Weekly wrap up -- VBS

We survived.

At times, I wasn't sure I would make it through to type those words, but we have officially made it through a very full week of VBS.

But, more on that in a minute. First off, we have a new four year old in our house! As exhausted as we all found ourselves Monday evening we still enjoyed celebrating with cake, cupcakes, and ice cream as Nathan turned four.

My little guy, can't believe four years have already passed!

As I mentioned on an earlier post about our summer plans, they will largely center around fun, reading, and gardening. So, in keeping with those themes:

Reading:

- This week we wrapped up Amos Fortune Freeman. An interesting story, but not one I would give my kids to read on their own. There were quite a few times we stopped the CD and talked about various racial issues, family dynamics, and other moral issues that I wanted to hear my children's impressions on as a result of what they heard. It still had a number of enlightening circumstances, and in general we enjoyed it, but I am glad we did this as a read aloud for the conversations we had throughout.

- Our new story, and one we almost finished with all the time we spent in the car, is Justin Morgan had a Horse. I'll be honest, I almost didn't check it out because I thought the title left a bit to be desired. And, the author also wrote Brighty of Grand Canyon which we didn't like so much. However, this story was an easy one to get into. A four hour audio book, and an engaging story about a likable colt that you can't help cheering on throughout the story. Also, it is about the beginning of the horse breed known as "morgan's" which jogged our memory back to the Little House series when Laura fell in love with Almanzo's pair of Morgan's, or Almanzo, or both.

Gardening:

These pictures are almost a week old, as I did not have time to spend in the garden during these past few days. I just swung by there tonight and saw lots of encouragement, and lots of work. We'll get caught up. We always do, but right now it looks like a lot to be done.

My favorite hand tool. I will need to buy a new one soon,
and now my kids always want to borrow it when I make them serve their time.

Squash plants starting to look like what they are.
The foil is supposed to keep beetles from taking up residence in the plants.

Beans! I saw flowers on them tonight.
I love garden fresh green beans.

Broccoli. Still little, but lookin' good.

Beets. These are my favorite to pick young and stir fry the whole plant. YUM!

Jerusalem Artichoke. These have taken over anywhere we have let them,
and some places we have not let them.
Not sure what I think about having them in the garden, but they LOOK productive.

And, the FUN . . .

In the mornings this week I helped lead a group of preschoolers through various stations that taught about a different country and Bible story each day. They had an exciting time and left exhausted at the end of each day. On the last day we had four moon jumps to play in and it topped the week perfectly.

Nathan, being a bit dramatic since the camera is on him.

I pray that through all the fun, singing, prayers, teaching, and projects that the truth of the Scriptures came shining through. I love hearing 150 preschoolers screaming out in praise to God. Amazing.

In the afternoon I headed up a little bit older group of 8 boys to help a larger group of 150 kids build a world record Lego creation of Noah's Ark.

It is built on a one to thirty-seven scale, and was incredible to be a part of this project. Two of my girls and my youngest boy helped in the effort and the whole group built this creation with almost 35,000 Lego pieces in just four days. Together we were building and building just like Noah.

Tonight I enjoyed a walk with my husband, lots of talking and our first warm summer night that I wasn't too exhausted to enjoy. Looking forward to the weeks ahead and lots more of those.

Enjoy more Weekly Wrap-ups.