Each year around this time, I help plan and execute a vacation Bible school at my church.  We call it Kids Club.  Each year, I am given a theme and my creative partner and I attempt to bring the theme to life.


With the help of another church member (a retired carpenter who built the awesome building facade seen below), and a few dedicated volunteers, Susie & I have tried to bring the Rodeo area to life.



When you enter the rodeo, you encounter the check-in.  This is where we break the groups of children into smaller groups of 8-10.  We have punch cards that help us figure out what activities they experienced the day before and which places they still need to visit.  We then send them to one of 8 stations around the room.



Our first station is the racing station.  There are two events that happen at the racing station.  The one shown here is the barrel race.  The children have to use a broom to herd their balloons around the barrels.  We created barrels out of pop-up hampers, yard bags and duct tape.


Our next station is the Prospecting area.  For two days, the kids get to search for a needle in a haystack (yarn needles with no sharp point) and then the last two days, they will pan for gold.


Next is the Saddle Shop, where we are making paper bag vests and God's Eyes throughout the week.


Adjacent to the Saddle Shop is the Lasso Practice Range where the kids can test their aim by throwing horse shoes, doing a rope toss and a jar lid toss.

In a little over a month, I will be headed out of the country on my first mission trip.  I am part of a group of 7 people who are headed to Costa Rica to work with Strong Missions doing some light construction work on a community center.  One member of our team will be blogging about our experiences every day (when we have internet) while we are gone.  Right now there won't be too much action, but as the departure time approaches, we will be sharing more about the trip.  If you are interested in following along, please check out the WSC Costa Rica 2012 blog.

About this time last year, I agreed to be the helper for my middle daughter's Girl Scout Troop.  The leader is a good friend of mine and, in August, her husband was diagnosed with Cancer.  Needless to say, when she asked me if I'd take on the leadership of the troop for a while, there was no doubt I would.  This year has been a great experience for me.

One thing I needed to come up with was a caper chart for our troop.  We'd gained some new girls and had bridged to Brownies since I'd made the last one.  I wanted something easy, that the girls would enjoy.


I had each girl create a doppelganger for herself using markers, googly-eyes, yarn, and wooden ice cream spoons.  They had a blast trying to compare hair colors, skin tones, and clothing design.  Once they were done with their icon, we hot glued the eyes and hair to the spoon and a magnet to the back.  I offered to glue the hair down so it wouldn't fly off to the sides, but most of them enjoyed the Muppet-like quality of crazy hair.


I took an old cookie sheet that we had, roughed it up with sand paper and spray painted it Girl Scout green.  I then printed the job titles that work for our group and ran them through my Xyron machine with magnetic backing.

Now I can change the jobs if need be and I can easily move the girls' magnets to whichever job they are responsible for at our meeting.  And, it's easy to carry and store!

I just realized it's been over a year since I posted anything on this page.  Wow.  Time flies!  I did not fall off the face of the earth or move to an exotic location without internet connection.  Between all the various social applications I participate in, I feel like I've been keeping everything current when I haven't.  My goal is to post here with more frequency again.  I've got more to share!

While watching television today, a fun little business card was placed in front of me and a live commercial for the Spectacular Salon and Spa occurred.

We were immediately prompted to schedule an appointment time.  We chose an 11 o'clock time slot and arrived a few minutes early.



We were asked to wait in the hall until our exact appointment time.   When we walked in, we were greeted by the lovely staff and informed that we had a couples massage and spa day arranged for us. 



Here are the facilities.







The stuffed animal back massage table.











The spa services area (for couples)


 If you are ever in our area and are looking for a completely unique spa experience, you may want to drop by our second story (apparently located at 1897 Waterton St. - a completely made up address) and try the Spectacular Salon and Spa.  You'll never experience anything like it ever again!

 Sweet.  As the holidays approach, it seems that sugar fairies are everywhere, leaving frosting smears and sprinkles in random, hard to clean locations.  Bug managed to cover every last part of the top of her cookie with frosting and sprinkles during the cookie decorating portion of our Christmas "Advent"ure.


On a different sugar-high note, Boo attends a monthly event for 4th and 5th graders at our church called YUC (Youth Under Construction).  This past week was their Christmas celebration and they got to create a gingerbread house to bring home.


It lasted about 30 minutes at home before pieces just fell right off into her mouth!  Amazing!  Now, less than a week later, all that remains are the crumbled ruins of a delicious treat.

Continuing on our sweet theme, our church staff Christmas luncheon is next week and I volunteered to make some centerpieces for the tables.  I coerced... volun-told... asked my friend Jenni to help me make up some candy bouquets.  Here are two of our creations.




So we had plenty of sweetness in my house this week.  (If only it would have rubbed off on my children...)  My sweet tooth is starting to ache already but if you are a glutton for punishment, stop by I Should Be Folding Laundry and check out other You Capture - Sweet moments.

My brother and his wife recently moved back to Michigan after living for several years on the East Coast.  Now they live in "the D" - Detroit.  Now you may have heard that Detroit is a dying city, that no one on earth would want to live there.  Well, while there may be some who say that, many of the people who actually live there think that it's a great place to live! They are happy to be a part of the revitalization and rebuilding of the city.

My brother's new place is within easy walking distance of Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions), Joe Louis Arena (home of the Detroit Red Wings), Eastern Market, Greektown, Cobo Hall, and most of downtown.  They can catch the People Mover and get to most other key locations in the city within minutes.


During our recent Thanksgiving visit, we decided to go view the America's Thanksgiving Day Parade, one of the oldest and the 2nd largest Turkey day parade in the United States.  We walked through Greektown and over to the Compuware Building to grab some Tim Hortons' Timbits.  Inside the lobby, just across from the Hard Rock Cafe, was an amazing water sculpture.


We scouted our spot along the Campus Martius Park.  While we were waiting for the parade to start, I ventured over to visit the Michigan Soldiers & Sailors Monument. 

 

Then I spied this gem, just down the street.  It's the former State Savings Bank building on the corner of West Fort & Shelby in Detroit. It sits about a block from the Penobscot. How could I not grab a shot?!
After my brief architectural detour, the parade began...












The Fred Hill Briefcase drill team marched along.  Unfortunately we were not in the right spot to see them perform.  My mom has been a huge fan of this drill team for many years.





This marching band (I can't remember which one - sorry!) decorated their instruments in festive colors.







My sister-in-law works for the Skillman Foundation and actually walked the parade alongside their float as an apple tree.   Check out the float link above to read about how they made one Detroit boy's dream become reality.





As we made our way back to my brother's house, we passed several rose bushes in bloom... on the 25th of November!  What a great image for this lovely city which, despite everything, continues to blossom.