virtual Park staff party

We had our annual end of year Park staff meeting/party on Tuesday virtual. Mr. Will put together treat boxes, a gift exchange, and games! He randomly assigned everyone a name and we bought $10 gifts and dropped them off at the office with the “to” on the outside and the “from” hidden inside. I got our deaf minister, Zeth. He loves his cat so I got him an Catvenger tshirt from Etsy. It was hilarious and I’m so glad he loved it! We picked up our gifts and treat boxes but couldn’t peek until Tuesday. Will had all the ladies in the office help with treats and everything was so yummy! We played some virtual Christmas games and had a blessed time as best as we could! They are a fun and hard working crew that I’m blessed to work with!

thanksgiving children's message

 Our worship minister asked me to make some videos to add to The Park livestream on Sundays. The first didn't get published because of my grandpa's passing, so I sent it to families on Thanksgiving. This kind of thing is just not my cup of tea, but I'm really trying to embrace this new way of doing ministry. If you've got any tips or tricks for doing videos I'm all ears!

Here's the link on our church youtube account:

https://youtu.be/_5Hy5aN_3j4

Star Spangled Fried Chicken Dinner 2016

One thing we do really well at Mayfair is the Star Spangled Fried Chicken Dinner. A Sunday close to July 4th we meet for a fried chicken dinner, complete with members bringing homemade ice cream of all flavors. The highlight for the kids is a parade that they do through the family center with bikes, wagons, cars, or decorating themselves! I loved our little friend Ava's skates this year. One reason I love this event is the same as Trunk or Treat. It gives families a project to work on. They can come up with a unique flavor of ice cream or work on decorating their wheels. I think those projects are ways families can work together on a common goal, while building special memories. I look forward to the seasons when the kids are older and can have more input. The Star Spangled dinner is also a time our church family can fellowship together, and invite extended family and friends.

It's something Elle and Todd look forward to each year, and I'm sure Reese will too. This was her first year to ride her own bike. She had a little trouble with the line up, but once we got started she was into it! Todd had a tinsel issue with one wheel so I had to push. Still learning what decorations will work and what won't.
 
    

 

 

looping through songs

I was listening to someone talk about how kids who don't come every week have a hard time really understanding when you say "last week we talked about..." In the curriculum we use for our nursery-preschool every lesson generally has a short song. Songs are great memorization tools, so I decided one great way to help those kids pick up on what we talked about previously, and reinforce the lessons for the kids who were there, was to loop back to all the songs from each lesson. I bought small chart paper tablets and my intern and another volunteer began writing up the songs. Now teachers can quickly flip through each song.

cpc 2016

In January I attended the  Children's Pastors Conference for the second time in Chattanooga, TN. It was a great experience, and I got to recharge my batteries and do some planning and thinking for our children's ministry. This time I stayed at The Read House, which was beautiful, and I loved the historic feel of it all. Just wished I had more time to spend exploring Chattanooga. I loved getting to spend time with other children's ministers and those working in children's ministry. I'll be posting more from the sessions later.

I couldn't get away from everything though. I still needed to have class so my students were super nice and met in our classroom and did a video chat over Google.

I did take advantage of being on a vacation of sorts, and had cake for dinner one night at a local diner! It was so delicious!

Each night and morning you attend a general session. My favorite was Bob Goff. Each time I've seen him I've been inspired. If you haven't read his book Love Does you should get on it! 

Thankfully, even though the huge winter storm hit the the east while we were there I was able to get out and head home. I left a little early the last day to make sure I had enough time to get to the airport. These are some pics I took in the plane and airport for the kids.

I also took advantage of the time to catch up on work and some reading. I want to post more about this book later, but the middle paragraph was very appropriate for my trip. I'm so blessed to be involved in children's ministry. It has grown my faith in amazing ways, and I can't say enough about how wonderful this experience has been. It has not escaped me that to be entrusted with other people's gifts, and their well-being is something very special. This has also been a precious experience to work with my own gifts--Elle, Todd, and Reese.

father/son campout 2014

Chris and Todd went on Mayfair's Father/Son Campout last weekend. This year it was at Arcadia Lake. They began the evening at a pavilion we rented. Since Arcadia is not a state park you have to buy parking passes, so we ended up getting a party package to get some passes and save some money. The dads and sons were meeting at the pavilion to eat, play, and do some activities. Then those that wanted to could reserve a campsite and spend the night. Chris and Todd were the only ones that braved spending the night. Unfortunately, Todd hadn't had a nap that day, and the kids played so hard that he fell asleep before Chris got the tent up. Todd woke up during the night and was a little freaked out so Chris got him up, walked him around a little outside to show him the tent, and then he went back to bed. Apparently, when he woke up in the morning he thought it was pretty cool to be in the tent. Think they will definitely be doing more camping in the future!

abilene 2014

We went to Abilene for the last few days to attend the ACU lectures. There were a few people Chris wanted to hear and meet up with, and I wanted to attend the children's ministry sessions. The kids got to meet TJ McCloud, to whom they love listening. Chris showed us his house that he lived in when he was a kid, and several other places he had memories of.

We wanted to check out some fun places with the kids between sessions. We went to the Abilene zoo, and Elle fed the giraffes some bread. I was surprised she got so close. Todd was terrified, and of the peacock too. He kept yelling at it saying, "go away mr. -ea-ock!" It's a little zoo, but it was really fun!

The next day we grabbed lunch and took it to the Children's Storybook Garden that had these neat statues of Dr. Suess characters. The kids loved it!

Even though it ended up being rough with Reese on the way home, the trip was successful. I loved the sessions I attended.  I met several other children's ministers, learned a couple new songs, and got lots of ideas and resources to bring back. Several sessions focused on the same topic of intergenerational church. Some questions that we discussed were: Are we connecting children to God? Are we ministering to, for, or with children? Are we listening to what children are saying to us at church?

And a picture of Reese at the hotel to prove she was there!

mother/son rodeo 2014

We had a mother/son rodeo at church last Friday (or our gang banquet as Katie called it). This was supposed to be last November, but I had to postpone because of dissertation. (If I had a dollar for everything that has been pushed off because of that thing! But I digress and it's almost over!) We got some great help setting up Friday morning from our friends Katie and Olivia, and this time got the set up done with enough time to not be rushed during Todd and I's date.

the set up gang

love this kid!

We went to Chickfila, mostly because I knew he would eat the food and it was close to the church. After eating our grub we headed up to the Mayfair ranch. We had several moms, and an aunt, and some grandmas join us with their cowboys. All the boys were close in age so it made it easier to do the activities and they got along really  well.  It was a really fun night!

My cute date!

This is the fourth parent/kid night and I by this time I figured out get the photos in early or it won't happen. Everyone just gets busy and it gets forgotten about. So as soon as the moms got there I got them to visit the photo booth. I have the parents write letters to their child during the event that usually goes with the theme or as a memoir of the night. While they're doing this they visit with someone who has an older child of the same gender for advice. I take the kids and make a special survey or gift for the parents. And then mail the photos, letters, and surveys after the event to the child for a keepsake.

Katie put together the great background for our photo booth. For the rodeo photo booth we had bandanas, hats, mustaches, beards, lips, sherif badges, and a wanted sign as props.

this kid is definitely wanted!

Our dessert for the evening was root beer and milk, a "happy trails" mix the families could make, and making pie pops together. I thought cooking would be a good activity for moms to do with their boys and pie is a western kind of dessert. I would say forget about the candy sticks next year, and just call them pie pockets because the sticks really didn't work very well. I think the boys had more fun just making them and didn't even care of eating them.

the saloon

"happy trails" mix

the tables

make your own mustache

the "rodeo" activities

the "bucking bronco" or "bull riding" inflatable

stick horse races

rounding up lizards

calf roping

ping pong ball shootout

the results