Bible School!

Bible School made us very busy last week!  Nathan, Emma, and Samuel went all five nights.  I was there two full nights plus at opening every night and at closing all but one due to being the designated photographer.  We had lots of fun and I really enjoyed my role as I got to see all the different age groups in various activities.

Here the kids are with their groups on the first day (Emma was with Samuel so he felt more comfortable):

Samuel REALLY enjoyed his first time at Bible School and did just great!

This is the Bible School slideshow I made for church.  (Nathan is a little harder to see- he's in a picture of several kids up on stage helping to lead the songs)

 

Then on Sunday the kids sang a couple of VBS songs in front of the church. Nathan wasn't with us, Emma didn't want to, but Samuel was thrilled to go up and join in! He did a great job! The videos are of 1st service so the number of kids is small. Second service had possibly 3x's the number of kids (and audience), and Samuel did just as well! 

This one is closer up on Samuel

Immediately after they finished singing for 2nd service, and the sanctuary was completely quiet, Samuel looked at me, raised his thumb and said loudly, "I did a good job Mom!"  That's my boy!

Never let the
THINGS YOU WANT
make you forget the 

THINGS YOU HAVE

Taps

Emma is much more comfortable dancing for us at home then she was at her dance school on the day of her performance.  All week she has been giving us "shows" to watch... we are eating it up!

Dancing Duo

Football Camp

Nathan attended a Football day camp this week at Rose Hulman.  He really enjoyed himself but did not appreciate the heat!  His favorite things were swimming, and lunch!  We were interested in what he had for lunch each day... This is what he had ONE of the days:  2 cheeseburgers, one ham/cheese sandwich, pasta with sauce, french fries, and a root beer float!

(Pictures taken by staff there and shared on facebook)

Brian took these before picking him up one day:

The other side

The grass is always greener on the other side of the door... {Please let me out too!}

Sprinkler fun

One day last week I took the kids outside for a bit to play.  Emma begged for some sprinkler fun, so that is exactly what they got!

 It was such a joy to watch them!

 How is it that a kid who can't stand to be splashed in the bathtub is happy doing this?:

 Lucas preferred to hang out in the "dry" areas of the yard...

Squirrely

We do a lot of "feeding the birds" in our yard, which ends up also providing prime opportunities for the squirrels to eat.  It is not uncommon to see both enjoying their meals on our front lawn or sidewalk.  A couple of days ago we kept seeing this one squirrel sprawled out flat on his stomach feasting.  It was quite a sight!  

The birds fly away quickly once they notice us standing at the door or beginning to open it; the squirrels are another story though.  They are greedy little guys who must continue eating until the last possible second and then scurry up a tree to watch and wait until we have once again disappeared. 

Dress Up

Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.  ~Epictetus

Making Music

Smile

Nathan returned to us from vacation sporting new sunglasses. :)

Father's Day

So, today we recognize Brian for the awesome FATHER he is!  

Of course the kids and I might be slightly biassed, but anyone can see from this picture that he is quite an extraordinary guy (and he has his hands full in terms of fathering)!

We had a good day hanging out together, enjoying each other's company... Church, lunch out, chill time, grilled steaks for dinner, and a long family bike ride...  

The kids gave him the following Mad-Lib style letters (where they chose words not knowing how they would be used, for example "a nice animal" to fill in the first blank):

Happy Father's Day Love... 

We are blessed to have you.

We also gave him a 12x7 canvas of the above picture

The Show

Emma feels rather shy around those she doesn't know very well, and especially when she is asked to perform in some way in front of others.  This always takes us back a bit because she is such a little performer at home!

When we signed her up for Dance Camp, I was a little unsure of how she would do having never been to anything like it.  I watch her twirl around like a little ballerina all the time so it seemed she might really enjoy this camp.  She was eager to get a taste of ballet, tap, modern dance, and jazz.

Each day when I dropped her off, she asked if I would stay for a while and watch her on the TV in the reception area.   I did... and I also came a little early to pick her up so I could watch again for a while.  It thrilled my heart to see her giving it 110% and participating in everything they did!  She loved it, and said several times that she wished it was more than 2 1/2 hours each day!  After the first day she told me she had felt very proud of herself while she was there.

As we neared the end of the week though, her fears about The Show they would do for family on the last day, began to surface.  We tried to help her feel better but this is the same thing we've dealt with before school programs... she is extremely uncomfortable knowing that people are watching her.  

(Her friend Julia giving her a little encouragement)

To make a long story short she got off to an extremely rough start.  Her teacher was so gracious and sweet about it.  We eventually worked it out and found a way to help her feel a little more at ease so she could at least participate in the last couple of numbers.  We were SO proud of her! 

Though you won't see the freedom I saw when I watched during her classes, these videos give you a taste of the camp experience.  Emma is at the far end of the room in all pink...   
(TIP:  Pause the music player on the right side of the blog in order to hear the video)

Sweet Daddy with flowers for the ballerina:

(Samuel was broken-hearted because he wanted to run around instead of sitting on Daddy's lap)

Emma turns 6!

Wow- our sweet girl is now a 6-year-old!  It seems that her infancy and toddler years went by so quickly (especially after the arrival of her little brothers), and now her childhood is flying by also!  This Mom wants to slow the days/weeks/months down a bit to have more time with this dear one before she gets much older!

Emma had a wonderful birthday.  She began her day with the traditional "Daddy date to pick out a balloon", and a couple hours of Dance Camp.

 After having lunch at home she went to the Strawberry Festival with Grandma (while I finished her cake).  She had requested a "Barbie dress cake" but with the Disney Fairy Silvermist...

 She had some time to chill in the afternoon so I painted her fingernails (a FIRST) and toenails... Then we headed to Grandma's house for dinner and her party.  She chose mini hotdogs, pasta with Parmesan cheese, strawberries, broccoli, and cottage cheese!  What a feast! :)

Holding Silvermist's hand

 We ALL had fun celebrating Emma!

Constant Movement

Classic Lucas video...

A Real Ballerina

Last year Emma learned a little about ballet from two of her classmates.  She was interested in ballerina's before this but began talking about wanting to take ballet classes and be a "real ballerina."  

When she found out that her friends were going to be in a big ballet performance she REALLY wanted to go!  So a couple of weeks ago she and I had a special night out and attended Hansel and Gretel.  It was an incredible production, with over 300 students involved!  It was beautiful and exciting!  I enjoyed attending this event with my daughter, although it felt to me that she was much older than {soon-2-be} six!  Emma loved every minute of it!

(A couple of pictures taken by friends of mine)

 If there was any doubt in Emma's heart before this, none existed afterwards... she absolutely wanted to become a ballerina.  As of yesterday, in her mind, this dream has come true.  This week she is attending a "dance camp" at the very studio that put on this production.  She is learning a little ballet, tap, modern dance, and jazz.  So far it seems to be all that she imagined it would.

  Emma, ready for her first ballet class... a REAL Ballerina!

Deadwood Saloon

On Sunday night Brian and I attended a murder mystery dinner called Murder at the Deadwood Saloon. We bid on & won seats to this dinner at an auction to support our church youth on a mission trip to Belize.  We thought it would be a fun evening out, doing something new and different... and it was!

If you've not heard of this kind of thing before I will give you my 2 sentence summary:  You are assigned a character and brief history, you dress your part and go to the party where you receive $5o0 fake money and written objectives involving some of the other players.   During the evening there is a murder (fake, of course) after which you are given more written objectives, one of which is to try to solve the murder.

Brian was Banker Bob and I was his wife Banker Bonnie.  We were well to-do couple in the town of Deadwood in 1874.  Part of our storyline was that I had arranged for out bank to be held up, in order to get Bob's attention since he only seemed to care about the bank.  Bob knew nothing of my involvement in this until the game was over and the outlaw who robbed the bank fessed up... after which I confessed my part.  It was fun and interesting and a bit of a challenge to keep all the characters straight.  We enjoyed our dinner and seeing the 18 other "players" in costume acting out their parts.  In the end, few people solved the crime but we all had fun guessing.

The start of summer

Last week we officially began summer break since Nathan was finally out of school also.  To celebrate we did a few fun things like sleepovers in Emma's room (first Nathan, then Samuel), "popcorn/movie night", painting wooden bird houses, and a "field trip" to visit the old train cars at the spot where I took Samuel's 3-year-old pictures.  Lots of fun!

Lucas didn't paint a birdhouse but he did get to paint for the first time!  He used a set that was originally Emma's.

 Lucas's 1st masterpiece

 Nathan's favorite part was climbing up the ladders!

I don't know why Samuel looks so grumpy here-- he certainly was not!