Pizza Pizza (My 4 year old's title for this post)

When you're too busy to make dinner and your middle child brings home leftovers from an activity and shares with his siblings:

Have I mentioned I love my children?

A Week of Celebrating

Monday, August 8, was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. We didn't but look what we harvested later.

 

Tuesday, August 9, was Book Lover's Day. There was a lot of book reading in our home. Go figure.

Wednesday, August 10, was National S'mores Day. Jr. Jr. had a special chocolate bar he wanted to use on his s'more so he did. The rest of us had milk chocolate or dark chocolate.

Thursday, August 11, was Sons and Daughters Day. I took my sons and daughter to the UCB potluck. Jeremy joined us a bit later but it was again nice to be around our friends, the birders.

The kids have had enough experience now with a number of these people, they aren't all strangers. I love it. Plus there was another toddler birder running around the kids had fun playing with.

 

Friday, August 12, was Middle Child's Day. Once again Jr. Jr. picked what we'd have for dinner besides julienne fries which I was going to make anyway because it was Julienne Fries Day. He was okay with that.

We also wanted to see the meteor shower like we saw last year. It was cloudy and there was a really bright moon and it was late so some of us stayed home and some of us went anyway. We only saw a few shooting stars because of the clouds and moon. A couple kids fell asleep on the drive and slept through it but they didn't miss much. Jeremy and I did have a little bonding time with our exact middle child and that was so nice.

This is the three of us... in shadow form. Notice if you can my bunny ears, thanks to my husband, not my middle child... this time.

The next morning, my sister heard a big boom that shook her house. It was decided later that it was a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere and causing a sonic boom.

 

For our at home potluck on Sunday, August 14, I fried up that zucchini from our garden.

Before, After, and After After

 

And this is the rest of what we ate:

Lucky wanted to learn how to make chicken Caesar salad wraps so I taught him for this. He did a good job, he just needed some help with rolling them up.

Nichole made a cheeseball that looked like a lizard on a rock because August 14 was World Lizard Day.

What She Missed- August 12

Thursday, August 12-

Middle Child Day. This is the second year since Jr. Jr. became the exact middle child yet like last year not all the siblings were here so he couldn't be the exact middle child on that day. He did get to pick what we had for dinner, though, like last year. It's fun to let him pick. So we had impossible cheeseburger pie, broccoli, and peach cobbler. Mmmm.

I love that kid. He's a hoot.

 

And look, our mountains are back.

What They Missed- August 12

Wednesday, August 12-
I feel like my one accomplishment the whole time Jeremy and the oldest two were gone was getting the kitchen table completely cleaned off.

That and taking the boys out to feed the birds... most days.

I had a rant written down on this day when I was taking notes. I don't want to write it on here. I'd rather write about Middle Child Day. Jr. Jr. was excited because now he is the exact middle child in the family. With the two oldest gone, Lucky was the middle child of the two that were left. So we celebrated them both. I had Jr. Jr. figure out the menu plan for dinner, though.
We had pizza, dried fruit, and root beer. I taught the boys a trick of using a red vine for a straw in their cans of root beer if they bite the ends off first. Red vines dissolve easily in pop, though, so we had extra sugary root beer.

 
That night we went outside in the dark in case we could see any shooting stars. Before we got very far, though, the neighbors' porch light came on and the boys started playing Shadow Wars. They were cute.

We went in the backyard to look at the sky. We didn't see much in the way of shooting stars since we were still in the city. I think I saw a couple, so does Jr. Jr. We did see UFOs, though. That was cool. Jr. Jr. explained to Lucky that UFOs are Unidentified Flying Objects so if you can't tell what is, it is unidentified and therefore a UFO. When I first saw one it was floating across the sky. It looked like the shape of one of those elongated parachutes that people use to jump from Point of the Mountain. My next thought was... some sort of stealth jet you could only see the outline of if you were trying? We all watched it as it continued along then watched it change shape. Well, there went my stealth jet theory. It was weird. Was it a group of bugs flying in formation then changing formation? We saw these UFOs a few times so it was either several groups or individuals or it was the same group or individual going around again. It could have been eerie but we found it interesting.
We also saw several planes and helicopters flying around flashing green and red.
While we were out there, we sang a bit of "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail just in case Jeremy was out looking at the same stars from a few states away.

Middle Child's Day 2015

I haven't been letting the kids play video games for a little while because of... circumstances.  Behaviors after playing the games and not getting along during the games, etc.  You know?
So Jr. was quite pleased today, August 12, when he asked to play a Wii game and I said, "Well... it is Middle Child's Day so... O.K."

Joy Is...

playing a board game with a middle child.

Middle Child's Day 2014

Last year we had one middle child when we celebrated Middle Child's Day, August 12.  This year we have two middle children.
Jr. and Jr. Jr. got to take turns picking activities to do throughout the day.  Playing games and watching movies...  Jr. got to go on a special outing with Daddy this morning and Jr. Jr. got to pick the bedtime book for me to read to the kids tonight.
Even though it was Middle Child's Day, Lucky and I went out to get some fresh air at Thanksgiving Point Gardens.
Lucky slept in the stroller while I saw flowers and birds.
Can you spot the birds in these two photos?

Happy celebrating with middle, oldest, or youngest children.