Day 110: Let's Go See A Band: A Cautionary Tale

 Wednesday, April 26th

We had a hot date tonight, Brad and I. 

Actually, this is also a tale of deception. Just kidding. Sort of. 

Brad texted me earlier this morning and asked me "Hey, want to go see a band tonight?"

Uh, yeah! Living on an island where there is so few things to do any time of year other than July and August, a band sounds fun! Sometimes little indie folk bands come to the Fairgrounds here and put on a show. Let's do it!

So I say sure. 

And he says "Good, because I have to go anyways. It's at the high school."

Strange? But okay. Maybe because it's still snowing in freaking April and they want to play inside. 

And why is he required to go?

Upon further investigation, he hints that it's the Kodiak high school Jazz Band's spring concert. 

What in the world do you have to do with the high school jazz band? I ask. 

"Well, it's the Coast Guard Saxophone Quartet. I arranged them to come here. They're playing with the jazz band."

This is a trap. I have been deceived! This isn't a band, this is a jazz concert of high school jazz band combined with Coast Guard jazz. 

I listen to literally all music. My iTunes playlist is everything from twanging country music to rap to hard rock to boy band pop. You know what isn't there? Jazz. Jazz is my least favorite music in the entire planet. Brad knows this. He tricked me!!

But I said I would go. So guess what? Let's go. 

We left the kids at home (because they're smarter than me and knew in an instant that jazz music wasn't "their thing") and headed to dinner at Henry's. 

I've been to Henry's three times, and I've never enjoyed it. It's a local favorite and I tried so hard to like it, but I've never lucked out with the food here. Three strikes and you're out, sorry Henry's. 

But it's fine, it's fine! We are on a date and I'm not going to have a bad attitude. 

We headed to the high school auditorium and got a nice seat front and center to watch the band. And whether it's my least favorite music or not, the high schoolers were extremely talented, filled with spunk and spirit and a lot of fun to watch. 

Then the Coast Guard quartet came out, who traveled all the way from Connecticut to perform just for us. 

They were so talented, and really amazing to watch. 

Hey, I can appreciate good music when I hear it, whether I like it or not. 

Really it was a fantastic night out just the two of us, and so fun to do something totally different for once. 

Day 109: Meiloorun Smoothies (Also Known As Mango)

 Tuesday, April 25 
(I'm starting to write down the date, because life is busy and often I'm doing two or three blog dates at a time)

I had promised Calen like two weeks ago that we were going to pick something out of his Star Wars cookbook to make, and then we never did. Mostly because groceries are stupidly expensive and I didn't want to spend $11 on frozen mangoes, you know. But there was a sale, and I finally bought the ingredients necessary to make the first thing Calen picked out: a Meiloorun Smoothie (also known as a mango smoothie). 

This is curious actually that Calen picked this, because he really does not like smoothies at all. But I was impressed at his daring, so after his newspaper route we blended together yogurt, milk and frozen mangoes and garnished it with a pretty little mint leaf. 

I found this to be especially freaking delicious. It reminded me of Hawaii with it's tropical sweet flavor. 

Both boys enjoyed the first taste of it, and were mildly tolerant of the rest, but in the end it was still a smoothie, and they each only drank about half before deciding they were over it. 

But hey, points for trying. 

Day 108: The Arch-Dukesss Says Let Potatoes Grow Potatoes

 It was kind a slow day over here. We are continuing our Middle Ages unit (and almost done with it) and talking about heirarchy and nobles and whatnot. 

Camden announces: "Mom is the Supreme Arch-Dukess (pronounced Duke-Ess) in this house."

Which made me think of a Star Wars Imperial army officer meets the queen of England. 

I don't know whether to be flattered or offended. 

Also, we were learning about Tuber plants in Botany class today. It was discussing how certain tubers (like Potatoes) can grow their own shoots and roots after their sugar content starts to deplete. A sort of self-preservation. 

Which reminded me that I had potatoes in the pantry from before we went to Hawaii. 

AHA. 

A visual aid. 

Potatoes growing potatoes. 

See having old vegetables floating around is good for education. Or something. 

So sayeth the Arch-Dukess of the house. 

Day 107: Fossil Beach

 The weather has been spectacular this weekend! It's almost pretending to be spring!

Don't worry, it's supposed to snow tomorrow. 

Sigh. 

We took advantage of the sunshine and drove as far as the road (literally) goes to the western edge of the island, and spent the afternoon at Fossil Beach with our good friends. 

Fossil Beach is exactly what is sounds like. Carved out of the cliffs, it's a sandy beach with tons (and I mean, tons) of fossils sticking out of the rocks and cliffside. 

We (and by we I mean Brad and the boys) built a campfire on the beach to keep us warm (just because it's sunny doesn't mean it's warm - the high was 38), and we sat around chatting and watching the whale spouts and the curious sea lion while the kids built a driftwood Fort, found fossils and walked around talking about video games for five hours, and then ended the day with s'mores. A perfect sunny family (and friend) fun day. 

Day 106: Camden's 12th Birthday

 Somehow, some way, the baby of the family is TWELVE. 

What. 

Didn't we just bring him home in an Easter basket like last week? My gosh. 

The day started early, as it does on birthdays with overly excited kids bouncing around upstairs. The household rule is that no one is allowed downstairs on birthdays or Christmas before a parent goes down first (to film the looks on their face, of course). I was up late working on that stupid cake, so I stumbled my sleepy self downstairs, pulled the cake out of the freezer and put it on the table, told Alexa to play Lilo and Stitch music, and called Cam down. He LOVED it. 

Brad made traditional birthday pancakes, complete with whipped cream, sprinkles, and his numbered candles. 

For presents, we often (if time constraints allow) do a scavenger hunt. It's a lot of work, but the kids really love it. Camden had 12 clues to find and follow, opening small presents on the way and finding his big present at the end. Gifts this year included a "Dungeon in a box" (a DND subscription box with a map, board, figures and adventure to play), a board game called Happy Little Dinosaurs, a stuffed dragon, Rollercoaster Tycoon video game for the Switch, and finally a huge Lego Castle. 

Since his birthday is on a Saturday this year, we decided to do his friend party ON his actual birthday instead of a day the following week. He invited about half of his State hockey team, plus our neighbor boy. The sun was shining and they had a GREAT time spending an hour and a half doing roller hockey in the street together, coming inside only for orange soda and filling up at the Taco Bar. then after cake we packed them all up and sent them to the pool. They all had so much fun, I literally only took one photo. Well two, including the tacos. 

Day 105: Cake Day and Vitamin D

 It's the day before a birthday and around here that means CAKE DAY!

I used to love cake day, and I still do, but it involves a lot of stress. Trying to get it done in a reasonable time, making it look perfect, all while getting the house super clean and ready for a birthday the next day, it's usually a late night day that requires a lot of coffee. 

Camden requested an ice cream cake this year. I HATE doing ice cream cakes. It's like a timed level in a video game, and I hate timed levels. But, it's what he wants, and who am I to say no to his birthday wish. 

I made the bottom layer early this morning - a fudge brownie layer. While letting it cool all day long, I had softened fudge and vanilla marbled ice cream and then stuffed it in a cake pan and let it refreeze. 

Meanwhile, it was shockingly warm and sunny outside (almost 55 degrees), so Cam spent the entire day outside playing roller hockey while Calen was riding bikes with friends and I took the break in cake making to hike up Old Woman for a couple hours. 

I opened the freezer this evening to see how the cake was coming along, and it was almost a fiasco!! The room temperature brownies had almost melted the cake, but luckily it managed to refreeze just fast enough to prevent a complete catastrophic meltdown. 

Gosh I hate ice cream cakes. 

Late (and I mean, late) in the evening I pulled the cake out and the timed mission began, decorating it as fast as possible. It was a Lilo and Stitch cake, but very simple. I frosted it with blue whipped cream frosting, then froze it, then added white whipped cream over the top to make it look like melting ice cream. Then froze it, then added a scoop of mint chocolate chip and an upside down cone. Stuff Stitch and a surfboard on the top, and we're done. 

It's not my favorite cake. But it'll do. 

Day 104: Paradise Falls

 I've been working on a little project this week. 

In our living room is what I like to call the "adventure wall", a wall full of photos dedicated to all the adventures we've had over the years in various places. 

One of my favorite movies is Up, a Disney movie who's motto is "Adventure Is Out There". I live by this motto myself, because Adventure is out there, whether it be a big adventure or just living regular life as an adventure. 

In the movie there is a wall in their house painted by a main character (Ellie), of the one place they want to go to more than anywhere: Paradise Falls. On the painting is the cliffside, the water fall, and their house, sitting right on the edge of it. 

Adventure is out there!

I decided I LOVED this painting and it's representation (even if it is only depicted in a movie). Yes, adventure is out there, whether you go find it yourself or by sitting in your house. I wanted a print of my own! 

I'm a decent artist, but paint is not my medium. Luckily this painting is almost exclusively geometric shapes which made it slightly almost easier in my head. 

After a week, here's the result!

I'm actually over the moon with it. And it goes on the adventure wall perfectly (complete with the Up house on the shelf above it). 

Adventure is out there!

Day 103: The Things You Say

 Calen and his obsession with cars has gotten almost out of control lately. 

I mean not really, and I'm glad he's willing to share it with us and not too cool of a teenager to talk to us. But my gosh he talks about it so much it's all I can do not to jump out the window or duct tape his mouth shut. 

As we are driving to baseball practice tonight, he spots a Porsche driving by (a rarity on this blue collar island). 

Calen: "WHOA! I just got to see a Porsche in the flesh! Well.....not in the flesh. In the metal I guess."

His sayings crack me up. 

Day 102: Yes We Do Celebrate Dog Birthdays

 It's Rebel's birthday! And yes we do have it on the calendar and yes, we did celebrate. 

Actually the only reason we even know what day he was born was because I received an email from the breeder that day that the litter was born, and it ended up in my phone calendar ever since. 

Rebel Yell (Rebel Scum) Hansen, born 4.17.2018. 

So there it is. 

Rebel is 5 today! That's 35 in dog years. He's almost as old as me!

Though he acts like an actual five year old child. Age is nothing but a number anyways. 

Rebel is literally the best dog we've ever had. Better even than Juno (which is hard to do). He doesn't bark, jump, counter surf (unless it's butter), chew, pee on things, or do anything naughty whatsoever. He obeys every time you command him. He's literally the goodest of boys. 

And the goodest of boys deserves to have a celebration on his birthday. 

We had saved an especially large Bark Box (that was ordered by mistake) for him for today. He got not one but FOUR new toys, new chewies and treats. We took out the treats and put the box on the floor where he delightedly picked out each toy one by then, walked around with them in his mouth, then decided that the BOX was the best present of all, snatched it and ceremoniously destroyed it in the living room. 

Just like actual five year olds. The box is the best toy. 

Happy birthday Rebel Scum!

Day 101: It's A Meatballs

 For the second day in a row, Calen cooked!


Mainly because we had leftover pasta sauce from the pizza last night, so we needed to use it up. 

The second recipe in his subscription box this month was meatball subs, which as it stands currently, are a household favorite when going out to eat at Subway. 

This also works out extremely well with it being Sunday and Family Snack Board/Game Night. Calen made the meatballs and toasted the buns, I cut up some toppings, and it was a make your own meatball sandwich kind of night. 

Sandwich, instead of subs, because who wants to drive all the way across town to spend $11 on two loaves of French bread. Not me!

For family game night we played Disney Epic Alliance again, moving on to chapter 3 now (involving special skills!)

Day 101: Sicilian (Not Italian) Pizza

 It was Calen's turn to cook today! Instead of using his new Star Wars cookbook, we had a few recipes to catch up on from his Raddish Kids cooking subscription. Today, pizza!

But not just pizza. Sicilian pizza, not to be confused with Italian pizza, of course. 

In my very early 20s, before I was married and had kids (basically in another life), I worked with a guy named Tony who was a self-declared Sicilian. If you said he was Italian, he became extremely offended. He was from Sicily, lest you forget. I wonder if it's like that with New Yorkers. I'm not from New York, I'm from BROOKLYN! Which is still New York. 

But anyways. 

So we are making Sicilian pizza from scratch. The majority of this recipe is teaching you how to make homemade pizza dough, and then adding the toppings later (the easy part). 

I'll be real honest, I'm not a homemade pizza type of girl. I like the cheap, delicious, boxed frozen pizza that is about as classy as the white trash person I am. And honestly so do the kids, so we tossed a Red Baron pepperoni frozen pizza in the oven as a backup (also, because this one little pizza was definitely not going to feed two adults, a teenager and a kid that eats like a teenager). 

This pizza though, it surpassed all of our expectations. The crust was delicious and crispy, the toppings perfect. This is a homemade pizza worth taking the time to make. 

Sometimes. It's also time consuming and so much easier to toss a Red Baron in the oven. 

It was movie night to go with our pizza. The boys (particularly Calen) have been begging to watch the original Fast and the Furious. Listen, I was in high school when this movie came out. I remember the language, the sex, the high speed dumbass street racers, the everything-I-don't-want-my-kids-to-see. Brad and I had a chat about it. We watched much worse movies at a much younger age. So whatever, right? 

We relented and allowed them to watch it. Luckily they gagged at the sex scenes, but they laughed at the language (which made me want to slap them). But mostly? I remember how cool I thought this movie was as a teenager, and now that I'm pushing 40, I realize how stupid it is. 

And there it is, folks. Crossing the threshold from being young and hip to old and bitter. 

Ugh. 

But the kids liked it (mostly, Calen said he would have liked it more if there were more races and less sex and violence), so whatever. 

Day 100: Herbology Class

 Spring is hard here. 

As in, there is no spring. It's still snowing. There's no grass. It's cold and bare and stupid. 

I wish I was still in Hawaii. 

Well anyways, I thought for some stupid reason that starting Botany study unit in April was a good idea, thinking that "oh yeah by then the snow is melting and the plants will start to bud."

Yeah right. 

But we had to start at some point, so here we are, faking it till we make it style and looking at pictures of flowers rather than actually dissecting them. 

Oh well. 

Luckily today's lesson asked to take a closer look at fresh leaves, and we have one (ONE) bush that's nestled up against the house that is blooming fresh leaves, so we took a field trip to the front porch. 

We didn't even have to put on shoes. 

Thank goodness for that little bush. 

Calen didn't even have to leave the porch 

Day 99: Hoth Cocoa Cream Puffs

 Cam and Calen got Star Wars cookbooks from their grandparents for Easter, and they were super excited to get home from vacation and try out some recipes. Calen got a general all around cookbook and Camden got a baking desserts book, which is perfect for both of their interests. 

We agreed on one recipe per book per week, and the first recipe to hit the kitchen is out of Cam's baking book: Hoth Cocoa (get it, get it?? HOTH cocoa. Bwaaaahahaha) Cream Puffs. 

They looked complicated but were shockingly easy. Camden made the dough on his own, baked it, then added homemade chocolate cinnamon pudding inside it and some marshmallow fluff on top (then broiled for 1 minute to get that charred glaze of the marshmallow on top). These turned out delicious. 

Cam was super proud of them and couldn't wait to have the whole family try them, then marched right back to the book and picked out next week's recipe before we were even done eating the cream puffs. 

I'm loving that he's so into baking, specifically. 

Day 98: Adventure Is Out There

 Disney/Pixar's movie UP is definitely one of my favorite "ideas", if not one of my favorite movies. 

The movie's coin phrase "Adventure is out there" is literally my favorite quote. I say it all the time. I even have it on a sign up on the wall in my house, above a collage of framed photos of our family adventures. 

I mean, I live for adventure. Big adventure, little adventure, adventure at home. I love it. 

Life is a great adventure. 

So when Lego decided to release a Lego Up House, I preordered that sucker and had it delivered to my door the moment it was available. The boys sat on the floor and built it while we watched the movie Up and then all the Dug short films on Disney+. 

The boys built it together, but it's mine, thank you. 

It now sits proudly on my shelf in the living room, on my adventure wall. And it's PERFECT. 

I did relinquish the Russell, Carl and Dug minifigs to the boys, and they promptly added them to their Lego City setup. 

This set is literally perfect for my house and I'm stupidly excited about it. Now I need to update my adventure wall. More to come!

Day 97: Draw and Disney: Rocket Raccoon.

 Calen has baseball practice tonight but also needs to do his paper route on the way. 

Maybe this constitutes as the new Paperboy Uniform. 

We did Draw and Disney today, the first in a long time! We drew cartoon Rocket Raccoon and then watched Guardians of the Galaxy. I love this tradition!

Camden's

Calen's

Day 96: How We Leave The House In Winter

It was really cold today. You wouldn't even know it's April!

Here's how Calen leaves the house today to go play outside with is friends. 

I mean, he won't be cold. 

Day 95: Easter 2023

 We've been home less than 48 hours and it's already a major holiday. 

Well major-ish. 

Luckily, I had planned for Easter well before we left for Hawaii, and since the kids are older, I don't need to stuff 483 eggs with candy. 

But that doesn't mean I didn't make it fun. 

Last night, I built their baskets (fun little Big Hero 6 figures, Halo guys, a new watch for Calen, a knife for Cam, and new outfits for their little Disney guys, a board game for each) and hid them. Then I stuffed 20 eggs with money (most had .50 or a dollar, two had two dollars, one had $5) and hid them amongst the ground floor of the house. 

And that was it! Each boy was allowed to find 10 eggs each and keep them, plus find their basket. It took almost 25 minutes for them to find all the eggs and their baskets. 

I made lunch/dinner early, since it is Sunday after all and we usually have a snack board and game night for dinner. This was easy, since I'm still in vacation mode and not up for cooking: Premade Safeway sub sandwiches, devilled eggs, potato salad (storebought), meatballs, cucumbers, jelly beans and chocolate eggs. 

Easy. 

Brad and Calen took some time learning how to use Calen's new drawing pad that he got for his birthday (Brad has the same one) and Cam went into the garage to play with a friend for a low key afternoon. Then they all came back together and we did confetti eggs together on the living room floor (instead of outside on the porch, where it was 8 degrees and blowing wind). 

And since it's Sunday after all and that means a snack board and board games, we left out the snack board all day and played a new game they got today ("Poetry for Neanderthals"), a hilarious game where you have to describe a word using one syllable words only (and if you don't, you get beat by an inflatable cave man club). 

Cam is at the ready to strike

Although at first I feel like I was throwing together Easter at the last second, it really turned out to be great Easter.