VBS 2009

This year was Boomerang Express for VBS. The Australian train theme was difficult to find stuff for quickly, but I was blessed that one of the teachers, Anna Marie, had been preparing since last year. She had all the decorations. The kids really enjoyed the room. She had decorated the outside like a train station.
And the inside looked just as good! The little wool bags were what the kids sat on during story time. I might have to duct tape a train track on our floor for fun. They really liked all the effort. We had up to 14 kids, which was a blessing with 3 teachers and 3 youth helpers. We really had a great group and I enjoyed this week. The "hard" day for me was Thursday, where I had to give the story for the kids. However, God was gracious and it turned out okay. Natalie was not in my class, but in the class across the way. Here was the room-a-rang craft where they strung beads on a boomerang shape. The kids' favorite was decorating a wooden train whistle. But, they also liked the foam picture frame today.

Here's a picture of Lillah and Natalie. I had one last year, and this one shows how they have grown!

I didn't get a picture of Nicole at Bible school. We were usually running home quickly to eat lunch as she was about an hour late each day for food. So, she really didn't want to stay and take a picture. But, she was there and well taken care of each day while I was teaching.

We enjoyed the Boomerang Express! The songs are still going through my head...

Things that Won't Get Done Until After VBS

1. Dusting (although, this is probably reason #49--it didn't get done last week either)
2. Reading part of a chapter each night in the only book I am reading now, Knowing God by J.I. Packer. It is a great book, but it is taking me forever to read it!
3. Grocery shopping. We are out of fruit, almost out of baby food meats. We still have milk and a few slices of bread. It can wait until tomorrow.
4. Going to the library to check on a video Natalie wants to borrow. Even though we pass the library, there is no stopping until after VBS.
5. Putting stuff away. There are toys and stuff piling up this week! We had a termite guy come inside to look to bid on the contract this week, and I wanted to crawl under the bed in shame. I know, Jo Ellen, I need to learn from the Fly Lady. Anything would help, I am sure.
6. Baking anything. No banana bread or cookies this week.
7. Crafts. Hopefully, Natalie is getting enough crafts at VBS this week!

Camp Grand-poppa

Woody actually was able to get away from the house and go on a special camping trip with Peter, his brother last week. And, during that time, it was a special time for Natalie as she went to Grandma & Grandpa's house. She calls them "Grand-poppa" when she refers to them together. I think that is neat because they are really "one" in spirit. She did a lot of activities down there. They have a big dollhouse she likes to play. All kinds of toys too! And, they enjoy crafts too. Like chalk coloring!
They saw some special flower animals on exhibit for one outing. Here is a dinosaur!

Most of the special time was in the pool. Natalie can now stand in the shallow end on her tippy toes!

But, she loves the float and swimming around. Hopefully, she will love swimming lessons coming up as much!

Here is Nicole when I dropped Natalie off at Camp Grand-poppa. She may be walking by herself by her 1st birthday. She loved playing for a little while with all the neat toys there too. Then, it was just her and me for a little while (and Rosco too, of course!). It was really quiet in the house!

Mimi's Surgery Okay

Just wanted to post that God answered a lot of prayers and that Mimi made it through surgery very well. She does have a long recovery time ahead, though. But, so glad we are at this point!!

Mimi's Surgery Tomorrow

Mimi is having knee replacement surgery tomorrow. We welcome any prayers for this! She has already had 2 hip replacements, 1 shoulder replacement. The bionic woman indeed!

Spray Me!

It's time to get out the bathing suits! Here are the girls playing in the backyard with a little sprinkler pad I had gotten for Nicole for Christmas. It was tough finding toys for a 6 month old, and I saw this on clearance, so it worked out great! Natalie likes this little sprayer too. It can go really high, but Nicole needed it on the lower setting. Natalie still liked it, anyway! Nicole didn't get in the water part but loved just touching the water spray.

It's great to see them enjoying it together! And, great that we have a shady spot in the yard to enjoy it.

Unexpected Outage

Last night, we were starting to prepare to grill out our dinner. It looked cloudy, and started to sprinkle. Suddenly, the winds picked up and it looked like a tornado might be passing through. We heard thunder, and suddenly the room went dark. We prepared for severe weather while praying. However, the storm subsided and we didn't have any more issues (PTL!). The power didn't return, though. We waited a while then decided to venture out to get food. When we left, we found the reason for the outage. There was a large tree down across our highway road that had taken out some power lines.

We enjoyed a good meal at our local family restaurant (which was featured in Southern Living not too long ago!). Then, we went to get some ice cream (any excuse works!). After that, Woody took the kids to the pet store while I shopped for a few items at a clothing store. Then, one more stop and we went home. The tree was still across the highway--we had to go back through the detour. And, our power was still out.

Natalie was very facinated by the power outage. She opened the refrigerator door once before we explained not to do that. She also kept asking to start a video--we had to explain that nothing like that works without power! We lit candles and Woody used his camp stove to heat water for Nicole's night bottle. We worked on an activity book until bedtime. I missed my night shower, but let Woody use up the hot water since he had to work early the next day.

The power did come on close to midnight, PTL! Of course, the lights that we had forgotten were on came on and woke me up. I scurried around turning off the lights before they woke up the rest of the crew! And, I enjoyed my shower this morning (during Nicole's nap) to make up for it last night.

We sure enjoyed having our grill out dinner tonight with power. The little blessings you miss!

Happy 11 Months!

We're almost to a year! Happy 11 months, Nicole! Nicole is feeling better, although she does have a little congestion and cough left over. Other than that, no fever and still getting into everything she can. Thank you Lord, for healing!

Museum with Friends

Today was a fun, special day for me & Natalie. While Woody watched Nicole (thanks, Honey!), we went with a group of friends to a children's museum not too far away. We had been here before, and it was great to see how much more she could do here. And, what was her favorites this time. She ran straight for the "General Store." Unfortunately, there was an entire school grade (or two, I couldn't tell!) there, so it was jam packed when we got there. There were no carts to use, only a basket at first. And, it was like Wal-Mart in that the kids were rushing to get certain items first. Some kids had the "checkout" lanes monopolized, so we went to other exhibits that weren't so popular at first.

Natalie enjoyed dressing up like a firewoman and playing with the siren and bell for a while. The other friends we were with it was hard to keep up with them at first because there were so many elementary kids milling about.

Then, we played in the studio for a while. I didn't get a good picture here.

She played with the puppets for a while, but there were only 2 puppets this time!

She enjoyed dressing up like a princess by herself. There weren't as many outfits this time either. Must be getting some more in!

The bubble room is always popular. The other kids would come by and try to pop the bubbles!

This was one time I really remember the last time she wasn't able to pull up the loop by herself on the bubble. This time she could! She enjoyed this!

Then, we went to the cafe where we stayed for a while. Was she making Mommy a delicious hamburger plate? Using that good old microwave instead of the stove I see!

Nope, that hamburger was for her!

I had to take a picture of her "cleaning up" the plate. Maybe we can do this at home, huh!?

Oh, yea, here's Mommy some food...in a delicious pot...

She really loved climbing in between the levels this time. I remember her not being able to climb up one step...

Now she climbs to the top and rings the bell!

She got together with her friends finally on the climbing thing and also they did a very short play. Mostly was arguing about who was playing which character. Natalie insisted that she was the princess. But, JoJo didn't want to be the prince, even though she tried to dance with him to encourage him to do that!

We then were all ready for some food. We had to walk a few blocks down to a restaurant. Natalie wanted to sit with her friends, which was fine. I actually didn't have to help feed an infant or her. It was strange just to eat my own food and talk with grownups!

Walking back holding hands with some of the kids. She is here with Ashton, Kendall, and JoJo. The walk back was upwards, which meant I was pretty much dragging them at this point. But, we made it back safely!

The group playing together on the fire engine. After lunch seemed the time to come, as there were a LOT less kids there and they could stay together.

Sitting on the throne with Kyle and Kade. She went in the craft room for a little while, then she wanted to go back to the other exhibits.

Back to the store, where there were no other kids this time! She had her own cart and filled it up. Ashton played the cashier one time...

And, then let her play the next!

After this, it was pretty much time to go home. So, we went back to the car and stopped to get a milkshake to finish off our special time.

Strep

After waking up with 102 fever after nap, I took Nicole (and Natalie) to the doctor's office in the rain. The Lord blessed with it slacking off as we pulled into the office, so we did not get soaked going in. Even though we waited there over an hour just to see the doctor, then were back almost at 7pm at home, it was worth going. She had an elevated white blood count and inflamed throat. Also, a rash that looked like a strep rash to the doctor. They did a throat culture that will confirm, but it appears she has strep throat. So, we started antibiotics tonight. Praying for a better night tonight and healing to get better!

Nicole Fever

For no known reason, Nicole had a fever of about 100 degrees last night at 2:30am. She still has one off and on today. Praying for healing for little girl! And, for Natalie not to get sick too! This, of course, is Woody's long week to work. I think Nicole is missing Daddy time, and that makes her ill!

Summer Reading Club

Today, Natalie & I started off the day together looking for blackberries (there weren't but a dozen ripe ones, I need to be more patient!). Woody watched Nicole while we did this and then went off to the library for story time. While we were waiting, I noticed that the summer reading club had begun. At first, Natalie was not interested at all. But, I persisted and we went to the sign up table. Not only did she get to write her name on a handprint to put on the wall, but she got a moose beaniebag to boot! So, she was all excited and we actually left the library with more books than videos. We already read one for this week!

Weekend Fun and First Blackberry

A pancake smile to start off the weekend! We had a very good weekend this weekend, mainly because Woody was not working. It was good to have that special time with him. And, we also spent time with friends and family too. It was pretty packed for one of our weekends.

We went to Lillah's birthday party on Saturday. It was good to have the kids just play together. They had turned their dining room into a playroom, and that worked well for the kids.

Nicole playing with Paul on the train table. What kid doesn't like those? Nicole also fell in love with a little soft chair that was just her size. She kept getting into it and giggling. She loves to be a "big person" and sit on furniture that is like ones that we sit on.

Lillah had a Barbie cake like I remember being popular back when I was little. I think Angelia had one once. Natalie liked it too! They had plenty of cake and ice cream for all. Then, the kids ran off some energy in the back yard playing.

We then met with Grandma & Grandpa to go out to eat. They are traveling for a few days and it was special to spend a few hours with them before they left. I hope to see some good pictures! Here's a good family shot of all together after the meal. The only thing I will remember about the meal (it was great food, though!) was that Natalie was sitting almost across from me. I was busy shoveling food into Nicole through most of the meal. Suddenly, I heard a noise and all I could see were Natalie's sandals! She had pushed against the table and fallen backwards onto the floor with her feet straight up! She was scared but fine. The server came to the rescue with a Magnadoodle toy that cheered her up. She loves drawing!

Just the 4 of us here.

I am SO happy to see a calla lilly this year. This is the first one that has bloomed. Due to low rain and a faulty watering system last year, we had no blooms, just foliage. I love these flowers!

So, now it is searching for blackberry season again. I love finding the free, fresh fruit that is good for you!

Woody found only red ones, but Natalie snagged the first ripe one. And, ate it!