Hallelujah Night

01Nov

Posted by Andrea

Each year on Halloween night, our church hosts a fun evening for families. It’s called Hallelujah Night and features food, costumes, music, games, Bible stories and lessons, and of course lots and lots of candy! Now that Sweet Pea is four years old, she better understands what happens during Hallelujah Night, knows that the event will be great fun, and is eager to participate.

Baker 1 As we prepared for Hallelujah Night, I asked Sweet Pea what costume she wanted to wear. (I was seriously hoping we could put a costume together using what we already owned in the dress up box!) We watch a lot of Food Network and PBS cooking shows here, so I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Sweet Pea explained that she wanted to dress as a chef. The dress up box didn’t have enough matching items to allow her to dress as a believable chef, so I reluctantly decided to search the internet for coupon codes and order a chef costume from an online catalog.

The day I was planning to place the order, my Aunt Sallie called me and told me she had picked up “a little something” for the girls. Aunt Sallie refers to Sweet Pea and Sugar Plum as her second set of grandchildren and she is forever showering them with “a little something” special. I was thrilled beyond measure when she gave me aprons and chefs’ hats for the girls she’d found at a dollar store! (Yes, a dollar store!) Aunt Sallie had no idea I was about to purchase a chef costume and she just thought they’d be cute for the girls to wear while they helped me in the kitchen. Suddenly the costume issue was resolved and now even Sugar Plum could sport a costume!

On Hallelujah Night, I dressed each girl in her apron and chef hat, accessorized using a few kitchen items (mixer and wooden spoons) from the dress up box, and dusted each girl’s face with a bit of flour. For less than $3.00 both of my girls had adorable costumes to wear to church. That alone is well worthy of a great big Hallelujah!

Baker 2 Once at church, the girls joined the other preschoolers dressed as butterflies, princesses, firefighters, etc, etc, and paraded up to the front of the church to show off their costumes. Our older chef did this pretty well, but our young chef wasn’t really up for the task!

When it was time to announce prizes for costumes Sweet Pea won first place! I had a major “Mommy Moment” and wanted to do cartwheels up to the front of the church but I didn’t want to embarrass JT! So, I composed myself as best I could and escorted Sweet Pea up to the front of the church. She didn’t want to go up and seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the people clapping for her and staring at her, but when she saw she’d won a Veggies Tales DVD and a children’s music CD all was well!

This was such a great way to spend a Friday night. Once again JT and I had a fantastic time watching our children have fun! Now….if we could only figure out how to keep them away from the candy!