2010 Witches Party

A couple of weeks ago (yes! I am behind in blogging!), I hosted the 2010 Witches Party at my house. It's one of my favorite things during the whole year, but it definitely brings a ton of work! I usually start thinking about it right after the one from the previous year and have found it to be a fun tradition!

It was a great evening! I invited all of my aunts & cousins from my side of the family and ended up with about 20 people there. That was perfect - not too many, but enough to make it worth doing. Each "witch" was told to bring a decorated witches hat for our contest.

A couple of days before, I decided that making 3 kinds of soups (I don't have my mom here now!) was just too much, so I ordered chicken noodle & broccili cheese from Kneader's and called Wendy's about getting some of their chili. The food turned out delicious and easy!

The day of the party, Jon's brother Tom, offered to decorate the outside of our house with cobwebs. I thought that sounded great and he did a fabulous job. He had the kids out helping him with ladders, etc. and I have gotten so many compliments (including people just driving by) on it. Thanks Tom!



The girls arrived and we had dinner (soup in soup bowls, crackers, grapes & veggie platter) along with brewing homemade rootbeer. I put Becky in charge of that this year and it was wonderful!
Then, each witch could make a carmel apple if they wanted to and then vote on the hats.

Emily Adams making a carmel apple

The table of hats

This is Pat and her daughters: Emily, Jill & Jenny

Pat had these cute t-shirts made for her and the girls! Pat was so excited for this party and she seriously made the party worth doing! (Love you Pat!)

This little witch somehow snuck in and got herself a carmel apple.

After we tallied the votes, we announced the winners of the hats. The categories were: scariest, funniest, most likely to scare small children, pretties, sweetest, goody goody hat, most rebellious, the hat you'd most love to be seen wearing, cleverist & coolest. All of the hats were so wonderful! Seriously - there couldn't have been a cuter group of hats.

Here are some of the witches hats (I'm sorry I didn't get a great picture of everyone...I didn't want to embarrass anyone, so I just put the good ones up).

Ebby - she won scariest for her Twilight hat

Pam won funniest - her cute daughter Millie made hers.

Jenny won sweetest - it was covered in candy, but we laughed because it was droopy and looked like she had got caught out in the rain.

Becky won cleverist as hers was made out of Cocoa Krispies

Betty (Becky's mother-in-law)

Katie - who delighted us all by announcing that she was expecting her 2nd baby in May!

Annie

Pat - Pat spent hours crocheting spiders & webs for her hat!

R1: Mary, Ebby, Kara, Pam (& Phoebe) & Katie

R2:Becky, Jenny, Annie, Betty & Barbara

R3: Misty, me, Becky, Heather, Pat, Emily, Jill & Kathie


My favorite (and what I was the most excited about) part of the night was a quilt give-away! I found this quilt just a few days after last years party and knew that I wanted to make it and give it to someone. I worked on it in Worland in June and I loved how it turned out. We did a drawing for it....each hat winner's name went into the pot and then everyone had to put one more name in, but it couldn't be their own name.

I made Becky pick the name out of the mini cauldron and the winner was......

PAT OLSEN!!!

She was so cute and so excited about it and I was thrilled that she got it!

Anyway, it was a wonderful night! I was so happy with how it turned out. I made little bags with candy in it for the party favor (but forgot to take a picture) and am already trying to make plans for next year (and yes! I already have an idea for the quilt!)

Happy Birthday Sistah!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANNETTE!!

You are THE best sister anyone could ask for and I do not know what I would do without you in my life. You are one of my very best friends and I look up to you in every way. Thank you for ALL you do for me and our family. I love you!!

Baby Lucy

Early last Thursday morning, my cousin Meg gave birth to her first little baby, Lucy. We didn't know if she was having a boy or girl and we were excited to hear she had a girl. Emily, Lindsey & I went with Becky to visit baby Lucy and we had to put some pictures up so that my mom could see her too. We think she's pretty cute!

Proud Sister

I couldn't be any more proud of my cute little sister! Last Thursday morning, Hannah, Kate & I went to the West High Homecoming assembly where she was honored by the Athletic Department and inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame. She was (and still is) an amazing basketball player & leader and had a hugely successful high school and college career. This is a very well-deserved award!

Then on Friday night, the kids and I (Jon was in Chicago taking a big oral board exam), went to the West High football game (which was actually against Murray High School). The alumni treated Becky and all of us so well (great seats, free food) and at half time, they had Becky come out on the field. We're sure proud of you Becky!

And as a cute side story, this sweet lady is 104 and is the oldest living alumni of West High. She was crowned honorary homecoming queen and led the school in a cheer at half court during the assembly! As is said at West High "Once a panther, always a panther!"

The Silly Putty Saga

Yesterday morning, I woke up Kate, after letting her sleep in a little longer than usual. Everything seemed normal, until I noticed she had pink stuff in her hair. Lo & behold, she had seen her silly putty as she was going to bed and decided to "keep it safe" by sleeping on it.

Oops! This is what her hair looked like...

I don't know if Silly Putty is harder to get out than gum, but I was so grateful Jon was home yesterday morning. He used ice, cold water, warm water, cooking spray, peanut butter & a comb to work all those pieces of Silly Putty out. It was a long, painful process, but somehow Jon got it to the point where were only need to snip a little bit of it out with scissors. Hopefully we have all learned something from this....SILLY PUTTY IS NOW BANNED FROM THE BOWEN HOUSEHOLD!

Preschool Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to go on a preschool field trip with Kate to the Living Planet Aquarium. It was really fun to spend time with her and see the kid's excitement as they explored each area.

Kate with Jon & Josie (we all live in the same ward and carpool to preschool).

This is the sting ray section. They kept slapping themselves against the side.

Josie, Kate & Lexie

First Grade Accomplishment

This guy was getting anxious to lose a tooth after starting 1st grade. He watched several of his friends lose teeth during Kindergarten and none of his seemed to budge. He was thrilled to find out during a dentist appointment that one of his teeth was a little bit lose. Being the determined guy he is, that tooth was out by the next day (thanks to lots of wiggling and dad putting a string around it and slamming a door). He was a little disappointed that the tooth fairy's rate is still only $1 per tooth instead of $20. But, he also couldn't be more thrilled..

Lindsey's 9th Birthday

I can't believe that Lindsey is already 9!! We had a fun time celebrating her birthday! We spread it out over a few days - beginning with a birthday dinner for her and my brother Peter.
We just did a really simple dinner on a Thursday night and then went to a softball game that Rich, Mike, John & Jon played in.

I love this picture (except for Hannah's weird face). Peter is so great with our kids and is such a great uncle to them!

Then Saturday morning was Lindsey's birthday. She woke up to find a brand new bike! She was excited and then we began our busy, busy day! Jon was already at work. I left the kids with a babysitter to go to the Temple to see my Aunt Becky sealed to her husband Willie and her 4 kids. It was an incredible experience and I was so grateful to be there. While I was gone, a friend took Jack to flag football and another friend took Lindsey to her soccer scrimmage. When I got back at 11:00, we hurried and drove to Tooele for Emily's soccer game. Then we came back to Salt Lake and met at Becky & John's house to go to the circus. All of my siblings & Meg & Jason went and it was great! Jon was able to join us around intermission and following the circus, Jon took the kids and dropped Emily off at a birthday party and Becky & I went and watched the General Relief Society Meeting and then went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was a great, exhausting day!

This girl could hardly stand to wait to open her gifts!

Her Stats are: 54 lbs (15th percentile) and 51 inches (30th percentile)

Then we had a birthday party for Lindsey on Monday. We had rescheduled it twice, so we were happy to finally do it. We did a Backward's Party. We sent thank you notes as the invitation. The girls came and we did everything backwards - decorated & ate cupcakes and icecream, opened gifts, played games, ate breakfast and then played. I was so glad Jon was home (he made the entire meal)!

The party favors

This is Lindsey's friend, Sierra. She definitely was the most into our backward's theme, including wrapping her gift in Christmas paper and using a Valentine's for the card.

decorating cupcakes

Lindsey and some of her cute friends!

We sure love you Lindsey! You are beautiful, talented, kind, loving & such an important part of our family!

Murray Max Soccer

A huge part of our lives (since June), has been Murray Max soccer. Emily & Lindsey had both played rec soccer for several years and after having some friends & coaches encourage them to try out for competitive soccer, we decided to let them try. Both made their teams (Emily made the U11 developmental team & Lindsey made the U9 team). We spend hours each week at practices, training & games, but it has been a really great experience.

We couldn't have asked for 2 better coaches and 2 better groups of girls. I have sat and listened to other coaches yelling at their team and being negative about everything the girls are doing and it has made me so grateful that our coaches are genuinely trying to encourage the girls and make them better soccer players.

Emily has been able to play with several of her friends and also make new friends on her team. Lindsey didn't know anyone on her team, but has become friends with several of them. They are cute, darling, great girls!

We have to travel a little bit to get to games (like to Tooele, American Fork, Kaysville, etc.), but it's been great! We usually bring 3 other little fans with us - Jack, Kate & Hannah - and they have been really great about going to the games.

Great work #27 and #29! We're sure proud of you!

Lindsey & her friend, Olivia being team captains for a game.

Lindsey does great on both offense and defense. She's scored several goals and is really a threat when she's on the defensive end too. We're proud of you Lindsey!

Emily has surprised all of us - including her coach! He has used her as a forward & striker and she's done a great job. She hustles out there and moves the ball well. Most teams that her team plays have played together for a couple of years (and hers is a brand new one), so it's been a learning year, but they've done great! Emily has scored a goal and I had to laugh because afterwards, she had the hugest grin on her face. I've only seen that big of a grin once before - when she walked into the hospital room to see Hannah for the first time. Great job Em!