Kings for a Day

HOT DOG: We're wieners! I mean winners! Back on November 19th, our field trip was running all over Seattle Center, toting a cardboard Elvis and taking 22 different photos as part of the Seattle Center's Elvis Returns Photo Scavenger Hunt contest. Today, via an email around midday, I found out that our hard work paid off! Woo hoo! Here's what it said:

Kristine,

Congratulations! Your family won the Elvis Returns Photo Scavenger Hunt, with a total of 450 points. It looked like you had a lot of fun exploring Seattle Center with Elvis.

We are going to issue a press release announcing the contest winner. Could you give us a couple quick sentences about your experience participating in the contest for us to include in the press release? Also, if the media wants to pick up a story on the contest, would you be willing to talk to the press?

As the winner of this contest, you will receive:

- A cardboard cutout of Elvis
- A DVD of It Happened at the World’s Fair
- Exclusive footage of Elvis during the filming of the movie, courtesy of Albert Fisher
- 2 cruise tickets to Tillicum Village with Argosy Cruises

To receive your prize, you must fill out and return the declaration of eligibility and release (attached in a Word document). Thanks so much for your time, and congratulations again!

I wrote back post haste, telling her, in the words of Elvis, "Thank you, thankyouverymuch." :)

We are so happy to hear we won the Elvis Returns Photo Scavenger Hunt! We undertook the challenge as a fun and educational experience, but winning is super cool! :)

Per your request, here are a couple of quick sentences about our participation:

We love Seattle Center and we love Elvis, so when I saw the Elvis Returns Photo Scavenger Hunt announced on Facebook, I knew our family had to enter!

Our family has been to Seattle Center too many times to count. From splashing in the fountains in summertime to seeing Santa at the Space Needle come winter, it's our favorite year-'round destination in Seattle. We thought we knew the campus well, but during the Elvis Returns Photo Scavenger Hunt, we discovered so many Seattle Center gems we had somehow missed in our many visits. I mean, who knew there is a section of the Berlin Wall in the food court?! And we were wowed by amazing pieces of artwork we'd breezed by so many times before.

While the scavenger hunt was fun, it was also a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, we love Elvis, but toting The King around for two hours, trying to keep him dry in a cold Seattle rain got to be a bit much! And let me tell you, having a life-sized Elvis in your group garners a lot attention. We got hundreds of stares and smiles, and fielded a few questions from curious strangers.

The King of Rock-n-Roll created quite a stir at EMP. When we arrived, a worker at the front desk called security to let them know "Elvis is in the building." And when we stood Elvis up at EMP's Sky Church, tourists asked if they could have their picture taken with The King.

CJ Kisky, 7, admits to being a little disappointed that our trip was all business on Elvis scavenger hunt day. "I thought it was great, but it would have been even more great if we could have played in the Fun Forest," he says of the experience.

Annabelle Kisky, 6, has no complaints. "I loved going up on stage with Elvis," she said of being photographed at the Mural Amphitheater.

The kids are very jazzed about having won the contest (winning = awesome!). And it was a good learning experience for them. Not only did they learn lots more about Seattle Center, but before we struck out for our photo shoot/ scavenger hunt, they helped assemble props (guitar, tambourine, Elvis costume) and helped me research and plot out a game plan to hit all 22 points on the 'to do' list. And the kids were real troupers as we trudged around Seattle Center getting all our shots. Go team!

I'll get together a photo album of all 22 shots and post a link. Stay tuned.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: We are slowly but surely trying to update the 100-plus years in our ol' schoolhouse. Unfortunately, our remodeling has not, to date, unearthed any gems worth $$$, but on Sunday, Christian did find some old insulation that was interesting. It was from June of 1942, at the height of WWII.

The old paper was nasty due to time, elements and rats (ewwwww), but before we threw it in the compost bin, we took a good look at it. I asked the kids what their 'take away' was from the newspaper. Each of them honed right in on "We're at war." That was true then - but it's also true now. I can't help but think that our nation has been at war for how many years now? First the mess in Iraq and now our war in Afghanistan? And how often is that on our front pages? Almost never.

Times change.

MR. PHOTOBOMB: Part of our edumacation here at MPA involves memes. While trying to take a photo of Annabelle demonstrating taking a math measurement (we're learning about meters and centimeters, can't you tell?), CJ kept freaking out in the background, so we had the opportunity to talk about photobombing. :)

Once he had a name to go with the 'crime', of course CJ thought it was HYSTERICAL. )

BFG: Last night the kids watched a video of Roald Dahl's "BFG," which is short for Big Friendly Giant. Today, I had them sit down at the table and I asked them to each choose three letters from the alphabet. CJ chose GSL. Annabelle chose ATE. I asked them if they could figure out why I asked them to choose the letters. After about 30 seconds Annabelle realized it was related to the BFG.

I asked the kids to create a character that used their letters in its name and to write a bit about that character. Annabelle wrote, "The ATE is tall becase lots of pepole streched him to be as big as the BFG. The ATF is a elafant."

Of GSL, CJ wrote, "Pes (an alien creature of his imaginaton) have put grmes (germs) on him. He is smley (smelly). He is the grmey smley lime."