Quick... Gotta Catch Up Again

We celebrated National Chocolate Pudding Day on June 26 by having... chocolate pudding.

We had friends visit us and ate 7-layer dip.

The kids made snakes at Cub Scout Pack Meeting where Jr. got several belt loops and got to show some musical instruments from around the world he made.

And sometimes people are not cooperative when you want to take a picture with them.

Oh, and Nichole is becoming even more musical.

Pretzels and Plays

April 26 is National Pretzel Day.  Lucky and I (Jeremy helped) made homemade pretzels to eat while watching The Jungle Book as a family. 

We watched it for Family Home Evening tonight since we weren't able to have FHE on Monday.  The reason?  Jeremy, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I went to watch Nichole and Jr. in their performance of the play, The Jungle Book.  They both did such a good job.  It was fun to watch.  Tuesday, they performed again and Jeremy went to watch it again.  I stayed home with Jr. Jr. and Lucky.  Monday night, Lucky came down with something unpleasant and he was resting and recovering Tuesday evening.
Jr. played a crocodile- part of the jungle chorus.  Nichole played part of Kaa the snake.  We couldn't get a picture of her in her full costume since she's attached to 5 other people, but it was awesome.

This was Jr.'s first time doing the school play.  He did such a good job- he was very enthusiastic in his singing and dancing.  Nichole continued to do an awesome job with her second school play.  Last year she was in Aladdin.

Cascade Springs

We've been wanting to visit Cascade Springs for years but have never gotten around to it.  Jeremy had a day off from the Wonders build, so he suggested we go up there for some family time today.  So off we went up American Fork Canyon, enjoying the beautiful scenery on the way.  It was fun to hear the kids in the back of the van saying, "Wow, it's so beautiful."

It was a nice drive up and after we were done walking around, we decided to drive down the other side toward Heber.  On the way down it was fun to see Deer Creek Reservoir from the other side.  I commented that we're in the hills I always look at from the other side of the reservoir.  That was fun.

Cascade Springs is a nice area.  

We got to see the water, several different types of vegetation, and some animals.  We heard and saw birds, someone walking along near us pointed out a snake, and Jr. Jr. even spotted a caterpillar.

It was nice family time.

Play Date and Family Time

Yesterday, the kids and I got to visit a friend of mine from college (well, technically it was when my husband was going to college, but we lived in student housing so a lot of the people were in college) and her kids.  It was so fun to chat with her while the kids played nicely.  They have a nice backyard and the weather was good so we got to play outside.  Of course I forgot to bring Lucky's coat.  Silly me.  But my friend let me borrow one from her son and a hat for him.  So nice.  Thank you, friend.

This evening, we had some family time.  We went to the Bean Museum on BYU Campus, saw some stuffed animals, and got to watch their live animal show.  The show was about Utah's Diversity.  Nichole was like Hermione Granger in Harry Potter.  She knew all the answers and every time a question was asked, her hand shot up in the air.  I was impressed.
After the show, Nichole, Jr., and Jr. Jr. got to pet the ball python, a couple of them pet a box turtle's shell, and Jr. and I had a tarantula crawl across our hands.

So much fun.
We hadn't been to the Bean Museum since they redid it so this was a new experience for all of us.  We didn't have time to see much, but we'll definitely go back.  We were mainly there to watch the animal show tonight anyway.

Surprises from the Kids

October 30 is Haunted Refrigerator Night.

This morning I mentioned to the kids about it being Haunted Refrigerator Night.  They immediately started joking about somehow rigging the refrigerator so that when you open it a whole bunch of snakes pop out.  Heh.
After the kids went to school, I had to get in the refrigerator for something (of course, because there's always something to get in the refrigerator).  I opened the door and saw a paper snake curled up on the top shelf.  Silly kids.  I looked over and saw a Halloween decoration also in there.  Silly kids.
I loved it.

I love when my kids find ways to celebrate without being prompted.

Hello, Year of the Snake

February 10th, Chinese New Year. 
With friends,
food,

chow mein

 

egg rolls

orange chicken with white rice

candied apple fritters

and some other things

and a puppet show created, directed, and starring Nichole (with some help on the performance from Jr. and Mommy and with some "help" from Jr. Jr.).

It was nice.  Welcome Year of the Snake!

Haaaaaaaapppyyy New Years!

We would like to officially, in a preemptive sort of way, welcome everyone to the year of the...

May it be a prosperousssssssss year for everyone!