Twirls 'n Curls

 A few weeks ago we had a fantastic Vacation Bible School! This was our first year using the Group Publishing curriculum, which really impressed us. They had tons of hands on, small-group activities and key points each day that really drove the lessons home. The songs were fun and got the kids moving, but they had a great message. The Bible stories were amazing - I'll try to post about those later. The main auditorium is where we have our opening and closing sessions, so it's decorated to the max. Some easy ideas for any flight/sky theme: 1. We flew objects all over the room by hanging them from vents with fishing wire, such as kites, small airplanes, and hot air balloons. To make hot air balloons, blow up beach balls and attach a basket with ribbon for hot air balloons. Our "baskets" were small round tupperware containers covered with brown construction paper. You can also use empty rolls of packing tape. How easy is that? 2. To make a large hot air ballo...

 I had one of those defining moments recently. You know, where you see something - perhaps one of those things you've always done - in a new light. My girls had two friends over for the day, which meant they outnumbered me 5 to 1. I knew it was futile to try to get any housework done, so we packed up and went to the park instead. Once it got too hot to be at the park (in the desert, that's about 10:30am - the slide was steaming!), we decided to cool off with some ice cream at our local diner. As the waiter handed me five ice cream cups, I noticed several containers of sprinkles on the counter. "Do you mind if I put some of those on?" I asked. He hesitated, then gave me a half smile. "I guess it would be all right." I sprinkled about 10 mini fish-shaped sprinkles on each scoop and brought them over to the table. The girls squealed with delight. "Mine has fish sprinkles!" "Mine too!" "They're soooo cute!!" And I realiz...