National Pi Day and a Caucus Experience

 I knew it was National Pi Day last Thursday and I have celebrated it in the past, but I wasn't really planning on doing anything this year. It was a fun surprise when my cute Josh bought us a pie from Marie Calendars to celebrate. 

 Can I tell you it was positively SHAMEFUL how excited I was when each of my boys either left the table early without finishing most of their pie (I am not proud, I totally eat their leftovers if they are good...) or proclaimed they didn't really like pie.  I really really like pie.

 And I ate the last two pieces the next day for lunch, because you can't really save one piece can you??

 So here is my caucus story (sorry for those of you who read my other blog...it is kind of repetitive).  Josh and I decided the year had come for us to go to our local caucus and become grownups by participating in the whole process...doesn't that just feel very grown up to caucus?  Despite the fact that I got my degree in Political Science, I have never caucused before...is that what it is called?  That just feels weird.  Well, we went and the line was wrapped around the building.  It was a mad house!

 We had to move to a new room and it was all very interesting to me.  Well, there were some heated things being voted on and as chill as I went into the process, I started getting more and more worked up over things.  Josh was the initial one that was passionate and I guess I just took on the cause. 

 I don't want to go into details, because it would be very long and boring, but my passionate nature (that has overall lay dormant for a few years), got the best of me and I think I ended the last vote of the meeting with the shout of "Ya Brinkerhoff" (someone who had just been voted in as a delegate) followed by a big "wahoo".  Josh grabbed me by the hand a pulled me out of there.  We laughed about it all the way to the car and figured that I was the first person ever to cheer on a state delegate like that.  What a nerd I am!

Well, it is one for the grand kids I guess.  And National Pi day was awesome.  There ya go.

Dr. Seuss Day

Our family definitely has a special place in our hearts for Dr. Seuss.  Our boys have spent hours being read and reading all of the goodies that this brilliant man wrote.  We usually have green eggs and ham for this day, and last year we tried to make it a little more of a party, which was really fun.  I added some Cat in the Hat pancakes to our traditional green eggs and ham.  Palmer called it the "Cat in the Hat Stack." 

 

The boys' school is so fun and I love how the go all out with things.  They invited the kids to dress up as their favorite book characters to commemorate "National Reading Week," and Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Palmer and Lincoln wanted to be "Thing 1 and Thing 2" so I made them these little shirts. 

I got the shirts at Michael (4 for $10 total deal!) and cut up one of the boys undershirts for the white fabric :), then I just appliqued the white circles and used iron on letters for the words and did a little blanket stitch around the circle with black thread. 

Lincoln and a few of his friends had decided to be "Jack" from the "Magic Treehouse" books that they love so much.  He had a great time that day. 

That night for dinner we had "Rare Who Roast Beast", from the Grinch that Stole Christmas (this was actually pot roast).  "Who Hash", also form the Grinch that Stole Christmas that was potato hash (I slice up potatoes and fry them in butter, cover the pan until they are soft and then put in a cup of milk and cook until it is all absorbed and then cover it in shredded cheese.  We LOVE this side dish and now it has a new name :).  We also had apples ("10 Apples up on Top") and pink ink (One Fish Two Fish) to drink (I was going to do Pink Lemonade, but we decided to do strawberry milk).

For dessert we had One Fish Two fish jello. 

It was fun and festive!

We were going to first read all of our favorite Dr. Seuss books and then watch "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat," but we got a little carried away reading our favorite books and read until it was bedtime.  I have to say my favorite Dr. Seuss book called "I wish that I had Duck Feet."  We had a great time and can't wait to celebrate again next year!

Valentine's Day/Josh turns 32

Valentine's Day is always a fun/crazy day in our house.  We love to go big on holidays and birthdays, so it usually ends up being wild.  This year was no exception.  I thought I'd look back on all of the past Valentine's/birthdays and link them.

2008
2009
2010
2011

 4 years of blogging...this blog is getting old. 

The boys woke up to some presents from mom and dad.  We usually leave them on the porch, so this was a huge surprise for the boys.  I changed it to see how it would work.  Usually the evening is pretty full celebrating Josh's birthday and their Valentine's presents are an afterthought.  I liked doing this, we will see if I do it next year. 

Josh is usually the one who stays up late/gets up early to decorate for the boys and my birthdays (so cute!)  I love that he does that and decorated for his birthday.  We all laughed that the decorations are blue/white/green and the table is pinks.  Oh well, it definitely represents our day.

This was my little gift to Josh for him to wake up to (his real gift was something that he is supposed to pick out and hasn't yet...boys!:)

I got this idea on Pinterest, but couldn't find a source (uploaded by user is all it said)...

This was what the boys place settings looked like.  I think they thought the best part about the meal was the strawberry milk. 

We had crepes for breakfast as is our tradition, but I am thinking that I might be changing it.  We have always done crepes because I think it is very Valenine-y, but none of the boys really ate them!  I might be on the hunt for a new tradition next year...it is hard for me to let go of traditions, but I guess it is time when I am the only one who likes it (and oh do I like it, I think I had three crepes!)

It could also be the fact that I gave them a ton of sugar before breakfast...

The boys then headed to school with their class valentines and gifts for their teachers, and came home on cloud 9...literally.  Why is it that suckers and pixie sticks are the only thing we moms can think of to be creative with (we gave suckers :).  My boys were bouncing off the walls!

Josh and I decided a while ago that we didn't want to leave the boys on such a big day.  We usually celebrate V-day/birthday together on a different day of the week and spend the day of with our kids.  I made a gourmet of meal of grilled steak and grilled asparagus (okay Josh grilled those and they were a.ma.zing.)  we had rolls in the shape of hearts, strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar (if you haven't tried this you should.  Lincoln and I love it) and baked lobster to go with it.  We had orange/passion fruit (appropriate no?) So yummy!

Josh's mom came over to spend the birthday with us.  It was fun to have her.

I wanted to attempt a homemade cheesecake again this year.  Josh is a huge cookies and cream fan and I have done this cheesecake once before for him on his birthday, but it had a huge crack right down the middle.  I have since gotten some tips on how to prevent that and I was sweating BUCKETS the whole time it cooked I was so worried that it would crack (not that anyone else would have cared, but I had to conquer this :)  It came out fine and yummy!

I didn't want to put 32 candles on it so there is a cluster of 3 and a cluster of 2 :)

McKay was dying to help Josh blow the candles out, having just discovered blowing candles out on his birthday last month, and as our happy birthday song started to come to a close he got closer and blew harder.  Josh thought it was so cute that he let him help him (I wonder which of their wishes were going to come true :)

It was a lovely day and I was not forgotten in the Valentine festivities by my sweet husband (how sad to always have to give someone else something on your own birthday...I always feel a bit guilty about it :).

I love my Josh so much and am grateful for him every minute of every day.  I am a lucky gal.

School Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you are all having a lovely day.  We have already had a very fun and full morning with Valentine's and Josh's birthday celebrations.  Holidays are so fun!  My boys are convinced that they should get the day off from their "stuff" (reading, homework, chores, piano practicing) in honor of the holiday.  It isn't likely  :)

I saw this idea last year from Family Fun Magazine, and was dying to do it.  I had also seen and fallen in love with this idea though and decided that, so I have been waiting a whole year to do this idea :).  I think it is so funny!  I bought some foam to try it out a few weeks back and let the boys see how they liked it.

 They thought it was pretty funny, the problem was however that the suckers I bought try it out with were ENORMOUS so they had a hard time closing their mouths around them. 

This was also the day that I took the pictures for my February header, and Palmer liked having a kiss mark on his cheek and didn't want to wash it off. 

They were pretty big suckers :)

I thought they turned out really fun.

I found the template for the lips and mustaches as well as the "Happy Valentine's" printable on this site.

I did this idea for our teachers last year and just thought it was so cute that I wanted to do it again.  This year all of the Valentine taffy had words on it, which wasn't my favorite, but I still liked how they turned out.

I really do love Valentine's Day.  It's always a good excuse to tell those around us how much we appreciate them.