Three Cedar Farm and Ward Halloween Party

Sunday was the Primary Program. The girls had invited their friends (again) and they all came- Geli and Luna and Mimi's family. I was nervous about playing the piano and I let my nerves get the best of me and I didn't play the greatest. I made mistakes in each song but at least I never had to stop mid song and was able to keep playing. Mandi took over for me for the last two songs which I was extremely grateful for and she did great. However, my brain was still on an anxiety trip and I said the dumbest thing to her afterwards- I basically told her that I noticed her mistakes but I am sure no one else noticed. It was a really rude comment and I don't know why those words came out of my mouth. She honestly did way better than me. Ugh, I felt so bad and later sent her a text saying how amazing she is. Hopefully she doesn't hate me.

Primary after the program was insane. One of the counselors in the presidency came up with the game and I know she put a lot of work into it but it required lots of quiet sitting while others took turns and that just didn't work well. She gave each kid a turn to: ask a bishopric member a question about the talk they gave, choose a costume item to put on the bishopric member and then try to guess how each bishopric member answered a question about themselves. Each kids turn took so long and everyone was so loud and wiggly. It was overstimulating for me and it ended up taking the whole primary time and I was so ready to go when church was over. 

Monday after we finished our homeschool work we went to Three Cedars Farm. Julie had invited us to go and I decided to invite Mimi so that Penny would have a friend too. Well, Julie cancelled on us that morning (sick kids) and I kind of wanted to skip out as well, but since we had invited Mimi we kind of were stuck going. When we arrived, there was instant regret, it was soooo busy. There were lots of buses and the lot was pretty full- we had to park far away. But despite the crowds, the girls had a good time. They played in the corn pit for a little bit before they got too annoyed with little ones throwing corn. Penny and Mimi had fun riding the little trikes around the corn pit- it was pretty comical to watch. After that we went and looked at the farm animals and Ruby played on the little slides. A few of the slides had mud puddles at the bottom so I had to save her from a dirty bum. Next the girls got cider slushees and then climbed on the wooden train- they are all just kids at heart. 

Tuesday Steven's car decided to overheat on his way home from school. I managed to drop Poppy off with some anti-freeze to help him on my way to pick up the girls from school but unfortunately, neither one of them could figure out how to open the hood to put it in. After I picked up the girls, I went back to Poppy and Steven. I let Steven take the Squeak home because he needed to get to work and I stayed with Poppy and the broken car. I could not get the hood to open either- the safety latch on the hood was way hard to trigger. Someone was nice and stopped to help us but Poppy shooed them away since Tyler was coming. Of course, once Tyler got there, he had no problem opening the hood. He showed me how to do it but when I tried, I literally did not have the strength to trigger the latch. Apparently Tyler is stronger than us all. The car still had issues overheating on the way home, even with the anti freeze, but the engine didn't actually feel hot. Tyler thinks it might be a messed up sensor but unfortunatly real or not, the car shuts down when it thinks it's too hot. I really hate that we are always having car issues, it makes getting everyone where they need to go such a challenge. 

Wednesday was a bit of a bummer day. It started out with Ruby begging to take a shower with me and then crying the whole time. That is hard on me because my showers help me wake up and feel ready to face the day. Then I took Lucy to meet a friend at the Farmington library. Lucy's friend had to be dropped off because one of her siblings was sick so the mom couldn't stay. I thought we established she would come pick up Lucy's friend in an hour but apparently we hadn't. She sent me a text over an hour later asking if she should come pick up her daughter.It wasn't that the kids were super bored or anything, they were having a good time and that was a pretty good library, but I hadn't brought Ruby anything for lunch because I thought we would leave earlier. That meant when I got home, I had to rush to feed her lunch and get her down for a nap. 

That that night we had our cake decorating activity for the Activity Day Girls. It was raining and dark and I had to drive the Suburban which is already scary to drive- adding on darkness and rain was not helpful. It was not a fun drive. When I got to the church, I parked in the back of the church because I didn't want to park that big beast by other cars. I decided to try the back doors, even though they are usually locked, because I didn't want to get drenched in the rain. Lucy and Penny decided to run around to the front, because they didn't care. I figured they would let me in if the back doors were locked. The doors were indeed locked. The girls however, did not let me in. I stood banging and yelling at the back door and I swear people made eye contact with me but nobody let me in- not even Penny. I was in charge of the activity and had most of the stuff and I could see everyone waiting in the hall for me to come set things up. I should've just ran around to another door but I was stubborn (and hormonal). Penny eventually realized it was me banging on the door and let me in, and then I yelled at her in front of everyone. It was not a proud moment and the rest of the night I just felt awkward and stupid. I think though, despite my crazy, everyone had a fun time making butterfly cakes.

Thursday, while the girls were in school, I went on another walk with Kara. We talked about her mission in Thailand and how it changed her. It was a good conversation and I am enjoying our walks together. What's funny though, is we hardly converse when we see each other at church. It's like we're secret friends, lol.

It's been getting cold, the weather is changing, so I moved some of Ruby's things into my parents garage Friday night to protect them from the weather that is coming. I ended up making a "road" in my parent's garage for Ruby to drive her cars on but, honestly, Lucy had more fun turning it into a town and driving on it, than Ruby did.

Saturday morning the girls, my parents and I went to the mall. My parents went for the food (especially the pretzels and cinnabons). The girls were happy to tag along so they could also eat some yummy food and do some window shopping. There was a Hello Kitty Truck outside the mall that brought in a lot of interesting characters while we were there. I also rode the escalator up and down at least 20 times with Ruby while my parents and Lucy ate lunch. And we went to Toys R Us because apparently it is back and in the mall but it is not anywhere close to being the Toys R Us of my youth. It was just like any other toy store in the mall. And it had a huge section of calendars which didn't seem to fit the brand.

Saturday evening we had our Ward Trunk or Treat Party. Some before pics...

Grace came to the party with her whole family because she had been invited to judge the chili. It was so nice to have her at a church event, I miss having her to hang with at church. She sat at my table but was gone for quite a bit in the beginning to judge. Geli and Luna's whole family came to the party as well and sat with us. Cherish and Roberto were up a lot, wandering the halls with Izzy. I was up a lot wandering the halls with Ruby. Then it was time to eat and I rudely cut in front of my mom and Cherish so I didn't have to wait in line- totally worth it. Ruby ended up eating two cookies so that was pretty much her dinner. So healthy. She sat with Grace for awhile- I love that she feels comfortable with Grace but I hope we didn't disease her. Ruby has had a runny nose the last couple of days and has not been sleeping well. It's been rough. 

On a high note- we won the best family costume for the second year in a row. I was a butterfuly, Ruby was a ladybug, Penny was a bumble bee and Ben was a bug catcher. I guess they didn't care that our whole family wasn't dressed up in theme- Tyler had no costume, Steven was working and Lucy wanted to be a Minion. Tyler won an award for the most interesting/unique chili. He doesn't think anyone liked it because it tasted so different but I think he should be happy he won an award.

After dinner it was time for the trunk or treat. I set up a plank that the kids had to walk before they got their treasure (a ring pop). It was an easy set up and I think it ended up being fun for the kids. It was cold that night but not too bad. I think all in all it was a good time for everyone.