Merry Christmas!

Although we haven't had kid's Connection due to various events, the children were so excited to get back in the swing of things and we were excited to get to hang out with them for the evening. We had a lovely party planned for them with fun, games and lessons to learn.


We started the evening with a Christmas Carol game. Each of the children had a number. As we played a familiar Christmas Carol, we would randomly call out a number and stop the music - while each child with that number would stand up and continue to sing the song. Then, the music would start again and we would go another round. The kids really got into it and enjoyed singing loudly and with gusto.









The next game was a Christmas card toss. They got into a line, were given a Christmas card and had to attempt to throw the card into a bin about 3 feet away from them - much harder than it sounds! The winning team was only able to get 2 cards in the bin!


Kirstyn, Collin, Brett, Cameron and others wait in line for Sister Shanna to give them their card.




The next game was the "big one"! The children sat around tables and picked up a small Christmas stocking, waiting anxiously for the next step.





Next, we placed a tray filled with candy, toys and goodies in the center of each table with instructions to NOT touch until instructed. They couldn't take their eyes off the prizes, though!

Caleb and Jeremiah eye up the goodies while Amber looks on:





Such a lot of good things to choose from:





Waiting patiently, kind of!




On the "Go" signal, each child had 30 seconds to fill their stocking with the goodies from the tray.














At the end of the time, they had to stop immediately and listen for the next instructions. This was where it got interesting. We reminded the children that Christmas is not about getting, but about giving, that it is better to give than receive and that sometimes, we can get too caught up in thinking about all that we can get to make ourselves happy. For that reason, they were asked to pass their stocking to the child on their right! Each child now still had a stocking, but it was different than the one they had filled. Some were not very happy with this arrangement, but were again reminded about the true meaning of Christmas. It is our prayer that they will have learned a valuable lesson from this experience that will go with them for the rest of their lives.


After finishing up with the stocking game, we moved to the front to have a snack of Christmas cookies and here a story - The Legend of the Candy Cane - that incorporated the true meaning of Christmas in a unique way. Each of the children was given their own candy cane at the end as a reminder of what Christmas is truly about. Again, it is our prayer that each child will remember the most important things about the Christmas season.


A few more random pictures. Evyn was a great help during the party:




Cheyenne and Alexei wait for the party to begin:




We hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas filled with good times and people that you love!

Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We spent this week in KC simply learning to be thankful for the things we have and to not take the little things for granted - even toothbrushes and shoes! We related some of the stories the men brought back from a recent trip to build a church in Guatamala and all that those families go without - we are so blessed in our country!

In addition to those lessons, our KC children participated in creating a gift for the Women of Worth - the widows group - from our church. They have an annual Christmas party and KC wanted to contribute something to make them smile. The children all helped in making pretzel rods dipped in different types of chocolate and then putting various toppings on them - so pretty, fun and easy to do! They also signed cards to give to each woman.

Alexei and Alexandria sign cards:

Zach uses M&M's to decorate a pretzel:

Alesha and Corbin work on their masterpieces:

A group signs cards while others work on various "Thanksgiving" activities:

The prayer request box in an important weekly part of kid's Connection. Students have the opportunity to right down their prayer requests and their praise reports and turn in for all of us to pray over them or rejoice with them. With continue to have prayers answered from requests turned in each week! God is building their faith.

Some of the finished products:

It is our prayer that you and your family have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving week filled with faith, food, family, friends and all the things that you love the most!

Surprise!

This past Wednesday turned out a little different than all of you were expecting! If you were at church with your children, you know that we did not have kid's Connection. Instead, Pastor made a few remarks and then we were all asked to go and tour the new building!

Some of the kid's Connection staff were stationed in the new children's chapel to welcome everyone and to answer questions. It was awesome to see the looks on everyone's faces when they saw the new facilities.

We are so excited to start having services there on Wednesday nights! What a blessing it will be.

We pray that you are all as excited as we are of the great things that God is doing and that He is going to continue to do in and for our kids and our kid's ministries.

See you next week for our regular kid's connection service!

Party Time!

Well, the big night for our KC kids finally came last night! What a great time we had together, celebrating, playing and eating. As the kids came in, we had activities for them to work on at their tables - word searches, puzzles, mazes, coloring pages, etc - not to mention some candy to snack on! Here are some pre-game shots of the kids:

Caleb and Blake:

Brooke:

Alexei and Jaycie:

Angelica, Christina and Alexandria:

Melissa, Amber, Angelina and Maya:

Corbin, Scotty, Brock, Cameron, Devin and Colin:

Alesha, Nike and Daisy:

Brittany and Alex


We started the evening off with snack - the green team voted to have cupcakes, so we had a nice variety for them and capri suns to drink. We separated the kids into 5 teams to do rotations to our games stations and quickly got started. Here are shots and info from each of our games.

Our first game station was mummy wrapping. The children got into teams and one was the mummy while the other was the wrapper. They were given 2 minutes to see who could get the most wrapped - it's not as easy as it sounds!

Jiliane wraps Brooke and Angelina wraps Taylor:


Alexandria wraps Amber:

Caleb wraps Colin:

Corbin wraps Peyton:

Delaney wraps Melissa:

In another session, Jonathan performed tricks for the kids to enjoy.

Nike, Alesha, Alex, Christina, Vanessa and Presley wait for Jonathan to start:

Jonathan and Megan:

Is that really an empty container or is it a trick?

How did he make a baby rooster appear from just an egg?

A third station gave the kids a chance to "bob for donuts." Individual donuts were tied to a string. While one player held the donut as still as possible, the other tried their best to eat it - without using their hands! It was quite fun too watch and just a little messy! =D

Spencer gets a piece of one:

Donte and Taylor give it their best while Brock and Brooke hold the string:

Gavin is trying hard to get a bite!

For a 4th game, we had a relay race in which the kids had to hold a balloon between their knees, run to their teammate on the other side of the taped off area and pass off the balloon so they could put it between their knees and run back - so fun to watch!

Carrigan and Brittany run as fast as they can:

Get it quick, Delaney!!

Which team was the winner?


Our 5th game was a candy corn toss game. One child tied a plastic pumpkin around their waist while their partner stood across from them and tried to throw as much candy corn into the pumpkin as possible - again, not as easy as it sounds!

Presley, Jadyn and Alex ready to catch:

Tate, Alyssa and Faith ready to catch:

Blake, Hanna and MaKenna give it a try:

Christina, Vanessa and Jaycie wait for "Go!"


Tyler, Alexei and Ben toss the candy to the buckets:


Amber, Alexandria and Mandy try to get as much as possible while Ben tries to find a faster way to get more candy in the pumpkin!

Devin and Andrew look pretty intense!

Hmmm - did more get in the pumpkins or on the floor??

Time to clean it up!

At the end of the evening, everyone had a hard time choosing their favorite game and they all said that they had a great time! Isn't good for our children to have good, Godly fun with their friends?

Jiliane and Brooke had a great time:

Vanessa, Jadyn, Christina and Alex agree - the party was a ton of fun!

We are already preparing for the next one and hope that it will be as much of a success as this one was!