But since I'm a little out of practice, I felt I needed to plan in greater detail to minimize chaos, so I shopped post VBS sales at Hobby Lobby and $Tree, sprayed "S" on lots of shirts until the fumes nearly made me loopy.
I wanted this to be a time when our Life Park kids would grow in God while they had fun, I planned the theme several weeks ago and wanting it to flow consistently through these four Thursdays in July. I worked on my lesson for a couple of hours, knowing it could take any course as their discussion unfolded.
Wednesday's rain, I thought was a sign that Thursday would dawn clear, warm and sunny, but we woke up to dark skies, rain and lightning. I kept praying, "Lord, let it stop" -- What could I do with that many kids indoors for 3 hours? (I remembered two years ago that 3 of the 4 Thursdays it rained and kept us out of the pool.)Whatever the weather -- I knew their Moms needed a break and I was bound and determined it would be fun! When it didn't look like the rain would let up, at 10:00 I decided we were going to need a Plan B. We'd have Foods lab 101: Cookie Decorating (I kicked in to Home Ec Teacher mode) -- I talked our house guest, Omar, through the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, and he made some dough just in case we needed it.
Oh me of little faith, my prayers were answered and just before the kids arrived so did the sun! I had fun -- the lesson progressed as planned -- the mothers came back from their R & R just at the right time.
The house still echos with the noise of the 8 of them. I loved listening to their chatter and clatter as they ate lunch and painted their "superkid" shirts.
One said "I may not look like it -- but I'm a pretty creative guy." And when it came time to ice their superkid cookies he remarked, "My second talent is cooking."
They always give insightful answers from their precious little hearts during our Bible lesson time. Since our lesson was GOD reveals himself as THE WORD they wrote their favorite words with these neat glass markers on our patio windows. -- "God" "Jesus" "Love" "DAD" "Ice cream" and "Candy" Since I haven't had kid art on our walls in a long time, I decided we needed to leave them up.
I learned several things --
1. Try out every craft before you teach them to the kids. (Not all craft supplies work as the label says.)
2. Bags of decorator icing in the sun make a huge mess on the patio --
3. Pick up the markers as soon as they are done with them. . . they don't blend well with the couch upolstery.
4. The shirt next to your's will probably smear it sometime during painting.
5. 60 yr.-old men with cameras are targets for 8 kids in the pool. . .we rescued the camera -- and soaked the man!
I tell our own kids that I want to have "Camp Grandma" one week every summer when they have children -- hmmmm! How long is a week?
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