Inspired by my local Chick-Fil-A, we invited littles to bring a stuffed animal to the Sunday afternoon CLUB345 & K2Club for a Stuffed Animal Sleepover at the beginning of Thanksgiving week.

Preparation:
* Registration form designed to clearly share this was for stuffed animal and not little people.
* Ordered sleep masks for party favors.
* Provided supplies for a holiday simmering potpourri for each participant.
* Secured roller cart for easy transportation.
* Name tags for our stuffed friends.
* List of photos to be taken.

Soon after the students left, we began rolling our stuffed friends all over campus to stage photos on one phone. It took about two hours. Once I edited the photos, I scheduled them on our closed McEachern Kids Facebook group every 20-30 minutes from 6pm-11pm, then at 7am-8:30am. The interactions on Facebook by the adults was often and hilarious.

The next morning, we greeted our friends in pajamas with donut holes, birthday cookie cake (our intern and photographer’s birthday was the previous Friday), and cereal leftover from the time-change Sunday cereal bar. So many opportunities for parents and kids to chat, play games, and share breakfast 9am-10am.

We took more pictures and lay hands on our stuffed friends to offer a blessing before dismissal.

Goals: Increased social media traffic, time for bigs to engage in holy play with their littles, bigs to learn their little’s church friends. All goals were met. Next year we’ll include the Ambassadors in the staging and photography.

“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.'” Psalm 122:8