Fairies and Disney World

I was starting to think the fay had decided not to join us this year. A long cold winter was followed by a crazy heat wave to start off the summer. Its rained (a bit) this month. We finally saw our first mushroom last week. And now there are even more. Welcome home fairies, you have been missed.

The final payment is in. The count down has begun! 44 more days until we leave for the World. Disney, here we come!

New Harry Potter Movie

I actually saw this the weekend it came out. All the credits are saying that this is the best Harry Potter to date. I would revise that and say that this is the movie shows the best performances the young stars have given to date. It wasn't my favorite movie in the series, but it also wasn't my favorite book so I don't know that you can really blame that on the director or script writer. Its an odd part in the story. The transition from the exposition to the climax. Its hard to make that stand on its own on film or in print.

I'm not one who goes to movies and expects to see the book I read on the screen. For one, no two people read the same book. The best part to me, might be droll to you. Still, when you have experienced both stories its hard not to make comparisons.

Over all I think the director David Yates and the script writer (whoever s/he is/are) did a great job of squeezing in the volumes of information that are necessary for the audience to have if the ending of the final film is going to make any sense to them at all. This is a giant feet. Not only because they are dealing with an over 600 page book, but also because so much of the story was left out of the previous movies. I will also give them props for how they developed the relationship between Ginny and Harry. One that score I think they did a better job than Rowling. Unfortunately, if I am going to be picky, I think they could have done a lot better job with Ron and Hormine. In the books, this relationship has been obvious since Harmonie dated Victor Krum in book 4. Unfortunately, we don't have the full advantage of this back story so to people who have only ever seen the films it was rather random and forced and I would have to agree.

Now for my major complaint. And this is the thing that killed the movie for me. As I said, there was a lot to get through in this one. It was long. There were a lot of long conversations that contained mountains of information. It all felt like it was leading up to something. Something big. We felt the anticipation building. Perhaps I felt it more because I thought I knew what was coming. In any event, the ending didn't end like most movies end with a big explosive climax. The ending was more like watching all the air slowly leak out of a balloon. There was no battle for Hogwarts. Harry and Dumbledor come back to the school. Dumbledor is rather weakly confronted by Draco. He is killed by Snape. Draco and Snape run out of Hogwarts with a hand full of other Death Eaters. As they leave, one of them rather lamely (and randomly) set Hargid's hut on fire and all the students are seen standing rather stupidly around Dumbledor's body. The next thing you know, everyone is heading home. The End.

Like I said, I'm not one who thinks EVERYTHING in the book has to be in the movie, but to NOT have the battle? That was a very pivotal moment in the story. Not to mention it offered what this film completely lacked, a good ending. So no, for me this was not the best Harry Potter movie so far. I rank it third. Right after Order of the Phoenix and Prisoner of Azkaban.

Shatner Does Palin (07/27/09)

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Wisdom of a 10 year old.

Alex was sick this weekend. I meant she spent a lot more time hanging out with me than she has in the past few months. Usually she is outside somewhere or else in her room. But this weekend she was glued to the coach and had some really funny things to say.

While we were watching an episode of Dr. G: Medical Examiner they were talking about health complications from obesity and showing the standard file footage of fat people walking around various cities and malls.

Alex: Why do they always show the fat people's butts?
Me: I don't know.
Alex: Its hard to look someone in the face and say something mean about them.

We were flipping channels and saw footage of Micheal Jackson's hair catching on fire.

Alex: Is that Micheal Jackson? So his hair really did catch on fire. Gosh he was weird.

I was leaving to go teach Sunday school and I asked Alex if she was up to going.

Alex: No, I'm exhausted. I better stay here.
Me: So you want to clean up while I'm gone?
Alex: Do you even know the definition of exhausted?

I was watching a lecture on C-Span about Abe Lincoln.

Alex: Hey, isn't that the guy who broke into his house?
Me: yeah, it is.
Alex: He looks different when he's not yelling.
Me: I think we all look different when we aren't yelling.
Alex: I don't know, I think you look about the same.

We spent hours watching the Disney Channel and I couldn't take it anymore.

Me: Hey Alex, pick out a movie.
Alex: Okay, how about Hannah Montana?

We watched Emperors New Groove. I decided to use it in my Sunday School lesson and was trying to find an Old Testament story that talked about being humble.

Alex: Why do you have to have a bible story? Just say "Be nice or people will try to kill you."

Edit: I can't believe I almost forgot her request when I was going to the greorcery store...

Me: Want anything special for your lunches?
Alex: Yes! I want something that comes in its own thing. Its own bags.
Me: Like what?
Alex: I don't know. Just something that comes in seprate bags. Like you know chips that come in different bags or like cookies or something where they are in their own bags and not just all in a box.
Me: Okay. Well.. do you want chips?
Alex: No.
Me: Cookies?
Alex: No.
Me: What then?
Alex: Just something that comes in is own thing. I think I better come with you.

She did go with me and after a lot of looking she ended up getting a box of Nutterbutters that came in packs of 4. Who needs to eat 4 Nutterbutters in one sitting? I don't normally get her things like that, (a. because of the enviromental impack of seperate packageing and b. because I know that at some point I will eat 4 Nutterbutters in one sittng) but she had a crappy weekend so I figured, why not?

My life according to Jonathan Larson

I stole this meme from Peter's blog. You can read his answers here.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Re post as "my life according to (band name)"

I chose Jonathan Larson because I have his musical RENT completely memorized. Ten guess... which song is my favorite?

Pick your Artist: Jonathan Larson

Are you a male or female:
Daughter of Mother Earth
(from 'La Vie Boheme')

Describe yourself:
A lovable geek
(from 'Take Me or Leave Me')

How do you feel:
Best I've felt all year
(from 'Life Support')

Describe where you currently live:
neon and chrome
(from 'Out Tonight')

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
New York City
(from 'Santa Fe')

Your favorite form of transportation:
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
(from 'Christmas Bells')

Your best friend:
Sisters?
(from 'La Vie Boheme')

You and your best friends are:
We're close.
(from 'La Vie Boheme')

What's the weather like?
Hot, Hot, Hot, sweat, sweet ...
(from 'Contact')

Favorite time of day:
this moment
(from 'Finale')

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Moo With Me
(from 'Over the Moon')

Your relationship:
something as true as this is
(from 'I'll Cover You")

What is life to you:
An Impromptu Salon
(from 'La Vie Boheme')

Your fear:
Another empty life
(from 'One Song, Glory')

What is the best advice you have to give:
You can't quietly wipe out an entire tent city
(from 'You'll see')

Thought for the Day:
No day but today
(from almost every song in RENT)

How I would like to die:
like Thelma and Louise did when they got the blues
(from 'Today 4 U')

My soul's present condition:
I trust my soul
(from 'Another Day')

My motto:
No Absolutes
(from 'La Vie Boheme')

I read a lot...

... its true, I do. Now, there are several reasons why I do this. I enjoying reading. I find my life is structured as such that I have long stretches of time when reading seems like the only logical thing to do (especially since I don't own an ipod, iphone or any other modern time wasting devices). I also have to admit that I am addicted. Slightly. I am addicted to reading. When I'm not reading books I read blog posts and message boards. When I do stare out the window, I start reading signs. But more than just being addicted to the act of reading, I have been seduced by the idea of it. The promise that it holds. If one could just read everything ever written, one could acquire all knowledge. If I can just read the right books fast enough, I will know everything before I die. Its a very addicting idea isn't it? To know everything.

It is an addiction I have fought almost my entire life. At some point one does have to stop and realize that it's not going to happened. I always know this of course. Deep down I know that I will never know everything. There is a mountain of things the size of Everest that I can't possibly ever fully understand. Its always sobering to realize just how true that is. That part of my journey to understanding is understanding that the more I learn the less I know.

I had a dream last night. I dreamed that I was looking for the answer to a question. There was something that I desperately wanted to know. I knew the answer wasn't in any of the books I had ever read. So I was looking for a new one. But every book I picked up was one that I had already read. Different people tried to hand me different books, but I already knew they weren't the right ones. They didn't have the right answers. And then I knew that I had to just stop. I had to stop wondering, stop questioning and just go forward. I just stopped talking to everyone and started to walk off.

Then I woke up. I woke up before I found out where it was that I was walking to. I just know what direction I was going in.

(Not quiet as prophetic as I would like, but there you are...)

You're Gonna Make it After All...

See this lovely picture of Mary Tyler Moore concurring the big city and triumphantly tossing her hat into the air in celebration of her success? I think this is the mental picture I had in my head when I first got my job working for a big law firm in a really tall building downtown. Young, single girl out taking on the world one day at a time.

Things have deteriorated since then.

Today I got a reminder that I have a doctor's appointment coming up. My first thought? "YES! Half day off of work!" What does that say about the level of enthusiasm I have for my job? How crap does a place have to be for a person to say, "I would rather be siting in the Cancer Center, waiting to have my blood drawn", and actually mean it?

Sunday School Lesson - King Solomon

Note: I wrote the lesson, but I didn't teach it. From what I heard though, this story was new to most of the kids. I don't know if that is because our church tends to focus more on life lessons than the actual bible stories or if this has been ignored in the curriculum because of the whole "cut the baby in half thing." Either way, I think this is a story that should be taught if for no other reason than it is referred to time and again throughout English Literature. Any way... the lesson:

King Solomon
Verse: 1 Kings 3:16-28

As kids come in have them write down one thing to be used for a guessing game later. It can be an object, bible character or story, cartoon, movie, place, classroom object etc. Encourage the kids to think of as many different things a possible. You might want to add some bible things in there as well. As you teach the lesson, have a volunteer go through the papers and make sure that each one has something legible written on it and that it is church appropriate.

Joys/Concerns

Bible Lesson: Explain that during the history of the people of Israel there was a time when God appointed kings to rule over them. See if they know who any of the kings were (Saul, David and Solomon). Each King was known for different things. Saul was a great military leader. David was known for his faith in God and Solomon was known for his wisdom. A story in the bible tells us that when David died and Solomon was to become king God ask Solomon what one gift he would like to have. (Kind of like a free wish). Solomon could have asked for anything, power, money but he asked for wisdom so that he would be able to be a good king for the people of Israel.

Have them read the story from the bible. 1 Kings 3:16-28. (In the kids bible, it referred to the women as prostitutes. I'm not sure what is up with that. I don't remember that ever being part of the story. Anyway for this lesson the teacher just read the story out of her bible which simply said, "two women".)

Discussion: How did Solomon know who the mother of the baby was? Ask if they can think of anyone wise people in our lives today (Parents, Teachers, Ministers, President). Why is it important to have wisdom? (Make good choices, help to make wrong situations right)

Games: The bowl game (Lets see how wise you are!)

Rules: (Like the game Password) Divide into 2 teams. (you might want to have an adult sit by each team to be referee.) Place the bowl of the kids’ suggestions in the middle of the room. Each team will need to pick a representative to go to the bowl for the start of the game. When you say go, the kids at the bowl will each take one piece of paper with a word on it and return to their team. They will then need to describe the word or phrase (with out saying it) to their team. Once the team has guessed the word, another kid will go to the bowl and draw a new word. (Each team is allowed one pass). Every member of the team has to describe a word before anyone is allowed to be the word describer person for a second time. Once the bowl has run out of papers, the team that guessed the most words wins

Buy Nothing Challenge

I guess it's that time of year again because Chrunchy is hosting another Buy Nothing Challenge. Just in time too because I'm broke right now. I had to cough up the money to pay off the rest of our Disney trip that is coming up in September, plus air fair. Ugh.

Anyway, the hate I feel for shopping has always helped me to avoid buying things. In the past my biggest weaknesses have been books and eating out. Moving across the street has helped curb the book addiction, but I still eat out more that I should. So I am going to try really hard to not eat out at all in August. No resturuants and no fast food.

To be clear here are the rules as Churnchy posted them:

* No new clothes
* No new gadgets
* No new furniture or housewares
* No salon services
* No makeup
* No tools
* No whatever the hell else people buy

If there is something you just have to have, you can borrow, barder or buy second hand.

For more information, or if you want to join in you can find Crunchy Chicken's Challenge here.

Random....

You know those moments when you are minding your own business and you suddenly find yourself catching an odd bit of conversation? That happened this morning as I crossed the street. I passed two guys who were both dressed in suites and heard one saying to the other ...

"And that's why insects don't rule the world. Cause they are small and stupid and have no thumbs."

Blue Like Jazz in Review

So I just finished reading the Don Miller book Blue Like Jazz. I know that this was a big smash when it first came out in 2003, but when I tried to read it then, I don't think I got past the first chapter. It wasn't my fault really. Even though I managed to finish it this time, I only did so by constantly repeating the mantra "he has to be going somewhere with this." I was sure that, given the things I had heard people say, there had to be something wonderful on just the next page. But then I ran out of pages to read.

I have heard people say that this book was "mind blowing". That Miller had presented something never seen before in Christian literature. That his words would make you think of your entire life in a different way. After waiting through every page of the book, even those stupid cartoons, I can honestly say that the book sucks.

For one it reads like a series of blog post or worse, my high school diary. There is nothing wrong with blog posts of course, but reading them in book form just doesn't work for me. When words are bound together and sorted into chapters there is an expectation that those words go together in someway that lead to something. That there is at least one major point that the author is trying to make. Maybe Miller does make a point somewhere in his collection of journal entries, but if he did it was lost on me.

Another thing I didn't care for was his voice in general. He comes off as very arrogant. Very self oriented (which is odd since most of his book talks about how he cares about others), but worst of all, very fake. He is like those older camp counselors who are trying way to hard to fit in with the teenagers. It seems like every conversation he had with his friends took place while he was smoking his "pipe", in a coffee house somewhere or else listening to Patty Griffin. He tries to give his friends cool names like "Tony the beat poet" *barf*. After a while I had to check the copyright date thinking this must have originally been published in the 1990s. It was all very nauseating, but I was trying to give him a pass on that kind of thing. Until I read one of the last chapters and he mentioned Ani Difranco. Let me just say that I love Ani Difranco. When my friend "Tiffany the poet" (I call her that because she is a poet) introduced me to Ani when we were in college it changed my life. Literally. I think that is probably why I took great offense we he started out by saying "If Ani Difranco wasn't a lesbian I'd marry her." Well Miller, you are in luck because Ani isn't a lesbian. Anyone who has spent an ounce of time listening to her music and reading her poetry would know that she is Bisexual. Not only that be he quoted her to make the point that everyone just wants other people to understand them. The point he made is valid, but Ani's song he used to make that point is all about how she is going to be and do what she wants to do whether or not anyone else cares to take notice. So with that I concluded that he was, in fact, just trying to play the cool card all a long. After that, all his previous condescending musing just seemed like a pile of crap that I spent a good 4 hours of my life waiting through.

Okay, but beyond the horrible writing (the man can't write a conversational exchange to save his life) and the attempts to seem above it all, the book just seemed hollow. It left me wondering who the hell Miller is and what exactly it is that he believes. He loves to talk about how he is all liberal, and how he hates Bush, but theologically he seems to be one of the most fundamentalist liberals I have ever read. Its hard to tell though. The only thing I'm am really certain about his faith is that he thinks we should all be proselytizing, men are inherently evil and there is a Satan out to get us. But then he never tells us where those ideas come from or why he thinks those things. I guess he felt like he didn't have to explain his theology because his subtitle was "Non-religious thought on Christian Spirituality." He seems to take that as a pass to just muse about how being a Christian makes him feel good. He likes to throw around the term "Christian Spirituality" but he never defines what he means by that exactly. Not everyone is a theologian and I get that. But if you are going to talk about being a Christian and "falling in love with Christ" you need to give some sense of what you think that means.

Honestly, I'm not sure who this book appeals to. I think the only thing I got out of it was a vote of confidence for my writing skills. Hell, if this dribble can become a best selling novel... why aren't we all in the business of writing books?

So no, it didn't blow my mind. It didn't change the way I think about anything. I'm not sure what I was suppose to get out of having read the book, but any sense of Christian spirituality isn't one of them. I'm not sure what demographic this book appeals to. It was (is) a best seller so there must be a lot of people out there recommending the book to there friends. I don't know who I would recommend it to though.

*If you read this book and feel differently about it, I would love to know what it is that I missed.*

Sense and Sensebility

Chop Suey,

Edward Hopper, 1929

Since when did I become the Elinor in a world surrounded by Mariannes? When I was young I was a romantic. I promise I was. I think I still am. But more and more when my friends tell me about their relationships, I find myself saying, "break up with them". "Don't go there". "Why are you putting up with this?" They come to me excited about their one true love and all I see is another Willouhby. I am quite positive that some of them are, in fact, just deluding themselves. But they can't all be crazy. Can they? Elinor where is your heart?

And unless I plan on dying tomorrow, I need to stop using the phrase "when I was young." I think that phrase should be off limits to any under the age of 80.

Sunday School Lesson - Ruth

We made bread for this lesson because in the story Ruth is gathering wheat to make bread for her and Naomi to eat. And on a feminist side note... I was flipping through several children's stories to for ideas of how to tell this story. In three out of the four books I looked in the title given to this story had nothing to do with Ruth. While stories about David and Daniel have titles like "Boy killed Giant" and "Daniel was brave", I found titles of Ruth story that read, "Helping a Friend" and worst of all, "Boaz was kind". Girls don't have a lot of stories in the bible at all. When they do show up, I don't see why we need to make them into secondary characters.

Okay, rant over... here is the lesson:

Making Pretzels: We started with this to give the pretzels time to bake. We have 3 kids in our class with wheat and glutton allergies so I bought a wheat/glutton free bread mix from the store and followed the directions. I made the dough ahead of time, and made about two inch wide dough balls and refigerated them. Give each kid one piece of dough and wax paper. Roll the dough into a worm. Fold into the shape of a pretzel. Brush egg wash on pretzel and add salt if desired. Bake as directed (you can also use Pillsbury bread sticks for this)

Joys and Concerns/Opening Prayer

Story

Game: Balloon Sandwich
Rules: Ruth and Naomi were great friends. Ruth left her homeland to help Naomi. Naomi thanked Ruth when she helped her by gathering food. Now we are going to play a game of friend helping each other.
Form 2 teams then everyone will need a partner. The first two pairs will step up to the start line and face their chair 10 ft. away. Each pair will hold a balloon between them, back to back. They will have to walk around the chair and return to the start and pass the balloon to the next pair.

Eat pretzels

Closing: Today we learned that when friends love one another they care, they share, they help and they look out for each other.

Soul Sucking

There is something really soul sucking about working for a large law firm. Somewhere between the crappy mundane work and having to listen to lawyers carry on about how hard their life is, you start to feel like you aren't in the real world any more. When you have to sit and listen to HR try to drill into your head the importance billable hours you know that you have been sucked into an alternate universe. You start looking around for Keanu Rives.

They don't understand why I don't want to work more overtime. Why do I leave on time everyday? Don't I care about getting a bonus? The truth is I would love a bonus. But not if it means staying late everyday. Not if it means coming in on weekends. Not if it means sacrificing what little time I have to spend with my daughter. Because at the end of the day, I'm just selfish. I don't care about how much money the firm isn't making because I'm not at work. I only care about living the best life I can with the people I care about. Sacrilege I know.

They're At It Again

Up to date live coverage at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/09/iran-uprising-blogging-th_n_228454.html

They are out it again. After the brutal crack down on demonstrations it was starting to look as though the streets of Iran had gone silent. Not so. At least, not today. Today demonstrators took to the streets to rally in honor of the anniversary of the student uprisings of 1999. The police fought back all day, but the crowds did not disperse. Now that it is night in Iran, cries of "Allah Akbar" are being shouted from the roof tops once more.

self portriat

by Katy

A Special Kind of Stupid....

The bus ride home was crowed yesterday. I had to squeeze in between a woman on her cell phone and a homeless man. I got to hear two very interesting conversations. (Some names and information has been changed to protect the stupid).

First the cell phone woman:

"Yes, I need to speak to you about my credit card account. The number is ****************. My name is S-T-U-P-I-D Last name H-E-A-D. My address is **** Katy Freeway. No, K-A-T-Y new word F-R-E-E-W-A-Y. ... yes, that's right and the street address is ****. ..... Yes, I want to make a payment with my checking account. My bank is Bank of the Retarded. The name on the account is my name, STUPID HEAD. The routing number is ******* My account number is ********. Thank you for all your help!"

Second the homeless man:

"Stupid ass women giving out her information to the world. Now 50 people on this bus know where she lives and how to steal her money. What a Bitch. God Damn Christians. People think can do anything. Think they are the only ones in the world. Not right. Its not right. God damn it."

The homeless man went on to say a lot of other things that lead me to believe that 1) He was homeless and wondering about fresh socks 2) He was on his way to an AA meeting at a local church and 3) He regretted his choice to become a Christian last weekend because if he hadn't, he would have taken the women's information and used it to buy alcohol. And frankly, I think she would have deserved it.

The great thing is, I don't think cell phone woman ever realized that someone (even if it wasn't the homeless man next to me, it could have been the guy in the suit standing in front of me) someone on that bus could have been writing down or memorizing her information. Heck, I still remember what her name is, that she lives on the Katy Freeway and the name of her bank. I don't think she realized this at all because after she ended the conversation with her credit card company, she immediately called one of her friends to talk about a dress she bought last weekend. She was off in her own little world when she should have been listening to the crazy homeless guy who was mostly talking to himself about socks. She would have learned a valuable lesson.

I like Pie...

but I never would have thought that I would be making so many in such a short amount of time.

For several reasons, (wine and laughter) the pie I made on father's day didn't turn out right. I wasn't paying attention to the filling and messed the whol thing up before I even got to the hard part. The merigune. Since it was over before it started. I admit that I didn't really spend much time on the merigue. I was so disappointed with my work so far I just wanted it all to be done with. So instead of following deatiled directions I was given I chose the simpler "down home version" instead.

Whip egg whites and add sugar to taste.

I think this works best if you are a real cook. If you do this kind of thing a lot. If making a merginue pie for is like falling out of bed in the morning, this receipe probably works really well for you. I don't make pies that much. I'm more of a cake person. I needed more guidance. My pie fell flat.

No problem... take two.

I made another pie this weekend. This time I was more concentrated on the mergainue. I studied the detailed directions the night before. I was ready for battle.

This new receipe was awesome. The merguiue was beter. The peeks could were a little off, but the glaring problem was the filling. Instead of real choclote filling, we used my sister's no fat, no sugar filling. It was gross. Really gross. So there will now have to be a thrid pie. Not a problem though. I have left over crust sitting in my sister's freezer.

Happy Independance Day

I know I'm a day late. Here is a little poem by Ani Difranco.

Hall of Presidents: A Celebration of Liberty’s Leaders

Barak Obama, Hall of Presidents
Magic Kingdom, Disney World 2009

Disney imagineers have been hard at work, re-imagining the classic Hall of Presidents. I will admit that it has been years since I have seen it, but I am looking forward to seeing the new changes. They have updated the theater, sound system, animictroic figures and most importantly the film.

George Washington will speak for the first time, and Lincoln will recite the Gettysburg address. And following tradition of the sitting president's voice being heard, Obama will recite the oath of office and say a few words about the American dream. Of course, all 44 presidents will be on stage and be featured in the famous roll call.

The show isn't officially open yet, but all the reports I have seen coming out of the previews have been favorable. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, and not just to see the new president. I'm happy to hear that the focus of the show has shifted from the civil war to the office of the president. Its a unique position that has evolved a lot over time. I'm glad that story is finally being told in a great display of edutainment that mixes pageantry and robots in a way that is truly kitchtastic.

Hat tip to wdwmagic.com

Theropy of Tea

Tea Bag

by Michael Naples

You know those moments when it seems that everything is happening at once. The very earth itself has been turned upside down. But as you peer through the swirling colors and static noise of chaos, you find nothing much has changed. Not quit yet anyway. There is nothing left to be done. You must put the kettle on and wait.

Sunday School Lesson

I am going to start a new series. Sunday School Lessons for 3rd-5th graders. I have been writing lessons for this age group for years now and I am continually disappointed by the lack of original ideas out there. So this is to help anyone who might be searching google for lesson ideas. These are summer lessons so they each stand on their own. I try to use a little resources as possible, or use resources already available to my church.

Anyway.... first lesson.

Made in God’s Image
Verse: Genesis 1:26-28

Opening: Joys and Concerns/Offering

Game: Shorts and Mingle
Shorts Rules: We are going to start with shorts. Everyone starts in the middle of the room. I will name two things. You will have 3 seconds to join the group of the one you like best. First group will go to the back of the room and the second group will go to the stage.
Categories: Movies/Books; fancy/casual; Donkeys/Donuts; singing/ dancing; swimming/kickball; etc.

Mingle Rules: I am going to give you a category the first one will be FAVORITE CANDY BAR. Think about what your favorite candy bar is. Now you have 30 seconds to mingle and form a group of people who like the same candy bar as you. Its okay if you end up in a group by yourself, but if there are two separate groups of people who like the same candy bar it means you didn’t do a good job of mingling and you are out. GO!
Other categories: Toothpaste Flavor; favorite subject in school; Best vacation spot; favorite ice cream flavor

Note: The kids loved the mingle game. They didn't want to stop playing

Lesson: Even though God created each of us different in many ways, we are also alike in many others. Read the bible verse. The Bible tells us that we are all created in the image of God.
What is an image? Does being created in God’s image mean that we look like God? (The point: We are created to reflect God's love in our actions and our choices.)

Snack: Ice Cream Sundaes (we just happened to have the stuff left over from another event. You don't have to do ice cream, the point is to have the kids serve each other.): We had the 5th graders scoop the ice cream for everyone, the 3rd graders helped with different syrups and the 4th graders helped with sprinkles so everyone served someone else.