Galentines

I heard of a thing this year I hadn't heard of before. Galentines. Basically Girls' Night, getting your family or friend girls together for a party/get together near Valentine's. I thought it would be great for Nichole and me to do it since we're the only girls in our family and we were due for some one on one bonding time.

So we got our treats together and started our movie and paused it quite a few times because of people coming out and interrupting as often happens in our home.

Jr. did make us popcorn (thank you, Jr.) and at one point we had another gal join us.

"So what are we watching? I just love nights like this." Then when I got my phone out, "Oh, girl selfie."

He didn't stay long, just long enough to give us a good laugh. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband and his sense of humor?

P.S. Yesterday, February 11, was Peppermint Patty Day so we had some at the end of the day. I just fell asleep before I got a chance to blog.

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day 2022

It was certainly an afternoon. I wanted to celebrate National Cream Cheese Brownie Day on February 10 and I kept going back and forth between two different recipes that I could make. I finally decided on one and had to let cream cheese soften and had to get some butter out of the freezer. I was going to make it after picking Nichole up. Unfortunately, I completely forgot Nichole had an orchestra rehearsal after school and couldn't figure out why she didn't come out to the van after school. Eventually I had to leave to pick up Jr. and then we drove back toward the high school and caught Nichole as she was walking home. She reminded me about the rehearsal. Oh yeah.

When we finally got home, I worked on the brownies. I used Mel's Kitchen Cafe recipe, Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. By the time I was done, I didn't have time to make what was on the menu for tonight. So I turned to Six Sisters' Stuff and my instant pot book. Honey-garlic chicken. Yumm. It took me long enough, Nichole barely had time to eat some before she had to go to a performance in the evening. She had more when she got home.

We all had some of the brownies before bed. They were pretty.

 

National Pizza Day 2022

What can I say about National Pizza Day on February 9? 

Of course we celebrated. It's a pizza holiday for crying out loud.

I planned to put pineapple on half of one of the two pizzas I made (I'm one of those people- I love pineapple on pizza). Jet had other ideas. He is my baking buddy after all. He missed out on making the dough this time so he wanted to help with the toppings. He grabbed pineapple and kind of flung it on the pizza. He's so fun. So it wasn't just on half the pizza, but that's okay. There was another whole pizza that didn't have any pineapple.

Jeremy suggested chips and pop to go with our pizza so that's what we did. It's fun finding reasons (and ways) to celebrate.

Fettuccine Alfredo Day 2022

February 7 was Fettuccine Alfredo Day. I remember back to the days that it would take me so long to make homemade alfredo sauce. I've improved in my ability so now I can just whip it up in no time. I love it.

I make Guiltless Alfredo Sauce from ourbestbites.com and I love that it uses ingredients that I always have on hand.

This time making the sauce, I had to stop in the middle to pick up Jr. from a field trip so Nichole finished it for me. Thanks, Nichole. She also likes alfredo.

Duck Days

I knew the kids had another day off of school coming up so I put together some ideas of expeditions we could go on like when we went to Dripping Rock but before presenting any ideas I asked the kids if they had anything they wanted to do in particular. Two of them wanted to go to a duck pond and the others didn't have an opinion. Duck pond it was.

Unfortunately when we finally got out, it was closer to evening so we weren't able to stay too long. We got great lighting for Nichole and Jr. to take some pictures while Jr. Jr. and Lucky fed the ducks.

 

You can tell where Lucky is in the back of this picture because of all the ducks headed in his direction.

Jr.: I'm surrounded. 

Among all the mallards/park ducks there was a wood duck. That was fun to see.

It got later so with the promise of coming back the next day we headed home.

 

February 4 was Homemade Soup Day so I heated up leftover taco soup and said the kids could have whatever other leftovers they could find.

 

When Jeremy got home we had a date night. The kids watched a movie in our room while Jeremy and I watched the new Ghostbusters movie that we've been waiting years for. It was supposed to come to theaters in 2020 then everything shut down so it finally was released late last year and Jeremy and I watched it on DVD for date night.

I also made ghost shaped rice crispy treats (made with marshmallows of course). Tee Hee. 

 

The next day we headed back to Paul Ream Wilderness Park where the kids fed the ducks and Jet ran around. February 5 was National Play Outside Day.

 

This is how Jet feeds the ducks. Oats all over his hair and coat.

 

Earlier in the day, Nichole showed us a watercolor picture she did of the wood duck from the park. Fun. She's getting good use of new watercolors she got for Christmas.

 

Also earlier in the day, I celebrated Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. I did not feel guilty about it. When the kids saw me, they all asked and got permission for ice cream, too.

 

So those were our duck days. Then on February 6, I celebrated the anniversary of when Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the moon by playing a golf game on the internet.

By the way, February 6 is also Lame Duck Day but we didn't go back to the park to look for lame ducks.

Mommy, Look

Jr. Jr.: It's a perfect portrait of Mom.

Carrot Cake Day 2022

Sooooo tired. Too tired to say much more than I managed to make carrot cake this year for National Carrot Cake Day on February 3.

"Yay, me," said in an exhausted voice.

P.S. I also had a carrot cake mug cake earlier in the day just in case I wasn't up to making the regular carrot cake later, but I'm glad I was. And I love cream cheese frosting on the top.