He's Back

We got Jeremy back!

After 2 1/2 weeks away, Jeremy got back from his South Carolina fair on October 22, National Color Day.

Look how cute we are with the different colors we're wearing.

Speaking of colors, I got out that morning for a walk with some colors. 

I also finally wore a bright red shirt I got a while back that says "Bake the World a Better Place." You know I love baking but I'm usually wearing an apron while baking. I finally wore this shirt (and an apron) while baking bread and got my picture with the shirt and the bread.

Jet brought home a cute little "Monster Spring" (that's what he named it) from school so I showed him how it pops and he loved it.

We got multiple colors in our dinner. Creamy Beef Enchiladas from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, by Jordan Page. Because these books are all about this, I saved some of our French Dip meat from when we had French Dip sandwiches while Jeremy was gone (also from that book) to use in the enchiladas. Oh and we substituted a pork roast for a beef roast (substitutions are encouraged). We had a spinach salad side dish. 

 

Nice celebrating Color Day and the best part of course was getting Jeremy home. I missed him.

Grow, Dinosaurs, Grow!

On a whim one day, Jeremy got something for Jet. Dinosaurs... that grow in water. Jet played with them for a little bit then put them in the water. From time to time I let him take them out and play with them when I wanted to refresh the water. Then back in they went. And they did grow. It was fun. Eventually they got pretty big then we left them out of the water and they shrank back down. Now the dinosaurs are probably in with Jet's toys somewhere. We'll have to get them back out and do it again sometime.

The KAT's Meow

While we were in Oregon on our vacation, there was a point where my brother Todd, Jet, and I were playing with some dragons and mythological creature toys. Jet was playing with a little dragon and I was playing with a phoenix.

Little Dragon (Jet): I have teeth.

Phoenix (me): Do you have sharp teeth to eat things? What do you eat?

Little Dragon (quietly): I eat Daddy.

Phoenix: What? What do you eat?

Little Dragon: I eat Dad and Uncle Todd.

Don't Forget Your Panda Slippers

I don't know if you remember. I blogged about it back on January 11, 2016. Little Lucky at the time wanted a whole bunch of blankets on him and it reminded me of the junk lady on Labyrinth.

Recently, Jet reminded me of that incidence when he brought me a whole bunch of toys and stuffed animals and kept piling them on me.

It was pretty cute.

STEM Boy

He did it! He did it! He did it! Jr. completed all 3 summers of UVU Prep and has learned lots of STEM skills.

He's even found interesting ways to use his skills.

 

Jr.: Alphabet Cow lives!

Mom: This is why Jr.'s doing UVU Prep.

Nichole: So he can bring decapitated children's toys to life.

We've had this toy since Nichole was a toddler. It's been stepped on, dropped, thrown, had heavy objects put on it, you know how it is with some children's toys. It's supposed to be "Alphabet Pal" but it sounds like "Alphabet Cow" so that's what we've been calling it for years.

Well, such is life, Alphabet Cow finally bit the dust. The head cracked and came off completely. Jr. decided to use his skills and tools he had and "bring it back to life." He managed to get it to play music through his headphones since originally the speaker was in the head and he managed to get the lights working. That's my STEM boy.

Jeremy and I were able to go to Jr.'s closing celebration for UVU Prep. We all went as a family the first year and last year they just had a drive-thru to pick up shirts since it was all online.

Jr. had a good experience with this program for three years both in person and online. He was happy to be back in person this year. Can't you tell by his smile how happy he was?

Like the first year the closing celebration was crowded but Jr. was able to show us some of the projects he worked on. He also got a UVU water bottle which he's been waiting three summers for. It's interesting the things he gets excited for. We all have things like that, though.

I'm so glad he enjoyed his time at UVU Prep and I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of things come from what he's learned in the future. Bringing more decapitated children's toys to life? We'll see.

When we got home that night, I quickly let everyone have a gummi worm since it was National Gummi Worm Day on July 15.

It was also World Youth Skills Day and I already commented on Jr.'s STEM skills.

You Know You're a Birder If...

Your baby's toy plays a song, "Stack the rings. Stack the rings," but what you hear is, "Passerines. Passerines."

Another Mystery is History

January 6 is Sherlock Holmes' Birthday.  To celebrate, we solved a 7 or 8 year old mystery.
Nichole was missing a book and she remembers being on the couch while reading it.  Our couch eats things.  So Jeremy checked back and inside the couch as much as he could (and found some things), but if you really want to find things, you have to use Mommy's small hands.  So I started looking... or feeling.  I pulled out crayons, pens, and pencils.  I pulled out numerous balloons (obviously).  I pulled out a toy ring, a snap bracelet, a plastic plug for some toy, a bow tie, a calculator, and some other things I can't remember.  At one point Jeremy told me, "Kristin, stop looking."  He had in his hand Nichole's book which was over on a table near the computer.
However, he did not stop me before I pulled out of the couch a My Friends Tigger and Pooh toy figurine of Tigger.  We lost that toy years ago- 7 or 8 years ago, before we moved to where we are now.  We looked everywhere for that toy, even in the couch.  I guess I just didn't go that deep when I looked before. 

We found it funny that on Sherlock Holmes' Birthday, we found something we'd been missing for years, something that happened to go along with a set of toys including "Super Sleuths" from My Friends Tigger and Pooh.

Joy Is...

having a clean enough floor to play on.

Look Familiar?

This time, Lucky was content to play without the water.

And he got them all to himself.

Pie Day 2015

January 23 was Pie Day.
We ate pie.

The End.




Just kidding.  Not the end.
I made apple pie to celebrate Pie Day.
I also sang the first part of "That's Amore" to the kids.  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore."  Except I sang it, "That's a moray," and brought out a little toy eel.  

I then told my kids that my mom used to have a shirt with a moray eel on it (well, more like a drawing of a moray eel- if it had an actual eel on it, that would be creepy).  The shirt said, "That's a moray."  I think that was my first introduction to that song when I was a kid.
Anyway, then I told my kids how at my mom's house, one time my brothers made 25 pizzas in 24 hours.  Pizzas.  Yeah.  You know like the song.  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..."
And you see now we've come full circle. 
Circle, like a pie.  Yep.
And that's how we celebrated Pie Day this year.
The Actual End.

Appreciate A Dragon Day

It's Appreciate a Dragon Day once again, January 16.  Some ideas of ways to celebrate:

Watch a movie or read a book with a dragon in it- How To Train Your Dragon, Pete's Dragon, Mulan, Enchanted, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Reluctant Dragon, DragonSpell, The Hobbit.

Go to the cinema and watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Let a toy dragon help you with your daily tasks.

Build a dragon toy or puppet.

Play act like you're a dragon.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate this holiday.  Have fun.

Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day

To celebrate Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day, January 11, I didn't want to spend time outside.  Who thought cold January would be a good time for splashing in puddles?  Maybe sometime I'll have to celebrate Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day Observed in May or something.  You know, with the good mud puddles, but when it's not too cold.  Yeah.
Anyway, I was thinking of letting the kids play with toys splashing each other in a pan with water in it.  That didn't happen.
So you'll just have to be content with this picture of My Friends, Tigger and Pooh characters standing in some water in a pie plate.  That works, right?

And they did splash each other by falling over while I was trying to set them up for the picture.  A few times.  So it really does work.

Joy Is...

Playing tag with toy trains and tracks.

Daddy-Daughter Time

This afternoon, Jeremy and Nichole went hiking at Big Springs.  They got see a whole lot during this trip.  They saw several different types of birds, several different types of trees, and a whole lot of animal tracks.  They saw hoof and paw prints, nests, holes in trees from woodpeckers, and more.

At one point, Jeremy got a little too close to take pictures of a squirrel in a tree.  It began chittering at him angrily.

Nichole found a rock that had ridges on it like the ribs of her stegosaurus skeleton toy she got earlier today when the older kids went to a birthday party at Nickel City.

I'm glad Jeremy and Nichole got this time together today.  The kids need this getting out time with a parent every once in a while, and the parents do, too.

Appreciate a Dragon Day 2013

What's this?

 Why it's Jr.'s new dragon, of course. 

Welcome.  We appreciate you being a part of our home and all that you've done for us today:

Helping with dishes and refilling the soap dispenser,

Helping Jeremy get a picture of a balloon robot (Doctor Who cyberman) on his We Made It Wednesday feature on facebook.

Getting Jr. Jr. breakfast and getting the mail.

Reminding me that when the new FamilyFun Magazine came in the mail I needed to get back on task.

Being there for me to talk to and reminding me to keep hydrated.

Helping with menu planning and with wiping the table.

Helping Jeremy take boxes out.

Practicing the names of colors with Jr. Jr. and supervising his coloring.

Snuggling with Jr. at home and on his way to visit a friend.

Helping Jr. Jr. practice zipping and unzipping and helping us do laundry.

Hanging out with us during lunch while we watched Doctor Who.

Supervising as I made dinner and as Jr. set the table.

Helping Nichole with her homework.

Coming with us to take Nichole to dance class and playing in the snow with the kids (or above the snow; they were very careful not to drop you).

Snuggling and roughhousing with the boys.

Watching over the kids as they read books at bedtime.

Thank you for being a part of our day.  We appreciate you.

 Happy Appreciate a Dragon Day.