A Day to Make You Green With Envy About

 A three day weekend!  Woo hoo!  I'm never quite sure how to feel about three day weekends - especially when the kiddos have them and Grant doesn't.  But when I talked to my Mom late last week and she said that she and my Dad would come up and hang out for the day, it was something to look forward to for sure.  Plus, MOMG and Nita both contacted us bright and early this morning.

Noah was a little baffled.  There were two clues - one addressed specifically to hit

And a box of green jello...

He wasn't amused that the back of his envelope said "Ha ha ha ha" and he guessed it must be from Nita

We read the first letter, which said...

Dear Detectives,

Earlier today MOMG Intelligence was able to tap a phone line during a conversation between Nita and one of her BAD henchman.  Nita was overheard discussing the following:

“I’m in a state that is known for having “the greatest snow on earth” – it even says so on their license plates!  It also hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002.  During those Games the women’s two-person bobsled event made its Olympic debut.  The very first gold medal was won by the United States team of Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers.  Since it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day you may be interested to know Flowers was the first black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal at the Winter Games.  Maybe I’ll steal it from her.”

Further, a local citizen in Provo spotted Nita carrying around some scraps of paper.  The citizen tried to capture Nita on their own, causing her to flee.  She did drop the scraps of paper, though, and the citizen was able to gather them and turn them over to MOMG. 

We’re not sure, but it appears that the pieces of paper can be put back together to create some type of logo – perhaps it has something to do what we heard Nita talking about earlier today.  We are entrusting the scraps to your care and are hoping that you will be able to make some sense of them.  Good luck, Detectives!

MOMG Intelligence

We set aside the pieces and decided to open Noah's clue

It said:

Dearest Detective NJ,

Word made it to me in North Carolina last week that you were a little bummed out that there was a clue just for Mikayla.  Well don’t worry your smart first grade little self, I haven’t forgotten about you!  And I know that you’re home from school today and might enjoy whipping up something fun in the kitchen for dessert tonight.  And it just so happens that I’ve got the perfect recipe for you to make.  After escaping your clutches in North Carolina I’ve been hiding out in state that loves to wiggle, jiggle and eat one special food – jello!  Green jello in fact.  So why don’t you make this “Lime Divine” and think of me being one step ahead of you with every bite.  HA HA HA!

Nita

So we tried out the enclosed recipe... 

In between set times for the jello, the dynamic duo started working on assembling their other clue

This is what they came up with

Hmmm, wonder which Olympics this is from....

Back to the jello

A break for me to show off these awesome Small Batch Perfect Biscuits

And then Mom and Dad arrived!

And brought treats!  Candy bars with their names on it :)  And salami!  And cherry hearts!  (They're not spoiled are anything are they?)

Papa and Mikayla tackled Mouse Trap

While Mom and I (with assists from everyone else) did a puzzle.

I'm so glad Mom and Dad came up to hang out.  The kids (and me too!) had a blast.  I'm not sure I may ever get them down off the walls, but hey, it was a good day!

Our Jello turned out (kind of.  Couple of Kristi notes - I had a heck of a time getting the cream cheese to completely incorporate into the jello and we had a lot of little cream cheese pieces.  Still tasted good, but looked weird.  Also, I poured the 2nd layer on too fast and it ended up collapsing our base,  Oops.  So we didn't have the pretty layers.  But if you want to try to make Lime Divine, here's the recipe Nita sent: http://sweetstateofmine.blogspot.com/2012/05/utah-green-jell-o-lime-divine.html)

For dinner I made Crock Pot Sloppy Joes (love love love crock pot Monday's) and Grits Fries.  Amber, Grant and the kids said this was a great 'from scratch' sloppy joe.  Personally, I thought the sauce was a little greasy, even drained some of it off before I served it.  But taste wise, we'll hold onto the recipe.  And everyone loved this new way for grits, another keeper.

Out and about for a bit tomorrow, and who knows if we'll be hearing from Nita and MOMG (probably a pretty safe bet...) and what else may be going down.  So until then...