It Pays to Be a Geek!

In last Saturday night's Priesthood Session of our Church's General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf stated in his talk, "Every family has moments of awkwardness like . . . when your dad arranges a family portrait with everyone dressed like characters in his favorite movie and you get the Chewbacca costume."

In our case, it was me (Mom) who made for the awkward moment when I saw a sign at our Del Rio Walmart store advertising a Star Wars costume contest for children and adults tonight at 8:00 PM. It was part of their promotional activities surrounding the midnight release of the Star Wars The Force Awakens DVD.

My thought process: "We have put lots of time and effort into our Star Wars costumes over the years. Let's dress up the children and see if we might have a chance of winning a prize, and that would be so cool!" We had no idea what the prizes would be.

At 7:59, we arrived at Walmart, with Dallin dressed as a Jawa (minus the blaster that I gave away prior to our move--dang it!), Erin dressed as a Jedi padawan with a light saber (but she forgot her cloak--oops!), and Ian in his Boba Fett t-shirt and carrying his Boba Fett helmet (because he had completely grown out of his costume from this photo shoot). Poor Ian really didn't want to take the helmet, but I persuaded him to (refer to above awkward reference).

We attracted some strange looks from customers as we walked through the parking lot and store all the way to the back. There we found the displays set up, cupcakes and punch, and a plethora of Star Wars merchandise. We were in the right place for the costume contest. So far, there was only one other boy dressed as Darth Vader.

Again at my insistence, we took photos:

Yes, Ian, you too!

And again over here by BB-8:

Wouldn't that Falcon be awesome to have hanging in your bedroom?

This was the screen where we would be watching the movie following the contest.

Employees passed out some glow necklaces and trading discs to all the kids.

After 30 minutes, there were still only 4 costume contestants, so they did the judging.

"Stand here so we can take your picture."

A couple of the employees deliberated a bit, and then they announced the winners.

First place went to DALLIN!!!

He won this Legendary Yoda Robotic Toy!!!

He really is excited--he just refuses to smile sometimes.

Erin received the 2nd place prize of a $30 gift card!!!

Darth Vader got 3rd place prize of a $25 gift card!!!

And Ian got 4th place prize of a $20 gift card!!!

(No adults had dressed up, so they didn't hold the adult contest.)

We watched about 50 minutes of the movie before returning home.

How could we possibly leave the movie early? 

Well, rumor is that someone might be receiving it next week for a birthday present! 

Oh, and if you happen to be in Del Rio next month, 

our May the Fourth party is going to be AWESOME!

Happy Halloween!

This year, we surprisingly had NO Star Wars related costumes. What's up with that???

Megan was a Snow Leopard.

She did her own face painting, naturally.

Ian was Artemis Fowl, 

a character from one of his favorite book series.

 

Erin was a Great Horned Owl again.

She still LOVES owls.

Dallin was Flash,

not because he necessarily likes Flash a lot,

but because Flash wears a red costume,

and Dallin is currently obsessed with the color red.

We had a fun day, starting out with a group activity with our homeschool co-op. Sadly, I forgot the camera, but you can try to imagine a witch making witch's brew, children decorating Halloween sugar cookies and drinking the brew, eating the cookies, and eating some eyeballs.

Oh, we do have a photo of the "Edible Eyeballs" we made. We took these to co-op and sent a bunch with Kevin to share with his Anatomy students. (Note to Kevin: please insert the photo of your students with the eyeballs when you get a chance.) We altered the recipe and made them with rice krispies instead of doughnut holes (Megan's preferred choice) so they turned out a bit lumpier. We also used almond bark instead of the Ghiradelli white chocolate because AWC doesn't pay its employees enough to afford the amount of white chocolate it would have taken to make enough eyeballs for all the Anatomy students. They still tasted good and everyone really enjoyed them. Well...except for Dallin who spit out the gummy saver part and said he didn't like it--he likes gummy bears just fine--go figure!

 

The morning was so exhausting that half the family took a nap.

Dallin wore his costume ALL day long.

 

Group photo before going out to collect candy from the neighbors:

While we were trick-or-treating on our street, we left a bucket with candy on our porch to share with other trick-or-treaters using the honor system (we used to do this in Logan). When we returned, someone had STOLEN THE BUCKET AND ALL THE CANDY!!! So, next year if you come trick-or-treating to our place, you'll have to see us in person if you want to get any candy from us. (Side note: parents drive children from other areas of town to go trick-or-treating in the nicer neighborhoods, so we are guessing that random other kids were the thieves rather than our local neighborhood children.)

And, last, but not least, here are my renowned Halloween Scorpion Cupcakes!

They were mighty tasty!

 

Only privileged people get to have these, since most people don't appreciate the effort that goes into making them. Jim from the power line crew had made a special request. Look how excited he is to have some!