Other Random Excitement

It was another busy, packed weekend for the Bowles family. I'm not sure we know how to have any other kind! It was mostly fun though. On Friday Weston didn't have school, so we met up with my cousin Carly and her cute kids for a picnic at Liberty Park. It was chilly, but the sun was out, and we had a great time visiting while the kids played. I didn't take many pictures because I was holding Talia most of the time, but Weston asked me to take this picture and told me to put it on the blog and say, "Weston found this rock with words on it at Liberty Park." He's so silly.
Later Friday afternoon Weston had karate testing. He was very excited to get a new belt. I explained that he had to focus and do his absolute best so that he would earn the next belt. There were lots of kids testing and it was interesting to watch. I thought Weston was doing well, but I didn't really know what they were looking for. At the end of testing Master Troy told me that he passed all the skills for white belt (the one he was testing out of) AND for yellow belt (the next belt up). So instead of moving him to yellow until the next test in a couple of months, he gets to skip yellow and go straight to orange. Weston overheard this and was SUPER excited! I am so proud of my little martial artist. Go Weston!

Friday night we got a pizza and watched the TCU v. BYU game at home. It was kind of a bummer. BYU didn't play great and TCU is a good team. We lost. It wasn't a very relaxing evening either because I had to put together Young Women in Excellence invitations and fold laundry before before bed.

Saturday morning we carved pumpkins and then Ian had to go to work. Lame! I hate it when he has to work on the weekends. While he was gone we ran to the store to get donuts for the ward activity, I made chili, and gathered up all the stuff I needed for the games at the ward activity. Ian got home just in time for me to pack up the car and go to the church to set up.

The chili cook off was a success. There were plenty of yummy chili's and cornbread to try. I am boring, of course, and only ate my own and one other. My chili won the award for the "fastest emptying pot." Woohoo!

Ian brought the kids in their costumes, but we didn't get any good pics because it was kind of a hectic night. I was rather stressed out about doing the games for the activity. It was supposed to be the youth in charge, but the YM presidency recently changed and so it was pretty much all me. Luckily I had several youth show up early to help me set up and we had put together some of the stuff at mutual earlier in the week. The youth were really great about running the games so all I had to do was supervise. The kids all had a great time and got lots of prizes and candy.

I had a table set up for the kids to color a paper bag for their treats. There was a pumpkin toss (bean bag toss), witch hat ring toss, and The Spooky Swamp fishing pond. There was supposed to be donuts on a string too, but it just didn't end up happening. I put the donuts out on the food table and they disappeared, so it worked out. The highlight was the face painting. We have a sister in our ward who does professional face painting. Fortunately for us she didn't have a job Saturday night so she came and volunteered at the ward party. Doesn't Weston's face look awesome?
Davin got some stripes on his face and was very happy with them. This isn't the best picture, but Davin wore the Mike Wozowski costume and our friend's daughter was Boo. They looked so cute!
Talia was dressed up too, but we didn't get a picture of her. I promise I will take some good ones of her as a pumpkin tomorrow! Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we got home and got everyone to bed.

Today Ian and I both had to teach. Talia and Davin both had runny noses. It was a conundrum. Those of you in normal wards are probably thinking, "why didn't you just call one of your counselors to fill in for you?" There is no one to call in our ward. I'm not lying. No one. Luckily my lesson was more conducive to having both kids with me since we were watching a couple Conference talks, but it was still annoying. The stress and exhaustion of having so much responsibility on our little family was definitely felt this weekend. We certainly aren't moving just to get out of our ward, but it is undeniably a perk.

Luckily most of our Sunday afternoon was relaxing (after Ian got home from doing tithing and after I got home from my presidency meeting). We vegged and watched "Tangled" and "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin." I was pretty proud of myself for actually cooking a decent meal and getting the house tidied up for the start of our week. Can't wait for Halloween tomorrow!