Courtney's Fish

Courtney's poor beta fish is OLD!  The average life span (according to Google) of a beta fish is 2-3 years. Courtney's fish is about 4 1/2 years old.  He had lived a long life.  The problem was that he was holding on to life with everything he had.  It was so painful to watch because he would go into his castle to sleep and it would seem like he was dead.  So we would have to poke him to see if he was still alive.  This would really tick him off and so he would swim viciously around the bowl for a while until he calmed down and went back to floating head down or on his side of something.

Courtney had a hard time sleeping one night because she was sure he was going to die.  She made me promise to make sure he was still alive before waking her up the next morning.  When I finally promised, she was able to fall asleep.

So that's how the week of Halloween went.  I had to go in every hour and poke the fish to make sure he was still living.  By Friday it was pretty evident that he was on the downward slide of his life.  Courtney and I had a talk after school and decided that it was better to put him out of his misery than watch him float head down in the bowl.  So she said goodbye and I flushed him.

He was a good fish and was fun to interact with.  He led a good life and is now in the great fishbowl in the sky.

So Saturday we went and bought her another $4 beta fish.  He is a beautiful pink/purple fish that is very happy.  Courtney wasn't sure what to name him but she eventually figured it out.  Did you know that beta fish blow bubbles when they are happy?  So if the top of the fish bowl has a bunch of bubbles then you know the fish is happy.  This fish has blown A LOT of bubbles so his name is now Bubbles (not very manly but what do you expect?).

So that is the saga of the fish!

Halloween

The kids were able to wear their costumes to school on Halloween since it was Friday.  Ethan went as....I don't know what he was but he wore his green morph suit.

Courtney was a peacock and extremely unhappy to have her photo taken before school, in case you couldn't tell.

 This was Ethan's full costume but he couldn't wear a mask to school.

As you can tell, Courtney was in a much better mood when it came time to do the Halloween parade at the school.  One of her friends was also a peacock so they were a couple of peacocks walking around together.  After the parade all the kids went outside and they had some group line dancing things before the class parties.

Our neighborhood has traditionally had a Halloween party on Halloween night.  It was great with bounce houses, potluck and tons of fun taking to neighbors and friends.  The last couple of years the party was held on Monday which was really hard to go to because we still have work, soccer, etc.  So we didn't go to the neighborhood party Monday night this year.  Instead, a group of us got together and had a potluck on Halloween evening before the kids went trick-or-treating.  It was a lot of fun and was great to just sit and talk to everyone.  Plus, it was so much easier for the kids to meet up with their friends to make plans to trick-or-treat.

Here is sophisticated Ethan at the party. 

I didn't get pictures of Courtney because she was running all over the place.

When the party began to wind down, Courtney went out with her friends and Ethan (eventually) went out with his friends.  Ethan ended up at a neighbor's house playing games where he lost most of his candy.  Courtney came home with her haul and began sorting it all out for the Halloween Fairy to take.  (They keep 10 pieces and the rest magically turns into a toy the day...or two...after Halloween.)

Here is Courtney with her candy haul.  I couldn't believe how much chocolate she got this year and a lot of it was full sized!!  Too bad she only was able to keep 10 pieces.

 Bryan was waiting to see what he could snatch.

Bryan and I watched a movie while we waited for Ethan to come home.

Just a side note:  The Halloween Fairy finally came to our house, a couple days late.  Ethan got a pack of 100 football cards and Courtney got a frisbee painting set.  It was pretty fun!

As a second side note:  This makes me wonder what the Halloween Fairy did with all the candy because the assistant Halloween Fairy didn't get any....except what was snitched on Halloween night.  ;)  Maybe it's for the best.  There was a lot of chocolate.

Pumpkins

It has been a crazy week and we ran out of time to carve pumpkins.  The night before Halloween we decided it was finally time.  So we got out the stuff and Ethan went to town on his pumpkin.  When he was little, he hated putting his hand in the pumpkin to clean out the guts.  This year, he was excited to put his hand in and pull everything out.  He did a good job on his pumpkin.

 Courtney had her dance party so she didn't get to do her pumpkin until later but it worked out great too.  I didn't get pictures but she was happy with the end results.

Pizazz Halloween Party

October 30, 2014

Courtney had her friends decided they wanted to be peacocks for Halloween.  So we had to run across town to get her a costume.  I have to admit, it was a pretty costume.  She was so excited and happy that she had it in time for her Pizazz Halloween party the day before Halloween.

Here she is all dressed up and ready to go to dance.

Their party was really just a group practice where they could put the whole dance together but she still had a great time.

Book of Mormon Marathon

October 23-25, 2014

The Young Men and Young Women in our Ward had a combined activity where they read the Book of Mormon in 2 days!  It was crazy!!

They all met at the Church on Friday at 4 p.m. and began reading.  Dinner was provided for them (pizza!) and they read and read and read....actually, they listened, and listened and listened.  They took breaks to run around and go to the bathroom each hour but then they went back in the room and read.  I sent Ethan with his pillow, some snacks and some water.  He wasn't too excited about it but he went.

They went on Friday until about 11:45 p.m.  Ethan was EXHAUSTED!!  He just came home and went straight to bed.

Saturday morning they were back at the Church at 7 a.m.  This time Ethan took a set of scriptures instead of reading from his iPod.  It was a lot easier to follow along that way, he said.  The Bishopric provided breakfast.  Lunch was brought in (sandwiches) by the young men's leaders.  I went up after lunch to check on them.  Actually, they had sandwiches left over so they asked me to deliver them to people in the Ward who could use them.  I didn't get to see Ethan though.  But they were plugging along and the leaders were optimistic they would be able to finish on time.

Saturday dinner was dutch oven with desserts made by women in the Ward.  Courtney and I took some treats up and checked on Ethan.  He was reading away.

On one of their breaks they had the youth clean the building (the Ward that was supposed to do it never showed up) to wake them up and then they finished reading.  They finished the entire Book of Mormon at about 10:45 p.m. on Saturday.  THEY DID IT!!  Ethan was EXHAUSTED!!

I asked Ethan how the activity was and he said, "I don't ever need to do that again."  He also commented the next morning that he was dreaming in "scripture language."  Pretty funny!  But now he recognizes things they read when we are reading as a family.  I think it was a great activity.  I think the leaders are planning to do it every 4 years so all the youth can have an opportunity to participate.

I am happy for them and think it's a great opportunity.  We have some great leaders in our Ward.