The Way of the Wombat

Saturday afternoon was Messy Church, where we celebrated Harvest. Our story was The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

The crafts were a mixture of autumn/harvest ones and a couple related to the story more closely.

It was really busy - there were around 23 children, with their families, and so I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, but there are a few here of finished 'messy stuff'.

There was printing with vegetables and paint;



Harvest wreaths to take home and hang up;



To be honest that was definitely not the best one - some had a lot of extra colour, cut out leaf shapes and words, but then the little boy who did this one was 3, and was very proud of it.

The edible craft was to make a hedgehog cake. This one is the only picture and it is a bit out of focus, I'm afraid;



A chocolate cupcake with a spoonful of chocolate buttercream some edible eyes, a tiny bit of fondant for his nose - and then broken up Cadbury's flakes to make his spikes.


I made paper plate flowers to match the enormous flower that grew from the tiny seed. These were really simple, but a big hit!





There was also a chance to plant tiny seeds in a tiny bucket, but I missed taking a picture of these. And Lizzy had tiny painted hearts for each child to write on two or three things they are be grateful for. She then hung these on a simple tree, and it went into church for the service today, when she asked the adults to do the same thing.

Then everyone shared food - there were hotdog sausages in rolls, crisps, grapes, slices of apple, cheese cubes and pieces of cucumber, then chocolate cornflake cakes, chocolate brownies, and caramel cupcakes!

As some of you will now it was S2C's birthday on Friday - and we celebrated it quietly with a meal at an Indian Restaurant and a chat to D-d on the phone. I'm not sure what her gift to him is, as we are still waiting for it to arrive in the post! She says she ordered it about 2 weeks ago, so hopefully, any day now.... and it is a nice way to stretch the celebration

Then on Saturday it was Messy Church. One of the others was taking the pictures this week so I don't have a lot to share.

But we had good fun with our theme of autumn leaves. There were leaf prints, and cakes with autumn coloured leaves on them - I had children making autumn leaf brooches out of felt, and then the 'joint art' project was to make autumn tree hangings with real leaves.

Then we had thought about whether autumn was a happy time, or a sad time - would God see it as a happy time or a sad time? And a story looking at that question. Then the 'cauliflowers fluffy' song, a short prayer - and tea together. As always, it was a lovely couple of hours that flew past very quickly.

And here is a picture of the first of the autumn leaf brooches -




And the autumn tree hangings -



Aren't they fun?