VBS Week! Weird Animals!

We had a great week at VBS.  It is always a lot of work and we are blessed to have so many volunteers to help make it work.  This year was way different for our family because not only did we have other activities going on but we also had VBS at night.  Which meant the kids weren’t going to bed until after 9pm every night and they were exhausted and easily melting by the end of the week.  The other big change was that Joel was like a different kid this year.  Last year was basically a constant wrestling match with him, he was only interested  in things for a few minutes, following directions was a joke and Brad or Diane had to go around with him to make it work.  This year Joel went with the preschool group without anyone designated to help him, he followed directions, participated, sang and danced to all the songs, and just did a really great job!  I am so proud of him!  Keep in mind that was all while wearing a cast. 

Cecilia would stay upstairs for the singing and dancing this year and was so excited to see Maggie and John, her friends in the nursery.  Most nights she wouldn’t want to go to the nursery but eventually ended up there.  One night I was walking in the basement checking on something and I turned around to find John and Cecilia racing down the hall way and the baby gate on the nursery door was knocked over.  They were laughing and very proud of their attempted escape.  I asked what they did and Cecilia proudly reported that they knocked down the gate.  They quickly returned to the nursery!  Silly kids!

It was really great to see so many kids having fun together with their leaders and learning about God!  It was also great to enjoy fellowship with all the adults that were volunteering.  So many people put so much effort into VBS!  On the last day we had  Scales ‘n Tails traveling zoo out of Chicago bring real weird animals for the kids to see.  They did an amazing job getting all of the kids involved.  My favorites were the anteater and sloth.  The sloth, Xena, was crawling on the ground with a lot of small children following behind her trying to crawl like a sloth.  Joel and Cecilia loved seeing the animals.  Vincent thought they were neat, but the smile on his face didn’t compare to his siblings.

Sunday was our VBS program during the church service.  Unfortunately only 11 of the 35 kids were able to attend, but they did a great job singing!  The congregation loved it and afterwards we had a potluck lunch.  It was a lot of fun!  During the potluck Cecilia and Maggie disappeared.  I asked Brad to go look for them and he could hear them but he couldn’t find them.  He finally heard little voices saying “stuck” and found them in one of the family bathrooms.  We asked Cecilia why they were there and she claims she had to go potty, so Maggie went with and then Cecilia shut the door and wouldn’t let Maggie out.  She ended the story with “And that is what happened!”  Cecilia thought it was hilarious. 

Unfortunately when the potluck ended we had to clean everything up.  After being at church until 10pm on Friday getting things ready for Sunday our kids were used to just playing at church waiting for us or helping when they could to get things done.  We had a big crew helping on Friday and Sunday and that was great!  Joel talks daily about the Bible buddies Axl, Fern, Milton, Shred and Iggy.  He keeps telling me they are going to come over to our house soon.  He also likes to use the Bible points he learned.  He says things like “don’t be scared Vincent, even when you are scared Jesus loves you!”  He is really upset VBS is over and asks every night if we can go back to church.