Would you like to read more than stories of our kids? Visit the other blog.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Pax Domini


This year our church did the VBS program by Pax Domini. According to our awesome Deaconess Intern Angie they will have a 7 year rotating program for churches to buy and each year's program will be built upon the previous years'.

We did the first year's program this year and it was titled "In the Name" and the theme was the Trinity and understanding who God is.

The curriculum is in black and white and has tons of classical art for visual teaching devices. It did not have a graphic to make T-shirts with, so we got permission to use one of their images and I doctored it up in Photoshop (That's it up there).

We made stained glass window panes for the craft (and if anyone from PD reads this and wants my input I'll be glad to give it, teehee) which turned out really awesome, and believe it or not the kids really really wanted to do it. In fact we had a girl who is not a member of our church come to VBS and she was late one day. She was really upset that she missed her opportunity to work on her craft so she took time out of her snack to come down and work on her project! She was really proud of her work and so was her mom.

They started the morning out each day with a chapel service, which Olivia really loved. They learned the hymn "God the Father, Be Our Stay" which Olivia loved to sing little key phrases from all week long. Those phrases were, "humble hearts," and my personal favorite, "Evil One!" In fact she spent most of the week asking me, "Sing Evil One, Gain?" So I memorized a new hymn as well.

There was a puppet show to help illustrate the lesson for each day, each lesson building off the day before and explaining a person of the Godhead. There was only one day of the puppet show that I didn't think was great, and that was not because it didn't teach the children well, because it did, but because the jokes weren't very funny. But it's hard to makes jokes about the Word becoming Flesh and dwelling among us, so I give them some slack.

The information was solid, the craft was fun, the kids enjoyed themselves, and everyone's faith was strengthened. I had 3 of the older kids tell me that they liked this better than the Concordia programs that we've done in the past because this one "wasn't cheesy" at all. It was fun, but it didn't treat the kids like they were too stupid to understand their faith.

Overall, I was really impressed. Especially as a parent who was leaving an under 2 year old for the first time in a structured school setting. I was surprised to find that she didn't care at all if I left her to sit with her class for a 15 minute long church service.

Olivia talked about Bible School all week and she still brings it up occasionally this week too. She had a blast, and I'm grateful that she spent those 5 days hearing the Grace-filled Word of God.

Friday, June 23, 2006

VBS

We've been at Vacation Bible School this week. I have updates, but I've been WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY to busy to post them.

Since this was the last day I'll be on later to give a review of the curriculum, and my feedback on how Olivia handled her first organized school experience.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Summer time, and the living is easy.



We still haven't bought Olivia a baby pool for the summer, so here we are "swimming" in a Rubbermade storage container. It was over 90 degrees, and Olivia is giving my swollen legs a rest and watering them with her watering can.


IMG_4237
Originally uploaded by Devona.



And here's some daddy/daughter fun with the hose, watering the flowers. It took Olivia a good 20 minutes to decide she was OK with the cold water. But once we got going, the fun didn't seem like it was going to stop.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Baby wearing


Here's a picture of Olivia and I after a long walk in the Mei Tai carrier that I made. It is for Ellie's sister, but I needed to try it out before I felt safe selling it to her.

I love baby wearing, and this is one of three types of carriers I make, all of which I use all the time. I used them even more before Olivia knew how to walk. I call it "efficient parenting for the multi-tasker." How else can you cook dinner when you have a sick toddler?

And did I ever tell you the story of how I got a sick 5 month old, and a tantruming, jealous, exhausted Olivia to fall asleep at the same time by tying Liv to my back and carrying the baby around the house? It really happened.

Can you see my baby belly sticking out? It's there...

Friday, June 02, 2006

Olivia's world, through her eyes

Today Olivia was playing with her new castle play set that her great grandparents brought her for a gift. It's a "Little People" set with a dragon, a princess, and a prince. In Olivia's world though, it is a "doggy, baby, and King." The princess has a scepter in her hand and a crown on her head which have been converted into a "hat" and a cup of "milk."

During Olivia's playtime (which is usually before lunch, then nap...) Olivia was singing songs to her "baby" and the doggy and the King were climbing through the window. The song went like this, "yooooour, seeeeeppy. yoooooour, seeeeppy." Which I immediately recognized as the lyrics from the first track to her nap time CD: "You're not sleepy, as you seem; Stay awake, don't nod and dream..."

Then I looked over and the "baby" was lying in the bed, in the bedroom of the castle. Olivia proceeded to come up to me and tell me it was time for, "guk, night night," and so I took her upstairs, turned on her CD and rocked with her.

But, since Liv is a creature of habit, like her Mama, she wasn't ready to go to sleep until she'd had her lunch, so we back tracked down the stairs and had our lunch. After lunch we listened to our CD, and she was fast asleep by track three.

She's growing up so fast.