Upcoming Events for Kids at PBC

This Saturday, April 10th (tomorrow), we will have Parent's Night Out from 5:30 - 7:30 in the youth center. It is free, but donations are accepted for the youth. Tomorrow's dinner will include chicken tenders, french fries, cookies, and cool aid!

On Saturday, April 17th, our AWANA girls will sponsor a Mother - Daughter brunch at in the church's youth center. The girls will present a short program in honor of their mothers and a brunch will be served. Our special entertainment will be a fruit carving session, where we will learn how to make an edible arrangement.

This summer will be a busy one for me! I have a lot planned for the kids at church.

JUNE
On June 2, I will take the 1-3 grades on a bowling trip to Rivergate Bowl. The 4-6 grades will go on June 3.

On June 10, I will take 1-6 on a day trip to the Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, MS.  I really like this museum so I hope that it will be a good trip!!

I am really excited about June 13- 17th because I will get to attend Centri - Kid this year. That same week, the youth will be gone to Student Life Camp and the little kids will be having day camp at the church. It will be busy, but FUN week for everyone!!

On June 26, we will have a BYBC at an apartment complex in Natchez. Last year, we had about 75 kids come to that one so I am excited to see how many come this year! If there is a need, we will plan more events for this complex throughout the summer.

JULY
On July 1, the 1-3 grades will come hang out for lunch and games at (hopefully) the newly renovated Oasis (in the church). The 4-6 grade will do the same on July 6.

On July 8, I will take the 1-6 grades to the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans, LA! I haven't been to this museum before but it looks like a lot of fun!!

Last July, I decided that our youth needed an opportunity to see "the other side" of Natchez so after talking with several people in our church and with the youth minister, I started a Youth Missions Week. Last summer, the youth served lunch at the stewpot, worked at the Natchez Children's Home, and did yard work for some of our shut-ins at our church. The youth really enjoyed the week and so did the community. Therefore, this will be something that I will continue this summer. I haven't planned this summer's week so if you have any ideas, I am all ears! The YMW will be July 12 - 16.

July 19- 23 is my last week of summer since teachers have to go back to school the last week of July. I have a BYBC planned this entire week for the community around our church. This will be our "bible school." I just started looking at some curriculum and I am very excited about the possibilities this week will bring!!!

To wrap up the summer, we will host a back to school swimming party on August 1.

I have a lot planned this summer and I hope I survive!!

Children's Ministry - warning: this is a LONG post. sorry.

I have had the privilege of being the children's ministry coordinator at Parkway for about a year now. I have done this off and on over the past few years, but started on a part-time, year around basis last May. It has been wonderful. I love planning children's events for the church, especially meaningful events. Here are a few things we have done in my first year at the church.

SUMMER 2009

Last summer, instead of doing Bible School, we went to different communities around town and did block parties on Sunday evenings. They were wonderful! At the block parties, we have a bible study, craft, moon bounces, and food! We had a lot of people come to these events and we all had a good time! Below are some pictures of the kids (and adults) enjoying the block parties!

We also took the kids to the Louisiana Arts and Sciences Museum in Baton Rouge, LA. It was SOOOOOO much fun! I actually got to bring my 5th graders there this year and they had equally as much fun! I recommend everyone go, if they haven't already! 

To wrap the summer up, our older kids went to Centri- Kid at Mississippi College in Clinton, MS. They LOVED it! We are going back again this summer. Due to the fact that I am a teacher and we have to go to work the end of July, I wasn't able to attend last summer. Therefore, I have no pictures to share. While the older kids go to Centri- Kid, the younger kids stay at the church for day camp. Each day of day camp, the kids have a worship time, a bible study, make a craft, eat a snack, and go on a field trip. Our favorite field trip spots are the bowling ally, a carriage ride around downtown natchez, a visit to a swimming pool, and The Natchez Indian Village!! 

In September, we started a new ministry at the church called Parent's Night Out. We have PNO the first Saturday of each month from 5:30 - 7:30. This is a way for our Sunday School departments to have outreach events and socials without having to worry about getting a baby sitter. The event is free but we do take donations. Our youth work the event and the donations are used as a fundraiser for their summer trip. PNO also provides each child with a bible study, craft, and dinner. The kids seem to have a lot of fun, as do the youth. Here are a few pictures - I apologize for the side ways pictures. 

In October, we normally have a fall fest in place of halloween. However, we have hosted a fall fest for so long, it was becoming a bit monotonous so this year we decided to try out Trunk or Treat. In case you are not aware of what Trunk or Treat is, I will briefly explain. You have member of your church decorate their car and themselves in a certain theme. We arranged the cars in one of our parking lots and made a little pathway around them. The kids travel the pathway playing games or hearing stories at each car, and of course receiving candy. We had 30 cars that participated. Along with trunk or treat, we also had a section designated to Slime Time Games. We have 10 slimy, gross games for the kids to play. We also served hot dogs, popcorn, and cotton candy. Below are a few pictures from the event. 

For Christmas, we saw the opportunity for us to provide the families in our community with an event to share the Christmas story. We called this The Tour of Bethlehem. As the families entered, they were taken to the census room to register. After a group of 20 or so gathered, a tour guide led the group through a tour of our different rooms. Here is what a tour looked like. Stop 1 : A tour of bethlehem. We had this room set up with different things you would have found in Bethlehem; i.e. a farmer's market, a bakery, and a perfume maker. The kids were able to sample different foods and help make perfume, mosaics, and bread. Stop 2: Game Time. In this room, the kids heard the story of the Candy Cane and played a Christmas version of spin the tale on the donkey- where the kids had to decorate a christmas tree after being spun around 3 times. Stop 3: Crafts. We also order crafts from oriental trading. Stop 4: Bible Study. For this, we had our youth act out the nativity scene. They did a good job. Stop 5: Christmas cookies. In this room, the kids decorated Christmas cookies. Stop 6: Dinner. We usually do hot dogs, chips, popcorn, and cookies for dinners like this. After their tour was complete, the families were able to go home. Sorry I do not have any pictures for this one. 

For the spring semester, my focus was on AWANA, our Wednesday evening activity for kids. Awana is a program that allows our kids to learn scripture. You can read their website for more information. We planned several Saturday events throughout this semester. We brought the kids to several nursing homes in February to visit some of our church members and to pass out fruit baskets. We quickly found out how funny some of the kids could be, when they started telling the residents the jokes from the laffy taffy candy wrapper. In March, we took the boys to a fundraiser for St. Catherine's Wildlife Refuge, called Wildthangs. They had an archery exhibit, fun jumps, and other wildlife exhibits. They had a blast. Here are a few pictures. 

For more information on children's events at Parkway Baptist Church children's ministry, click on the link below. 

www.parkwaybaptistchurch.com/children

Chicken Taco Pizza :)

I made this a few weeks ago and brought some for lunch the next day. The two boys that sit next to me at lunch ALWAYS try whatever I make. They are in love with this pizza! They ask for it everyday!! They saw me putting recipes up during planning period yesterday and immediatly told me to write out this recipe. sooooo... here I am typing a recipe for chicken taco pizza, for anyone interested.

Pizza Pizza?!

1 pizza crust (you can make your own, or buy a can of dough from the store and roll it out)
1 can of green salsa (or you can make my tomatillo sauce from the Mexican Manicotti blog)
1 rotisserrie chicken, stredded
1 packet of chicken taco seasoning (or the packet of your choice)
1 block of pepperjack cheese, shredded

Special Gadgets
1 pizza tray ( i prefer to use the round ones with holes, because i like a thin and crispy crust - you can also use a pizza stone)

Roll pizza crust into desired shape (for me, a large circle).
Place shaped dough on pizza tray and bake on 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
While your dough is baking, take shredded chicken and mix in seasoning packet with a little bit of water (enough to allow the seasoning to coat all of the chicken).
Remove from oven.
Pour on a light coat of green salsa.
Place seasoned chicken on top of salsa.
Scatter cheese on top and bake for 10-15 minutes or until all cheese is melted and bubbly.

From here on, it's up to your imagination.
You can place lettuce, tomatoe, avocado, sour cream, etc. on top and serve, or just eat it as is (which i prefer!).

Serve with a tossed salad!

I need your help!!!

We are in the middle of renovating our children's department at church. We are pretty much done and now working on the decorating part. The walls are all painted and they are green, purple, and blue (actually the same colors and shades as the colors of my blog). I am trying to find some fabric to make curtains and maybe a few other things with. I have a large piece of fabric I bought a while back that matches, but I do not have enough to make all of the window treatments. If you know of a fabric that you think would match these colors and look great in a coed children's department, please let me know!!

Below are 2 links to 2 fabrics that I found on Hancocks. Let me know what you think, please!

http://www.hancockfabrics.com/search.htm?numHits=24&query=2992147&path=&x=19&y=10

http://www.hancockfabrics.com/search.htm?numHits=24&query=3111911&path=

A Small Taste.....

of my classroom. More to come as I remember to upload pictures. I have missed out on a lot this year. Mainly because I did not get a camera until Christmas so these are a few things from after Christmas! 

This is my partically finished door from January. We added a "let it snow" along with snowflakes with the kids names on them. The polka dotted border is the same print that you will find on everything in my room. I am a little obsessed with it! 

This is my late January, early February door. I am a gold and black blooded member of the Who Dat nation, so I had to represent. I painted the top part and the gold fleur-de-lis. We took the logo from the Drew Brees Foundation. The fleur- de- lis as the border are from the kids. Each student had 2. One had their name, the other was their prediction. We were working on predictions in reading class that week, so it was fitting. Along the outside of the door is a Martin Luther King "I have a dream" project they did as a writing prompt. 

My March theme was "Going Green for St. Patrick's Day." The kids wrote how they planned to "Go Green" on their clovers. I found the pictures on edhelper.com (one of my favorite websites!!). 

Mango Salsa (for Sarah Wells)

This has become one of my most favorite condiments!! I like to eat this on top of fish tacos, with cous cous, or as I did last night, on a blackened fish po-boy with a little pepperjack cheese and horseradish sour- cream sauce : )

Mango Salsa

2 mangos, diced
1 shallot (or 1/4 of a red onion), minced
2- 4 cloves of garlic (i like 4), minced
1 jalapeno, minced (with seeds, i like the heat)
a few pinches of cilantro, roughly chopped
1-2 limes (depends on the juciness)
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Add lime juice until all ingredients are evenly coated with juice.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with your favorite dish; i.e. fish tacos!

I've seen a lot of variations of this. Most people like to add avocado. However, I do not eat avocado so it will not be getting added to mine.

Mexican Manicotti

I tried out this dish a few weeks ago and it was supurb : ) I found a recipe that hinted at this idea but I didn't like all of the ingrediants. Therefore, I took the idea and created a recipe.

Warning: when i cook, i rarely use measuring utensils so i really have no clue as to the exact amount of anything... sorry. also, i love garlic and spicy so if you do not, you may need to alter the amounts of those ingrediants.

Pasta
12 manicotti noodles
1 pack of cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. container of sour cream
1 packet of taco seasoning (or fajita, chicken taco, etc.)
1 rotisserie chicken with all of the chicken picked off
1 shallot, diced finely
3 cloves of garlic, dices finely
olive oil
sredded pepper jack cheese (a mexican blend will do)
1 can of rotel tomatoes, strained

Tomatillo Sauce
8 tomatillos, in quarters
8 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 red onion, in chunks
3 jalapenos, in chunks
olive oil

In a small roasting pan, place all incrediants for tomatillo sauce. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake on 350 degrees for about 1 hour (or until all incredianrs are soft to touch). Add everything from roasting pan to a blender and blend until smooth (or chunky, if you like). Add salt and pepper, if needed. Set aside.

Boil manicotti in salted water until pasta is al dente.
Remove from stove and strain.
In a medium sauce pan, coat the bottom with a light layer of olive oil.
Add shallots and cook until translucent.
Add garlic and cook until soft.
Add cream cheese, sour cream, rotel tomatoes, and seasoning pack.
Heat until all ingrediants are happy : )(a little bubbly and all incorperated).
Add chicken and 2/3 of your shredded cheese to the cream sauce mixture.
It should be thick.

Now comes the fun part....
Stuff cream sauce mixture into the manicotti shells : )
Try not to break any of the shells.
Layer the manicotti in a 13 by 9 baking dish.
When all shells have been stuffed, pour your tomatillo sauce on top of the manicotti.
Sprinkle the last 1/3 of your shredded cheese on top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 or until bubbly.
Serve with Spanish rice and Mexican cornbread.



In the picture, you will see red sauce. We tried it out with a store bought enchilada sauce. It was equally as good. So, if you do not have time to make the tomatillo sauce, a can of enchilada sauce will do the trick!