#JustYouth Costume Party and Penny Carnival

On October first we had a costume party for Just Youth. We gathered everyone who dressed up to take a group picture and I think we had more people dressed up than last year: 

I made our family costume again this year - we were Lord of the Rings characters - I was Galadriel the elf, August was Frodo the Hobbit, Dez was Gimli the dwarf and Steve was Gandalf the White Wizard. 

Steve preached in his costume with Olya dressed as a piece of pizza:

We had each member of our Just Youth planning team put together a carnival game for teenagers to play (we had nine in total) and they won copious amounts of candy.

I made a candy guess jar as well which is always a fun prize: 

It was a busy week leading up to this Just Youth and it was totally worth all the preparation and planning. We had so many teenagers just over-the-top excited about this evening and it was awesome to see. 

More Visitors

My aunt Elaine was here with her friend Frieda visiting for a few days at the end of September. We had some fun experiences with them - like our car dying (it's fixed), renting a Ukrainian apartment for them to stay in and a trip to the banya. 

We also spent a lot of time drinking coffee, playing games and doing a puzzle. We always love having guests and have fun showing everyone our city!