Our Happy Halloween

On Friday the 25th we had our ward Halloween party, and, much to my relief, it was a huge success!  I worried about it because the bishop asked us to simplify the activity by not having dinner and having the party outside.  It was outside last year and it was so dark that our "chili cookout" became a "mystery chili cookout" because no one could see well enough to know what they were getting.  Not only that, but no one could see who else was there, so most people didn't talk to very many people and then left early.  I was determined to solve the problem of the darkness, and worried a lot about making it work.  Anyway, looooong story short, the day before the party the bishop gave us the green light to have the party inside.  While it was relief, I was basically starting from square one because the party I had envisioned was no longer applicable.  But I had some great ladies to help me out, and it was a great success!

We had donuts and root beer and lots of great activities.  For the kids we had carnival games (ring toss, bean bag toss, cake walk, etc.), face painting, and a craft table.  And for the adults we had minute-to-win-it games (you have a minute to complete a silly task, like putting an oreo on your forehead and contorting your face until you can get it into your mouth).  We had a huge turn-out; I don't think you could have fit more people into the gym!  At the end we had a costume contest (this was really great because it got everyone to dress up...it's so much more fun when everyone dresses up) and then we ended with the trunk-or-treat in the parking lot.

 

We didn't win any prizes for our costumes, but that's ok.  We thought we looked great!  Unfortunately, it was way past Henry's bedtime, so he wouldn't tolerate having the costume's headpiece on.  He made such a darling cow!  Luckily, I took a picture beforehand when he wasn't so tired.  (Please ignore my messy apartment in the background.)

I'm much more relaxed now that the party is over.  I'm very gratified that everyone seemed to have such a good time, but I'm mostly grateful for how well I'm sleeping now that I don't have to stress about it anymore! 

And I had to include this picture of Henry's pure joy in seeing some ducks up close (he normally only gets to see them from his stroller).

Sleep and Search

We've been rather busy for the past month.  The most important announcement is that we have successfully sleep-trained Henry!  He is sleeping in his own bed for approximately 12 hours every night!  We put him down at 6:30 or 7:00 PM (because he is actually tired by then, not because we want to torture him) and he doesn't get up til after 6:00 AM.  Finally!  We have our bed to ourselves and we even have a little time in the evening to do what we want...as long as it's something quiet.  Typically we either watch Doctor Who (we are completely hooked on this show!) or Kevin studies while I do some family history.

About a month or two ago I had a powerful spiritual impression to start doing family history.  So I got a little help from our ward family history consultant, and I've had some exciting success!  Right now I'm focusing on Grandpa Shaha's line, and I'm checking what we already have to find anyone who's missing or correct anything.  So far I've found about six people.  I even found in Family Tree on the church website a connection with another family line; they're our ancestors, but the work has already been done.  I had to correct a few things (they had Shaka instead of Shaha), but it's nice to know that our ancestors have been served.  Hopefully we can have a family temple day sometime so we can get the work done for these folks!  It's incredible how close I feel to them while I research to learn about their lives.

The relief society president asked me to be in charge of this year's ward Halloween party.  I have a small group of ladies to help me out, and I'm pretty excited about the plans we've made so far.  I manage to appear calm and collected, but the awful pain in my back, daily headaches, and the constant craving for chocolate and Dr. Pepper show me that I'm actually pretty darn stressed about the whole thing.  It doesn't help that we just found out that they will be forming two new wards in our stake, and this activity is the week before the ward boundary change.  Hopefully it can be a good memory for everyone before they start going to church with other people.