Little Girl, Big Change!

Honey decided she wanted to make a change today so after her bath I got to work on it. It was a bit tricky trying to hit this moving target but I think it's pretty much straight all the way around. She really liked it but thinks that Grammie's going to be mad!

Daddy, seeing the new haircut for the first time.

Choose Jesus! Choose to believe....

We've been doing VBS (Vacation Bible School) each morning this week & the kids had a great time again. Honey really enjoyed the music and dancing and paid careful attention to the words. The songs were all fast tempo, catchy tunes & were big hits with all the kids (you can check them out here) The song she liked best had this chorus:

Tear the roof off everybody,

there's a way he's gonna see Jesus

Tear the roof off everybody,

there's a way he's gonna be healed.

The first time she heard it, she exclaimed "we have a bible story about THAT!!!" That girl's always paying attention. Most of the kids were just dancing to the beat & enjoying the song. I didn't expect that she'd pick up on the connection. Note to self: be careful what you say around her!

I was one of two group leaders for the 3, 4, 5 year olds. We had one little girl who wasn't quite 3 yet but her mom was the music leader so we brought her along. Our group ranged from18-22 kids each day. There were about 40 kids in total at VBS. Sooooooooo our days were busy & went fast! My own kids had a hard time dealing with the fact that I wasn't there JUST for them. They didn't understand that I couldn't always help them when they needed something. I had to tell them over and over that at VBS I wasn't just their mummy & had to help everybody. I don't know that they ever quite accepted that but with 22 preschoolers breathing down our necks, there wasn't much else I could do! Every day all the attendees met in the hall for the morning welcome & some singing & dancing & a prayer. Then we went down to play games in the gym, then to music to work on our dance routines & then have a snack, up to the classroom for the bible lesson and then we finished the day with a craft. I wasn't responsible for all aspects, but had to keep the group together, moving from station to station on time & I did teach the bible story each day & help them memorize their bible verses. At the end of the day, we got to go up to the front & say our verse into the microphone & they all got a prize. They loooooooooooved the microphone! Last night, Sweetie was playing VBS here at home, using our toy microphone & pretending she was 'ah-cole, calling people up to say their verse.

I enjoyed the week & we had lots of new teens helping out this year which is always great to see! I had a great partner (yay Sarah!) who kept us on track & made sure all the little details got covered. Sarah is an amazing girl who has been volunteering at church for years. I first met her when the girls started going to the toddler room. She works each Sunday up there, helping out and loves it, even misses it when she can't be there. She's also worked at VBS for the last 3 years. That's some impressive dedication for an 18 year old. She loves the kids & is soooooooo good with them! I have to say I greatly benefitted from having her as a partner :) Besides keeping me on track, she also helped me out with my own girls on many occasions this week, getting them in & out of carseats, keeping an eye on them whenever I had to run off & do something elsewhere in the church etc. She's such a trooper & I greatly appreciate all her efforts this week.

Today was the last day & we had a party for the kids afterwards. There were balloon animals, bouncy houses, slip n slide, face painting, hotdogs, popsicles.... a kids' paradise! After 2 hours the party was over & Honey was upset that it wasn't long enough. I was completely ready to pack it in but she would have stayed all day if I let her!

Aime's In Town

My friend Aime came to visit today & brought her new daughter, Genna. Genna was born on my birthday so that should be an easy one for me to remember! They're on vacation this week & she came over to hang out with us for the afternoon. She came bearing gifts that I couldn't believe! She brought the girls a whole bunch of markers. Glitter ones!!!!!!! ooh la la! metallic ones and some that are like neon colours & special paper. I've never seen any of these products before but I guess are available in the big city! : ) She brought me some rhinestone scrapbooking stickers, Murray got some blueberry syrup that he was instantly happy about! So that would be pretty good right? Then she also brought food! A basket of peaches, some Disney princess fruit snacks for the kids, avocadoes, tomatoes & chips so we could have salsa except the avocadoes aren't ripe yet so I had to save that for later, a big box of blueberries..... and well, is that what you're supposed to do when you're going to someone's house for LUNCH????????? Holy cow! I'm a TERRIBLE guest if that's the case. All I bring along is my kids' cups. Oops!

It was great to see her & meet the new baby & spend the afternoon with them. We went for a walk to check on development on construction of Tulip's new house & then played in the backyard. We discovered that a massive colony of ants had moved in and laid a bazillion eggs on the sand. At first glance I thought it was a writhing pile of maggots & almost lost my lunch. I was only slightly more pleased to find out it was just ants. We then dug out all the eggs we could find because I just couldn't stand to leave them there where my children sit and play!!!!! It was a bit gross & there may have been some gagging but I did not hurl! Do I know how to entertain or what????? If Aime never comes back I guess we'll know why!

Easy! My foot!

Whoever named the "Easy Bake Oven" obviously only had one child, or at least some very well spaced singletons. Holy disasters Batman. I got the girls each a mix for their birthday & the other day I thought we could have some fun making some itty bitty goodies. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. We didn't even get the oven out of the box before there was a fight. My cousin gave this to the girls last year & included a couple of her old little aprons. You see where we ran into trouble. "a couple". yep. TWO. Even though they each have an apron already, there was a big fight over the 2 that were in the box. I can see how the chef's hat might have been worth fighting over & the mini oven mitts were kind of cool but the apron was also an issue. We finally got over the wardrobe issues and immediately moved on to fighting over the little mixing bowl that comes with the oven. Then Sweetie lost her cake mix package and we couldn't find it anywhere. Meltdown city over that. I managed to settle the bowl fight by providing another small bowl out of the cupboard.

Honey mixed up her 3 whole tablespoons of cookie dough, sampled it thoroughly and then insisted on putting it into the pan herself. She couldn't manage, couldn't stand to have help and so we had quite a dilemma there for a bit until she finally gave in & let me put it in. Then she wanted to put it in the little oven while wearing the oven mitts. This didn't go much better. After she dropped the pan upside down on the floor (amazingly no dough came out!) she let me put it in. We then had to wait about 20 minutes for ONE cookie to bake. Meanwhile, Lovey has mixed up her cake batter and it is disappearing slowly but steadily as we wait for the ONE cookie to bake in the ONE pan in the ONE oven. Finally Honey's cookie is done, or as done as I'm willing to wait for it to be. Then we put Lovey's cake in to bake and Sweetie never did find her mix til much later that day.

As soon as everything was cleaned, I packed all that stuff back in the box & took it straight to the basement, hopefully where it will remain until we have a one on one day or maybe we'll ship it to Grammie & Grandads' & they can have lots of Easy FUN up there!!!!!!!!!!

More Wedding Pics

I'm still working my way through the wedding images! Here are a few more.

I'm experimenting with different ways of doing black & whites, still learning though...

Slippidy Doo Dah!

The girls put in a special request for Sunday night dinner at Grammie & Grandad's & it had nothing to do with the menu! Grandad was quick to approve since "well, we're supposed to spoil them I think!" and when we arrived, the waterslide was all set up & ready for action. They haven't been on it since last summer and they had a BALL. They squealed and giggled & laughed and slid & rolled and splashed to their hearts' content. There was NO doubt that they were having the time of their lives, except for Sweetie who got mad when I told her she couldn't run on the side where the fan/motor was and slapped my hand. (instant time out, which got me a "Mummy??? I hate you." niiiiiiiiiiice) Other than that they had a blast & Sweetie eventually recovered from her snit and jumped back into the fun.

I was admiring Mum's garden while the kids played. She has quite a crop of calla lillies that are absolutely beautiful! I'd only ever seen white ones but she's got all sorts of colours. Wow!