Thursday, October 30, 2008

Temple


Way back from the Clovis Rodeo we stopped by to see the temple. So dark. It's a mini temple and I have only been about 2 times.

Ships ahoy







This is way back from the spring/summer. A fun birthday party for Ry's friend. A beach pirate party-with hidden treasure, digging for sea creatures, painting star fish. A real fun day. Lots of yummy finger foods and cake. The weather could not have been better, which is really lucky for around here!

Rock on




A fun store in San Jose or Santa Clara that is full of guitars and drums and keyboards. You can try them all out--Mike bought Christina an amplifier to go with her guitar. I need earplugs!

It's a bird of a bake sale


Months ago our school had a fundraiser. This just wasn't any fundraiser. It was for the birds. Really it was! An oil tanker near the bay bridge crashed into a pillar and leaked tons of oil. The birds got all oily. So, our school had a bake sale for those oily birds. The money raised went to the foundation that cleans and sends the birds back all nice and feathery. We raised over $400. You go birds!
This was my contribution, oatmeal raisin cookies. I even tried to make them look pretty with label and a little bow.

Pinewood Derby




Pinewood derby-are you ready for some serious competition? And I am just talking about the parents.....Aaron designed this and Mike helped with the sawing and chiseling. The chiseling broke the car, but somehow it all worked out. Each year it is a new learning experience.

Welcome Alexander


He is here-way early! Born about 3 1/2 weeks early. Alexander JunTaro. Jun means pure in Japanese and Taro, not sure what that means, probably "sarcastic"-since that is Taro! j/k
What an adorable baby!!!!! Can't wait to see him in person!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Halloween Party

The primary was in charge of putting on our yearly Ward Halloween Party. The primary does the game booths and trunk or treat, the youth do a spook alley, and the activity committee does the food.

I was so tempted to cancel the trunk or treat. Last year not one person decorated thier car-and I had to beg people to go stand outside and pass out candy. And then people still told me they didn't want to. What?! No fun spirit!!!! So this year we had a cute orange folder go around the ward that said "I will decorate my car and pass out candy for trunk or treat"--it had a detachable piece of paper to take home as a reminder---this worked. I think we had 8-10 cars out there decorated.

The next improvement we made was to let the small children-3 and under go outsided for the first 3-4 minutes. Last year was chaotic, with the older kids running around like wild indians. Even the youth were way to zealous to "get to the candy". So this idea was a plus!

Another improvement was to have a microphone to announce when we had a round of limbo or cupcake walk. So much easier than me trying to yell it out in the gym--that was pathetic!

Here are the games we did this year:
Bounce-those big bouncy ball things with handles for the smaller kids. just two, with semi-enclosed areav
Extreme Webbing-shoot silly string toward the spider in the web.---a big hit!! This should be in a closed off area, with plastic table cloths covering everything to protect the floor, walls, ...
Nightmare Facials-face paint and temp tattoos
Hairy Scary Spider Toss-spider toss game from Oriental Trading
Spin art-one of those spin art toys-the kids added paint and glitter-messy, but another hit! You need to have an area for the art to dry.
Duck Swamp-ducks in a pond.
Limbo and cupcake walk-up on the stage-these games were only at certain times.-every 15 minutes or so.
A table with bags and stickers for the kids to decorate and put their prizes and candy in.

Food was hot dogs, pizza snacks, and veggies and dip, and yummy punch.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

October 16-Happy Anniversay

We've been married for 15 years! Oh my gosh! It doesn't seem like it has been that many years, but the time rolls on.

We attended the temple to celebrate! The spirit was wonderful and I'm so grateful to be able to go since it has been a long time.

We were supposed to go out to eat, but we didn't have enough time for a nice restaurant. We usually go out to dinner to a "fancy" place. But it was great to go to the temple instead. So afterwards we went and got a burger in Berkley. We got out of the temple after 10 pm.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Steve Young Day

Mike and I went to the San Francisco 49er game on Sunday, October 5. This was the day that Steve Young's number was retired. I wore my #8 jersey to show my support!

We rode a bus to the stadium-it was full of old people. I guess old people don't tailgate. I still don't understand why we took the bus...some days I just don't understand my husband. It was nice not to deal with parking-but we almost missed the bus on the return trip!!!!

The weather was warm, so I didn't really need my 49er colors hat. We sat down in the first row pregame to watch the warm ups. Then stayed there til the ticket holders came which was end of 1st quarter. I ate garlic fries and a huge coke. Mike had philly cheese steak. I totally want to try to make those fries now. They sell them for $7! yikes!

Half time was all about Steve Young-everybody got a poster at the end of the game if you stood and fought the crowds to grab one.