You Never Know With People

One day, my husband went out to do some Easter fun shopping dressed like this...

and no one gave him a second glance.

You never know with people. 

Snail Savers

August 24 was National Waffle Day. I was so busy that day. Shopping day! Not fun shopping, though. Grocery shopping. Plus kids had activities that evening so I wasn't able to make waffles in time. It ended up being kind of fend for yourself for dinner. Sigh. 

It rained, though (the day after Gene Kelly's birthday), which cooled things off because earlier it was pretty hot.

It rained enough that the snails came out. Snails are faster than you think. I told my family that I apologized in advance to the snails who were behind the van that I might squish them. When Jr. and Jr. Jr. heard that, they went on a rescue mission to move them out of the way.

By the time I had dropped them off and picked up Lucky from his activity, there were snails right in the path of the van in the driveway. Sigh. I told you snails are fast. I ended up parking back a bit in the driveway so I wouldn't crush any.

We like snails.

P.S. We ended up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before bed. It was one of those days.

I Am the Stuff Memes are Made of

Funny story: While Jeremy was out shopping dressed like this, a woman came up to him and complimented his attire. She said she was tempted to wear her Princess Jasmine costume so she could wear the veil.

Girl Time!

Recently I got to have some well deserved girl time with friends.
I got to go for a nice Girls' Day Out with my friend of almost 20 years, Nessa. Luckily the weather was good so we were able to do outside and inside activities.
We went to the Water Conservation Garden in West Jordan.

We got Chinese food for lunch. Here are our fortunes. Mine is on the top. Nessa's is on the bottom.

We did some shopping and window shopping.

We made a library trip and got Nessa a library card. Have I mentioned I love the Orem Library.

We went out for pizza and read The Far Side.

It was good to spend time with my friend. I love that we've been friends so long and we still get together to do things. Usually it's with kids but this time it was just us. Fun.

Another time, I got to go to Girls' Night with some of my PG friends. Since it was October, we ate chocolate and watched Arsenic and Old Lace. I love that movie. And I love my friends. And I love that we spent so much time talking and talking and talking and talking. We did manage to finish the movie, though. Go, us!

Girl Time!

Request for Chocolate

Since February 1 was when Willy Wonka's factory opened to 5 ticket holders (in the book) and since Jeremy and I were going shopping, the kids requested we bring back chocolate.
Since Jeremy and I were going shopping and since I needed room in the freezer, I requested the kids finish off the old ice cream that was in there.  As Jr. got it out of the freezer, he commented about ice cream that can be left out in the sun and not melt.

When we got back from shopping we found out the kids had watched all of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and had started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
And we did bring home chocolate... and did give some to the kids.

Appreciate Hot Chocolate

January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day.  We had fish sticks for dinner since some dragons like fish (How to Train Your Dragon).  We didn't do a lot else to celebrate the holiday.  Most years we watch Pete's Dragon or How to Train Your Dragon.  This year since it was a day off school, I asked the kids what they wanted to do.  Some of them gave their opinions. 
Jr. wanted to play Minecraft and let anyone else who wanted to play play. 
Jr. Jr. wanted to try out his new recipe for hot chocolate (which he came up with for a homework assignment).  Take as many flavors of hot chocolate as you want and combine them then add toppings such as ice cream, whipped topping, marshmallows, and candy canes (the candy canes sink so they're not really "toppings").  We had 5 flavors of hot chocolate to choose from.  It was fun.

The kids all did get to play Minecraft.  I watched Alfred Hitchcock movies.  I wasn't planning on introducing my children to Alfred Hitchcock movies so soon, but when they came in just in time to see the death scene with the scissors in Dial M for Murder, I figured they could handle it.  So we watched To Catch a Thief and later The Man Who Knew Too Much with James Stewart and Doris Day.
Jeremy did some birding and shopping.
In the afternoon/evening we went out for a drive.
Now it's the end of the day.  Kids are going to bed and Jeremy and I are going to see if we can find a dragon-themed movie to watch.

Interpreting Expressions

September 2 is National Blueberry Popsicle Day.  Where do you find blueberry popsicles? 
Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I went grocery shopping this morning and looked in the freezer section.  We did find fruit and veggie bars, one flavor of which was blueberry medley.  There you go.  Blueberry popsicles.  So we had those for after school snack.

While we were eating our fruit and veggie bars, Jr. started "interpreting" everyone's facial expressions.  He was getting pretty creative.  I didn't write any of them down, but apparently one of the facial expressions I had was something like me wanting to shoot all the kids with a yellow paintball gun and say they were aliens and there was more but I can't remember.  I had no idea that was the expression I was showing. 

Oh, I love that creativity.

Fighter Jets and Service

You know when you have plans or at least ideas of what you want to do to celebrate a certain holiday then it just doesn't work out?  Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too.  I had one of those days the other day.  I had ideas of how to celebrate National Aviation Day, August 19.  I was going to go shopping earlier in the day so after school I could make paper airplanes with the kids.  It was going to be great.  I took a nap instead.  It was great.  I ran out of time to go shopping so after school, we all made a trip to go grocery shopping and picked up some supplies for last minute celebrating.  So instead of making paper airplanes we had honey roasted peanuts like you might find as a snack on an airplane and we had gummi fighter jets.  I didn't know they made those but we found them while looking at the bulk section in Winco.  Hooray.

August 19 was also World Humanitarian Day.  A friend of mine made me aware of it and made me think of humanitarian work my children were involved in through a program called Serving with Smiles.  They had the opportunity to put together projects to be taken to different places throughout the world.  They'd make blankets, toys, school kits, hygiene kits, and other things to help people who might not have access to some of those things.  After working on the projects for a little while, a guest speaker would talk to them about what would be done with those items they made or put together.
We didn't do any humanitarian work for people across the world that day, but last minute Jeremy volunteered to help our new neighbor move in.  He made some calls and got a few more people to help, too.  Of course service is great to do anytime.

So I don't always end up doing what I plan for holidays.  I also planned to write a blog post that night.  As you can tell that didn't happen.  So you get it today.  And while I'm at it, I can tell you that August 20 was National Radio Day.  Nichole got to listen to the radio on her MP3 player and after most of the kids were in bed, Jeremy and I got a little mini date.  He stopped by Wendy's on his way home from work to get us a treat and we ate it while watching the movie, Radioland Murders (for the holiday).  Just the two of us... and Lucky, who eventually fell asleep.  Then it was just the two of us... until I got tired and fell asleep.

Spontaneous Play

After grocery shopping with Nichole and a nice discussion with the cashier about children using their imaginations, I was putting groceries away with Nichole in our kitchen. She saw one of the paper bags and immediately stuck it over her head saying, "Look, Mommy." She appreciated my laughter. I took another bag and cut two eyeholes in it. She could tell what I was doing and reminded me that I had to draw a mouth on it. Which I did. I traded her for the original bag and she's been having much fun ever since (including entertaining her little brother).