Friday afternoon, I took Nicholas, Sarah and Sophie (for the first time) to the Faith in God activity at church. Nicholas really needed just a couple more goals to complete his Faith in God booklet before turning twelve, so even though it was not very convenient for both leaders (me and T.) I went ahead and scheduled it for a week before his birthday. Normally it is held on Saturday mornings, but the next day both of us were running a half-marathon and didn’t think we needed the added stress of corralling several 8-11 year olds all morning. 🙂
Anyway, the afternoon Sophie went with me to the grocery store to buy all the supplies we would need. We were preparing several salads to serve at the monthly ward luncheon held after church. The kids in my Primary class had chosen what salads they would like to make, and now we just needed to assemble them. Those kids did such a fantastic job. I was seriously impressed. I only had to tell them what to do once, and then they were off. As soon as they were finished with that job, they would come ask me what else they needed to do. So even though I ended up being there alone with 8 kids for most of the time, it still went totally smooth. They were chopping tomatoes, slicing cheese, dicing peppers, and cutting fruit like pros.
I had brought a couple large bowls from home, and we grabbed a couple more out of the church kitchen. But we ended up having to put the fruit salad in a giant soup pot! There was nothing left that would hold the huge quantity we were working with. T. came with her mom and kids a bit later, and that worked out perfectly. She was able to finish up some of the cutting while I taught the kids the 6th Article of Faith.
We rearranged the church fridge completely, to accommodate most of the bowls, although I had to bring the biggest one home with me. And then hoped that no one would come in over the weekend, see the delicious goodies, and decide to help themselves to a feast. I am also proud to report that there were no incidents of children getting cut, although some did get wrinkly fingers from cutting so many tomatoes. 🙂
I was also concerned that the fruit would be totally gross by the time we wanted to eat it Sunday afternoon, but some ladies and I just chopped up the apples and bananas right after church, and also added the dressing to the salads last minute as well. They all tasted delicious. Good job, kids! And Nick earned his Faith in God. Woohoo!