One of the biggest events of my calendar year has just come and gone. I will admit that I’m still in the post-sleepover haze, but it’s a good haze. It speaks of working hard and giving it my all. The theme for our 9th annual sleepover was Winter Wonderland. It was a lot of fun to transform the building and make the theme really come alive.
Decorating is a key part of any gathering because it sets the vibe and tone for the event. We had white Christmas lights on as they walked into our main meeting space. These were left up from the Valentine’s day dinner the day before, but once we hung snowflakes and blue and white paper lanterns from them, you’d never know they were a leftover decoration. Our main space had snowflakes hanging from ceiling. The tables were decorated with alternating blue, white and silver tablecloths. The centerpieces were lanterns with flickering flame-less candles inside. We had two Christmas trees on stage with more white lights. The bottom of the stage was outlined in snowflake garland. Our background screen welcomed the girls with a snowflake pattern looped giving it the effect that it was snowing in the room. I love the details that go into making a theme come to life!
All our activities centered around theme. We had two crafts – one was a tissue paper mitten where they made a stain glass effect on a clear plastic mitten. We also had a station for them to decorate their own foam snowflakes. Each girl used jewels, markers and puffy paint to make a snowflake as unique as themselves. We had two game rotations. The girls got to do a snowball fight (crumpled paper, not real snow – we don’t have any of that around here) and play winter sports using the Xbox Kinect. Our final rotation was snack. Who doesn’t love a warm mug of chocolate on a cold winter day? We did a special treat and let them make their our mug brownies. It was a hit and the room smelled amazing! It’s hard to beat a recipe that allows you to have a fresh, hot brownie in a minute using the microwave.
Once the activities were all done and the girls were settling down, we had a great group devotion done by our School of Ministry intern, Nikki. She shared how we are all God’ s princesses and she got the girls really excited to read the scriptures she was sharing. They were all told how beautiful God thinks they are and how he made them just the way they are because he loves us. At the end of her lesson, each girl was given a hair clip that looked like a tiara.
After the devotion time, we split the girls up into two different rooms. The younger girls watch a short movie and the older girls watch a full length movie. Once the movies are over it’s bed time! We had a great group of sleepers this year, but that didn’t help me get more sleep. I usually can’t stay asleep for a full hour the whole night. Too many sounds to keep me awake. I feel responsible for all these girls so my ears are super tuned in. It’s all good though because I got a good long nap this afternoon.
The morning starts with waking up them – super chipper like – they all thought I was morning person! I had them fooled! We ate a wonderful breakfast of Costco muffins together and then it’s time to pack up and clean up. This one hour is the most transformative of the whole event. The building goes from being completely overrun with girls to totally empty and clean. It’s like we were never really there!
I’m still getting my pictures downloaded, so I’ll share a few in the days to come! It was another great sleepover and I’m so blessed to serve these young ladies and their moms. I’m also so beyond blessed by all the leaders who came alongside me and helped to pull off this giant party. This is team effort! I certainly couldn’t have done it alone!
Amy Scott's Thoughts 