Rally Day and Girls' Night

As a new year of Sunday School began at church this month, we held a Rally Day to get things going and bring awareness of the program to the community around us. This event ended up being a church-wide "involvement fair", bringing people from every group, family, church and school into one location for the day. Not only that, but we made some money, too!

It started out with a donated "dunk tank" from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in exchange for a booth at the rally.

With what we thought would be a partial donation from them, Elizabeth and I approached the Men's Group to ask for the remaining balance.

After all, she had already agreed to have a booth set up for Relay For Life; our church enters a team every October (for more info visit www.acsevents.org/relay/ca/simivalley/larabaas).

However, since we rented the dunk tank from one of the youth members, the cost was way down, and the Men's Group contribution ended up covering food costs.

In addition, the Women's Group agreed to host a "Cake Walk" in exchange for a booth displaying their wares...yumm, free trade coffee and chocolate--delicious and socially aware!


Sharing the Men's Group table was Altar Guild, the silent but important women who set the Lord's Table each week and keep the Sanctuary looking beautiful...we REALLY need a few more angels to help us out next year...there aren't a lot of thank yous, but the work is very gratifying.

With all this support, we couldn't help but make this a huge success. At $5 a person, $20 a family for lunch, our guests got a hamburger/hot dog fresh off the grill, a bag of chips and a drink. Tickets for entertainment were cheap, and offered a choice of Face Painting,

T-shirt Tye-Dyeing, a chance to dunk the Good Shepherd Lutheran School Principal, our Youth Director, Elizabeth, or our Pastor, Gary, in the dunk tank,

Fishing For Candy, or Turkey Bowling (knocking over 2 liter soda bottles filled with sand with, you guessed it, a turkey). Candy, our church secretary, provided a "slushee machine."

We honestly hoped to just break even on the event, and ended up raising a ton of money! Thanks to everyone who made our day such a success!

The following week our High School Youth Group, LIGHT (Living In God's Holy Truth), had their inaugural Girl's Only event. As the group has been growing (yay, God), the opportunities to celebrate small groups have been dwindling. Breakout groups such as Girl's Night and Senior's Group will be a great chance for specific youth to gather to discuss specific needs. Anyway, back to GIRL'S NIGHT!!!

After the weekly meeting of LIGHT, the girl's gathered in Eichele Hall with the Women's Group for some sisterly devotions and Brownie Sundaes :) Then we packed them into our cars and surprised them with a slumber party at Elizabeth's house! And they thought we were going to sleep on the floors of the drafty youth room--no way! We made aluminum foil crowns for ourselves, because, after all, we are all princesses. Our Father is the King of Kings!



Next the girls cut up magazines for pictures that reflected both how they see themselves and how they think the world sees them. We had an interesting discussion about it after...great girl talk :) oh, and fabulous treats!




The next morning (no school, Rosh Hashanah) we woke up to egg hot dish, coffee cake and fresh fruit. Then it was back home to real life, but with a few stronger friendships close to our hearts.

Sprinkle Soup

Ingredients:

1 12 oz jar caramel ice cream topping (find strong adult to open)

1 c. Kellogs Rice Krispies (approximate amount based on desired consistency)

3-4 handfuls of marshmallows (4 year old hands should be sufficient)

several shakes of colored sprinkles

Directions:

Wash hands. Place medium bowl on table and empty caramel ice cream topping in. Add Rice Krispies slowly, stirring constantly. Stop when desired consistency is reached. Add marshmallows by the handful. Small hands work best, and help control desired amount. Now for the topping: the colored sprinkles should be distributed evenly and heavily. All cooks should be allowed equal amounts of "shakes" to ensure fairness. Your Sprinkle Soup is now complete. This recipe yields HUGE smiles but may induce a diabetic coma. Taste responsibly.

Sprinkle Soup was created at a Dairy Queen in...???...on the way from Iowa to the family cabin in Colorado. I was sharing tastes of my caramel with Josh, Anna and Aleya in between licks of their soft-serve cones, and as my sundae neared the bottom, I commented that it had become "Caramel Soup." Eureka! The idea for "Sprinkle Soup" was born. It began as "Caramel Soup" but then quickly became "Princess Soup." The premise for "Princess Soup" was that Princess Anna and the Knightly Josh were entertaining a visiting Princess, Aleya, and would be serving the tasty dish. We assembled a list of ingredients, and it was thusly renamed "Sprinkle Soup." This makes it an "anytime" dish, one that you can serve to visiting princesses and family or friends alike.

One word of caution: If you choose to attempt this recipe or any like it, make sure you have an entire forest at your disposal after serving even a few tastes to your kids--it's basically 100% sugar, but also 100% fun!

Bon Appetit!