Launching Kidzone.

I know, I know, not very good pictures......but what can you do? I was up to my eyeballs in glitter, icing, smoothies and kids!

Today was the launch of our new, rebranded 'Kidzone' (aka Sunday School). It wasn't until it was all over that I realised I had not taken
any pictures. The committee had already started to set up for Sunday Lunch (once a month...did it have to be THIS Sunday?) and the old furniture with flowery tablecloths did not do justice to our new 'look' so this is a just a taster. Besides, we have only really started the makeover. We still have to get new floor covering, tables and chairs and get a bit of art and craft up on the walls. The metal strips you can see are an IKEA invention. They are display rails complete with magnets for holding up art works :-D.

So how did it go? Well, in church the kids opened boxes loaded with craft goodies which they then brought down to the new 'sealed' room. There was the grand unveiling amongst many 'oos' and 'aahs' and a few 'where are my sunglasses?'. The whole congregation was brought down to have a look and then we gathered the kids in the middle and prayed for them and for blessings on the work of the children's ministry.

After the congregation left we had a riotous game of 'Ship to Shore' rebranded as 'Surfs Up'. They had to 'paddle out', wait for a wave (without moving or you're OUT!), Hang Ten, scrunch up on their imaginary 'surfboards' for "Shark" and race back to the beach on a big wave. Last ones to do anything were out! We also had a big dice which was the 'dumper' wave and as each child had a number, when the dice was rolled...that number was 'dumped'!! It went very well. No great Biblical message but a lot of fun :-D

We followed this up with the story of Peter, Andrew, James and John leaving their nets to follow Jesus and become 'fishers of men'. We then broke into groups to do various craft activities including, icing biscuits and adding scales (smarties) and tails (spearmint leaves) to make fish; making 'summer' drinks like banana and peach smoothies; decorating starfish for the pinupboard and decorating the letters of the words "Come and follow me" to take back into church.

Of course we ran out of time and although we managed to hand around the 'fishy' biscuits, we totally failed to get our glittery sentence together out the front. I think it said
CME AND FOLW ME........ reminds me of Owl in Winnie the Pooh.
Afterwards I had wanted to pin it on the pinboard.....but half of them wanted to take their letters home! So that bit was a bit of a disaster!! Never mind. They all seemed happy and positive and, God willing, it will a be a foundation to build on.

The clean up factor was mega.

Now I promise if I get my hands on any photos of the time with the kids inaction...I will post them. Meanwhile, that was Sunday!! I slept for a good deal of the rest of it .