A new tradition, the interactive Christmas Pageant

Last Sunday we had an "Interactive Christmas Pageant" at church. It was so much fun and was such as success that we have decided that it is our new tradition!

So what did we do that made it so successful?

We took the stress out of it!  Instead of practicing for weeks and stressing everyone out about learning lines and making it to practice, we embraced our need for flexibility and said to everyone, if you can be here on Sunday for the pageant, great! Bring a soup to share and let's spend time together.

And that's just what we did.  I found a script that I tweaked for our church and we ran through it a couple of times with the kids during Sunday School, but we didn't ask anyone to learn lines, and no one was required to do/say/wear anything special.

We arrived early and got out all of our props.. fabric, a baby doll, some angel wings and some left over costume parts from a local elementary!

Yes, we really were that rag tag.

Here are Kylie and Kai... Mary and Joseph. They were absolutely adorable.

We had different youth read various parts of the script that outlined the story of Jesus' birth.

But those are the normal things...  what made this pageant special was we invited the adults to join the pageant as the "extras" and during each song (the congregation sang the songs to set the scene such as "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly"), different adults would come to the back and we would dress them as animals, shepherds, angels, wise people and so forth!

Below is a picture of the "animals." 

And as angels. Those little wings were hilarious on the adults!

and as Shepherds.

For the ending, the kids sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus."

Then we had our soup supper!

We had a lot of varieties!

This event was a lot of fun and I really think a huge part of it was the fact that families weren't stressed about it for weeks.  It was also great to watch different people get up to be a part of the service that don't usually volunteer.

So will First Presbyterian Church, Stephenville do this again? Absolutely! I'm already making a list of props I want to get for next year!  And Doug will be making a larger batch of his chicken and dumplings!

Art and Soul Painting Class

On Saturday afternoon I had a painting class at church (First Presbyterian Church, Stephenville). I invited my friends to come paint a nativity scene. And boy did they show up!

I had 40 people painting. It was so much fun!

We had moms and kids, friends and church members. 

Here are a few pictures of everyone painting.

It was a little crazy.

Thankfully Doug and Maddie didn't paint and helped by taking care of refreshments and ran interference with Kylie!!

And here are some of the finished products.

Everyone did great!!

I LOVE this picture!! :) :)

I realized this morning at church that I didn't get a picture of Lexi and Kylie together with their finished pieces, so here they are.

This event was such a success that I can't wait for the next one. 

I'm thinking February...

Art and Soul: A Burlap Lent Banner

Saturday we had our first Art and Soul event at First Presbyterian Church Stephenville! We had a blast! I was nervous because I wasn't sure if we would end up with anyone able to come cause of the horrible flu that has hit every household in town!

But we had a good turn out and I think everyone went home with a banner that they were proud of.

The set up was that we use burlap banners that one of the ladies in the church made. What a huge, huge help this was! Burlap is so messy I don't think Linda is going to be willing to do that again.. glad she made extras! 

I cut out the word FAITH in vinyl letters for everyone.

We strung hemp rope and a dowel rod through the top of the banner and the participants took the letters and placed them anywhere on the banner that they wanted.

They then painted over the letters and anywhere else they wanted on the banner. They had raw umber, burnt umber, black and white paint for this step.

After getting a base coat down, they painted a tree or flowers or something of their choosing.  This was hard for some as they wanted me to tell them exactly what and how to paint!

They did have my sample to look at for inspiration...

And Charlene wasn't shy about offering tips and suggestions!

I also made a few window cross cut outs.  Alisa cut one up to make a big F and one of the boys placed one in the middle of his banner.

The finished banners! I absolutely love the variety!

Even Maddie made one... under duress.  She was hoping that there would be a baby there that she would "have" to hold and take care of.  But I think she and her friend enjoyed the project too!

I love this couple. They are adorable.  They laughed through the entire project about the difference of their personalities.  They remind me of my grandparents.

And isn't this banner nice! I love that she made one that tells the story of her farm.

And woohoo! Lexi got to make one.  After being sick for three weeks and missing two weeks of school, it was nice to see her out and about!

After we painted, we shared a meal together.  

I'm already dreaming up plans for the next Art and Soul event!! I'm thinking a landscape painting...maybe with a palette knife.... :)

Faux Stained Glass

I'm quickly running through my stash of fun and easy kids activities for church! I'm going to have start branching out and creating new things.. but for now, I've still got a few tricks!

Anyway, last week I had the kids look at the stained glass windows in the sanctuary and talk about them.  We looked a little at the colors, the symbols and all of that.

Then I gave them each a transparency that I had printed a line design onto.  The internet is a great resource for "coloring book" stained glass designs!  I wanted the patterns to be interesting, but not too hard as I have from 4 years old to 14 year olds!

(Side note..it is super easy to print onto a transparency! Just change the setting on your printer to transparency and put it through the side feeder of the printer.)

The kids colored the transparencies with oil pastels.  I use oil pastels because I have them. You might could use crayon.. I'm not sure.

Purple was the hardest color to get to go on smoothly.. for whatever reason. What is pretty cool is that if the kids color a section and they don't like it, they can just color over that section with a new color.

After they finished coloring, I took a blank transparency and sandwiched the pastel between the two transparencies.  I then used masking tape to secure the two pieces together.

And that was it! The kids LOVED them.  I was thinking we would make them to hang at the church.. but they all took them home! We will make some to hang at the church another time!

And that's it. Another super fun and easy craft project for kids!

Watercolor Resist Painting for Kids

Every other Wednesday evening at church I try to come up with an arts based project for the kids to create. I am NOT a fan of coloring sheets and I don't like having kids make things that are messy, going to be messy at home or that the parent's are going to be forced to keep forever. And, I want the project to either reinforce what Doug preached about the previous Sunday or introduce what he will be preaching on this Sunday.

So with those parameters, I found this painting on pinterest that was perfect.

But, knowing that I had three young ones that would not be able to write the verse easily, I wanted to make the project more accessible.

So I opened up a word document and used a block letter font and wrote the verse pretty much like it is on the inspiration piece.

Once I got the words positioned on the paper, I changed the color of the lettering to yellow.  (Tip.. use yellow ink/pencils anytime you need to be able to see the lines, but you need to be able to paint over them. Yellow colored pencil/printer ink hides.. graphite doesn't.)

I then printed the verse onto watercolor paper.  You can purchase 9x12 watercolor sheets inexpensively. You can then cut down to 8 1/2 x 11 if your printer won't accept larger paper.

The first step is to use a white crayon or white oil pastel and completely fill in the inside of the letters. The was in the crayon resists the water. This process is very individualized, as the kids can choose not to fill in the entire letter if they don't want too. I like keeping the edges of the letters a little rough but filling the rest of the letter pretty solidly.

Once the letters are completely filled in, use watercolor and paint the paper.  At this stage, I suggest more paint, less water as you want to protect the paper from bubbling up too much.  You can always add more water to the brush, but keep it simple.

All of the kids had fun and painted their paintings completely differently.

 

Besides wanting the kids to have opportunities to create art, I have learned that busy hands create open minds when it comes to learning.  Sure, I could make the kids sit still and then tell the kids the story of Samuel and Eli. I can make the kids look at me and be quiet and "respectful." But they will probably not remember much of anything.

On the other hand, I can have the kids make art that reinforces the story and as they are working, they are listening to the story and asking me questions.  The kids never look at me and there is no way to know that they are paying attention. But when they finish their project, they have a deeper understanding of the story and a connection that lasts.

 

And this is why I love art. 

Candlelight Christmas Eve

One of the church celebrations that I have looked forward to the most now that Doug is back pastoring was the Christmas Eve service. These is absolutely NOTHING that matches the awe and reverence that comes with the candlelight singing of Silent Night.

Maddie got sick during the afternoon with her fever spiking to 103.5 and I was so bummed. She has been sick many a Christmas (scrapbooked to prove it..) but given that she was sick last Christmas as well, she was really disappointed. I had been working all day getting treats ready for after the service and was determined that we would find a way for me to be there for at least a few minutes of this special time!

So, I gathered up the candy and crackers and took all of my supplies to the church early and got everything set up and then hightailed it back home so that Doug and the littles could get to church on time.

 

After giving Maddie another dose of meds, I ran to church and snuck in the back for the end of the service. JUST IN TIME!! whew.

Here is a glimpse. You can almost here the singing!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Doug helping a child light her candle with the Christ candle!

What a sweet child.

I didn't get any pictures of Lexi or Kylie with their candles as they were sitting down front and I snuck in the back. I will make a point to do so next year!

And if any of you out there haven't ever been to a Christmas Eve service, you should put it on your calendar for next year!