Monday, February 22, 2010

A Much-Needed Break

I think most people around here (Midwest) are getting tired of winter and are ready for spring. Thank goodness for the Winter Carnival!

The community and school "character education" team put together a fun Saturday afternoon for families last weekend, and it was a much-needed break for my family, to be sure. Since I am on the Vacation Bible School planning committee, we thought it would be a great opportunity to get some early exposure for VBS and possibly register a few families.

The kids and I were flying solo this past weekend, as their dad was out of town visiting learning new training techniques and visiting his brothers' families. Given the cabin fever (a nice term for pointless arguing) going on at our house the past few weeks, the carnival was a welcome distraction for a few hours!

Ally was the best helper I could ever ask for. She cut out pencil cards with me on Friday night, and she organized winners' prizes and participants' prizes into separate baskets. All of the kids helped me set up and tear down, but Ally was the go-to girl for running the booth so that I could check up on the other sibs on occasion.**

School, community, and university clubs and businesses sponsored booths ranging from golf putting to face painting. There was free food available, and my own group made quite a haul with prizes and soda pop. (I have a bowl full of stuff on the counter right now to prove it!)

The girls and I wore our VBS t-shirts to promote our booth, and I think we did fairly well in finally attracting kids to play musical chairs with us. Since our VBS is following a rock concert theme this year, I figured we needed a musical theme to our booth/activity. (Kinda wish we had Christian Guitar Hero, but oh well, this worked fairly well.)

The girls dove into the Family Center tub full of rainbow-colored pasta to make necklaces with our friend Astrid.

Move over, Lia Sophia!

There were fire house and drug dog demonstrations going on outside, a magician/balloon artist by the kitchen, and I'll estimate at least a dozen carnival booths. The crowd was steady for two and a half hours; not bad for a first effort!

I think that the most popular booth was Arlen and Dee Weber's face painting stand. Those two are so talented and put much detail into every design they do. Kids waited in line for several minutes there, but it was worth it!

Many thanks to the community action team who put this thing together. While Mark was getting a much-needed break from school/work, we were getting a much-needed break from winter boredom. (And Mom was getting a much-needed break from cooking and refereeing!) A win-win-win situation, to be sure.


**50% of these pictures include Short Legs; 20% include the Chickens; 10% include the Big Kids. Note the exponential decrease in surveillance/photographs as age increases. There's probably a mathematical equation for this aspect of parenthood. Good or bad? normal? unfair? Points to ponder...

But those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.--Isaiah 40:31

2 Comments:

Blogger Astrid in Bristling Acres said...

I agree with you...the winter carnival was a much needed event. The sad thing is that I never did know who actually put it on. I know my girls had a blast! I had lots of fun with the pasta necklaces. :)

February 22, 2010 at 12:19 PM  
Blogger Amy Siegert said...

Two gals Mandy Whitaker (she had short dark hair and a long-sleeved blue top on) and Sarah Steiner (she was Ally's basketball coach and is softball coach, over giving away cans of pop) were on the committee -

February 22, 2010 at 3:01 PM  

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