On Sunday evenings this summer, families from Central Christian Church in Waco are gathering for some Fun Family Fellowship experiences. The purpose of these evenings is simply to bring families together for Sunday Supper and to help them create some lasting summer memories with the other families in our church family (and the friends they invite!) Our most recent FFF (pronounced FFFFFFFFFFFF), was a total blast, despite a smaller group of families present!  There’s already talk about how we will improve upon this for next year!

MATERIALS:

1 Canvas per family (or individual)-we used 16″x24″, I think
Masking Tape (Actually, I think painter’s tape would be much better than the cheap masking tape)
Push pins
Washable paint in various colors
Water balloons & nozzle to fill
Large tarp or heavy roll of plastic sheeting (We used a 20’x24′ tarp this time, but would probably get a longer one next time)
Tent stakes to hold the tarp down in the grass
Hose

We shared a pot luck meal together since…well, we love to eat. For this meal, we all brought finger-foods/munchies/appetizers.

Before we pulled off the tape—they’ll take a few days to dry!

Good “clean” family fun!

After we ate, we handed out one canvas per family. They were encouraged to work together to tape a design on their canvas (some did their family initial/monogram, hearts, crosses, zigzags, chevron, etc). When they were finished with that, they turned their canvas over and put push pins through the back (so the sharp part poked through to the front of the canvas). Next time, we will also put masking tape over the back of the canvas to hold the pins in (we had a slight issue with some of the pins falling out causing a dangerous environment in the grass!)

To fill the water/paint balloons, water down your washable paint by mixing some water in each bottle to make it about a 50/50 mixture (you could actually make it less watery and it will work great, too). Then take the squirt top off of the washable paint and put the water balloon nozzle on the paint. Fill the water balloons with the paint/water mixture!

Once the families had each prepped their canvases, the fun continued outside. We had family members hold the canvases while other family members threw water balloons filled with 50/50 water & washable paint! For the 8 families present, we probably went through 150 balloons (or more—we didn’t count!) You may want to have families bring swimming goggles to make sure paint doesn’t get in little eyes!

After the balloon supply had been exhausted, our attention turned to the tarp/slip n’ slide on “the hill” on the church property. We added more washable paint, a touch of baby shampoo (makes it slippery), and sprayed the hose over the kids (and parents) as they slipped and slide-d down the hill over-and-over-and-over-and-over!

I can’t wait to hear how you might do this event with your church or other group! Post pics back here when you do!