Parents Night Out.....

Our Care Group organized a second "Parents Night Out" where people sign up for us to keep their kids, they donate a minimum of $10 per family, and they get a couple of hours out. This time, is was a longer time frame and LOTS more kids!! Donny had done his job and "marketed" the night to a couple of different groups at church who where having their adult Christmas parties that night, and we ended up with....gulp....over 35 kids who signed up. At the time that he told me that number, we only had one other couple that we knew of from Care Group who was available to help us out. Double GULP!! Thankfully, we ended up with 2 other couples who were able to come help out and it really was a fun night. We shuttled all the kids up the stairs with name tags on as soon as they got there to watch a few minutes of a movie until everyone got there, then divided the kids into 3 groups and put colored dots for each group on their name tags. We had a "toddler area" with 6 little ones that were 2 or under who played in the living room for a bit until they got bored, then we herded them all upstairs for a change in scenery. The groups rotated every 20 or 30 minutes between a coloring station, a cookie decorating station, and an upstairs musical chairs station. After everyone had rotated, they all came together for some "indoor Christmas caroling" and a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Kevin. His nice low, relaxing voice got everyone wound down then we let them pick a movie upstairs or downstairs to sit QUIETLY and watch (with lights down low!) until their parents came to get them. It was a lot of work, but a GREAT night...and we raised a lot of money to help a sweet single mom out with some pretty dire financial straights.


Come in the door, get your name tag, line up your shoes and head upstairs!

Donny had them see if they could line up from biggest to smallest, then had them put hands on shoulders, turn around, spread out...all sorts of things just to eat up some time! ;)

That is ONE long Conga line of kiddos!

The coloring station...thank you Hills church for all the copies! Notice the table was covered in a plastic liner....

One of the cute babies...little June!

The cookie decorating station! So fun!!

Donny got kids to help him lead us in some Christmas carols...we had wanted to go caroling to a neighbors house, but with that many kids plus pretty cold temps, we opted out of that one.

All the babies got to eat a cookie...no decorating for them!

Mr. Kevin works his low voice magic on the kids!

All I Want For Christmas...

Tyler was in the church Kids Christmas Show this year again - he's been in it every year since he was in kindergarten and always loves it. Hard to believe my baby only has one more year in the elementary class at church....YIKES!!! The show was precious. The premise was about girls who come into a department store with their mother and are focused on all the things they want to get for Christmas. While the mother shops, the girls fall asleep and have a dream where the toys come to life on the shelves and the girls share the Christmas story with the toys. Long story short, the girls are reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, and that the season is about giving, not receiving. There were over 200 kids in the show - the biggest group ever! Tyler was in the group of toys that were Woody dolls - there were also Jesse dolls, BoPeeps, Aliens, and clearance toys. So precious! I'm thankful for a church leadership who make this happen for the kids - it takes SO much work on their part and they give of themselves selflessly every year.

Yes, my kid is ALWAYS on the top riser...but he looks really like a GIANT in this picture - there was another taller kid that wasn't beside him at the time, and his neighbor to the left was sitting down. Made me giggle.

Some of the kids who had speaking parts....they were so cute!

The opening song by the whole cast before the groups went back for costume change.

I took pictures at the dress rehearsal, but for the performance all the kids got makeup - little circles on their cheeks outlined in black. Cute!
Kim and I have been doing "backstage duty" every year together....through all the rehearsals and especially performance day we have a GREAT time being together and catching up on our lives!!

At the end of the show - all the characters on the final number. I really love those little aliens!! Hysterical!

Dave (aka "The Elf") is a natural at the role he had....acting extremely goofy and entertaining many. And then there's his beautiful, talented wife, Lisa!

Woody boys getting into character backstage...

Buddy Kayla Yowell - we always have to have a Tyler / Kayla picture to document our time!

Don't tell Colby, but I'm planning on convincing him to be in the show next year. He did it the past 2 years (albeit reluctantly - it's just not his thing to be on a stage). Next year will be Tyler's last year and Brady's first year to be in it. Surely he will let his mama have all 3 of her boys in a show together, right?? It would be so cute.....