Eventure

Our church, Firewheel Bible Fellowship, had a big Easter event, Eventure, this Saturday. They had Easter egg hunts, free cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs and sodas, a petting zoo, bounce houses, and lots of games and prizes for the kiddos. It was a great time. Aiden absolutely LOVED the egg hunt--he couldn't wait to start, and was ready for more, even after it was over.

After the egg hunt, it was on to the games. Bean bag throw, hoop toss, fishing for prizes, basketball, a cake walk, and more. He racked up a ton of prizes, filling his basket with candy and goodies.

After games, we ate dome hot dogs on a sunny patch of grass, then ran over to the petting zoo. Aiden was in animal heaven. For a long time, he just stood outside of the corral, watching the goats animals roam around. There was a baby zebra, goats, Shetland ponies, a pig, chickens, bunny rabbits, and a turkey. Finally he decided he was ready to go inside the corral. He grabbed a brush and began grooming and petting all the animals. "You are so CUTE!" he would proclaim in his high-pitch voice, the tone he reserves for small babies and animals. Then he discovered the joy of feeding the animals from his hands and giggled with delight as the goats and ponies nibbled from his hands. At one point, another boy in the corral began feeding the zebra, but with his hand closed tight around the straw--and the young man quickly learned to listen to the countless adults around him that had told him to feed the animal with his hand flat! The zebra didn't break the skin, but he did give the poor kiddo a big bruise, and Aiden, who witnessed the whole ordeal from close-by, couldn't have been bribed by a thousand pounds of chocolate to feed the zebra after that!

Brad and I finally managed to drag Aiden out of the animal corral, and after a few squirts of hand sanitizer, he was ready to hit the games again. He won a ton of candy AGAIN and then raced over to the fire truck and police car to check them out. He pretended to drive the fire truck, then raced over and hopped in the back of the police car, proclaiming that this was where the bad guy go when they go to jail. The officer gave Aiden a badge sticker and let him poke around in his car, even check out his big ol' gun. But of all the buttons and gadgets in the vehicle, Aiden, true to form, was most impressed by the spare tire in the trunk. "Wow! A tire! COOL!" Brad and I couldn't help but shake our heads and laugh.

After exploring the emergency vehicles, we went back to grab a couple more hot dogs, hoping that the bread and meat might soak up some of the sugar floating around in Aiden's stomach. By this point, he'd enjoyed 2 small bunches of cotton candy, 3 lollipops, 2 mini packs of M&M's, Nerds, a cupcake with a mountain of frosting, a can of root beer, jelly beans, some gummy teeth and some Skittles, so we were in sugar overload. We scarfed down our food and hit the road for home, crawling into bed for a family nap.

We had a great time at Eventure. This is just one of the many reasons we love our new church. We've been going to Firewheel since October, and Brad and I have met a wonderful bunch of people and have finally found a great church home. They really do a lot of fun events for families, they have great childcare and an awesome ministry staff, and they have welcomed us with open arms, even asking Brad and I to serve on a leadership team for Stage 2, the singles/young marrieds/families with small kids ministry. This has been such a relief for Brad and I--after years of wandering around and never really finding a church we loved, it is nice to find such a great place.