come boneless, I never look for them in the store), I don't make mashed potatoes from scratch (I am an instant mashed potatoes person- they're so much easier), but I made both for this meal. I am definitely trying new things with these books by Jordan Page and The Page Company. And we're actually getting through the bags of potatoes that we buy from the store. Yay.

I'll tell you my true opinion. Pork chops were yummy. Mashed potatoes weren't as good. They were easy but I need to do a better job at seasoning them. More garlic, that's what we need. And the spinach wasn't part of the meal plan, but it was a good side dish and fit the holiday.

Speaking of spinach, the next day we had spinach again with our dinner, this time with more than just dressing. We had Best Ever Fettuccine Alfredo (with spaghetti instead of fettucine) and Butter Lettuce Salad (with spinach instead of butter lettuce). We also had some homemade wheat bread to go along with it.

I'll tell you my true opinion. I definitely did some shelf cooking with the alfredo sauce recipe. I combined cream, half and half, and powdered milk with water. Used up the rest of the cream that we had in the fridge and the rest of a container of half and half we had in the fridge. We still have another unopened container of half and half that Jr. Jr. brought home from a youth activity where they were making ice cream, so no hurry on that. Anyway, the alfredo sauce was good. I still prefer the alfredo sauce we usually make and will probably stick to that one, but it's okay to try new things, especially when you have ingredients you need to use up. The recipe I usually use is Guiltless Alfredo Sauce from ourbestbites.com and most of us in the family love it. O.K. About the salad. It was good. The green olives in it were a pleasant surprise for some people. Honestly, I got myself a bowl of the olives to munch on while I was making dinner. I like green olives. It was a good salad but not craveworthy.

As far as the homemade bread goes, we did the traditional tear into one loaf to snack on and slice the others after they've cooled. I know we're not the only family that does that. Jet used to tear into all the loaves. A little bit of this loaf. A little bit of this one. Thinking about that makes me laugh. So many fun memories with this family.

On a different note, March 27 was Manatee Appreciation Day. I did sing, "Barbara Manatee" to celebrate. And thinking ahead when a picture of a manatee popped up on the laptop a few days before, I took a picture of it so I could look at it on the holiday. Celebrating in simple ways. Tee Hee.

It's a blessing to be able to celebrate what we do. We have friends in Haiti who are dealing with things that we don't even have to think about dealing with. 

To take their children's minds off of what they are going through at this time, our friends set up Google Meets with people to take time to talk to the girls, read books, or whatever. Jeremy signed us up so we got to chat with them, show them silly Jet. Jeremy put together a presentation about animals and birds of Utah so they could learn about them and find out what birds Utah has in common with Haiti. Then he made a couple of balloon animals for them to see since that's what we do. I hope it helped. They seemed to enjoy it.

International Mountain Day 2022

International Mountain Day was December 11. We had our at-home potluck that day. I, of course, made mashed potatoes that could be made into mountains. This is what everyone contributed.

Jeremy: lasagna, Me: mashed potatoes, Nichole: mandarin oranges, Jr.: crepes (most with Nutella and bananas), Jr. Jr.: lemonade, Lucky: cheese puffs, Jet: apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

The kids remarked that it was a very orange dinner. But it was a decent dinner. Plenty to eat and a variety.

More Potato Days

Just like last year we had a couple of potato days in May. 

May 17 was National Idaho Day so we had onion roasted potatoes with our dinner.

 

May 18 was Mount St. Helens Day. We had our traditional mashed potato volcanoes with gravy lava, broccoli trees, and "those poor people" raisins. While I made the mashed potatoes and Nichole made the gravy, we talked about how the gravy could be lahar instead. Mount St. Helens definitely had those mudflows. 

While we were eating dinner, one of the kids was having trouble with his mashed potatoes. I told him to pile them up then make ridges down the sides and say, "This means something." He didn't know the reference. I went over and helped him make his mashed potatoes into a volcano with a crater then he put the gravy in it and took pictures.

We sent the kids to bed that night then Jeremy and I watched Dante's Peak. I haven't seen that in a while. It was fun to watch it again.

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.

Polar Express Party 2020

Friday we made more pumpkin cookies (with chocolate chips) and put together a couple of plates to put on the doorstep for friends to LightTheWorld on Friday. It was "Treat Times Two." Jr. took some extra snacks to give to friends at school.

Since December 11 was International Mountain Day, I made a mountain of burritos for dinner along with mashed potatoes to make our own mountains. Looking back at my blog, in 2013 Jeremy made a mountain of chimichangas for that holiday so I did something similar this year.

Lucky had a Polar Express party at school. We chose that day to have our family Polar Express party. The train climbs into the mountains. See?

Jeremy dressed up as usual and read the book and made hot chocolate for everyone during the movie... except for me (and Jet). I fell asleep and missed part of the book and most of the movie... including the hot chocolate song. Sigh. 

Wow. Looking back at my blog, I apparently often fall asleep during that movie. I usually make it through the book and at least make it to the hot chocolate, though. 

By the way, don't you love Jeremy's conductor hat? My sister, Kelly, made the decoration on it. Check out her website site for amazing things she does. findingtimetocreate.com I have talented sisters.

 

Celebrations With and Without Pictures

October 5 was Get Funky Day. One of us was in a funk that day. I said it counted.

October 6 was National Noodle Day. My plan was to make stroganoff with egg noodles. I asked Jr. Jr. and Lucky if that would be good for them after their dentist appointment. They didn't think so. They would rather have rice... with chicken cooked in gourmet sauce. 

Well, I gave them what they wanted. And I made stroganoff with egg noodles. It was just one of those days. It is not often I cook multiple entrees.

Ooh, that reminds me of something that happened recently. It was a leftovers for dinner night and I noticed there was spaghetti sauce that needed to be eaten up but no leftover spaghetti. So I cooked up a bunch of spaghetti noodles and... the kids all took the pasta but didn't touch the spaghetti sauce. Sigh. Now I know why there was leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge but no spaghetti. Actually after I mentioned something, I think Nichole put some sauce on her pasta.

October 8 was Fluffernutter Day. Tee Hee. We did have fluffernutter sandwiches for dinner.

October 11 was International Day of the Girl Child. I put on the menu plan "boys make dinner" so Nichole and I (the girl childs) could have a break. Jeremy wasn't feeling well so he left dinner making to the boys boys. Jr. made Polish sausages with mashed potatoes and cheese. Lucky made hot chocolate. Jr. Jr.... didn't. I tried to do some catching up of my blog while they were and were not making things.

That day was also It's My Party Day so the kids and I sang that song. 

And here's another thing. For Family Home Evening treat one night, Lucky got out pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows and instructed us on how to make certain things and in what order to eat things. I think he enjoyed having that power. 

Yellow Pigs Day

July 17 was Yellow Pigs Day. Nichole and Jr. talked about the time Jr. won something because a yellow pig won a race. It was at a county fair back in 2014 and Nichole told her little brothers how she won a hat at the same time.
We were going to have pigs in a blanket with mustard for dinner but didn't get dough made. Instead we had hot dogs for kids (with mustard) and for grownups we had polish sausages with mashed potatoes and yellow cheese on top (and some red pepper flakes). Yumm.

It was a hot dogs kind of week.

Lucky used one of his tickets that night to watch the same movie Nichole picked earlier in the week, Matilda. He also had some gummi worms with his popcorn.

The Poor Innocent People

May 18 was the 40th anniversary of the big eruption of Mount St. Helens. We made mashed potato volcanoes and decorated them then poured gravy "lava" in them so they overflowed. Broccoli represented trees (of course) and raisins represented innocent people (according to Lucky).

"Oh no. The poor innocent people."

As we built and destroyed (yumm), Jeremy and I talked to the kids a bit about the eruption in 1980 and about trips to the mountain in later years.
We were tempted to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind because of the mashed potato mountains but we didn't. I did say while making my mountain, "This means something."

Since May 18 was also National Cheese Soufflé Day, Nichole and I watched the movie, Sabrina, where Audrey Hepburn's character goes to France and learns to make soufflé. "One two three crack. New egg."

Catching Up on the Last Three Months- 3

I love my family.  I love the humor.  That was one of the things that drew me to my husband when we were first getting to know each other- his sense of humor.  I still love his sense of humor after so many years of being married.  I love that my kids have picked up on his style of humor.  Love it.  Love it.  Love it.
So I was delighted while I was looking through pictures to do my catching up to find this picture.

Give this girl a white board and dry erase marker and it is wonderful what she will come up with.

Continuing on with what we did in May, Jr. continued to earn things in Scouts and the whole family participated in pack meetings.

Jr. Jr. participated in his grade's patriotic program.  Good job, kid.

Lucky continued making videos with ZZ, though I've been too busy to edit and upload any since International Respect for Chickens Day.

May 18 was Mount Saint Helens Day.  We had mashed potato volcanoes.

Jr. and Jr. Jr. did a good job with their school dance festival again this year.  I'm not putting pictures on here of them but trust me when I say they did a good job.
And the kids ended the school year.  I neglected to take pictures when they got done on the last day of school.  It was a crazy busy day.  Oh well.
Here are some pictures of the kids later that day.

And here's Jeremy working on the Orem Library's Summer Reading Program's balloon sculpture that same day.

And that is where we were at the end of May.

I'll catch up on June later.

Gotta Catch Up

O.K.  We have so many things coming up.  I better catch up on some of our celebrations before I get extra super far behind.
Now, where was I?  After Screen Free Week.  Whoa.  I've missed a lot.  Here we go.
Let's start with our anniversary.  It happened in May.  We continued our tradition of our special anniversary dinner with the kids.  We have an idea for Jeremy and I to celebrate alone, but we haven't gotten to that yet.  But I know we will. My husband is awesome. The kids helped make the dinner which was so sweet.

We haven't had an anniversary date yet, but we did have a nice birding date.  We found some birds we went out specifically to see and we had a nice walk along a beach of Utah Lake.  We were able to hold hands without any children getting between us.  Lovely.  Jeremy even gave me a rose before we headed out to the lake.  Awwww.

We celebrated Mount St. Helens Day on May 18.  We made mashed potato volcanoes and watched a short documentary about Mount St. Helens.

The 20th of May was Eliza Doolittle Day.  "Lots of chocolate for me to eat."  We brought chocolate to visit friends and had some fun playing Breath of the Wild again.

We've been having lots of end of the year school things as well.

The kindergartners and preschoolers had their own art night.  They do that instead of a kindergarten graduation.

I got to go on Jr. Jr.'s last field trip of the year to the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  Good bonding time.  It wore us out, though.

We went to Jr.'s presentation on Utah history.  Great job, son.

Nichole is finishing up elementary school so we got to see her get some awards.

Phew.  Now onto all the upcoming events and celebrations.