It's May!!!

We reached May 1. You know what that means? 

Bridal Veil Falls is open! I made a quick stop that morning to check that the road really was open then three of my children went on a walk with me in the evening. We walked by the falls and all the way to Bridal Veil Park and back. I thought it would tucker out my youngest but he still had a lot of energy when we got home. Sigh.

 

May 2 was Baby Day. Lucky made "baby" pasta (small shells) and I have to share more cuteness from my youngest.

For dinner we had baby hot dogs (li'l smokies), baby muffins, baby carrots, and mini jalapeno popper egg rolls. Jet called the egg rolls "baby poppers" and decided since they were babies, to make up a lullaby to sing to them. He even cradled one in his hand to rock it while singing. He's so stinkin' adorable.

 

May 4 was International Respect for Chickens Day, World Laughter Day, National Orange Juice Day, and Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.

You know you live in a cool ward when the bishopric member who is conducting Sacrament Meeting mentions Star Wars Day over the pulpit and the sister sitting next to you in choir is wearing tie fighter earrings.

We drank orange juice.
Jr. Jr. gave me this piece of advice on International Respect for Chickens Day: Remember, Mom. Whenever you see a dancing chicken, make sure it doesn't have any carrots.

 

Tell me, please. Do you have a child as random or as awesome? Yes. He makes me laugh.

 

I made sweet and sour sauce from Shelf Cooking 101 by Jordan Page and put it on chicken with rice and pineapple and green bell pepper. It reminded me of when I was in college and there was this eating place called Teriyaki Stix and I would sometimes get their sweet and sour bowl with rice, chicken, pineapple, and green bell pepper. Yumm.

What They Missed- August 13

Thursday, August 13-
I had another rant I wrote down on this day's notes that I am again not going to put on here. Instead here is a sculpture Lucky made out of puzzle blocks.

It's a person sitting on a couch watching TV. It even has couch cushions.

We sat down to dinner of sweet and sour chicken (since Jeremy wasn't there and he can't stand pineapple but I love it) and talked about The Food Nanny and sitting down to dinners together (as a family, not with the food nanny).

We also talked about a little riddle thing from the Gospel Living app. It was originally from The New Era magazine from June 2017.
You figure out a word that fits two different clues with different meanings. The example they gave was "1/60 of a minute and a silver medal." The answer is "second." Get it?
Jr. Jr. got creative after we went through all of them and came up with a few of his own. They all ended up being about bowling but that's just fine. He's clever. Themes are fun.
Here's what he came up with. See if you can figure them out and I'll put the answers at the end of this post.
1. "Water comes out of me when it rains."  "Dang it! I missed all the pins."
2.  "Could you leave a few cookies?"  "Yes! I got the last two pins."
3.  "Ow! That really hurt. You hit me with a bat."  "Yes! I got all the pins in one try."

After dinner, we celebrated Alfred Hitchcock's birthday with cupcakes. We put a candle in one and took turns blowing it out after singing "Happy Birthday" to Alfred Hitchcock each time. I took pictures.

I had too much fun trying to get different angles with the knife and reflections, not unlike how Alfred Hitchcock would direct the cinematography in his films.

I also watched three different versions of The Lady Vanishes (one of my favorite Hitchcock films). One in the middle of the night/early morning, one in the middle of the day, and one late that night/early morning.

We fed the birds at sunset and saw the evening star while it was still pretty light out. The evening star is actually a planet- it's Venus. That's always fun.
We didn't stick around or come back out to look for meteors or UFOs that night.

Did you figure out the answers based on Jr. Jr.'s clues?
Here are the answers.
1. Gutter
2. Spare
3. Strike

Groundhog Day and Groundhog Day Observed

I realized something recently. January and February this year have the same dates on the same days of the week as back in 2014. It of course will change in March since there is an extra day in February this year. In the meantime, some of our celebrating in January and February of 2020 parallels that of 2014.
For example Groundhog Day. As in 2014 we celebrated Groundhog Day Observed the day before since February 2 was on a Sunday.
Jeremy made imitation groundhog burgers again. This time he made salmon burgers.

The boys watched the movie.
In 2014, Nichole brought home a groundhog puppet from school. In 2020, Lucky brought one home.

And like 2014, we have a new baby in the home. What a joy. (comparison- first picture Lucky, second picture, Jet)

One thing that is different is that this year the date was a palindrome date. 02-02-2020. Those types of things are always fun.
And since we did imitation groundhog burgers the day before, on the 2nd, I tried out a new recipe to go along with dinner- sweet and sour chicken. It was from a Relief Society cookbook I got years ago in our old ward. There are some recipes in there that are our favorites. And this sweet and sour chicken?- Craveworthy! At least for me. Mmmmmmmmmm. Jeremy can't stand pineapple. More for me! I love pineapple!