Family Home Evening Circus

One day after school, Jet was excited to show us he got circus tickets. How fun. Now we knew we weren't going to take him to the actual circus but we knew we could create a circus at home.

My idea for it was watching a circus movie and eating popcorn. Simple celebrating like we did with Drive-In Movie Day.

Jeremy, awesome husband that he is, suggested some other ideas somewhat last minute to add to the "experience" so it was still simple but this is how it turned out for Family Home Evening this week (when we finally got around to doing this activity).

Jet picked a family member to come with him to the "circus" because he had two tickets. He kept changing his mind so I don't know who finally came with him but it doesn't matter because again it was mostly for him.

So... he (and his guest) presented his tickets to whoever was taking them. We had "Entry of the Gladiators" (the epitome of circus music) playing while they watched Jr. Jr. juggle light up balls. 

Lucky made Jet a balloon animal. 

Jeremy filled the stock pot to the top with popcorn. 

We also had more gummy sharks (because Jr. Jr. requested them) and some peanuts. 

At one point I looked at the kids on the couch and said, "And there are the clowns." Tee Hee. They're so patient with me.

Actually Jeremy showed the kids a picture of him with clown makeup on and I complained about how I never liked clown makeup when it was requested for shows. Yeah, we can do circus things.

We watched the movie, The Greatest Showman, because... of course. I didn't fall asleep and watched the whole thing.

Second Week of March

March 8 was International Women's Day and National Oregon Day. I wore my Slugs Need Hugs shirt.

That night, Nichole and I went to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast at our stake center with dessert afterward. 

March 9 was Get Over It Day and National Meatball Day so of course we said our traditional "Get over it, you meatball" phrase that day. It was also Popcorn Lover's Day so Joshua made popcorn I think.

 

March 10 was Mario Day (MAR10). I woke up to one child whistling music from a Mario game. I wore my Mario shirt and a couple of the kids watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie. 

I had some fun with the menu plan for that holiday. I took the scene toward the beginning of the movie where Mario and Luigi are sitting down to dinner with their family and tried to recreate what their dinner looked like. We had spaghetti with alfredo sauce and mushrooms of course. We had salad, dinner rolls, green olives. What didn't fit in with their dinner table but we had to have were peaches, singing a certain song while dishing them out.

On World Plumbing Day, March 11, I wore my Mario shirt again and some of us played MarioKart.

Since March 11 was also Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day, for dinner we had oatmeal, nuts, and waffles.

 

The next day, Lucky, Nichole, and I went to a Utah County Birders movie night. We watched The Big Year and played BINGO while watching it. It was fun and interesting to do something a little different than our normal birding meetings.

March 13 was Friday the 13th and Open an Umbrella Indoors Day but we didn't do anything special to celebrate- just mentioned it. I did reminisce how 2020 had Friday the 13th on that same day (and that year was a big deal) and 2015 we celebrated it with a fun video.  

Jet wanted me to get him a board game from the library so I did- Pictureka- and several of us played it after school. 

 

The next day, Lucky and I stopped by the other library to pick up some things and we said Hi to Libby the Librantula who was out for us to see. March 14 was Save a Spider Day.

March 14 was Pi Day. I baked an apple pie in our Pi plate. We also had pizza pie.

Nichole went down to BYU the day before to celebrate Pi Day with a free piece of pie and a t-shirt.

I forgot to get out the potato chips for Potato Chip Day on March 14 so we celebrated that observed a few days later.

Bonding Time: Hiking

Since it has been a mild Winter, I wanted to take my nature loving boy out hiking one day in the hills.

Jr. Jr. and I took the afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, since he didn't have school, and we hiked up to Battle Creek Falls. We took binoculars and the birding camera with us.

Just up from the parking area, we heard scritch-scratching in the underbrush, which I would have assumed was a spotted towhee but I could see robins, so not a spotted towhee (be careful about assuming). Jr. Jr. has really good eyes when it comes to spotting things so he helped me notice the bird that was not a robin. I got a look at it in the underbrush with binoculars and this is how things come out of my mouth since I'm a birder-

Me: You're right. That's not a robin. That's a thrush! Robins are actually thrushes but this one... if it has a reddish tail, it's a hermit thrush. Do you see the tail?

Jr. Jr. confirmed the reddish tail (I would use the term "rufous"). 

I love birding.

Besides the birds, we also enjoyed the hike together. We had plenty to talk about, including the ice we kept seeing in the stream and the water flowing under the ice. 

Nature's cool, man.

 

We made it all the way up to the falls and a little above the falls before turning around. I only slipped twice, once on the way up, once on the way down, both in the same location. Ha. Nothing scary. 

When we got back down to where we saw the hermit thrush on the way up, we saw it again with the robins. It decided it would be a good sport and posed in a tree so I could get some good pictures of it. I was very pleased with it sitting there for so long.

Jr. Jr. and I enjoyed that time together. I love that we have that love of nature in common.

  

I love bonding time! 

 

Earlier that day, I got out for my morning walk at the park with the Christmas lights. The city says they're going to leave them up until Valentine's Day like they did last year.

Lucky, Nichole, and I made cheese ball that day, too. Nichole shaped it into a witch's hat. It didn't last long. Mmmmm, cheese ball. 

 

January 19 was also Whisper "I Love You" Day. There was plenty of that going around. It was National Popcorn Day. The kids had popcorn. It was also Brew a Potion Day. We had hot chocolate and I told everyone to put whatever they wanted into or on it.

 

The next day, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day. Jet and I watched "Surf's Up" together. I haven't watched that in a while. It was fun.

  

Catching Up March 2025 part 2

We still had sickness going through our home in March so our celebrating was sporadic even with things we would have definitely celebrated in the past.

 

March 6 was the birthday of the Oreo cookie. We ended up spreading our Oreo celebrating over several days so it didn't all happen on March 6. I did make sure to listen to Weird Al's "The White Stuff" that day. Other things we did to celebrate:

Had Oreo Puffs cereal for breakfast

Had birthday cake Oreos

Had Oreo frosting on chocolate graham crackers 

 

March 7 was National Tartar Sauce Day so we had fish sticks with tartar sauce.

March 9 was Popcorn Lover's Day. Some people had popcorn. It was also Get Over It Day and Meatball Day so of course the phrase, "Get over it, you meatball," was used frequently.

 

March 10 was Mario Day (Mar10) of course. we watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie. That's a fun movie. Jet loves it and requests to watch it from time to time. It is yet another movie that I don't mind putting on for him because it doesn't annoy me and I don't get sick of it. 

 

March 12 was the day Moana 2 came to Disney Plus so we ate Hawaiian Haystacks and started watching it (finished it another day). Personal opinion: it's not as good as the first movie and I prefer the Mario movie we watched a couple days before. It's fun to find reasons to celebrate, though.

 

March 14 was Pi Day. I made apple pie. I love apple pie.

Notice Nichole's PIESS shirt. Since March 14 is also Potato Chip Day, we taste tested a new to us flavor of potato chips. All Dressed. It wasn't that impressive as you can tell by the picture.

 

March 15 was the Ides of March. We did not celebrate like we normally do with Caesar salad and Orange Juliuses but we told each other to, "Beware the Ides of March." Jeremy and I went for a walk that day, though. I absolutely love spending time with my husband.

Catching Up January 2025 Part 3

January 19 was Brew a Potion Day and National Popcorn Day and Whisper "I Love You" Day. There were definitely whispers of "I love you" that day. Somebody made popcorn. 

I'm not sure what this is. It definitely looks like some sort of potion. It's possible it is Chicken Tortilla Soup since that was what was on the menu plan for that day. Catching up isn't always easy when I'm making assumptions months later.

 

January 20 was Penguin Awareness Day. We ate fish sticks and started watching some penguin movie.

 

January 21 was National Hug/Hugging Day and Granola Bar Day. Some of us ate granola bars. Some of us also got some good hugging in.

January 22 was Hot Sauce Day. Lucky loves hot sauce and puts it on a lot of things.

Speaking of Lucky and his love of hot sauce, for Christmas he got a bunch of little bottles of hot sauce so one evening, we had a taste test, starting with what was supposed to be the mildest and working our way to the hottest. We dipped chicken nuggets in them to try them out. I'll be honest, that was fun.

January 23 was Pie Day. I made a pudding pie using a homemade graham cracker crust that had been sitting in our freezer for a long time.

I also had a Relief Society activity that night.

 

January 25 was A Room of One's Own Day. 

January 28 was Blueberry Pancake Day. I think we had blueberry pancakes. I think. But I don't see pictures so... who knows?

That day, Lucky went to an event at the Orem Library: Winter in Narnia. He made a shield and a dragon and did other activities. 

While he was at his event, I was left unsupervised. I only had two items on my list to check out but... I ended up with a lot more. After I took this picture, I picked up even more to check out. Tee Hee. I love the library.