Spring Break 2024

The boys had Spring Break April 1-5.

O.K. So we did celebrate April Fool's Day on April 1.

I put on the menu plan that we were going to have Ogre Stew and Muriel's Pretzel Knots. What we actually had was Italian Bean Soup and Garlic Knots (from A Season of Family Meal Plans), which looked enough like the other dishes. Bwah ha ha. Unfortunately, I think the soup was quite a disappointment to Jr. who had his hopes up for Ogre Stew. Honestly, I prefer Ogre Stew myself. I did traditional gelatin in place of Koolaid again, this time in a pitcher.

A couple of my boys put April Fool's notes on people's backs and I found one in my hair at one point.

The next morning as we were getting Jeremy ready for work, we found one more April Fool's prank we missed the night before.

April 2 was Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. It was also a Palindrome Day. 4-2-24

 

April 3 was Fish Fingers and Custard Day. We had our traditional dinner and watched several episodes of Doctor Who.

Jr. Jr. rationalized video games by naming a fish, "fingers and custerd," in Minecraft. "This is my fish, fingers and custerd."

 

April 4 was Walk Around Things Day. I went out for a walk along the lake starting in Vineyard and since it was Walk Around Things Day, I had to walk all the way up to Vineyard Beach, which by the way isn't much of a beach right now because of how much water there is in the lake (yay), and around the Geneva Cooling Ponds by Lindon Marina. Then I walked back and it was such a pleasant walk. It really was. I took our new camera and got to see some birds for the first time this year. Oh, I love walking and birding.

It was also National Burrito Day so we had burritos and Spanish Rice for dinner.

April 5 was First Contact Day. The boys saw it on the calendar and wondered what it was so I explained to them how, "A guy built a rocket and flew up into space on April 5... what year does it say?" "2063." "Yeah, 2063. And Vulcans saw it and made first contact with the humans." The boys were a bit confused and finally asked, "Is that from a movie or something?" "It's a Star Trek thing," I explained. So now they know.

Easter 2024

March did not go out like a lamb this year. Last day of the month we got hail.

March 31 was Easter and appropriately National Tater Day since we like to have a potato dish with our dinner. Ham, creamy scalloped potatoes, rolls, spinach salad, and grape juice.

A couple days later the boys had an Easter egg hunt in the living room.

The KAT's Meow

I was trying to get Jet to use his manners when asking me to open some candy so I said, "Mommy, will you please open this for me?" He responded with, "I will open it for you." Cute cute cute.  

Jr. Jr. had something in his hand. Jet took it from him and said, "That's yucky. You'll get sick."

Lucky: When people give you a shot, they're just making sure you're not a balloon person.

Jr. Jr.: What does a robot get for its birthday? A cake made out of 1's and 0's.

More Than Just Chariots of Fire?

I love how easy it is to write right in "A Season of Family Meal Plans." There's a "Notes" section with each recipe or I can write next to the ingredients or instructions.

In this case the toppings for Coconut Hawaiian Haystacks were listed with the ingredients but there was room for me to add to the list.

And of course I was able to skip a big step because I froze Hawaiian Pork weeks before when we made Hawaiian Pork Sandwiches and took it out to thaw last week to sub in place of the pork gravy in the recipe.

The result:

Coconut Hawaiian Haystacks (made with Hawaiian Pork instead of Pork Gravy and coconut as a topping) with Orange Cream Fruit Salad on the side.

Jet helped make the food again. He cut up bananas.

As we were preparing food, I decided to listen to "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis because March 29 was Vangelis' Birthday. Instead of asking Alexa to play "Chariots of Fire" like I usually do, I asked her to play music by Vangelis. "Chariots of Fire" was the first piece to play but there were several other pieces I listened to. I always think of "Chariots of Fire" when I think of Vangelis but there are other pieces like "Conquest of Paradise" that are also cool.

The next day, March 30, was I Am In Control Day. I tried.

Something On a Stick Day 2024

Something on a Stick Day, March 28. It is a popular thing to have corn dogs on this day. I didn't want corn dogs. What I decided I did want was chicken kabobs. I haven't made kabobs in a while. 

My sweet most wonderful husband took some time the day before cutting up vegetables for me and... a pineapple. He didn't cut up vegetables for me and a pineapple. He cut up vegetables and a pineapple for me. Sweet husband.

Jet decided to be sweet and a helper in the kitchen again, this time to eat pineapple as Dad cut it up.

Everybody got to choose what they wanted on their skewers from just chicken to the works (chicken, pineapple, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes). Yum. The chicken was cut up and marinated in Yoshida's gourmet sauce that morning. Jr. Jr. helped hand me veggies and fruit while assembling the kabobs so I didn't have to keep washing my hands when I wanted to touch them after touching the raw meat.
Thanks, Jr. Jr. We put the kabobs in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour (give or take) then turned on the broiler for a few minutes at the end.

Simple. Easy. Yummy.

We also had petite pickles on toothpicks. Something on a stick. The boys had fun with that.

And Jr. Jr. and Lucky used the excuse of Something on a Stick to make more cookie candy flowers like they did for Valentine's Day, except this time they had cherry juju hearts that Jeremy found that I couldn't find before Valentine's Day. Thanks, boys. And Jeremy.

The kids were playing a video game. I saw that there was a unicorn so this exchange happened.

Mom: Hey, it's a unicorn. Its horn is like a stick.

Jr.: It's a horse on a stick.

Spinach Days

March 26 was National Spinach Day. It was also Make Up Your Own Holiday Day and Jeremy wanted to make up the holiday, I Don't Have To Go In To Work Day, but it didn't work. Poor guy.

But we did celebrate Spinach Day. To go along with Spinach and salad dressing (our kids are into simple salads- spinach with or without dressing, lettuce with or without dressing), I made Creamy Garlic Pork Chops, Classic Mashed Potatoes (both from "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1), and applesauce. 

I don't make pork chops (I didn't even know pork chops could come boneless, I never look for them in the store), I don't make mashed potatoes from scratch (I am an instant mashed potatoes person- they're so much easier), but I made both for this meal. I am definitely trying new things with these books by Jordan Page and The Page Company. And we're actually getting through the bags of potatoes that we buy from the store. Yay.

I'll tell you my true opinion. Pork chops were yummy. Mashed potatoes weren't as good. They were easy but I need to do a better job at seasoning them. More garlic, that's what we need. And the spinach wasn't part of the meal plan, but it was a good side dish and fit the holiday.

Speaking of spinach, the next day we had spinach again with our dinner, this time with more than just dressing. We had Best Ever Fettuccine Alfredo (with spaghetti instead of fettucine) and Butter Lettuce Salad (with spinach instead of butter lettuce). We also had some homemade wheat bread to go along with it.

I'll tell you my true opinion. I definitely did some shelf cooking with the alfredo sauce recipe. I combined cream, half and half, and powdered milk with water. Used up the rest of the cream that we had in the fridge and the rest of a container of half and half we had in the fridge. We still have another unopened container of half and half that Jr. Jr. brought home from a youth activity where they were making ice cream, so no hurry on that. Anyway, the alfredo sauce was good. I still prefer the alfredo sauce we usually make and will probably stick to that one, but it's okay to try new things, especially when you have ingredients you need to use up. The recipe I usually use is Guiltless Alfredo Sauce from ourbestbites.com and most of us in the family love it. O.K. About the salad. It was good. The green olives in it were a pleasant surprise for some people. Honestly, I got myself a bowl of the olives to munch on while I was making dinner. I like green olives. It was a good salad but not craveworthy.

As far as the homemade bread goes, we did the traditional tear into one loaf to snack on and slice the others after they've cooled. I know we're not the only family that does that. Jet used to tear into all the loaves. A little bit of this loaf. A little bit of this one. Thinking about that makes me laugh. So many fun memories with this family.

On a different note, March 27 was Manatee Appreciation Day. I did sing, "Barbara Manatee" to celebrate. And thinking ahead when a picture of a manatee popped up on the laptop a few days before, I took a picture of it so I could look at it on the holiday. Celebrating in simple ways. Tee Hee.

It's a blessing to be able to celebrate what we do. We have friends in Haiti who are dealing with things that we don't even have to think about dealing with. 

To take their children's minds off of what they are going through at this time, our friends set up Google Meets with people to take time to talk to the girls, read books, or whatever. Jeremy signed us up so we got to chat with them, show them silly Jet. Jeremy put together a presentation about animals and birds of Utah so they could learn about them and find out what birds Utah has in common with Haiti. Then he made a couple of balloon animals for them to see since that's what we do. I hope it helped. They seemed to enjoy it.

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