What an awesome week we had at Immaculate Conception Church for Vacation Bible School! This year we moved out of the school building and into the St. Anne’s Convent and Parish center…the kids loved being in a new environment and especially going up and down the staircases to see where the nuns used to live!
I decorated the front of the old convent with the panda face we put on the kid’s t-shirts
The Pandamania theme was darling and the setting in the big room was inside a bamboo forest with pandas. There were lots of huge butterflies floating and spinning overhead, a bamboo forest surrounding the area with Chinese paper umbrellas, flowers, vines and pandas. To make the huge butterflies, I cut out the shapes from butcher paper and painted them with acrylics. For the body, I did the same with butcher paper but hot glued a bottom to it, then stuffed it with paper to give a 3-d effect. I hot glued dowel rods on the back like a kite to keep the wingspan full so that the air conditioning vents would blow them about.
Here’s the panda t-shirt design. 
I created vines with twisted green painters paper and hot glued the paper pandas and paper flowers I saved from the school’s grandparents day and hung them from the third floor landing.
Room signs were painted on bamboo placemats…
I put down bear paw prints to lead the way up the many flights of steps…the building went up in 1876!
Lots of vibrant colors in the paper Chinese lanterns and umbrellas, paper flowers and butterfly nets.
Panda Pete and Patty danced along with the kids
We were blessed with great volunteers to help guide the children. Thanks so much to Surennah for her leadership!
