A Couple More March Holidays

Beware the Ides of March which we celebrated on March 15 with Caesar Salad.

On March 16, however, we celebrated Artichoke Hearts Day with alfredo pizza. Mmmmm. Sooo good. 

How Did October Start?

How did October start? It started on October 1, which was World Vegetarian Day. We had a salad bar for dinner without meat.

Since it was Homemade Cookies Day, we also had chocolate chip cookies from a recipe by The Food Nanny.

 

Lucky had his "Grand Lunch" at the elementary school. Jet and I joined him. He chose to have me bring him lunch that day instead of eating school lunch. He was very happy that I brought him Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps.

That evening, Jeremy and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences with Lucky and got to see some of the things he's been working on.

October 3 was Virus Appreciation Day. Lucky was sick. We were able to appreciate the timing of it at least.

He got better.

A Few More Celebrations and Shelf Cooking

February 21 was the Anniversary of when the first Legend of Zelda video game came out. Jeremy and I celebrated it observed earlier in the month when we watched a special concert online of Zelda music.

 

February 22 was National Chili Day. I made chili and garlic bread. Yumm.

February 23 was National Banana Bread Day. When I went shopping earlier in the week, I bought bananas and hid them when I got home. Bananas don't last very long when Jet knows where they are. I was able to make them last long enough on this occasion so I was able to make Cinnamon Crumb Banana Bread for the holiday. The recipe came from "A Season of Family Meal Plans volume 1."

With the banana bread we also had Pizza Pinwheels and Seven Layer Salad also both from that book. That salad is not something I would normally make (it had peas in it and I don't like peas) but it actually tasted really good.

Speaking of that book, we're still enjoying trying out new tastes. And I'm learning better about adapting, substituting, and repurposing leftovers. Yay, shelf cooking. 

For example, I made Thai Peanut Lettuce Wraps. The recipe called for ground turkey but I used rotisserie chicken. We had Classic Fried Rice on the side.

Later, I used some corn tortillas and a bit of cheese, the leftover Thai peanut chicken, and made quesadillas. Jet and I ate a few and put the rest in the freezer for quick lunches or whatever.

 

Here are some other things we tried.

Hawaiian Pork Sandwiches with leftover Seven Layer Salad.

Sheet Pan Greek Chicken with Lemony Greek Rice. 

Easy Broccoli Pasta. The other recipe for that meal was Tomato Basil Salad. Since I didn't have enough fresh tomatoes, I used canned tomatoes and cooked it all up to make a sauce that we ate on toasted baguettes. #shelfcooking

I already talked about Leap Day but February 29 was also National Toast Day. So for dinner we had BBQ Pork Quesadillas with rice and toast and Lost Mesa Corn Avocado Salsa (that last recipe came from the Fablehaven Cookbook).

Valentine's Day 2024

I made plans on Valentine's Day since Jeremy had the day off. They were kind of surprise plans for him and the kids helped me out.

At the beginning of the day, I put "10 Things I Love About You" notes around for all the family members. I put them in places they would see them (sticking out of backpacks or scripture bags, sitting on Jeremy's wallet). Since Jeremy saw Nichole that day, he brought her my note and brought her a treat and Valentine. 

The "10 Things I Love About You" notes were printables from Jordan Page at funcheaporfree.com

Lucky created a fun penguin box for his class Valentines out of a cardboard box and balloons (and a little bit of construction paper). Jeremy helped just a little bit to give him instruction and get him started but Lucky did the majority himself.

I made heart shaped pizza dough for the boys to make pizza. Jeremy made me a Valentine.

After the boys got home from school, Jeremy and I headed out on our date (see me wearing my "date" shirt?). We tried a new birding spot- Powell Slough Wildlife Management Area- which is not very far from where we live. We were able to get half the birds needed for that location for this year's UCB challenge. Woohoo.

We skipped going to a crowded restaurant on Valentine's Day but did go to Winco to pick up our traditional date food- salads. Then we found a spot near the lake to park our van and eat. It was too dark to see the water or any birds by the time we got there but it was still nice and we could see city lights. After we ate I pulled out some conversation jelly beans to read and eat together and we also talked a lot. We always have plenty to chat about. I love that about our relationship.

When we got home we found a card that Lucky made us along with a bouquet of cookie flowers the boys made (I asked them to do that as part of the surprise for Jeremy). They also turned on relaxing romantic piano music for ambience.

Then it was Jeremy's turn to surprise me. After I changed my clothes I came out to find a bouquet of actual flowers (roses), an amber necklace to go with my Jurassic Park shirt (amber- Jurassic Park, get it?), and chocolate. He's a sweetheart.

It was a beautiful Valentine's Day. I love my family.

This is an example of the Valentines Lucky gave out to his class (and Nichole). There were three different sayings with the same picture.

 

I am glad the weather was good for birding on Valentine's Day because the next day we got lots of precipitation.

The next day was also National Gumdrop Day. I ate a few gumdrops.

Happy Anniversary... Months Later

We weren't able to do something extra special on or near our anniversary this year (though having our traditional anniversary dinner with our children is always special) so one day in August, Jeremy surprised me with our anniversary celebration. He took care of all the arrangements with the kids and did a good job making it a surprise. I had no idea.

He gently woke me up early that morning, had my clothes picked out for me to wear (it was a date, so of course he had my Jurassic Park shirt ready). He made me an omelette. I love his omelettes. 

Then he drove us up Nebo Loop to one of our favorite birding spots up there.

We enjoyed a relaxing time there and I got my target life bird- red crossbill. There were four or five of those. Yippee! 

We also had some nice closeups of other birds and critters.

There was a red breasted nuthatch that kept landing on branches right above our heads. Right above us. That was wonderful.

After we had a few hours of birding in that spot, we went up to Devil's Kitchen to picnic and enjoy the view. Jeremy surprised me again with our picnic food. Winco salads (it's our traditional date food, like my Jurassic Park shirt is my date shirt) and sodas in plastic goblets like we used for our anniversary picnic last year.

After Devil's Kitchen we headed to the Orem Library to do some writing/blogging. Sweet Jeremy, kept nodding off (he got up really early to make me that omelette) so we finally headed out to eat at Cafe Rio. Yumm.

Then we went home to take a nap because we were both exhausted. 

We woke up later and gathered the children to go out for a late night meteor shower. They didn't take a nap so were all tired while we were out there.

That was a great way to end a wonderful anniversary celebration. Thank you, Jeremy, for the sweet memories and for being the best husband I could ask for.