Some More April Celebrations

April 23 was National Picnic Day. We had picnic foods. Jet was feeling under the weather again so we didn't go out to a park to eat.

I completely forgot to get the potato salad out. Luckily Jeremy remembered when he got home so he was able to have some.

 

April 24 was Arbor Day. My sweetie and I enjoyed taking a picture with the tree in our front yard. I like trees. It's been fun to see the progress from buds to blossoms to leaves on the trees in the area. I don't spend as much time doing that in the Spring. It's usually just all of a sudden there are leaves on the trees.

That day was also Pigs in a Blanket Day. I often make pigs in a blanket on National Pig Day on March 1 because I like to recreate the scene from the Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford song, "Pig Island".

I didn't this year but I wanted to so I took the opportunity on Pigs in a Blanket Day. We had pigs in a blanket, peaches, and blue koolaid. We added some other things and that's okay. It's the thought that counts.

Jet wanted to help out with the pigs in a blanket. Since I was doing them in the air fryer which gets hot, he got to be my taste tester after they came out. 

 

And of course, being the ham that he is, he was very happy when I took a picture of him doing this: 

Have I mentioned I love my family?

Sad Days

A tragedy happened on September 10. A guest speaker at UVU, Charlie Kirk, was killed. It was shocking. Jr. was on campus but we were able to get him back to our house to stay for a few days since campus (and his apartment complex) closed down. Jr. Jr.'s school is right next to UVU so they kept the students there an extra hour before sending them home. There was definitely some processing we all needed to do. 

The sad event made me reflect on 9/11, and what I experienced in 2001.

It also made me reflect on what President Nelson had been saying around his birthday. We need to be peacemakers. We need to remember that we are children of God and that others are as well and should be treated that way.

President Nelson was such a good example of a disciple of Jesus Christ. He practiced what he preached. He sadly passed away the end of September but at 101 years old, it didn't come as a complete surprise. He lived a long and remarkable life and I am grateful I had the opportunity to learn so much from him.

 

On a happier note because life has to continue even when you're processing a tragedy, September 11 was Make Your Bed Day. Jet helped me make Pigs in a Blanket. I appreciate the helper he is.

 

 

Catching Up April 2025 part 3

April 22 was Earth Day. I took a quick trip to Powell Slough to appreciate nature.

April 22 was also Jelly Bean Day. I stopped by BYU to bring Nichole some food to help her get through finals and jelly beans, of course.

April 23 was Shakespeare's Birthday. I started reading Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters based on Macbeth.

April 23 was also National Picnic Day. Dinner was make yourselves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, baby carrots, and apples because Jeremy and I were busy bringing Nichole home from college for the Summer.

 

April 24 was Pigs in a Blanket Day. Kids made pigs in a blanket, Thanks, kids.

Palindrome Days

It's always fun when there are interesting dates on the calendar. Remember 2-22-22?

Or 12-31-23?

 

I recently told my brother of an experience I had.

Me: Happy 04-14-24

Paco: That's a good one! Happy sequential day to you, too!

Me: Thanks. It was funny how I realized it. I was putting away dinner leftovers and as I was putting the date on the label, I saw 4-14-24, thought it was cool, and quickly added a 0 to the front.

Palindrome dates are fun, too. We had fun in January of 2021 with 1-21-21 and 1-22-21, etc.

 

My brother and I texted each other a few times during recent "palindrome days." 4-20-24 through 4-29-24 or 42024 through 42924. Palindrome days!

 

4-20-24 I'll blog about later. But here's a hint.

 

4-21-24 Tuna Rights Day. Lucky ate tuna. Bwah ha ha ha!

I walked home after choir after church.

4-22-24 Jelly Bean Day. I had a handful of jelly beans.

 

4-23-24 Cherry Cheesecake Day. I made Cherry Cheesecake from a box. Jr. Jr. loved it. He ate more than anyone else.

4-24-24 Pigs in a Blanket Day. I made Lil' Smokies in a Blanket.

We also got Nichole home from BYU!

My brother texted me: Happy 42424! Not as cool as the last one, but is a palindrome for Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

 

Speaking of Life, the Universe, and Everything, Jeremy and Nichole went to that writing conference in February. During these Palindrome Days, they watched some videos online from another writing conference for fantasy. And Nichole shaped a cheeseball that looked like a dragon for them to snack on while watching classes.

4-25-24 Telephone Day. Nichole used a cell phone in a video game. 

Zucchini Bread Day. I made zucchini bread (and the next day I took some to a friend who I knew liked zucchini bread). 

World Penguin Day. We had fish sticks (and zucchini bread). 

National Plumbers Day. Jr. played Mario music on guitar. 

Perfect Date Day. It was nice weather until it rained. My sister and brother-in-law went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I didn't but here's a picture of tulips.

4-26-24 I text my brother again to wish him Happy 4-26-24

 

4-27-24 I made baked donuts but... filled the batter too much so they had muffin tops. So Lucky and I pulled off around the outside parts to make them a little bit more donut shaped.

4-28-24 Terry Pratchett's birthday. Look for a blog post about that soon. 

4-29-24 We had family home evening while I was making dinner so the kids colored pictures while sharing the table with ingredients.

 

Those were our recent Palindrome Days.

Pigs in a Blanket Day

April 24 was Pigs in a Blanket Day. Kids made dinner... sort of. Nobody wanted to be in charge of fruits or vegetables. Nichole wanted to use up the open containers of ice cream and call that good for dessert. Lucky helped Jr. make pigs in a blanket so he didn't want to be in charge of something else so he finally made Kool-aid. Jr. Jr. wanted to make braided rolls again (admittedly they turned out cute, braided and snails). So that was our dinner. Pigs in a blanket, rolls, Kool-aid, and ice cream. 

 

Jeremy made a suggestion to me later. Like a rotating chore chart or our family home evening chart, we should make a rotating chart with food assignments: main dish, bread or other grain side, fruit or veggie, dessert, and drink can be extra if someone wants something besides water. I used to ask the kids in advance what they wanted to make when they were in charge of dinner so we had all of those covered. I didn't this time. Sigh. I like the rotating food assignment chart idea. That way it can be different than a potluck where anyone can bring anything.

 

Looking back at my blog over the last couple years, we've had some of the dinners kids make that haven't been so successful. I guess I've been seeing how well our at-home potlucks are going. Those kids just need more practice.

More April Celebrating... With Food

Since we're so busy with school at home right now, most of our celebrating revolves around the menu plan.
April 13 was National Peach Cobbler Day. Oh, yes. Mmmm. It turned out well. And currently I've got peaches in the freezer for two more cobblers. Jr. Jr. turned out to be the biggest fan of this peach cobbler. It made a lot (not everyone in the family is a fan) so there were a lot of leftovers and he was happy to have some whenever he could.

April 14 was National Dolphin Day. We ate tuna loaf. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. We made sure to use dolphin safe tuna. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Mmm, putting this blog post together, I want tuna loaf again. I should put it on the menu plan.
April 19 was National Garlic Day. I made twisted breadsticks with butter and garlic salt and parmesan cheese on them because I was originally planning on making garlic bread but I didn't have French bread for it (I had made French bread but we were saving it for Monday's dinner) so I used a trick I learned from ourbestbites.com to season them after they come out of the oven and I used some dough we had in the fridge.

April 19 was also National Hanging Out Day. We do a lot of that at home with our family, not with friends right now.
April 20 was National Cheddar Fries Day. I made a simple cheese sauce from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and poured it on French fries (not homemade). Jr. used the French bread I made and made apple cinnamon French toast casserole from the book, Budget Bytes. Yumm.

April 21 was Tuna Rights Day. We didn't have tuna loaf. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. We had salmon patties. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

April 22 was Earth Day. Jr. Jr. drew and colored this fun picture for a school assignment and our family got out for an Earth Day walk together.

We didn't let the kids get out the bike and scooters this time and this was my interpretation of how some of the kids reacted.

April 23 was National Picnic Day. We had picnic food for dinner.

April 24 was National Pigs in a Blanket Day. Nichole had a lot of fun wrapping the bits of hot dog into fun blanket shapes. Creativity strikes again. If you give Nichole a medium...

April 25 was East Meets West Day. We had teriyaki with angel hair pasta (recipe from hillbillyhousewife.com) and watched Big Hero 6 (San Fransokyo?)

April 25 was also National Zucchini Bread Day. My zucchini bread didn't turn out as well as it normally does- the batter anyway. It still tasted good, it was just a weird consistency this time- more like a cookie batter than zucchini bread batter. Oh, well. I've got more zucchini in the freezer waiting to become bread.

I also forgot to take a picture of it before we ate half.
April 26 was National Pretzel Day. Homemade pretzels, yumm.

I took a break in the middle of making pretzels so we could go for a Sunday evening walk as a family. This is another thing we're encouraged to do as a ward. Go out for Sunday afternoon or evening walks, say hi, but don't get too close. It was nice to chat with some people while they sat on their porches or from across the street.

Lots of celebrating with food... and walks. Gotta work off all those food calories, I guess.
P.S. April 27 was National Tell a Story Day. We didn't celebrate with food but one of Nichole's assignments was to read her short story and have it evaluated, which she did on that day.

March Celebrations Catchup

March 1 was Share a Smile Day. I texted a picture of Jet smiling to several people.

It was also Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, National Pig Day, and Dadgum That’s Good Day. I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Jr. made pigs in a blanket for dinner and after taking a bite, Jeremy exclaimed, “Dadgum, that’s good!”

March 2 was Dr. Seuss’ Birthday. Green eggs and ham for dinner. I also wanted to try out a new recipe- homemade English muffins. I got the recipe from budgetbytes.com While in the middle of preparing the dough, Jet wanted to be held so I had to get creative.

We also had several Dr. Seuss books checked out from the library and a few days before, Jeremy built Dr. Seuss characters for the Fillmore Library.

March 3 was National Cold Cuts Day. We ate ham sandwiches. We also had soup and "slow cooker stuffed apples" from Budget Bytes.

 
March 4 was National Dance the Waltz Day. It was also National Marching Music Day. So I hummed “Stars and Stripes Forever” in 3/4 time and waltzed with Jet to it. 

Nichole and Jr. had another concert. Jeremy went to this one. I was saying how nice Nichole got all her concerts and festivals out of the way before the schools were closed down. Well, most of them. They are supposed to have their last concert in May. I'm guessing that won't happen.

March 6 was Oreo Day and National Frozen Food Day. We made pizza and used pepperoni and mozzarella cheese from the freezer. Then we had Oreos for dessert and sang the Weird Al song, “The White Stuff.”

 
March 7 was National Cereal Day. I don’t have pictures but we made sure to eat cheese and pickle sandwiches to celebrate.
March 9 was National Meatball Day. I tried Swedish Meatball Pasta.
March 14 was Pi Day. We ate impossible cheeseburger pie and chocolate pudding pie. It was also National Children’s Craft Day so I made sure to take a picture of Nichole working on her latest craft- a latch hook rug.

March 15 was the Ides of March. Jr. made us orange juliuses.

March 16 was National Artichoke Hearts Day. We made chicken alfredo pizza with artichoke hearts and spinach. Yumm.

March 17 was St. Patrick’s Day. Apparently the leprechaun got an early start on mischief the day before. Lucky and Jr. Jr. kept going around to different places in the house and noticed items being out of place and talked about how it must have been the leprechaun who did it. The next morning, they noticed even more points of mischief. The leprechaun got out a bunch of green items- fabric, dishes, seasoning containers, a ball. And turned our milk green again.

For dinner, I tried a couple new recipes from websites I’d been looking at. I made Cheesy Cottage Pie from budgetbytes.com and Irish Brown Soda Bread from ourbestbites.com. To celebrate his first St. Patrick’s Day, Jet leaked out of every green outfit I put him in.

 
March 18 was Sloppy Joe Day. Nichole directed me to a sloppy joe recipe in a book we have checked out of the library, The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner. That’s what we used.
March 19 was the first day of Spring. That evening as we were sitting around as a family, Nichole asked when the Equinox was. I told her it was "today." All of a sudden the kids started calling out that the kitchen window was open. Oh no! Nichole quickly went and closed it. Now, if you don't know, that is a reference to the Fablehaven series. There is a part in the first book when it's the Summer Solstice and the kids in the book are told not to open or even look out the window. All the solstices and equinoxes are like that when the boundaries of the magical preserve are weakened and let the things of the night roam free.
March 20 was National Snowman Burning Day. We made snowman sandwiches. We hadn't had those in a long time.

We had different levels of raisin likers and that was reflected in the sandwich decorating.

March 21 was National Corn Dog Day. I made corn bread muffins and put pieces of hot dogs in them before baking them. 

March 21 was also National French Bread Day. I tried out a new recipe (as I do) for making french bread using The Food Nanny's french baguette recipe from thefoodnanny.com.
March 22 was National Goof Off Day. 'Nuff said.
March 23 was National Chip and Dip Day. I made bean dip (not 7 layers) and homemade tortilla chips (tortilla chips idea from Budget Bytes). Yumm.

March 24 was International Waffle Day. We had waffles (of course) with a new recipe- chocolate gravy from hillbillyhousewife.com We also listened to Weird Al's song, "Waffle King."

March 26 was National Spinach Day. We ate salad with spinach in it.
March 27 was the anniversary of the premiere of Singin' in the Rain. Since it was Friday and the kids didn't have school the next morning, you better believe we watched that movie.  

March 28 was Black Forest Cake Day. I tend to save candy for special occasions like this.

Woohoo. March celebrations. See how much you can celebrate even while social distancing?