More Catching Up

August 25 was Kiss and Make Up Day. Jet and I were arguing. We stopped and gave each other a kiss on the cheek and then got along.

 

August 26 was National Dog Day. Jet helped make squid pups.

It was also Toilet Paper Day. We used toilet paper. 

 

August 29 was Chop Suey Day. I just made some teriyaki. It tasted good.

August 30 was Toasted Marshmallow Day. And International Bacon Day. Nichole had this great idea to combine them. Bacon on S'mores. Why not? 

 

August 31 was Eat Outside Day. We did.

So You Want to Know More About August, Huh?

August 10 was Lazy Day. I tried to be lazy. In the middle of the night, however, Jeremy and I had to deal with something. Jet wanted his mommy first thing in the morning. Lucky had an appointment. I could only be so lazy.

It was also National S'mores Day so we had ice cream with crushed graham crackers, bits of marshmallow, and chocolate syrup.

 

August 14 was National Creamsicle Day. We pulled out some Orange Cream ice cream from the freezer to celebrate.

August 15 was National Relaxation Day. Ha! It was busy busy busy that day because it was the first day of school. I did get snuggles with Jet, though, saying, "Happy Relaxation Day."

When Kids Remember Past Creativity

Getting back into things after vacation isn't always the easiest thing. Luckily, I put together some freezer meals before we left so we were able to have food ready to go and Jeremy picked up a few things at the store such as fresh spinach so we were able to celebrate Fresh Spinach Day on July 16. We got tamale casserole out of the freezer to go along with it. 

Since it was Ginger Rogers' Birthday, Nichole remembered a time when Jr. Jr. got creative with letter rearranging (see my July 26, 2022 post about it) so we had a choice between ginger ale and orange soda to celebrate her birthday this year.

Since it was also Personal Chef Day, Jr. was our personal chef and made us pancakes. Later we watched the movie Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn because in it she is at cooking school. "One two three, crack. New egg." At one point she is also going to make food for him- be his personal chef for an evening.

 

July 17 was National Hot Dog Day and Yellow Pigs Day so of course we made pigs in a blanket with yellow mustard. Nichole wore her racing pigs hat which she won on Yellow Pigs Day 10 years ago (see my July 17, 2014 blog post about it).

 

July 18 was Sour Candy Day. Some family members ate sour candy.

July 20 was Moon Day. I had every intention of getting out Oreos for us to make phases of the moon cookies then I forgot. I do that sometimes. We did have astronaut sandwiches with dinner.

July 21 was National Junk Food Day and National Ice Cream Day. When kids came to me asking if they could eat certain foods, I would tell them, "I don't care. Eat whatever you want," to paraphrase Muppets Most Wanted.

July 23 was Vanilla Ice Cream Day. Jr. made S'mores Milkshakes from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. 

We are definitely getting a lot of use out of those books. It's actually pretty amazing how many recipes that work for certain holidays are near where I'm already menu planning from in the books (within a few weeks). I'm not talking about Easter and Halloween (though there are recipes for those holidays), either. It's holidays like Vanilla Ice Cream Day like I mentioned or Eat Brussels Sprouts Day (I blogged about that one on February 1, 2024).

 

Well, there you go. Creativity and meal planning.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 2

After staying overnight at my parents' house, we left the next morning to drive to California. The three youngest had never been to California before. I was the only one who had ever been to the Redwoods (when I was little) so we planned a trip there.

Apparently, Jet was ready to walk to California. Tee Hee.

Road Trip!

As we were driving, Jet got upset because he wanted to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had to distract him with music because he wasn't satisfied with us just telling him that we would see Grandma and Grandpa the next day.

We celebrated Paul Bunyan Day, June 28, with big trees.

Welcome to California.

We stopped at Castle Rock in Crescent City, California. 

My dad told me it is the largest nesting area south of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. It was far enough away, we could only see so much but there were certainly a lot of birds. So many.

 Remember to click the pictures to see them larger.

There were also seals and sea lions.

Jet's first time in California.

I waved at the ocean and it waved back. Get it? Tee Hee.

We made it to our destination at a campground at the Redwoods.

We roasted Polish sausages and roasted marshmallows which we put on Keebler fudge stripes cookies (the marshmallows, not the Polish sausages) to make our "s'mores" this time. It's fun to try different things.

Jr. played his guitar and we sang around the campfire. That as well as camping will get us credit for Summer Reading Programs. It's been several years since we went camping. This was Jet's first camping trip.

Nichole did some painting while we were there.

In the tent, the kids played a card game while Jeremy and I tried to get some sleep. We planned to get up early the next morning.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Summer Reading!

We got Jr. Jr. back from camp on Saturday, June 1, and... went to the library again. 

The theme for both Orem and Provo Libraries for their Summer Reading Programs this year is "Adventure Begins at your Library." So Orem's Kickoff was a "campout" in the library with storytelling and a sing-along, s'mores, a mystery to solve, crafts, different areas decorated with tents, and places for just relaxing and reading. Loved it.

"Fish Craft! Fish Craft!"

And of course a balloon sculpture created by my favorite balloon artist, Jeremy Telford.

It was another successful Summer Reading Kickoff at the Orem Public Library.

Memorial Day 2024

Memorial Day this year on May 27 was also Grape Popsicle Day. Lucky saved a purple popsicle he had to eat on that day.

The kids and I went to a Memorial Day breakfast that morning and made sure to get some American flag selfies. It's a good thing we did because later we missed Flag Day on June 14. Too busy.

That afternoon, my parents came for a brief visit then whisked Jr. away with them. They did the same thing with Nichole back in 2019. They took Jr. and one of his cousins to spend about a week with them in Oregon. He had a good time.

We celebrated Jr. leaving with S'mores made with giant marshmallows. Bwah ha ha ha.