Count Explore Blessings: Adventures of Little, Middle, and Mom

 Middle found his life goal today....Kazoo Master January 28: National Kazoo Day Introduced to the world at the 1852 Georgia State Fair, the kazoo has been a little buzzing pipe of madness for parents everywhere. "In 1983, Chaplin Willard of the Joyful Noise Kazoo Band created National Kazoo Day. The special day recognizes the joy and happiness of listening and playing the kazoo." We started our morning with Middle's introduction to the instrument via one classic of a YouTube video... If you get through the entire thing without laughing, head directly to your nearest ER because you are broken. From that point in the morning, all Middle could talk about was a "zoo" and was totally excited when I told him we were going out today to purchase one. Momma did some research last night and found several options for procuring one, but the best seemed to be at the store Five Below. It was metal instead of plastic, so hopefully it would be a little more toddler resistant. ...

 I said it on Peculiar People Day, I was thinking about dressing crazy everyday... January 27: National Clashing Clothes Day Celebrated on the fourth Thursday every January, today's all about having fun with your outfit and not worrying about the fashion police.  Unlike Peculiar People Day, we didn't have any errands to run, so this was a strictly strut your stuff day inside. Since we weren't going out, I didn't need to worry about bundling the kids up so much. I let Middle choose what he wanted to wear from his dresser. Then we all threw on our slippers and spent our day warm inside. Middle's sporting his favorite Paw Patrol slippers, a fashionable pair of gray Minions socks, blue pinstripe Thomas pajama pants, and a bright orange t-shirt proclaiming "The man, the myth, the legend... Just like dad." He also could be spotted at several times throughout the day with his explorer hat, though never when Momma had her camera ready. Little is modeling a long sl...

 Let's not be carrying on like a porkchop and give it a burl! January 26: Australia Day Much like our Columbus Day, Australia Day commemorates the date on which the first British ships arrived on Australian shores. Also much like Columbus Day, the date has had it's share of controversy due to the impact of the new settlers on the native population. Some have began using the day to celebrate the uniquely Australian culture.  Middle's too young at this point to comprehend or appreciate a good history lesson, so until we get to that point, a fun craft will have to suffice. My original intention was to make a traditional rain stick. However, upon inspection of my craft supplies, I realized we had used the last of my saved paper towel rolls to wrap Christmas lights for storage. The roll in the kitchen still had a fairly decent amount of paper towels on it. So Momma had to create a backup plan. Once Middle and Little were down for their afternoon nap, I drew a quick koala colorin...

 Goodbye, thanks for reading!  Nope, that's not a typo, it's just.... January 25th: National Opposite Day! In 1959, President Eisenhower declared Opposite Day "at the behest of" his granddaughter on  August 17th. It was never repeated on that day and how it came to fall in January is a bit of mystery, but we celebrate on! We decided to celebrate by reversing our meals for the day. Middle had a toddler traditional dinner for breakfast; mac & cheese, hot dogs and corn. Then for dinner, we made pancakes and eggs! I found a great recipe for scratch pancakes here . As usual, Middle was more than eager to help cook. From melting the butter to dumping ingredients and mixing, he helped with every step. We sliced up some fresh bananas, thawed some of our frozen strawberries, and dipped into our chocolate stash to make extra special pancakes for the evening.  We even broke out the whipped cream and sprinkles. Papa and Middle decided to have a little treat while Momma was p...

When I set the goal of celebrating 365 holidays, I knew it was an ambitious undertaking. Trying to keep up with a blog on top of it, that's a whole new ballgame. But I'm going to keep trying, even if we don't get a post every day. So without further ado... January 24th: National Peanut Butter Day So it's also National Beer Can Appreciation Day, but sadly as much as Momma would like to celebrate it, it's just not toddler friendly. So, compromise? Just kidding... Thus far in his life, Middle hasn't been exposed to nuts due to allergy concerns, so I had to get creative with today's celebration. I found Wowbutter instead at our local Kroger. According to reviews, it's the closest to the real thing in texture and taste. Momma had some errands to run and an appointment to make, so we kept things pretty simple today. Middle's never had a PB&J and every kid should get the experience (if possible).  The jury is still out on this one. He ate a few of the p...

 Middle is a dessert looter, a real pie-rate, so this day is right up his alley.... January 23: National Pie Day National Pie Day was started by a nuclear engineer from Boulder, Colorado named Charlie Papazian in the 1970s. He declared that his birthday should also be known as National Pie Day and, luckily for us, no one disagreed. In 1986, the American Pie Council jumped on board and began sponsoring the day. Middle and I decided to make a banana cream pie completely from scratch. We found our recipe here and its most definitely one I'll be saving for future occasions. It was a little more labor intensive than our typical endeavors, so we actually started the pie after we finished up our blondies and finished the next day. For an adult without a toddler being hands on, this recipe won't take that long. First up, we had to make our graham cracker crust. Just like with the blondies, Middle happily helped with melting our butter. Next he dumped our graham cracker crumbs and sug...

There's two types of people in this world; people who like brownies and liars... January 22: National Blonde Brownie Day  We are most definitely a brownie family, or for that matter, any type of sweets. So I knew Middle was going to like this holiday. For those who aren't familiar, a blondie brownie is very similar to a regular brownie but uses brown sugar instead of cocoa. One of the first recipes published for blondies was in 1896 in Fannie Farmer's Boston Cookbook.  We found our recipe on Pinterest, of course. It was pretty simple, so Middle got to help with 90% of the steps. You can find the full recipe we used here One of our first steps was to melt some butter. I cut the stick up into smaller, easier to handle pieces and Middle puts them in a bowl.  Once in our bowl, Middle is able to open the microwave, put the bowl in, close the door and press the button to start it. While the butter was melting, I started giving Middle some of our dry ingredients to dump into our...

 Why don't squirrels have any friends? Because they drive everyone nuts 🥁 Maybe that's why they need today.... January 21: National Squirrel Appreciation Day With more than 250 species of squirrels on 5 continents, squirrels are easily one of the most common animals seen everyday. We've got quite the population that reside around our house (and who are now especially rotund after our extended fruitcake toss feedings 😂) Middle loves to watch them run along the top of our fence and our dog is convinced that he's going to catch one eventually.  We could have easily tossed out some food today and watched the little buggers from the window, but then it wouldn't have been anything special. Luckily, we're not too far from Ohio's unofficial Black Squirrel Town, Glendale. Black squirrels are not native to the area but there's is a sizable population located in this historic village. The story is that a businessman brought a couple pairs back from Michigan with ...