Viva!

VBS is finally underway, and the hard work is paying off in the smiles of the children in the program. I am a bit disappointed that our enrollment is down to only 22 kids this year. Probably next year, we'll have to slash our budget a bit. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy teaching the kids we do have about Jesus' love! Our decorations came out BEAUTIFULLY, if I do say so myself (with lots of thanks owed to Scott, the kids, and my mom, who worked hard all day Saturday helping to set up.) The rotations are going so well thanks to the other volunteers, and we're all having fun with it. It was a little hard getting into the spirit this year due to our recent family loss, but creating all this joy is infectious, and I think it's helping us to feel better.

Here's some of the decorations we created. After passing through a hallway decked with papel picado and desert scenes on the walls, the kids enter the fellowship hall. Right ahead of them, they see this stage set up. The "bible buddies" were all drawn and painted on foam board, and then cut out. I really like how they came out! And I'm not even the "artistic one" in my family, lol.

These decorations are to the left and right of the stage. The mexican village is set up on walls we use to divide our Sunday School rooms. The stained glass windows on our church were velvet art posters that Kairi meticulously colored, and the yellow house was painted mostly by Kai and Nick! Didn't they do a great job? My mom made the flower cart on the right of the stage, and Scott and I built and tissue papered the free standing 5 foot cactus.

Here are the kids enjoying crafts on Day One. They loved the tissue paper suncatchers!

Here are some silly games from the first day - we also rented a moon bounce for our kickoff luncheon and the games leaders let them use it all day long.

The first Bible story in Hot Bible Adventures was the story of the friends who lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof to Jesus. Here I am, ready to greet a group of kids and tell them all about how I'm waiting for the roofers to fix the hole in my roof after witnessing that miracle!

Here's my good friend and helper Star assisting Nicky with his Fiesta Friendship Cake during snacks.

Finally, these are the t-shirts we ordered for the kids. Doesn't it look cute on Kai?

We hope the rest of the week will be this successful!