Saturday: employee picnic

We went to Ben's employee appreciation picnic this evening.  They put on a wonderful festival, with some carnival games, a few rides, normal games, food, and prizes.

Here's Isaac with the animals that Ben and I won (although he immediately claimed them) and his balloon dog.  It did get rather cool...it was in the low 60s when we left.  A very surprising temperature for late July, but much nicer than the super hot temperature at last year's picnic.

Isaac enjoyed looking for rocks in the way way outfield of the baseball field.  Can you see the rock in my hand that he found?

Friday: 13.8

Today was the last day of VBS.  I'll admit, by the end of the week I decided that 5th graders weren't so scary.  They are mostly just excited.  Excited to do everything.  Sing, play duck-duck-goose, pass out the pencils, make the craft, have a snack, and run around the sanctuary.

One thing they were excited about was trying to break the speed record for the memory verse.  We went around in a circle and every person said one word.  For the record, the Bible verse is "For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgement." 2 Timothy 1:7.  Two days ago we did it in 19.2 seconds.  Yesterday we got to 19.1 seconds.  Today we beat that twice, ending with 13.8 seconds.  If I'm saying it by myself I say it at a normal speed in 8.2 seconds...but it's harder with more people.  The last time we went around was really pretty smooth.  I stopped it there, because I really didn't think we'd get much faster and I wanted to end on a win.

Wednesday: running

Pretend you're in the beginning part of VBS this morning; the part were the whole auditorium is filled with kids singing to God while standing on their chairs.

Leader/Pastor/Barker Frank: "Ok, I need the teacher of a fifth grade group to volunteer your group to run around."
All the kids: "Oh!  Oh!! Us! US!"  (Yeah, probably all kids from third grade on up, really.)
Barker Frank, looking around: "Where's your teacher?"
Kids: "Here!  Here!"

So, pretending that I'm a teenager and not an adult I stand on the chairs too and wave my hands for his attention.  We're picked!

Kids: "We got picked! We got picked!"
Barker Frank: "Ok, run around the front here and pretend you're a roller coaster while we sing this next song."

Off we go.  Except that we don't just go around the front.  No, we go all over the sanctuary, running full tilt through the aisles, slapping hands, cheering.  It was tons of fun for the first three minutes.  Then I was tired.  I don't run that much.  I took a break and one of the kids told me that this was nothing.  I told her to start running again.  :P  I started again a minute later and made it almost to the end of the song.

I like to pretend I'm younger than I actually am.  I see myself as only a few years older than the kids...just old enough to give instructions and command respect, not old enough to almost be their mother.  They probably don't see it that way, but they're nice enough not to let on.

Tuesday: today

Today pretty much flew by, but nothing really stood out.  VBS in the morning, nap time, and lunch time brought us to about 3pm.  I filled out some paperwork, watched some George with Isaac, made some rice and got the racquetball stuff together and it was 4:20 and time to head out.  I stopped by the day care that Isaac will be joining and then went to the gym.  After racquetball there was dinner, a short bath for Isaac, and getting ready for tomorrow.  Then I worked on the puzzle and sewed and now it's almost time for bed.

Monday: VBS

Today was the first day of VBS.  I'm a teacher for the fifth grade orange group.

The morning went quite a bit better than I expected, actually.  The biggest problem was that the craft took two minutes of the allotted twenty minutes.  We ended up playing duck-duck-goose.  All the groups ended up playing it and it looked a little funny, with seven small circles duck-duck-goosing.  The Bible study time was probably what I was most nervous about.  But the kids interacted with the lesson very well...and they all spoke up and answered questions.  Phew.  I'm always worried that I'll end up with extra time because the lesson flopped.

I was caught in one of the pictures.  I knew the guy had the camera, but someone did something funny at the same time.  So it wasn't completely a fake smile.

Minnesota pictures

We got all of the pictures that everyone took from our Minnesota trip a few days ago.  Here are (many) of my favorites.  There were lots of cute ones of the other children too, but if I included those I would have too many pictures.  So these are the highlights that mostly include Isaac.

Day 1:

Day 2:

 

Ladderball was a hit with the boys

Isaac liked playing with the girls though too.

Day 3:

Smoothies are delicious!

Isaac loved dumping rocks in the water.

Day 4:

Tired out after the zoo.

Day 5:

Can't forget a foot and arm photo!

She smiled every time I showed her my frozen yogurt.  Until it was gone.  Then she got grumpy, but who can blame her?

Day 6:

The boys in red, all looking disinterested in the camera

Day 7:

Time to try and get all the kids in a picture!  But Isaac stood up too soon.

Then the other boy got up too.

The girl gave the boys a stern talking to.

We got one!

Time to go!

Day 8:

The boys were all tired out.  

Our group!