Lindsey's Visit to Utah 4 - Knights' Festival

Knights' Festival is the final night of our "School Spirit Week."  As usual, I don't like to put pictures of other people's children online.  Sadly, this leaves my blog rather dull...without some of the best of what life here in Utah.  Thankfully, these last two weeks with Lindsey have given me the opportunity to share some great pics with her.  She spruces up the blog with her great smile!

Queen Lindsey - Believe me, she knows what "being queen" means. 

Always great to get caught in a picture with one's mouth wide open. 

Here we are with our costumes.  A friend made mine, for which I am very grateful.  Lindsey's was put together by her very unskilled-in-creating-outfits sister...Yours truly.  Thankfully, she was happy with the poofy skirt & lots of shiny "gold."  

Lindsey's Visit to Utah - 2015 Visa Freestyle Aerial Ski Championships

This is a classic ski town event held @ #DeerValleySkiResort in Park City, Utah.  It's pretty great to watch the best freestyle aerial skiers in the world!  Lindsey LOVED watching these men and ladies jump!  It was as much fun for me to watch her cheering, waving, and smiling.

Lindsey's Visit to Utah 2

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to Lindsey!

Happy Birthday to you!

The morning started out like this, and it only continued all day!

Can you say spoiled!!!  

She certainly makes friends wherever she goes!

(Oh yes, that's Diet Coke!!!)

Lindsey's Visit to Utah 1

Billiards (instead of "pool" so as not to be confused with the swimming kind of "pool")

Oooooh, she loves her pop!  

"Me Chubby? No! No chubby!"

~Sisters~

Chalking it up like a pro!

No Like-y Icky Yucky Sushi...Well, Actually...

A friend and I took a sushi class at Mt. Fuji Sushi in SLC last Saturday - partly for fun, partly b/c she's a chef and likes learning new skills, and partly because Groupon had a great deal on the sushi class.

The"Master Sensei", we called him Joe, was the best part of the class, maybe!  His humor, skill, and experience kept us engaged and in stitches.  He made sushi-making seem easy. 

Katie's California Roll

No doubt further practice would benefit those who wanted to share this skill with others.  For my purposes, it turned out good enough to eat and that's what mattered!  Although, I have not eaten that much white rice...in my life, I don't think. 

Sharon's California Roll
[Holy Crab *not my favorite,
Avocado, Cucumber,
Seaweed, White Rice]

For those in Utah, if you are considering this class or one like it, I highly recommend Joe's class at Mt. Fuji Sushi.

Katie's "Creative" Spicy Tuna Roll
[Tuna, Sesame, LOTS of Sriracha,
Other Spices. White Rice, Seaweed]
(Master Joe was so gracious. Instead of saying we did something wrong, he'd say, "Wow! So creative!")

Getting serious with Master Joe's giant sushi knife.

Katie's Nigiri Roll
[Salmon on Rice]

The most important part - I Like-y Nigiri Sushi

Here we are with our very patient Master Joe

1st-2nd Christmas Project #1

I’m not kidding when I say we’re talking the World’s LEAST Artsy/Crafty Teacher.  So, when I look for a craft to do with the kids, it has to be:

❒  SIMPLE

❒  EASY

❒  NOT HARD

❒  RELATIVELY QUICK

❒  UNDEMANDING

❒  STRAIGHTFORWARD

❒  UNCOMPLICATED

❒  NEARLY EFFORTLESS

❒  MINIMAL

❒  TROUBLE-FREE

Do you see a pattern developing here?

Well this craft fit the bill very nicely! 

The idea and instructions came from

Buggy and Buddy: Creativity & Learning for Kids

We used our fingers instead of cotton balls to brush the chalk away from the pattern. 

And white chalk was perfect for drawing the filament section and the wire for the lights.  

Did I say SIMPLE? 

The kids did a great job and I am pleased with how the projects turned out.  

Hopefully the rest of our Christmas projects are as…well, you saw the list above.  

Let’s just say…SUCCESSFUL.

Here are the finished products.

Some of the Close-Ups

Kids' Christmas Party (2014)

This last Saturday was our Christmas Party for the kids in the church.  Thanks to Laura for letting us use her house!  Can you say #BRAVE?

Here we are waiting on the kiddies to show up.

Before the kids showed up, we hid about 50 red bows all over the park area behind Laura's house.  The goal was to find as many of the bows as possible in the allotted time.

In a few minutes, one of the girls comes running up and says, "Miss Katie, I found a red bow, but K---won't help me get it out of the tree."  

K---says, "I didn't get it because it was a red bow attached to a pair of white underwear!"  

WHAAAT?!?!  What are the chances of finding that in a tree! 

The kids cut out & decorated cookies.  Again, #BRAVE.

(Gotta love the Grinch apron!)

You can bet those cookies were masterpieces!

More like, how much frosting & sprinkles will one cookie hold!  

When we said they could go ahead & eat the cookies, 

one boy looked at a particularly saturated cookie & said, 

"I think I'll save that one to give to one of my lucky parents!"  

Toilet Paper Snowmen

(And the mess to follow...)

The kids also made Christmas cards to put in the goody baskets that our church takes to the firemen on Christmas Caroling Night.  They turned out really cute.  

One of the boys thought long & hard of the perfect card to make...of course it has to be "punny."  

It said, "I think your HOT!"  Laura asked, "Why don't you just say, 'I think your AWESOME'?"  But, he didn't think that would be as good of a pun.  Apparently he did not know what "HOT" means to most people.  I think we'll be purging that one out of the bunch before they land in the goody boxes.  

We were whooped by the end of the night, but you can't really complain when all the kids go home to their own houses.  Let their parents deal with the sugar high...  What a great night!  Good times & Lots of Laughs!