Planning For The Future

Jr. Jr.'s got his little brother's future all planned out.
Jr. Jr.:  When he grows up, he's going to be a doggy and then go woof woof outside.  And then we'll have a doggy named Lucky.  Then when he grows up he'll be a doggy and he's gonna be my age.
Then when this [toy truck] grows up, it's gonna be a doggy also.

Happy Birthday, Twinkie

Here, kids.  Let me show you the proper way to eat a Twinkie.  

You take it like this and...

*Stuff*

Mrrfhrrmffhrrmffr.

Ta-Da.  

Now that's how to celebrate the invention of the Twinkie on April 6, 1930.

LDS General Conference

General Conference time is family time.  Which is great because we were reminded again in General Conference how we need families.  The plan of happiness is about families.  I don't have any exact quotes at this time.  Lucky was needing Mommy a lot today so I didn't take as many notes as I sometimes do.

I did get a chance to write down some of the impressions I personally got during Conference, things that I can work on to strengthen my family.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to watch General Conference with my family at home.  It sure has changed a lot since I was a kid and we had to get dressed up and go to the church building to watch it broadcast from Salt Lake City.  Now we can stay in our pajamas and turn our "reverence tent" toward the computer.  Unfortunately the reverence tent only made it a half hour through the first session today before it was taken down.  Sigh.  Oh well.  Maybe tomorrow?

Slumber Party!

Friday night.  General Conference in the morning.  Great time for a slumber party!
The kids made pizza, from making the dough to putting on the toppings.  I only helped with a few things.

While I was helping with those few things, the kids got to play Wii and computer games.

Nichole brought home a smoothie recipe from Activity Days that she wanted to try out, so she and Jr. made smoothies (with just a little help from me again).

Then we all sat down to eat pizza and drink smoothies while watching a movie.
The kids stayed up way too late, made me regret letting them stay up again, and are just now settling down.  Let this be a lesson to me.  The next time we do a slumber party, lights out has to be at the normal time.

On a side note, April 4th is Walk Around Things Day, and since the Thanksgiving Point Gardens opened up last weekend for the season, that's what Jeremy, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I walked around today.  It was wonderful.

Jr. Jr. has a thing about waterfalls right now, so he got really excited when there were so many waterfalls to walk around.

Now to get some sleep before I fall asleep at the keyboard.  Happy Conference Weekend.

Fish Fingers and Custard Day 2014

Oh, yeah.  Fish Fingers and Custard Day, April 3rd. 

Besides eating fish sticks with vanilla pudding, Jeremy made several Doctor Who references while we were out at a park today.  He decided to name the duck pond "Amy."  Get it?  "Amy Pond."  I said wouldn't it be funny if there weren't any ducks in the duck pond.  A duck pond without any ducks (a reference to the first episode with Amy Pond).

Jr. Jr. was cute while we were out.  The first thing he said when we got out of the van was, "There's a pile of ducks over there."  He became disappointed, though, when the ducks didn't want to eat the bread we brought for them.  I guess they weren't hungry.  Oh, well.  In the end, Jr. Jr. got a snack.

The last time Jeremy and Jr. went out for Father-Son bonding time, the highlight of their time was seeing a dead bird.  While we were out today, Jeremy pointed out a dead fish to Jr. Jr.  Jr. Jr. said that a shark must have killed it.  We assured him there are no sharks in this pond.  But after the dead fish, he kept pointing out dead things- a dead rock, a dead waterfall, a dead mountain, and a dead rainbow.

At dinner when we told Jr. Jr. to tell the older kids what we saw at the park, he let them know we saw a dead fish, which of course made Jr. mention how that was like the dead bird he and Daddy saw when they were out. 
The things that stick with kids.

Happy Fish Fingers and Custard Day.

Deviled Eggs

The other day, Nichole suggested we have deviled eggs with our dinner today.  This morning as I was getting things ready to boil some eggs, Nichole asked if she could help.  She said she needed to learn these things for when she gets older and goes off to college.  Funny.  I use the same line on the kids when I'm trying to teach them how to do certain cleaning.  Kids do pay attention, don't they?
So I let her turn on the stove, put the eggs and water in the pot, put the lid on when it was boiling, turn off the stove, take the pot off the burner, and set and start the timer.  When it was done, it was about time for her to go to school so I told her about the next step of rinsing the eggs in cold water.  I took care of that part, though, and put the hard-boiled eggs in the fridge.
After school, she was all ready to help again.  The boys helped, too.  We all peeled eggs, Nichole cut the eggs in half then added miracle whip and mustard to the yolks, and she and the boys took turns mashing it all together.  She filled most of the eggs and she and Jr. both sprinkled paprika on the tops of the deviled eggs.

A good skill to learn, I'm glad it worked out today.  Now if I can just convince her to load the dishwasher...

I Can't Think of a Title for this Post

April Fool's.
The kids got a surprise when they tried to drink their "Kool-aid" at dinner.  It wasn't long before I heard, "Is this Jello?" 

Yep.  The kids were with us when we got a box of gelatin at the store yesterday, but they didn't guess that when I made it I would pour it into cups with straws and let it set in the fridge.
I got the idea when I was reading the April 2014 issue of FamilyFun Magazine and somebody said they had done that to their kids for April Fool's Day. 
I found out later that a friend of ours had done the same thing to her kids today.  Ha Ha.
Our kids did have a lot of fun eating the Jello with straws.  Some of it was sucked up through the straws, some of it scooped.

The last laugh was on me, though.  I had to clean the Jello stains off the table and off Jr. Jr.'s face.  And I had to start Jr. Jr.'s clothes washing in the washing machine.

Jr. lost another tooth at school today. 

This evening he told me he was going to play a trick on the tooth fairy.  He put a note on his tooth pillow that said:

 I lost my tooth.  Can you find it?  April Fools!

The note had an arrow pointing to his treasure chest with his tooth in it, which was not in his pillow.

He got a big kick out of telling me the joke he was going to play on the tooth fairy.  I love it.  I love his creativity.  I hope the tooth fairy gets a kick out of it, too.
Happy April 1st!