Lightening Online

In early November our church held it’s annual Strawberry Fete. An event that is anticipated by many near and far. It’s our most regular fundraising event as well as being a community outreach.

This year was particularly significant. It marks 100 years since the settlement of the area (I hope I have my history facts right here). There was once a town planned in the area not far from the church but casualties at war meant it never eventuated. The church itself isn’t quite 100 years old but a number of our members wanted to celebrate the milestone for the area.

The main part of the Strawberry Fete is the concert. We happen to have quite a lot of talent in our congregation which is one of the reasons so many come to the event. We also have a significantly sized Sunday School and the children put on many different acts through the night.

The great thing about kids is it doesn’t really matter how well they perform on the night, they always look cute and make everyone laugh.

I have no idea WHY it’s called a Stawberry Fete other than the fact that we sell Strawberries and Ice Cream as part of the fundraising efforts. We also buy one another’s cooking (cake stall/trading table) and sell things like lucky dips for the kids.

It’s always a fun night although quite a bit of effort in the lead up with getting organised, rehearsals, finding costumes, setting up and so on.

We always find the night goes in a blur of costume changes and trying to locate children in the crowd. I usually miss at least half of the concert and taking photographs as well as some video footage is quite the challenge, even with DH’s help.

Anyway, here are a few photographs that I did manage to take:

I’m a bit disappointed that this is the only photograph I managed to take which has Trailer Boy in it. I was busy with costume changes and Farmboy was busy with the video camera. At least we have video footage of him though. This shot shows our 3 year olds to the end of Primary School. For a church in the middle of nowhere, we are well known for the number of children we have.

Our resident drama teacher did a hilarious Kylie Mole skit. 4 kids later she still fits into her high school uniform. Can I call her a rude name now? I didn’t even keep my year 12 uniform.

Lleyton was a Police Sergeant in an overdramatised, local version of A Country Practise (and a take off of Aussie Soaps and Dramas in general):

And the highlight of the night (not to take away from the boys efforts but this was a big moment for Singstar Princess). Singstar Princess made her debut in performing. The poor kid got sick the day before the concert and we weren’t sure she’d be well enough to follow through. Then she had a slight attack of nerves on the night and we thought she was going to pull out. She didn’t though. She got up there and even coped well with a microphone mishap (changing microphones part way through her first solo segment). Here she is singing with another adorable Princess who did such a good job of mentoring her through the process. It was so precious to watch.

They sang “Start of Something New” from High School Musical. The pity of it was that because the concert was organised into decades, it was really late when the poor mite had to get up and sing. Anyway, she did so well and I was so proud of her for even giving it a go.

The night went well (albeit late) and I feel very blessed that my children have these opportunities to perform and develop their confidence on stage.