Harvest Festival Fun

Saturday was the MOPS Annual Harvest Festival. Due to rain, we had to be inside for the event. Even with the rainy weather, I think it was the best Harvest Festival yet!

Why? For starters, one of the mentor moms had some great ideas for games and she even had some of the materials left over from a similar event years ago. Second, another mentor mom recruited people from her Adult Bible Fellowship to help us set up, clean up and run the different stations. We also had help from other mentor moms. All the help was wonderful and the different stations were a hit with the kids.

The mentor mom below is the one who had all the great ideas. Michelle and her husband also helped set up and clean up and organized the volunteers.

Of course, Wesley wanted a snake.
One of the games let the kids practice being the Good Samaritan by sticking a band-aid on the injured man. The prize? A band-aid! If you have preschoolers, you know how much they love band-aids.

The Fishers of Men game was a huge hit. The kids threw the fishing line and hook into "the water" and were rewarded with Sweedish Fish.

The "hook" was a paperclip.

This is the best picture I have of the Noah's Arc game. The kids tossed beanie babies into the arc and were rewarded with a pack of animal crackers (or pretzels for those with peanut allergies).
We set up our tent and teepee and connected them with tunnels but I forgot to take a picture of them. We gave the kids flashlights that said on the side, "Let your light shine for Jesus." Wesley told me the tunnels were his favorite part (they have been packed up in the garage for over six months).

There was also a temporary tattoo station.

We borrowed the popcorn machine from the youth. We also had juice boxes for the kids and coffee donated from Starbucks for the parents.

We were unable to get pumpkins donated this year so I bought flat foam pumpkins and the kids made their own jack-o-lanterns using glow-in-the-dark stickers. Originally, we had planned on putting the stickers on real pumpkins.

I was slightly embarrassed when we first put Wesley's costume on - he strutted around for a while showing off how proud he was to be Buzz Lightyear. Lydia was a little unsure about having her face painted.

It looked so cute but she quickly rubbed it off.

This little goldfish was so super cute!

My kids loved Simba!

We did a costume parade and gave out more treats. The kids paraded around twice while parents snapped pictures. I love seeing all the cute costumes.

So, I am so thankful that the event went as well as it did. I am thankful for all the volunteers who provided much needed assistance and all the wonderful stations that the kids got to do.