Ward Fall Festival

Saturday, October 24, 2015

This year, for Halloween, we decided to let Karl "pick" what we would be. Since it's a little complicated to ask a one-year-old what he wants to be for Halloween, we brainstormed the things he liked and what he might have fun dressing up as. The main things were animals and sports players. Ryan was partial to dressing up as athletes, so we went with that. Ryan's whole costume he was able to make with things from tennis team in high school. But, for the rest of our costumes we had to do a little shopping, sewing, embroidering, gluing, and painting. But, I think they turned out pretty good.

 For the festival Ryan, along with the teachers and priests, was in charge of the obstacle course. Not all the young men followed through with their parts, so it was basically put together by Ryan and another leader. I was in charge of the face painting booth along with another sister.

 

 

The evening included a dinner with chili and hot dogs. But, with the chili being judged for the cook-off it was a while before we got to eat. So, we ended up doing a bit of candy, cupcake, and popcorn eating before dinner.

 While waiting for dinner we also went around to play a few of the games. Karl really liked this one game with boxes stacked up. You could either throw balls at it to knock it down or a Captain America shield/frisby. He loved trying to throw the balls at the boxes, but after a couple throws he would just confiscate the ball and try and leave. Jared liked the cake-walk and playing Ryan's obstacle course.

Jared waited all night for the trunk-or-treat and when it was finally time he went through the halls really fast. It was hard to keep up with him. Once he went around once there were a couple late comers that were ready to pass out candy. So, Ryan asked him if he wanted to go to a few more, and Jared just said, "No, I have enough." That was a little impressive to us that he'd be happy with what he had. It was a fun night to be able to visit with friends and play around for the night.

Spooky Crafts

October 2015

Last month, the boys and I tried to do a few crafts to get ready for Halloween. Two that the boys really enjoyed were these plate ghosts and pecan spiders.

 For the ghosts I drew some faces on sheets of construction paper and let the boys color them. Then they each picked two faces for their ghosts. Jared chose to draw his own ghost for one of his. It was a pretty cute little ghost.

I then also traced their hands for the ghosts' hands and let them each pick out some tissue paper for the body. I did the stapling and gluing and then they were ready for hanging. I asked Jared what room he wanted the ghosts to haunt and he picked his room.

 I think Karl got the impression that his was a pinata. ;) He kept wanting to wack it down.

 For the pecan spiders, we took a little bucket and went out into the front yard to collect some pecans. Jared was very helpful for that part. After we got about 16 we went inside and I let the boys paint them black. They had a lot of fun with that part.

 Then I painted faces and glued legs on them. The idea was to decorate with them and make spider webs for them to sit on. But the boys were having too much fun playing with them, so they stayed just as toys.

They've been having a great time with them playing different pretend games. :)

Cake Auction

Saturday, September 18, 2015

Last April there was a Spaghetti dinner and cake auction held for the deacons to raise money for a boy scout camp they wanted to go on. This September, once again, they held a dinner and auction to raise money for something similar. The leader asked Ryan again to do the live auction of the desserts. This time there was also a talent show.

 Knowing this dinner was coming up, Ryan signed up for three cakes again, the same ones as we did last time, but kicked up a notch or two. His teachers and priests were also planning on having another planning-meeting-sleepover-campout, so Ryan had the YM make these cakes this year, the same night as the sleepover. I just got all the recipes picked out and ingredients together. It was a lot easier that way for me this time. ;)

 The boys did a great job. Before going to sleep they baked their cakes and then in the morning they frosted and decorated. I was really impressed with how well they did all of their cakes, but the one I was especially impressed with was this boy that had to frost his cake with the caramel frosting. It slowly hardened as he was frosting, so by the end he was basically sculpting the frosting on. They looked really good.

 For the last touch, Ryan drizzled all three with some chocolate and used the last of the strawberry frosting to decorate the banana cake more.

 At the dinner, Ryan was busy all night with running the program. He would auction off a couple desserts and then introduce a talent, and so on. He was very entertaining. I think MCing is a random hidden talent Ryan didn't know he had. :)

Caramel-Chocolate Fudge Cake

 They YM's cakes sold really well. Two of them sold for about $30 and the strawberry cake sold for $53 as the highest bid of the night. It was fun. Ryan and I went home with the "Hungry Man's Dessert" that a sister had brought, for $14. It was really good.

Southern Strawberry Cake

 It was funny. That night and the next day at church, Ryan got a lot of compliments for his job with the auction. He very taken aback and not expecting that. I think everyone had a good time. :)

Banana Sunday Cake