The VBS finale was today at church.  I'm going to admit, it was actually a little disappointing.  Not because they did a bad job with the service, but because adults don't exude the same energy as kids when singing.  And when saying good morning.  Nor do they get excited by having a person in a monkey costume come down the aisle.

So while I didn't love volunteering, it was really good for me to see the joy of little children.

Saturday: loud

Isaac has gotten loud the last few days.  He realized that he can shriek (shreek?  shreak?) and does it with gusto.  We've had to stop talking a few times because we couldn't hear each other.

The video has an example around 0:12.  It might sound quiet, but the whole movie is quiet.
 

Friday: weeks 29 and 30

Sorry I'm late with the post.  Last night we were watching the Olympics and today has been rather busy.

Here are last week's shots:

This week's shots:

It was the last day of VBS.  I again didn't make it into any photos, so here is our quarter of the auditorium.  Just to give you an idea of the sea of kids that there was.   Oh!  You can see me in this picture.  I'm the one standing against the wall in a white shirt.  We had too many kids for the number of chairs in our row.

Life is good

Isaac slept through the night last night. It was completely unexpected as he's been waking up several times the past month. I woke up around 5am and checked the monitor, but he was still there so I went back to sleep.

And it's raining out.

Wednesday: VBS day 2

Today went better than yesterday.  Maybe because I knew the kids and they knew me...at least enough for a few conversations and as a person that could help.  Maybe because I knew the schedule and was able to take a break with Isaac.

We increased the count to 613 today.  It also rained.  While we really, really need the rain, it does make things a bit more difficult.  Some kids still played in the rain.  The smallest kids stayed inside and took over a hallway.  (There are a lot of inside activities, but space is still at a premium.)

I was almost in two pictures, but didn't actually make either.  Oh well.

I also have some of the songs stuck in my head.  There are about five that they sing.  They sing them at least once during the opening gathering.  Then they sing many of them again at the closing gathering.  By the end of today it was getting difficult to be as excited about singing the same song again.  Oh well.  The motions help keep things interesting.

Tuesday: VBS

Today I started helping out with VBS (Vacation Bible School).  There were 606 kids there today...maybe a few more if some skipped the registration table.  Needless to say, it was controlled chaos.  But, they did a really good job with it.

It was all morning and I'll admit, I wasn't really looking forward to it.  Spending time with kids, especially kids that I don't know, isn't one of the things that I love to do.  But I think that this is a very important ministry and the children's ministry is one of the reasons that Ben and I chose this church, so I figured I should volunteer.

I wouldn't say that it was super-awesome fun, but it also wasn't too bad.  We didn't spend much time doing any single thing, so that did help the morning fly by as we were moving from one place to another.  There was down time, so I went to the nursery during that time.  Isaac had just finished eating and was asleep, but I think that tomorrow I'll ask that they don't feed him...he was a little cranky when we got home and I don't know if it was from being with strangers all morning or if he just didn't get a good nap.

Here's a bad picture of me from the website.  They were snapping photos left and right, so I'm surprised this one made the cut.  The child doesn't look happy and I don't think I look all that excited either.

Kayak

Today was Isaac's first kayak ride. The life jacket didn't fit him well, but he was still a trooper and enjoyed the ride.

(Ben held and paddled for most of the ride; we just switched about two minutes before the picture was taken.)