Well we just wrapped up our church's annual Vacation Bible School- we call it Summer Spectacular! Over 6,400 people attended! It was our biggest yet and I think one of the most fun! The theme was NOAH- GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES! What an amazing story! Not just all fun and animals like you remember hearing growing up but such a wonderful story of faithfulness. It is a 2 session, 6 day event that takes MONTHS AND MONTHS of preperation and planning and it is just so amazing to see it all come together. I was over the atrium decorations and the give-a-ways we had each night. I was a BUSY momma these last few
months days but it was all worth it! My family was so selfless and helped me at every stage. All 3 kids and Jeff stayed with me till 1:00am on Friday to tear everything down! And Jeff built the most amazing wow-factor ark that you were greeted with right when you walked in- simply amazing!
And here are some of the animals on the "ark"! We either rented or bought these and most of them have a dual purpose that will allow them to be used for more than just this occasion!
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| These were looking over the rail of the second floor! |
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| This is our younger kids play area- it was turned into a space for some of the water animals! |
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| The vultures! |
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| I just loved these 8 foot tall giraffes (there are 2 you just can't see the other one!) because he stood in a pen next to a 5 inch mouse! They looked so cute together! |
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| I normally hate all rodents but this one is cute!:) |
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| This is our older kid play area in the middle of the atrium. Normally we just cover it because there is no way to keep it open with 6,000 people but this year we decided it would make a wonderful stack of "pens" for animals! | |
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This atrium is HUGE! So it was a little hard to come up with cool stuff in every square inch! We had a petting zoo for 2 of the nights, a "construction zone" where Noah's tools and equipment stood, and a rainbow balloon arch!
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| Jeff just free handed these "blue prints" of the ark! Again I know Noah didn't have blueprints but I bet he wished he did and hey we had to suspend reality just a tad!! |
Our kids had a blast! They attended the first session but also helped me pass out the prizes and decorate and so much more! They were just precious and so willing to help!
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| Precious Miss Tatum and Parker! |
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| Awesome Miss Melissa Jo with the giraffes! |
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| This is one of the give-a-ways we gave to everyone! I bet Noah and fam would've loved a poncho during the 40 day/40 night rain storm! |
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| Each and every hallway was decorated! This was a precious underwater hallway and below is the rainbow hallway! |
We also had a "snake-a-terrium" and a "bird-a-terrium". Yes I know those are not real words but when I was describing what my vision was these are the words that came out and they just kinda stuck. The birds were real and so great to hear as you walked in! They were beautiful but I realized they kinda freak me out. I mean from far away they were great but they were a little scary up close! We may or may not have 4 birds flying around the church at this moment from some maybe escaping- but maybe not. Who knows? I'll never tell.
With our wonderful children's minister at the lead, we put on a broadway type musical each night. The kids go to class first and learn a portion of the Noah story, then head into the musical to see that part come to life through song! We're talking dancing and singing from everything from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga! It is amazing! Here are some of the animals in the cast and the whole crew on the stage!
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| You might recognize these 2- Caleb and Jenna who went to Africa with us! They were hilarious! |
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| Another Africa-traveling couple! Joey and Sarah-- they were my favorites! They would poke their heads and shake their feathers throughout the show and it would crack me up every time! |
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| Sarah and choreographer Lindsey |
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| Brian and Angela |
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Amazing week with amazing people! Mrs. Patty is just wonderful with her vision and heart for children and our community. Behind the scenes people like Shei who work countless hours for no credit, Helen who was by my side ALL week long AND supplied me with a reeces each night, Barbara, Kelly and Tiffany loving on and providing an incredible experience for all these kids, LauraBeth and Jason who entertained us all as the show's narrators, Brian who had to help in the atrium for me and in the show for his wife, Lauren and Emily who's brains just work like no other and had registration and check in for 6,400 people down like it was nothing, Judy who kept us all in line with purchases, receipts and constantly doing the tedious things we couldn't do, Vivian who ordered countless reams of paper and supplied all the decorators and teachers with endless supplies, obviously I'm leaving out MANY people who gave so much this week like the amazing volunteers and all the people who came to make this what it was- SPECTACULAR!!!
And here are some more of all my girls- I love them so much and I am so thankful that this is my job!! How fun is that??
This last one is of my varsity girls after they had just received their ribbon for that night's competition! They got a 4.9999 out of 5!! They did awesome and we have so much potential to be GREAT this year!!
