This summer at church, our pastor has been going through a series of messages called "The Storied Life of Jesus", all about parables. Each week a different person tells a parable before the sermon. Our pastor asked for volunteers, and Julia said she'd like to do that! There have been people of all ages telling the stories. She practiced and practiced the week before her turn.
July 29, Julia told a parable about humility, from Luke 14.
That afternoon Brian played with the younger kids outside. Caroline loves her "new" bike!
Brian worked with Lauren riding her new bike she got for her birthday. By the end of the afternoon, she was riding by herself! Good job, Lauren!
She was so proud of herself! She still needs a little help stopping and using the brakes, but she's doing well.
So happy!
Austin was out there too, riding his scooter like this. Silly boy!
Vacation Bible School started Monday, July 30. I helped in registration this year. We had over 500 kids registered, but I think the most that came on any day was 491 kids. That's a lot of kids!
The daily dress themes were wordless book colors. Monday was black, for sin. Here the kids are on black day. Julia has absolutely no black in her summer wardrobe, so she chose navy blue--at least it was dark, right!
Being Monday, the kids had swim lessons at 2pm. VBS ended at 12, then we ate a lunch I'd packed, at church. We had a little time to spare, so I'd planned to go to the Nike store at the outlet mall so Julia and Austin could get new tennis shoes for school. That worked out nicely, since we were in the area anyway!
The kids were all tired, unfocussed, and naughty (!) at swim lessons! They were worn out from their morning at VBS and then shoe shopping! Not to mention, we had to be at church at 8:15, b/c I was helping with registration. We had to leave home a little before 8, and amazingly enough, we made it to church on time. I told the kids we would take their picture everyday, but this was the only day we weren't scrambling to leave on time, where the photo got taken before we left!
Red Day! Red for Jesus' blood that saves us from our sins. Everyone has a little red. We like red. :)
My job helping with registration, was to total the attendance every day. I had to add up all the kids that were at church, from nursery through 6th grade.
Someone else counted missionary money; someone else organized all the groups for the kids to be in--there are lots of little jobs to do!
Caroline made this lion craft on red day. They learned about Daniel in the lions den, I think, and the day before about the men in the fiery furnace. I think that's how it went?
Julia, going into 7th grade, is too old to attend VBS. She and her friend, Julia G, both helped in Pre K, Caroline's class. They were busy in there! At the end of the day, Julia would tell me what they all did: handed out snacks, swept the floors, cleaned the tables, monitored the playground, held little kids' hands while walking here and there, played with the kids, held kids on their laps during Bible story time, etc. I worked in Pre K before, and it really is a lot of work, but fun. :)
Wednesday was white day, to represent Jesus' blood washing us white as snow. We kind of had to stretch for the white--Julia was the only one who had an "only" white shirt. (Well, Lauren has a white blouse that used to be Julia's, but remember, one of Lauren's clothes rules is No white!!, so she didn't want to wear that.)
The kids had swim lessons again,at 2pm, so we went out for lunch to Baja Fresh. I told them we could go out one of the swimming days, but not both. We also had a little extra time again, and squeezed in errands to Sally Beauty Supply for hair products for Julia (that is a whole other post!) and Zumiez at the outlet mall for her to get some Toms for school (also another post). The kids listened better today during the lesson. We'd had a little talk with them, and it seemed to help. That and they were in the VBS routine by then.
Green day! Green = new life in Christ. We were all soooo exhausted by this point in the week! I took a nap this afternoon! I told Brian, I don't know how working moms do it. I think I'd have to get a maid if I worked--the house kind of went to pot during VBS week. I think I'd need a chauffer too, to drive the kids around! There just wasn't time to do everything. I planned easy dinners that week, b/c I knew I'd be worn out.
These little, baby carrots are from our garden! Caroline chose a pack of rainbow carrot seeds this spring, and now they're about ready to eat! A little small yet, but they taste good!
When we got back from our trip to WA, our zucchini plants were huge! Taking over the garden, and flowering so nicely, with several baby squashes. Well! We only got to eat a few of those squashes, b/c a naughty gopher ate the roots of every. single. zucchini plant!!! GRrrrr!!!
Friday was yellow day at VBS, to represent streets of gold in heaven. Austin wore his "bumblebee", yellow and black striped shirt to VBS, but then got soaked in a water balloon game. The kids attending VBS all got a shirt that day, so he just wore his new shirt home. Julia only had her yellow cami (under her T shirt), and I had zero yellow! We like pink and blue here. ;) I have lots of that for any of us girls. And Austin and Brian have plenty of blue. :)
You can see on Austin's shirt that our VBS theme was Praise. At snack time, the kids could do karaoke along to Go Fish songs. Austin and Lauren both did it with their groups. Lauren especially loved it! Is anyone surprised by that? Singing in a microphone? In front of a group? It was right up her alley!
Friday after VBS, the church provided a yummy lunch for the VBS workers. The workers' kids all got lunch too, in another room, so that was nice. There was no VBS grand finale carnival this year, as the Go Fish Guys are coming to do a concert at our church August 17, instead. Our kids are excited for it already!
Saturday morning, we all slept in! Sooo nice! After a pancake breakfast, we went to a few furniture stores to look for a dining set for our breakfast nook. Julia spent the night at her friend, Julia's house, so she wasn't with us.
I'm looking for an oval table with dark wood. I don't want fabric cushions on the chairs! No way!! Our current chairs have upholstered seats, and while they are more comfortable to sit on than wood, they are a mess! I sprayed them with Scotch Guard years ago, but now they are all spotted and stained. Yuck! I am going to recover the seats with new fabric once we move our table in the formal dining room.
Anyway, the table and chairs above is the one I liked the best, of what we saw. Brian and I aren't sure about the two-toned black/wood. It looks nice, but I don't know...what if the paint chips? The salesman brought up that you could fill in the chips w/ a black Sharpie! LOL I've actually done similar things before... I like the style of chair very much. At a different store the salesman gave us a website to check out, which I still need to do, and we want to look at Ashley Furniture in Santa Maria before making a decision.
