St George and The Dragon

        Recently, the families of Raphael House were able to join together for a fun-filled evening of story telling and treats. Sept 29^th marks the celebration of St. George’s defeat of the dragon, and, as is tradition at Raphael House, we put on a play to tell the story. The families were able to sit back and relax while the Live-in Community donned medieval costumes and acted out the narration.

The story follows a king whose village is being tormented by a dragon, with no relief in site. After leaving his daughter, the princess, tied to a tree as a sacrifice, the king flees back to the village. While she awaits her fate, the valiant St. George appears to free the princess and defeat the dragon.

After fighting the dragon back to its cave, St. George tames the dragon and frees the village from its evil grasp.  The short play, while fun and exciting, carries an uplifting moral: with God’s help, we all have the ability to conquer the inner dragons that weigh us down.

Following the show, smiling faces surrounded the dragon which led to photo ops and the kids trying out the costume themselves.  The families were able to unwind later with desserts they had prepared the previous week as the children colored pictures of their favorite parts of the story. It was an enjoyable night for both the families and staff.

Jelly Beans For Me Please

This weekend the ChildReach team was off to the Jelly Belly Factory in Vallejo and we had a pretty SWEET day.  The Jelly Belly Factory is a real, working factory and the tour led us through the whole place.  We saw from above all the equipment that is used to produce each little delicious jelly bean. 

We learned the history of Jelly Belly, and even how Ronald Regan loved jelly beans, and used to pass them around during meetings when he was California Governor.  He loved jelly belly so much that is was forever remembered in his very own jelly bean portrait.  

We had a great afternoon learning about how jelly beans are made.  Did you know that there are four stages to the process, and that each jelly bean is polished and stamps before leaving the factory?  The tour was a fun way to see a real factory at work.   There were conveyor belts, machines and even robots, who danced for us!  But the best part of course was the jelly beans.  The sample bar after the tour was filled with every flavor jelly bean.  Even some truly gross flavors like pencil shavings and skunk.  Ewww... 

We had a great time at the Jelly Belly Factory and look forward to our next visit!!

Winchester Mystery House

This October, a trip mysterious Winchester Mystery House was just the right way to kick off the month.  The house is a great piece of Bay Area history and the kids got the unique opportunity to learn not just about Mrs. Winchester and her house, but also how the area has been changed by historical events such as the 1906 Earthquake.

The story goes, that Sarah Winchester, after the deaths of both her young daughter and husband, consulted a psychic who told her to move out West, buy a house and build on it, but never finish.  The psychic explained the reason her family had died was the spirits of all the people ever killed with the Winchester Rifle were punishing her.  So Winchester moved out to San Jose, California and turned an 8 room farmhouse into a 160 room mansion that is now visited by thousands of visitors every year.  The house comes with stairs that lead down to go up, doors that lead to walls, and even a door that leads to nowhere.

  Our group got to see the house, which was remodeled over 600 times while Mrs. Winchester was alive, along with the behind the scenes places like the stables, agricultural buildings, and even the basement.  What a treat to see how such an eccentric person lived and the piece of history she created.

And what Raphael House field trip is complete without a picnic lunch? And perhaps a little swing competition...