We had a little longer in bed today and had plenty of time for breakfast before walking to the coach park, where we were greeted by our youth helper friends. We shared the coach with another group from the Royal Navy. Our destination this time was Hosanna House, which belongs to HCPT; it has a beautiful chapel, activity rooms, bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a lovely terrace with an amazing view of the mountains.
We were greeted by the Easter Bunny, who was very popular with some of our little stars! We went straight into the beautiful chapel to celebrate Mass. We listened nicely to Fr PJ and accompanied the singing with our musical instruments. It was lovely to see the mountains and sky through the enormous windows while we were praying.
After Mass, there were lots of different activities to choose from; some of us chilled out in the sensory room, some played outdoor games on the terrace, others played indoor games, and two of us had our faces painted - Spiderman and a monster this time! We even has a portion of chips each from the enormous kitchen! We had just enough time to visit the shop before getting on the coach back to our hotel.
After lunch, we walked down towards the Grotto and stopped off to buy an enormous candle - it was bigger than some of the grown-up stars! We took the candle to the meadow, where we were given stickers, with our names on, to colour; we also wrote the names of our families and friends on stickers. Two grown up stars wound blue and yellow ribbons round the candle. When we were all ready, we sat quietly while Fr PJ blessed the candle and invited us to each come forward and put our stickers on the candle. We prayed for each person and the people on their stickers as they went forward. When everyone had taken their turn, one of the grown-up stars carried the candle to the the stands near the Grotto. They lit our candle from the flame of another and placed it in the stand, while we all prayed for the people whose names we had placed on the candle.
When we got back to the hotel, we didn't have long to wait before going downstairs to our last night party and Talent Show! All the little stars had prepared a talent to demonstrate: a re-enactment of an Olympic race to the music from Chariots of Fire, a demonstration of Bob the Builder's house construction skills, a charming dance drama to the nursery song Hop Little Bunnies, a rugby skills demonstration, a dramatisation of the nursery story The Princess and the Pea, a football skills exhibition, and a reimagined version of Ghost Busters. This year's audience were asked to adopt the technique of sillent cheeering, in order to test out a new clap-ometer app that can detect the 'loudest' silent cheer. The app worked well, but an independent adjudicator was required to verify the results before Canon PJ could announce that, for the first time ever, all of the entrants had scored equally! The contest was declared a draw and everyone was awarded a certificate and a gold medal!
After so much (silent) excitement, we played pass-the-parcel, where all the little stars, and some of the grown-up stars, won a prize. We were all very hungry by this time and paused to eat our dinner.
The final part of the evening was an awards ceremony. All the little stars won a certificate for an achievement during our time in Lourdes and our new helpers received a Group 170 welcome wooden spoon carved with their name. The little stars also received a gift from their main helpers.
When the party was over, it was time for for little stars to go to bed and for the grown up stars to pack everything back into boxes and suitcases ready for our journey home tomorrow...
