Although humans can’t gather at UUCPA, stuffed animals still can! The Stuffed Animal Sleepover happened at UUCPA the weekend of June 19-21, 2020.
The stuffie sleep-over began at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 20. Mr. and Ms. Bear were the chaperones, and Dr. Sharpie Ann posted photos of their activities to the UUCPA Facebook page. The stuffed animals did fun things all day, spent the night, and participated in the Flower Communion service on Sunday morning. Be sure to watch the Sunday service to see your stuffie!
Since Mr. Bear is the tallest of the chaperones, he climbed the ladder to tape up the sign. 
Dan took this photo of us ready to check stuffies in. 
Here are some of the stuffies waiting in their bags in Room 10 (they’re in quarantine overnight, just to be safe). 
Ms. Bear took a photo of me in my mask (which kept slipping down). Yes that’s Euler’s Equation, yes I’m a geek. 
Ms. and Mr. Bear ready to check in the stuffed animals. 
Another sign, and the check-in table. 
We made sure to wear our masks. (Not that we stuffies can get COVID, but just in case we could spread it to humans.) 
We slept late, and most of us didn’t wake up until Mr. and Ms. Bear came in with breakfast. (I had to climb on a chair to take this photo.) 
Everybody wanted hot chocolate, but I said that chocolate is bad for us dogs, so all the dogs said they would have peppermint tea instead. 
We all waited until everyone had hot chocolate before we started to drink, just to be polite. 
Here we are, starting to drink. 
As we were drinking our cocoa (or our tea), Ms. and Mr. Bear got the granola ready. 
Ms. Bear took this photo of me sorting through the photos on my phone. 
We’ve been having so much fun, I’d been forgetting to post photos! After brunch was over (we ate a LOT), we lit a chalice. 
Then we went around the circle and everyone got to introduce themselves. 
Momo had a Black Lives Matter sign, and a Rainbow flag. We talked about Juneteenth was yesterday, and Pride weekend is next week. 
As we got into the wagon, we kept talking about Juneteenth and racism. Cheer, who is a doll, explained how humans sometimes treat each other badly just because they have darker skin. (This is not something animals do, by the way.) 
Elephant is the biggest land animal in our group, so he said he’d pull the wagon. Some of the stuffies identify as LGBTQ+, so we brought the rainbow flag. 
Our first stop was the Infant & Toddler Room. The play equipment in the room is just the right size for us stuffies. 
Elephnat helped some of the smaller stuffies up the slide. 
Once they climbed up, they waited in line until it was their turn. 
Elephant was the last one down. 
Sticth and Angel played with construction blocks. 
Cheer and Ms. Bear, two of the oldest stuffies, sat in a rocking chair and chatted. 
Bear-Bear, Mr. Bear, Belinda, and Squeek worked on a puzzle. 
Here’s a photo of everyone playing. (I sat in the child care worker’s seat to take this photo.) 
On our way to our next stop, we met Dave, who was working in the garden. He showed us how one of his tools worked. 
We all liked watching him at work. 
Mr. Bear turned around and took this photo of me and the other stuffies as we went to Room 6. 
I sent my drone up to take this photo of all of us. 
When we got to Room 6, we opened the closet where the games are stored. Bear-Bear, Francis, and Elephant helped some of the other stuffies to climb up the shelves. 
Then everyone settled down to play games. 
Bear-Bear, Pengui, and Squeek played Parama Pada Sopanam. It’s a traditional game from India, and it’s a lot like Chutes and Ladders, except with stories about Hindu myths. 
Belinda, Cheer, Angel, and Mr. Bear played The UU Game. It was an old game, and kind of falling apart, but it was fun. 
Ms. Bear showed Dogga, Lady, Stitch, and Momo how to play Wildcraft. It’s another fun cooperative game where you get to learn about herbs. 
Raccoony, Francis, and Elephant played Eco-Flux. It’s a card game where the rules of the game can change. (When I got done taking photos, I went and played this game with them.) 
After we put the games away, some of us decided to color. 
There were some left-over coloring pages in the Main Hall. 
Mr. Bear passed out crayons. 
Everyone got to color a different coloring page. 
This is Momo’s second coloring page. 
Lady and Dogga worked together on this coloring page. (It’s my favorite.) 
The stuffies who didn’t want to color brought out the UUCPA Book Cart. 
Francis read aloud, while Ms. Bear turned the pages. 
Here’s another photo from my drone. My new friends and I are getting ready to take a nap in the wagon. I’ll have more photos fro you after our nap! 
Snack time! I sent my drone up for this view. There was paw sanitizer (also useful for fins and hooves). 
Mr. and Ms.. Bear had us sit in silence for a couple of minutes before we ate, instead of saying grace. 
We had eucalyptus leaves for Squeek, worms for the carnivores, and chocolate for the herbivores. (I told Ms. Bear that chocolate was a vegetable, since it is a bean that grows on a tree.) 
We ate a LOT of snack, then sat around and talked. 
It was time for a tour around the UUCPA campus. We ran into Carol, one of the Ecojustice Class teachers. She was tending a garden that the middle school kids had started. 
Carol took us over to the worm coposters to see some worms. 
Francis wanted to eat a worm, but Carol said they were needed in the composter. 
We went out front to look at the native plant garden. 
Here’s a group photo, with the labyrinth in the background. 
We looked in at the playground. We’re too small for this playground, so we didn’t go in. 
On our tour around campus, Pengui noticed some trash lying on the ground. “Oh no,” said Pengui, “I hope no one turns into Trashman!” 
Fortunately, Ecojustice Avenger appeared and got rid of the trash before Trashman could appear. 
We stopped in Room 9 to have a sing-along. Between Francis’ fins and Elephant’s trunk, they could play the piano for us. We found a song about animals. 
Then we sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” tha African American National Anthem, for Juneteenth. All the stuffies knew all the verses by heart. 
We visited Room 4/5, where the Sunday services are livestreamed. We admired the African American Flag on the pulpit. Ms. Bear told us that we would be sitting on the blue table. 
We found a rainbow flag, and all of us worked together to pull it up onto the table. 
We are looking forward to being in the Sunday service tomorrow, sitting on our rainbow flag. 
We went through the office to get to the Library. Angel, Dogga, and Squeek brought in the mail. 
Mr. Bear showed some of the stuffies how the photocopier worked. 
They made a photocopy. 
Ms. Bear told Mr. Bear that she thought they shouldn’t have made that photocopy. He apologized, and recycled the photocopy. 
We met the stuffies who live in the office. (I worked on BJ’s computer, which seemed to be having problems, but I didn’t have time to fix it.) 
Elephant said we should all go in to the Library. 
Mr. Bear and Momo found a book about Louisa May Alcott. She wrote a book for children called “Little Women,” and she was a Unitarian. 
Francis and Elephant looked through two books about religion: the Usborne “Encylopedia of World Religions,” and a feminist storybook called “Hide and Seek with God.” 
Ms. Bear, Racoony, Cheer, and Pengui looked through a Goddess coloring book. 
Belinda, Stitch, and Lady read “Who Are You? — The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity.” 
It truns out Bear-Bear is also interested in Black liberation theology, just like I am! We talked about the book “Is God a White Racist,” by a Black Unitarian Universalist named William R. Jones. We agreed with Jones’s humanist interpretation of soteriology. 
Angel, Dogga, and Squeek climbed the book shelves and found “The Kid’s Multicultural Art Book.” 
Then Ms. Bear read us all a story from China. 
Next we went to the Main Hall. The cleaners had moved all the chairs to one end. It was perfect for a game of Red Light, Green Light. Mr. Bear was “It” first. 
Mr. Bear caught Elephant and Cheer moving, and they went back to the starting line. 
Everyone was surprised when Ms. bear won the first game. Now we have to keep playing until everyone gets to be “It”! 
WE played Red Light, Green Light for an hour. Then Mr. and Ms. Bear led a short worship service. We lit a chalice. We sang “Come, Sing a Song with Me.”Ms. Bear told a story from the book “A bucketful of Dreams.” We had a moment of silence. Then we said the unison benediction together. It was very peaceful in the Main Hall.
WE played Red Light, Green Light for an hour. Then Mr. and Ms. Bear led a short worship service. We lit a chalice. We sang “Come, Sing a Song with Me.”
Ms. Bear told a story from the book “A bucketful of Dreams.” We had a moment of silence. Then we said the unison benediction together. It was very peaceful in the Main Hall. 
Then it was time to cook dinner. Ms. Bear organized us, so that everyone helped to cook, and to clean up. 
The food was really yummy. There was something for carnivores like me, herbivores, and omnivores. 
After we washed the dishes, we watched a Wallace and Gromit movie. 
I ran the movie from my laptop. 
Then it was time to wash our faces and brush our teeth. 
We voted that all the bathrooms would be non-gendered. 
We had to wait in line a while, but it was a chance to talk to new friends. 
Some of the stuffies’ humans said they had to go to bed right at 8 p.m., so we voted that we would all go to bed at 8. 
The larger stuffies slept under a comfy blanket. 
The smaller stuffies had a sleeping bag. As soon as I post this last photo, I’m going to go to bed!