Fundraising

The church has changed what used to be EFY (Especially For Youth) to a new program called FSY (For the Strength of Youth).  As far as I can tell, it's roughly the same, but much cheaper and they're really trying to get ALL the youth to be able to participate (whereas EFY was expensive enough and often involved traveling to a different state, so really only people who were fairly well off could have afforded it).  Obviously, I am ALL FOR these changes!  And what's even more exciting, our kids will get to attend FSY at William & Mary, so that's just super cool.  

The cost is only $75 per kid, which is insanely cheap for a week, but our ward still decided that it would cover expenses and have the kids do fundraising to pay for it.  If that means more kids can participate AND my kids will have a greater sense of ownership over their time there (or a sense that they had to work to earn it), then that's also great with me.  So all the youth have been working at various people's homes doing yard work to earn money.  Their first day doing this was the day that Bentley broke his arm, so Craig ended up having to bring Camille with him, since we were still at the hospital.  They had Ryder helping using a wood chopper, so I'm very thankful we didn't end up with TWO trips to the ER that day!

Look at that hard-working girl!

(Kendra and Colton had activities at the church, and we were very fortunate that the Herrings were willing to take them and bring them home for us!)

Their next project involved clearing away trees and brush that some people had had cut down and burned, clearing more pasture for their horses.  It was dirty, hard work and I was glad I didn't have to help out!  Craig made Bentley come along thinking he could blow leaves or something, but that ended up not being the case.  But hopefully he gets points for showing up?  And the people bought them all pizza when they were done, so that was nice!

And speaking of making money, I went to work that night at another wedding!  (First I've done in several months-- there aren't many weddings in the winter, and I was usually too busy with our own family stuff to make it to even those few!)  This was the WINDIEST wedding I've ever seen, but luckily enough, the bride's dress moved very beautifully in the wind, so while everyone was very cold, at least the bride looked lovely!  I only bothered taking pictures of this one thing I helped set up which turned out even cuter than I would have guessed:

Seriously, how cute is this???

Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat any.  But I did get a slice of wedding cake (with passionfruit curd-- so delicious!), so I can't complain too much.  And I was doubly delighted when I got paid and realized Adam had given me a raise!  Happy day!

While we were waiting for our dinner, the photo booth guy said we could come and take pictures, since the guests weren't there yet, so we did!  There's Brittany, me and Adam having a blast!

And here's one more day of fundraising, just so you can see that Kendra is also working hard!

Ironically, this is SO MUCH more yard work than we ever make our kids do around our home!