This is a conversation between Ellen and Sarah.  Leah would be part of this conversation but she is sleeping…probably having nightmares.
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Ellen:  So, first, we took all of the music bells, sticks, and shakers to the kids house.  We waited in the living room for a while until I finally thought it might be a good idea to get some help and ask “where are we supposed to be?” — I believe what came out was “Donde musica?”  Well…that didn’t go anywhere.  We finally found out we were supposed to be in the ballet studio.  We were given a set of keys, but none of them were worked.  Not even the principal could find it out for several minutes.  When we eventually figured it out, all the kids (30 3-6yr. olds) stormed through the room and went straight for the closet, which was full of things I’m sure they weren’t supposed to touch – a large stick/pole thing, star wands, and hula hoops.  Leah (the music leader) started to pass out shakers to the kids.  They were supposed to shake them to the music, like she was doing, but instead they thought it would be fun to stick them down their shirts and throw them against the floor.  We tried to take them away, but that also concluded in a game of tag.  Since the shakers didn’t work, maybe some bells on sticks would do the trick to calm them down…um…yeah…no.  The bells were made into swords, hammers, and body parts.

Sarah:  I willingly (ok, I might be lying) joined the mass chaos when Megan came running to get me while I was painting to say the girls needed help with translating. On my way to the dance room, I refreshed my memory with how to say drums in Spanish and thought I’d be good to go. I opened up the door to the dance room, and immediately saw Ellen with a look of complete horror and terror in her eyes. My first instinct was to slam the door and run away, but Ellen’s helpless look made me face the music.  Leah told me to tell the kids to sit down in a circle and listen, but I thought it’d be best to first get the magic wands and big stick thing out of the boys’ hands.  After getting the sticks back, I simply looked around the room, took a deep breath, and uhhh….tried to prevent complete mayhem. It didn’t work.  My musical experience was not at all musical, and I’m just glad we made it out alive…although Kelly was missing a shoe for a while after.
Reason #2 (on this trip) I don’t want boys.
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Obviously this was a very stressful experience for us, but it was easy to see that the kids really enjoyed it – did we mention there was candy at the end?

Honestly though, it’s been fun to see how much the kids enjoy our presence here at Emmanuel Ministries.

More Musical Melodies with Ellen and Sarah tomorrow!