Johnny Appleseed Day 2014

The last couple of evenings have been great for dinnertime discussion.  Tonight to go along with Johnny Appleseed Day, March 11, Jeremy talked to us about how energy gets converted from sunlight into apples and then into our bodies.

And then into bunny ears, the kids added.

After dinner the kids and I played the game, Sorry!  Jr. suggested that we pretend the pieces were apples, so every time a piece got bumped off, someone would say, "Sorry I bumped your [insert color] apple off with my [insert another color] apple."  It was great with the red, green, and yellow pieces, but it was a little bit weird to talk about the blue apples in the game.

About the game (but not the Johnny Appleseed part), the older two kids decided to gang up on me to prevent my victory.  I found it funny since I was already behind everyone else (I think I only had 1 or 2 pieces out of Start at a time, and not just because the kids kept bumping me back).  They prevented my victory all right, and completely missed Jr. Jr. making his way with all four pieces to Home.
It was fun and Jr. Jr. was excited to find that he won.

Festival of Life in the Cracks Day 2014

We spent some time trying to figure out how to celebrate Festival of Life in the Cracks Day, March 10. We almost watched A Bug's Life (definitely life in the cracks), but went with The Sound of Music instead. 
What ended up happening was we had a nice discussion at dinnertime about different things that might grow in cracks.  

Weeds, wheat, some sea life, "Spike."  (Kudos to you if you catch the reference on that last one).
And we ate waffles.  Which has nothing to do with the holiday.  But they were yummy.

The KAT's Meow

Jr.: What does tuna fish taste like when it's heated up?
Mommy:  Um... warm tuna fish.
Jr.:  Oh.




Jr.:  I know why Gobstoppers change colors.
Because each time they change colors, it's more likely for them not to break your teeth off.

Kenneth Grahame Crackers

To celebrate Kenneth Grahame's birthday, March 8, we ate graham crackers (heh heh heh) and watched an episode of The Wind in the Willows, a show I watched as a kid.  Stop-motion animation.  Anybody else remember that show?

Changing Tastes

Jeremy and I think our tastes are changing as we get older.  To celebrate National Cereal Day, March 7, we got some sugary cereal for everyone to eat.

Yuck.
The kids had no problem eating the junky cereal.
I felt gross after eating it.  I used to have no problem eating that stuff.  But nowadays...  probably a good thing anyway.
Now Jeremy is fixing me a cheese and pickle sandwich with mustard.  Gotta get that yucky taste out of my mouth.  Thanks, Jeremy.

Next year for National Cereal Day, maybe I should skip the cereal altogether and go straight for the cheese and pickle sandwich.

Helpful Oreos

The kids and I sat down with a plate of Oreo cookies this evening.  March 6 is the birthday of the Oreo Cookie after all.  For each Oreo we ate, we told one thing that we were going to do this coming week to help our home and family.
Here's what we'll do:
Jr. will be nice to Mom and Dad and help clean up the kitchen.
Jr. Jr. will clean up everything he takes out of his room and eat everything that Mom gives him.
Nichole will clean up after herself and clean up the living room.
I will read my scriptures and say my prayers and I will listen to my children.
Jeremy came home later and added to the list.
He will not yell and he will give a compliment each day to someone he loves.

It's kind of a fun way of goal setting- rewarding ourselves for setting realistic goals in the first place (I did have to point out what realistic goals are when one of the children said he would clean up every room in our home- not realistic).  I figure after the week is up (or during the week), we'll sit down with another plate of Oreos and report on how we did (or are doing).

Distraction

The kids were cleaning up the living room.  Nichole got out a plastic grocery bag to put balloons in.  For some reason, she found it more fun to throw it up so it would glide down like a parachute.  Jr. and Jr. Jr. saw what she was doing so they got grocery bags out to play with, too.
Nichole started tying objects to her bag to glide down.  The kids also got into playing like they had just gone shopping and brought back groceries in the bags.

I should be careful what items I suggest the kids use for cleaning up.  They just might find other uses for them.