I Survived!

What an amazing week! I was much less stressed out than last year. I guess I really have learned from experience. I am showing you a few more shots of the decor and the last crafts.

Here is some dock walking into the church.

Here is that Madagascar welcome sign.

Here are the Bible points on the movie prop along with Jacques Le Croc. That handsome guy is my oldest son. This was his first year as I guide and I am so proud of him. He really stepped up and led the preschoolers well.

This is one of the crafts. The kids stuffed them. I should have retaken a picture of it actually stuffed because it is very cute. I just can't muster up the energy.

The baby food jar lanterns turned out really cute. I changed them a little from this picture. They don't have the dragonflies. Instead they have buttons. I would have taken a picture of my boys' but besides not having enough energy, they both dropped and broke them.

The clean up was quick. It's almost disgusting how much quicker it is to take down than it is to set up. There are three other churches that will use our decorations. What a blessing to be able to pass them along and not just have them used for one week. I hope their VBS week is as awesome as ours was. I am not bragging about anything I did, I just feel the kids had a great time learning about God. I love that they are able to use all their senses to make the connection and build their relationships.

Have a fabulous weekend and don't call me before 8 tomorrow!

Sheri

Day 4 Crafts

The two older groups made these beaded alligators/crocodiles. They made them in green and light green. The beads had not arrived at my house yet when I made this sample so I used what I had. These take quite a bit of time to make. I had thought about picking a simpler design, but decided against it. They will try to finish them up tomorrow and do the new craft as well.

The two younger groups made some bugs like these. They all seemed to enjoy the crafts. It is a little tricky to find crafts that can be completed within the allotted time, are interesting to kids ranging from preschool thru sixth grade, are keepers (important to me), and are really inexpensive.

It has fun been a fun and exhausting week. It is so neat to see all the hard work come together, and see how much fun the kids have learning about God. I will admit that I am looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Sheri

Day 2 Craft

We took the swamp grass down from the kneelers because we didn't think the little kids could see over it. We lined the walls with it instead. I love how the pylons look there instead.

Mr. Gator is still waiting for his lunch.

I tried to capture the whole room. There are worm cans hanging along with fish, lanterns and bobbers.

Another gator hangin' out. This one looks pretty friendly.

I promise no animals were harmed in this photo. I was just entertaining myself.

See the bird hanging? I love the dock going all the way up the aisle.

The shack has a door now.

Ah, here is the craft for day 2.

The cupboards are covered with blue paper and the grass and clouds were painted directly on it. The birds were painted on poster board. The pylons were drawn on brown paper sacks. The cattails are felt with painted stems. I think this is my favorite room. Maybe that is because it is the craft room.

Have a great day!

Sheri

Day 1 Craft

This is the craft the kids made today for VBS. Aren't they cute? I love how they turned out. I have all the crafts prepared but I am not going to post them until after each day. I have some parents that visit my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise for them.

Today went really well, but I didn't have time to take pictures. Hopefully, I will have some time tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Sheri

Crunch Time!

Our VBS starts on Monday. I am so excited that this year we get to mostly decorate the church before Sunday. We've never been able to do that before. There will be other decorations we will add and change.

All these black and white pictures are the traced characters. We were going to mount them on colored paper but since we can only used blue tape on the walls we decided to leave them as is. I like how they turned out.

See the faint circle behind the birds? OOOPS! That was from a couple years ago attaching a porthole that was painted on canvas.

My friend made the gator look like it is getting ready to eat one of the Bayou birds. We actually have moved it to the other side, but he is still waiting for his lunch. On Monday he will be in front of the "grass" in the water.

Here is one side of the Sanctuary. We have added some pylons along the front and some greenery on the stump.

This is one of the worm cans hanging from the ceiling. There are several. They look pretty cool.

This is the breezeway that is lined with the pool noodle dragonflies and streamers. There are also windsocks hanging from the lights.

Here is one of our trees with individual strands of leaves. It looks so cool! It is very labor intensive and I have been told that many times over the last few months.

Another progressive picture.

If you click on any of the pictures you should be able to get a bigger picture. It mightr help to view this one. See the white thing in the aisle on the left? That is a ginormous crane with an eight foot wing span. It will be hanging where the big speaker is above the cross.

Here are the bobbers and some fish hanging in the craft room. Although my paper mache bobbers are less than perfect and round, they still look great in the bigger picture. The skateboard in the next room will be covered with tree branches or taken down. Plus, the door will be shut.

Here is another view of the room with the trees. There are two on this wall and three on the other.

Yes, the bait shop will be getting a door today.

The welcome is finally painted.

Sorry if you saw this before I added the words. I am plugging along as time allows.

Have fun!

Sheri

EEK! A Spider!

This is part of the Madagascar display. I am showing it to you because it is going to have the "gator" tail that is in the next picture in front of it with some grasses and greenery.

This is going to eventually say "Welcome". It will not have the gator tail. You will not be able to read Madagascar. It will be hanging in front of our church.

Do you see the spider dangling? I can already hear some little girl screaming over this one.

Here is a picture of one of the shacks we set up yesterday. There are little bugs/critters all over it. We used some cheesecloth moss and a little real moss as well. The scouts had an event at our church last night and it drew quite a bit of attention from the boys. I am excited to start to see everything getting assembled.

The "Dock Sweet Dock" sign adds some nice color. There will be a wooded dock around this and some cattails. I didn't want to get too carried away knowing there would be a group at the church.

Have a productive day!

Sheri

I Remembered...

My camera and to take pictures. Amazing, I know! This croc is one I found during one of my dumpster diving sprees. He was tore in a few spots an was missing a sign, so we created one for him (thanks for the poster file, Crystal). We actually have a new one out of the box as well. There one of five panels of our backdrop behind him. I didn't stage any of the photos so ignore all the clutter.

What do you think of the "rocks" that are going to be around a fishing hole?

Have you ever seen a cypress stump this big? Well, maybe, but you I know you've never seen such a cutie standing in front of a cypress stump like this one! She is one my faithful volunteers, and I appreciate her and her mother and sister a lot!

Look Ma, I can see where I am going now! We finally gave our dragonflies eyes.

These are two massive structures that were donated from the local movie theatre with a little help from my friend that works there. They were Madagascar 2 displays, but we've moved them into the swamp. They are going to have posters and we will add candid kid shots daily. Something fun for them to look forward to checking out while they are waiting for it to begin.

What's this you ask? These are leaves that have been die cut and are being taped to fishing line one by one. Talk about a labor of love! They are going to be hung in one of the rooms from the ceiling. This is only a portion of them. Remember when I said I can't believe I still have friends after VBS? It's projects like this one that make me understand that I have true friends!

Look, Ma, no tails! We are going to do something with this display as well. I haven't quite figured out what yet, but I'd better get with it! Is the song stuck in your head yet? Here let me help...You got to move it move it.

And last, but not least, the paper mache bobbers for the fishing room. So fun! I am not sure I will have VBS pictures tomorrow, but I might share some more card pictures if I muster the energy.

Dreamin' of crocs, docks, and dragonflies!

Sheri