Cow-Day, Cooking Competitions, Darth Vader and Primary Talks!

Our 4th year at Chick fillet Cow Day was so moooo-ch fun! Putting black construction paper spots on a white trash bag for a free meal somehow equals an indescribable amount of fun for me and my kids! They loved helping me make their costumes, but they both refused to let me put black spots on their face with eyeliner this year, party poopers.
Aunt Tara, uncle Adam and Baby Rhea were in town from Utah this year, so they got to come along and eat Chickfillet for THE FIRST TIME! I know, shocking!
That same day, Robert and his sister Tara went head to head in an iron chef type cooking competition, and Adam and I were their sous chefs. At noon, their Dad texted the ingredients to them both: the main course had to include bacon, the side dish had to include sweet potatoes, and the dessert had to include dates. So they had to come up with a menu WITHOUT recipies, cookbooks or help from the internet, just their own cooking knowledge and skills. This is part of the main course.
Let me start from the beginning though...Robert came up with a fantastic menu: shrimp/bacon tacos, buffalo- blue cheese sliders with bacon and breadless BLT's with sweet potato fries on the side with cinnamon honey ketchup, apple BBQ sauce and avacado ranch. And for dessert, mini pecan-date pies, chocolate covered dates and homemade vanilla ice cream with my made-up date drizzle (which I can now confess had raw eggs in it, but when you're cooking without a recipe you just gotta go for it!)
So, we were sure he had it in the bag, and Robert began feeling even more confident when sous chef Adam cut a portion of his finger off and tension started to mount on Tara's side of the kitchen.
However, the final finish time (7pm) was closing in, and Robert had yet to plate his sliders and tacos, when he noticed that sous chef Kimmie (me) was constructing his breadless BLT's to look less like lettuce wraps and more like 15 toothpicks stuck inside a tiny green wadded up ball of soggy lettuce with basil mayonnaise oozing out of the side. With this one tiny distraction, the tension tables were turned, and I pleasantly reminded Robert that I am very pregnant (looking back I'm not sure what that had to do with anything) and that there were only 5 minutes left in the competition. So Robert hurriedly plated the tacos and sliders, but in haste, he left off the bacon.
Was this the end of the road for the Curry camp? Would team Nelson take the win because of our bacon blunder? It was in the judges hands now...
The food was presented to the judges (their parents) and graded on taste, creativity and presentation for each course. Robert's Dad announced that it was a close race, and that Tara had won by 1 point,
BUT
then in a complete upset, after breaking down the scores and comments for each course, he re-did his math and realized that he had forgotten to carry the one, and that ROBERT REALLY WON by 9 points. (Even though Robert ended up winning, I have to admit that Tara's cinnamon marscapone dip with Adam's homemade sweet potato chips were my favorite!)
Robert and Tara shook hands and called it a day. Then we all went swimming while his poor parents so kindly cleaned up the disaster we made in the kitchen.
And who can pass up pictures of super cute cousins in matching outfits!
On Saturday we all went to the Diamondbacks game, and Stanton got to meet Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers. We found out during the 7th inning stretch that he was upstairs so we ran and ran and ran. We ran so fast and so far that I was sure I was in labor and that my C-section would be displayed on the jumbotron, and we would have to change Baby Winston's name to Luis Gonzales to commemorate his baseball game birth, but by the time we got up there, and I saw Stanton's thrilled expression, the contractions were forgotten and all I could think about was getting his picture with Darth.
The bad news was, Lord Vader had a line of about 20 people and he was inching toward the exit.
So Robert and I did what any loving parents would do. We totally cut everyone in line, and got our son the last picture of the night with Darth Vader. And let me tell you, the middle aged men currently living in their mom's basements, who had been waiting all night in line did NOT like that! We got some glares, but Stanton was in heaven and that's all that mattered! Plus, I redeemed myself a few minutes later by chasing Darth and tugging on his cape for a not so pushy mom whose son was celebrating his birthday and wanted a picture too. See, I'm not so bad after all!
And best of all, Stanton gave his first talk in Primary about following Jesus' example! This is huge because Stanton is really shy. He doesn't usually respond if someone says hello or asks him how he is doing, so giving a talk in front of like 30 or 40 people is a really big deal! I'm the primary secretary so it's my job to assign the talks, and he promised me he would never give one, but after 3 weeks of practicing and a little bribe of a Star Wars dart gun, he did it! He spoke loudly and clearly, and I could tell he was proud of himself, but not as proud as Robert and I were. We videotaped it with 2 different cameras and took pictures. Not too many things can compare to my little Sunbeam giving his first talk!