International Day of Friendship 2026

July 30 was National Chili Dog Day. The boys had chili dogs while Nichole and I went over to our friend Stephanie's house for International Day of Friendship. 

She was getting some of her art gals together to watch a movie. When I picked up Nichole earlier that week from their regular art time, she gave me my signed copy of the second Timmy Termite book. Then she invited me to come to their movie night on Paperback Book Day, July 30. I didn't mind being included.

We had pizza and other treats. Nichole brought zucchini bread that I baked with zucchini from our garden. We watched The Princess and the Frog and talked about how that was the first movie Nichole ever saw in the theater when she was just a little girl. I blogged about it on March 6, 2010.

It's been a few years since I watched that movie. I enjoyed watching it that night.

Since that day was also National Father-in-Law Day, I texted a happy holiday to my father-in-law. 

Nice time with friends. 

Movie Night!

June 12 was National Movie Night. I was so busy that day. There was pizza dough in the fridge so I told the kids to make pizza and to put fresh basil on it. I got basil from our garden that morning for that reason.

I also told the kids to decide on a movie to watch for Movie Night. They picked Matilda so we watched that while eating pizza and I completely forgot about us having popcorn during the movie. Nobody else mentioned it. Jr. did make some cookies, though. 

Matilda was also a good choice because June 12 was Magic Day. 

 

Another day, I used fresh basil again in a pasta dish.

 

Seeking Persephone with Stephanie

Nichole and I introduced our friend, Stephanie, to the movie, Seeking Persephone, in February. We watched the movie and drank herbal tea.

In March for our Girls Gather (Girls' Night) activity, we had a green foods potluck (because St. Patrick's Day was earlier that week) and introduced Seeking Persephone to even more friends.

I brought alfredo pizza with artichoke hearts and bell peppers and spinach and Nichole made cucumber sandwiches (from the cookbook, Whisk Me Away). There were some other green foods and we laughed because nobody brought a salad which is the obvious choice for green. At our February Galentines potluck, so many people brought salads. They were good, of course. I like a variety of salads. 

Now I'm craving alfredo pizza. Thanks a lot, blogging. I'm too busy to make alfredo pizza right now.

Fun in July Other Than Celebrating Holidays

We didn't just celebrate holidays in July. We had other fun, too. Some things worked for Summer Reading.

Dressing up (total Harry Potter vibes going on).

He stole my pajamas and put them on himself.

Crafts- it's Dixie Fox.

Bonding time- One day Jr. needed a break so he came into my room. I suggested we play a game so we did... until Jet came and decided to mess up the cards. Sigh.  He wanted to "play," too, I guess.

We brought back some treats from Washington. There were jelly snacks in a frog shaped jar. Jr. and Jet named the jar, "Senor Frog," so at one point Jet said, "Aww. Senor Frog. He's so cute." Jet's so cute.

We've continued to try new recipes. This was BLT pasta salad (big hit with several family members) and Hawaiian baked beans (I was the only one who liked them and I really liked them).

We did one more story trail that they set up on the Provo Library grounds. The Golden River.

Nichole went to a Lord of the Rings marathon at the Orem Library. Jeremy made her a food for one of the breaks.

We weren't able to get tickets for a movie night to watch Wonka at the Provo Library so we checked the movie out and had our own movie night at home with popcorn and brownies.

Nichole and I got out for walks with friends.

A couple family members won prizes from the Orem Library and Jr. won a prize from the Provo Library. Jeremy won a movie night at the Orem Library. Jet won some new Pete the Cat books. Jr. won some play tickets. We all got some prizes just for participating in the Summer Reading programs.

July was busy.

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.

Movie Night

One day last year Jeremy and I asked Jr. to help us with something. After he helped us we drove over to "reward" him with Little Caesar's pizza. Then Jeremy needed to use the restroom in the movie theater nearby so Jr. and I went in to wait for him and we happened to have tickets to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. 

That was fun.

 

Another day, Jeremy and I asked Jr. Jr. and Lucky to help us with something. After they helped us we drove over to "reward" them with Little Caesar's pizza. Then... I can't remember if the same thing happened but somehow we ended up in the movie theater again with tickets to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

That was fun.

February 9 of this year was National Pizza Day. We ate Little Caesar's pizza at home then the kids had to "buy" their own tickets and concessions to watch a movie we watched at home. They paid for them with "movie bucks" they earned by doing chores and reading scriptures and things. That idea for earning a movie night came from Jordan Page at funcheaporfree.com and she even has printables to help if you want. I remember doing movie nights with my cousins when we were kids with the tickets and the concessions. It was so fun. For our movie night recently we watched The Amazing Maurice. It was based on The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. Both the movie and the book were good.

That was fun.

We still have to find a good movie to take Nichole out to see (after eating Little Caesar's pizza of course).