Mystery Outing Goes On In Spite Of Stormy Weather

We had a special "Mystery Outing" for my Sunday School class yesterday that I went along on.  This is a fun event because the kids are not told ahead where they are going.  Normally we go to a park where we have a cookout, play some games, and then hike on hills and in between rocks in search of the "ice box" cave at Virginia Kendall Park.  This is the standard Kids Day Out day every year for those going into 6th grade in the fall.

Since it stormed and rained yesterday, it also became a real mystery outing for me.  The forecast was rain all afternoon and it started around 10 a.m.  That pretty much made it easy for those in charge to determine to use the rain plan instead.  What are they going to do that would especially fun for the kids for 5 hours? I was disappointed because I knew the kids would have really enjoyed hiking at Virginia Kendall; however, our summer interns who assist with children and youth ministry for the summer did a fantastic job on coming up with an alternate plan the kids really enjoyed.

As they arrived, they were invited to join in a game of "spoons" using popsicle sticks. Then they worked on creating a container to protect an egg from breaking when they dropped it from a balcony.  They came up with all kinds of different ideas.

We had hotdogs, munchies, fruit gummies, and veggies for lunch.  By the time we finished lunch, it stopped raining so we went in the van to a nearby park.  As we rode, we saw a group of 5 or 6 raccoons cross the road and go into the bushes--they were sooo cute!  (That was the highlight of the day for me!)  We went to West Creek  Park and the kids each got a list of things to try to find along the way as we walked on the path.  Then it started to drizzle again so we headed for the building where there is interactive exhibits about water.  There is also a big room with comfortable seating, large windows and a fireplace where we had a devotional on God's creation and why we were created.  It rained hard while we were in the building but finally let up.

The minister of children really was eager for the kids to be able to be outside so we started out once again.  This time, almost as soon as they left, it poured down rain again before all of our group even left the building.  They ran down to the other little pavilion to take cover.  By the time the ones left in the building borrowed some umbrellas to go rescue them, they were headed back the other way and got pretty wet.  They boys loved it!

Egg Drop Winners

Back to the church we went to do the egg drop. Two of the kids and one of the interns successfully dropped their egg hitting the target without it breaking.  We'll never know if Joshua's broke or not because he had it wrapped so tightly with painter's tape that he gave up trying to undo it.  My personal favorite was the one protected with playdough which was a winner (created by boys in picture on the right). 

First stir up the food coloring concoction

Then mix with bottle of glue

Then they made some slime using a whole bottle of glue, some water, Borax and food coloring. Some turned out very well and all the kids seemed to have fun making it.






 
The sun finally came out around 3:00 when we headed for Steak-n-Shake for milkshakes for everyone.  Two girls in our group never got their shakes until everyone else was finished so they finished theirs on the van heading back to the church.

It turned out to be a fun time after all!

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