VBS

We had Vacation Bible School at our church last week. Several months back I agreed to help with decorations. Who knew that "helping" with decorations would turn into doing a lot of it myself. Quick caveat, I had help. I was a co-director with Kate Jacobsen. We tag teamed pretty much everything you'll see. We had a few work days, and had people help us with execution - but we were intimately involved with every little thing. It was a lot of work - more than I thought it would be. But it was so fun and the kids had a blast!

The theme was Amazing Wonders Aviation. Essentially, flying around the world to discover all the wonders God created. So we had the Matterhorn, Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, Victoria Falls, Northern Lights and Paricutin Volcano. We decided to turn each room into one of the wonders. The sanctuary was turned into a hangar. It all came together so well!! We spent very little money as most everything was used with donated items or things we had laying around. 

All the signs were made to look like airplane propellers 

The Hangar was probably my favorite. That large grey mass was Kate and I's brain child. We took old refrigerator boxes and cut them up, painted them, then pieced them together to shape a hangar. A friend then built a wooden frame to let it stand up. SOOOOO cool!

This plane was my bright idea. I had help making it, and in the end it looked so cool hanging from the ceiling of the sanctuary. It was not easy putting it up though. Who knew the church had a cherry picker!

We were struggling with how to build a mountain with our limited supplies. Our friend had the brilliant idea to make it a silhouette. Thank you Pinterest!! I printed out the picture, lined it out, then lined out the sheet to match. Then sketching it in was easy! Of course, I had help with painting that one too!

I don't have the sign so let me explain - this is the Grand Canyon. Probably the bane of my existence for the few months we were planning. Kate and I could not figure out how we were going to make this work. Eventually we settled on rolls of brown craft paper with torn edges and layers of construction paper behind. The "rocks" are just grocery bags turned inside out, and the "river" is a plastic table cloth. We think it turned out pretty good!

The other hallway was done in lighter colored paper. It looked nice too, but ended up matching the walls more so it wasn't as striking. We had help from some very dedicated high school kids to put this up. So grateful for tall boys!

Our hospitality ladies made a little sitting area where they served coffee and fruit/pastries for moms (or dads) to sit and relax after drop off. I was amazed at the number of moms that would just sit and chill for a while. I know I would if it were me!

I love this chest, and another friend made this sign. I had it painted by another lady, then I had to assemble it with bolts. Who knew I could wield a mean power drill!

This room was another challenge as well. It was a huge room, with a ton of wall space to decorate. We had a decorations work night and got this whole room done in one night!

This was one of my favorite rooms. I didn't get a picture with the lights off, but the wall just glowed. So cool!

 This was the one room I had nothing to do with. Two other ladies worked together to get Victoria Falls done and it was awesome! You'll see Amy doing one of her bible stories below. 

We had 177 kids registered. Only 68 of them were from our church. How great is that! It was a fun week, but I think I'll need to whole year to recuperate before I consider helping out next year. Oh, and the theme for next year?? Amusement Park. Yeah...that's gonna' be interesting!