Celebrating in Unusual Ways

Nichole was scheduled to move into her apartment on August 31. That happened to be National Trail Mix Day and I happened to be sick, so Jeremy once again took care of things. My hero.

He drove her down so she could drop stuff off then come back home. 

Jeremy came into our room where I was lying down and gave me flowers and a card. It was not a "Get Well" card. It was a "Happy Trail Mix Day" card. He and all the kids had signed it. He had to put the flowers in a vase from me, though, because I didn't feel up to getting up.

I absolutely love my family and their creativity.

 

While I was sick, Jet came to me and put his hands on my eyes and said, "Close your eyes and go to sleep," then he sang, "Rockabye Baby," to me. What a cutie.

Eat Trail Mix Outside

August 31 was National Trail Mix Day. Trail Mix for after school snack. Success.

It was also Eat Outside Day so a few of us took our food outside to eat, then Jr. Jr. and Jet had fun on the trampoline.

National Picnic Day 2022

April 23 was Celebrate Trails Day and it was National Picnic Day. Since Jeremy and Nichole were off on another birding field trip, the boys and I talked about going hiking and taking a picnic with us. Jr. really wanted to play Frisbee, though, so we compromised. We went to a park with walking trails where Jet and I walked around while the boys played Frisbee. Then we joined them for a bit before having a picnic on top of a hill. I was surprised Riverview Park wasn't as crowded on a Saturday afternoon/evening. I guess since it's not Summer yet... and there was a bit of wind... and it did rain the day before and looked like it could rain again... and it was jacket weather... Who knows?

First picnic of the season. I'm hoping we have a lot more picnics like we did last year.

 

When we got home, Jr. Jr. made us trail mix to go along with the Celebrate Trails holiday. Then I made cherry cheesecake to celebrate the other holiday that day, National Cherry Cheesecake Day.

Aaagh. I got a splinter in my hand. 

Nichole didn't know how to react to that. I really did get a splinter in my hand then I got it out myself before putting the cherry topping on the cheesecake. I just needed her to get me some paper towels.

Here are some of Nichole's pictures from Jeremy's and Nichole's trip (they got to see sharp-tailed grouse this time):

       

Late Night S'mores

August 30 was National Toasted Marshmallow Day. There were late night s'mores... for some. Some went to bed (that would be me).

August 31 was National Trail Mix Day. We had trail mix for after school snack.

September 1 was Chicken Boy Day. We had chicken drumsticks. It was also No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day which is as good an excuse as any to put together a puzzle while listening to a radio mystery show. It was a 100th Anniversary Pleasant Grove City Strawberry Days puzzle from an Eric Dowdle painting (that's a mouthful).

End of August/Beginning of September Celebrating

August 31 was National Trail Mix Day. I snacked on trail mix throughout the day.

September 3 was National Skyscraper Day. I watched Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol because it has that scene where Tom Cruise is hanging off the tallest building in Dubai.

Even though our ward is not doing girls camp this year, they still did the tradition of secret sister gifts recently. Nichole used her calligraphy skills and made a couple bookmarks for her girl. She also gave her a packet of gum and a book.

Here she is sealing the envelope with the bookmarks inside. 

I forgot to take pictures of the actual bookmarks.

Nichole's secret sister wrote her a nice note with a picture of a TARDIS she drew. She also made Nichole a TARDIS piggy bank. It was bigger on the inside to hold several goodies.

The young woman who put this together also gave the girls hoodies with a scripture printed on them.
3 Nephi 15:9 "for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life."

It's really good for early morning birding trips.

Food, Glorious Food

We've been celebrating.  Much of our celebrating has been with food. More, you said? You want MORE! Here you go...

August 27th was Banana Lovers Day. Now there is a holiday with a peel! We ate bananas. It was also Just Because Day so Jr. got away with playing video games... just because.

August 29th was More Herbs, Less Salt Day. We had fresh herb penne with chicken and tomatoes, though I used dried herbs. The children responded as expected.

August 30th was Toasted Marshmallow Day. No toasted marshmallows, but we had frozen ones- so it is almost the same thing. Rocky Road Ice Cream!

August 31st was National Trail Mix Day. I ate trail mix. No picture. My husband thinks that we should go and gather dirt from a bunch of different trails, put them in a bag, and give them to our kids. Here is your trail mix, enjoy. My husband is awesome, but we won't do that.

September 1st was Johann Pachelbel's birthday. I told Nichole to play Canon in D on her violin. She did it. First try. Without sheet music. Perhaps not yet concert ready, but very recognizable.  And I guess we didn't celebrate directly with food for this one, but I was making dinner while Nichole was playing.  Close enough.

September 8th was International Literacy Day. It was cloudy. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We had pancakes and juice for breakfast and Spaghetti sans meatballs (it was only a chance after all) for dinner. The kids watched the movie... and may have read the book.

September 10th is the anniversary of when the Large Hadron Collider was turned on and did not create miniature black holes killing us all. Yay! We hadn't celebrated this one before. We did this year! We made a cheeseburger ring. Then we filled the inside with coils of fries. We also explained what the collider was to the children. They understood perfectly. Well, at least they ate their dinner.

So we're getting there.  We're getting caught up on blogging about how busy we've been.  This worked out with telling about several things we've done in one post.  We keep being busy so expect even more posts to catch up.

Celebrating Family Home Evening

It's fun when Family Home Evening treat is so easy to figure out because of a holiday.

August 31 is National Trail Mix Day.

Which for the kids means pretzels and M&Ms.

But I got the real stuff.  Yumm.