Scary Stuff

Sarah texted me asking if I wanted to be a makeup model for her theater class!  She figured Halloween was the perfect time to teach her students how to do wound makeup.  I was so glad I had time, because this was super fun.  Sarah started teaching part-time at Craig's school this year, so when I arrived, he got to escort me to her classroom and introduce me to the students.  You could see the kids' heads nearly explode as they tried to contemplate their principal having a life outside the school.  My two favorite moments of the class were 1) after Sarah showed her class a picture of the black eye she'd given Craig the day before and began applying makeup to me, one of the boys shouted, "Wait-- that was makeup???" which begs the question: did he really think she had punched her boss in the eye???  And was now showing off pictures of it??????  Middle schoolers are hilarious.

And then 2) After Sarah had finished applying my bruise, she told the students to come closer so they could see it better and one of the girls commented, "Even with the black eye, she's still pretty!"  That girl is now my favorite person.  Thank you, random middle schooler, for the lovely compliment!

Isn't that horrifyingly realistic???  I think mine turned out better than Craig's.  Also...  is it weird that I sort of think I look kind of awesome with a black eye?  A good shrink would have a heyday with that statement...  

She also did this creepy wound on my arm.  Gross!

Then we got lunch with Adam at Brazos Tacos!  I left the black eye on just to show him, and quickly cleaned it off before we went inside so Adam wouldn't be getting the stinkeye from the entire wait staff!  😂

The next day was our ward Trunk or Treat, which everyone was excited about!

Colton was Luigi

I love him sitting here looking so serious with that mustache!  😂😂😂

Ryder was a scientist who accidentally unleashed Covid on the world turned himself into a zombie

The young women were in charge of face painting, and I LOVE doing this, so I was totally excited to get to work after dinner.  And then the YW actually showed up and wanted to do the face painting and they did a totally fantastic job and what is wrong with me that I was just a tiny bit disappointed not to get to do any of it.  This is not something I can actually complain about.  I know that.  Adam had a bunch of flashy glow stick things that you can wave around left over from a wedding, so I passed those out instead and they were a big hit!  Maybe I can paint faces next year...

Look at these awesome teenagers ready to help the younger kids look even cuter

Colton lost his mustache (well, it stopped sticking and rather than letting us try and fix it, he just threw it away, the punk), so the girls gave him and his buddy Gideon new, matching 'staches!

We carved our pumpkins on Monday!

Notice Kendra photobombing in the back!

These were both fun until Kendra had the idea to put them together and then suddenly...

It was an owl!!!  That would have been super impressive if we'd planned it, but it was just a fun accident!

And also on Monday, and in a very different, but still scary note, Bentley turned in his application to BYU!  Fingers crossed for Bentley!!!!  (He also applied to UVA, GMU, and JMU.  In case you were curious.  But we're really hoping for BYU!)

The whole thing was actually a huge pain.  Most colleges just let you apply through the Common App, so you can fill out all the forms once and apply to lots of colleges.  But BYU doesn't use that, so you have to do it all through their website.  And then they required you to write seven essays.  SEVEN.  Seven essays!!!  That is so many!!!!  They were all very short, but that almost made it harder because you had to be really concise!  Anyway, we've spent the last several weeks going over them all together and trying to make them awesome.  It's been a pain.  Bentley better get in after all that!  And then!  As if that wasn't enough, their website was glitchy for the ecclesiastical endorsement!  With Craig being bishop, that should have been the easiest part!  But every time Bentley clicked on it, it would tell him to try again in 15 minutes!  For two weeks!  Anyway, after a couple phone calls, their IT services finally got it fixed.  Phew.  It's all finally done and turned in.  Now we just wait to hear back in January or something...

And then Tuesday was Halloween finally!  The temperature dropped 30 degrees, going straight from still-summer to oh-this-is-winter-now-isn't-it.  Gotta love the extreme temperature shifts of the east coast!  But Camille's costume was very warm, so it was probably for the best...

Colton had planned his costume with his buddy Walker

Kendra is a lady pirate here, and Adele is pretending to be her parrot.  (A very fat parrot, I guess.)

I just couldn't decide which picture I liked better

And here's the whole gang!  Bentley, in the back, is an axolotl.  In case you were curious.  Yes, they're real!

My kids were scattered all over the place for Halloween.  Bentley went to a party.  Kendra went to our neighbor's house to watch a movie.  Ryder met up with a bunch of friends and trick-or-treated with them.  Colton and Walker went off on their own, and Craig took Camille with a few of her friends.  And I sat in the driveway by our fire pit, reading The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch (which turned out to be both an excellent book and also a perfect read for Halloween night!) while I passed out candy to trick-or-treaters.  Everyone had a delightful evening!  Later on, once the little kids were in bed but we were still waiting up for the big kids to come home, Adam came over and hung out with us, too, which was fun.

And one last thing for my "scary" post-- I forgot to post about Bentley and Kendra going to homecoming!  I was working, but Craig got these pictures before the kids left:

Kendra and her friend Kayla

Kendra was kind enough to share a photo from the actual dance:

I don't know who these people with her are, but they look like they're having fun!

And Bentley also shared these pictures with me:

We need to find some shorter guys for Bentley to hang out with...

It's weird to me that I don't even know who most of these kids are.  But I'm glad Bentley has so many friends and they seem like a good group!

Love that face!

But let's end on a good picture!

It's so strange how my big kids know all these people and do all these things that I'm not really a part of.  I know that's a good thing and it's healthy and natural and I'm so proud of who my kids are growing up to be.  But that doesn't make it any less bizarre.