Last week, I was asked at church to do another backdrop, this time for their Christmas play, "An Unexpected Christmas"..a play written by Lifeway Ministries.  This play has a setting inside a train station.

I searched the internet and finally found an image of the inside of a modern day train station (which is actually much harder to find than I thought it would be! lol), and am using that as my reference photo for the backdrop.     I decided that I would paint the backdrop in the church this time, because last time I painted a backdrop in the house, it was really difficult tacking and retacking it, because the wall was too small!   The church has lots of walls that are perfect for working with something that large.

I brought the kids with me to church while I was painting...it was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday...so warm!  They played part of the time on the swingset outside of the church while i worked  (there was a window right beside me where I could see and hear them too, so that worked great).

Here is a beginning progress shot of the backdrop I'm working on:

I was at the church almost all day though, and they eventually wanted to do something else.  A few days ago, I had bought the kids some craft supplies so that they could make some Thanksgiving cards for the people at the local nursing home.  (I am hoping that this will instill a giving spirit in my children, as well as make some people at the nursing home very happy!).  I decided that while I was working on the backdrop would be a great time to encourage them to begin making their cards.

It was great that we could all be working on our own art projects at the same time  I was so impressed with their cards. They were so pretty! 

They made 28 cards in all...here is a picture of the stacks of cards as they first began piling up...


Bonnie's....


Noah's...


Caleb's...




Since they were able to get so many done yesterday, this afternoon we all went to the local nursing home, and gave these out to the people there.

The kids took turns handing their own cards to the people in the lobby, then we knocked on the doors all down the hallway and they gave them to the people there too.   The kids stood at the door to greet them all, saying,  "Early Happy Thanksgiving! We made these cards for you!"   You should have seen the faces on some of the elderly people there. They were so delighted to have them visit....

It's funny, almost every person there had a jar of candy in their room, and told the kids to take a piece whenever they left.   One man even fished into his wallet and gave all three of them one dollar each.   They were thrilled!

The thing that I think was the best part was when Bonnie and Noah would give out hugs to the ladies there. I think that meant more than anything.  One woman told me that there was nothing better than getting a hug from a child, and that this had made her day.  

It was such a good day.   The kids told me that they want to go back when it is Christmas.