Funky Town Express

The first through fifth graders at our church attend a weekly children's program called Funky Town.  In the summer months, Funky Town goes on the town, so to speak.  Instead of a traditional VBS program, we do a three night park ministry at three local parks each night, and we call it Funky Town Express.  Last week was the week of Funky Town Express, and I think that all the kids who were there had a great time learning about becoming ambassadors for Jesus.  Cool theme, don't you think?  My kids really seemed to grasp the idea.

On Thursday evening we noticed dark skies as we headed to the first park.  From the back seat of the van I heard this:

"Oh no! It's gonna rain!  We won't get to be ambassadors for Jesus tonight!" (Lukas)

"Oh no!  I hope dere's not funder."  (Ava)

Okay...so at least Lukas got the idea.  Ava was attentive and involved, which is a big deal for her.  I was proud of both of them.  We did get rained out at two of three locations on Thursday, but I think we were all pleased with the results of the week.  This is a very rewarding ministry.

Last Friday night was a free night, so we had a family craft night with all the Express crafts.  I hope that the other families had as much fun with the crafts as we did.  My kids loved doing the crafts!

Oh, goodness, I have to mention this.  The kids were making cross necklaces, and I asked Ava to count her beads (I knew there were 10 because I helped put the craft kits together).  This is what she said..."One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ocho, nueve"(she left off 10 all together).  Seriously.  She switched languages to Spanish and did it correctly.  Special thanks go to Dora the Explorer and her snazzy cousin Diego.  I still can't believe she pulled that one off.

Saturday evening was our annual church carnival followed by the Grove City fireworks.  Our kids had a blast eating too many sweets, sliding and hopping on the inflatables, digging for treasure, playing games, and much, much more.  We had fun too since any time we get to bless our kiddos with something fun like a carnival puts a smile on our faces as well.

We ended Funky Town Express with an outdoor church service on Sunday.  The kids got to perform a song they learned, and we had several people who were baptized.  I loved worshipping outdoors.  It reminded me of an old-fashioned tent revival except that I don't know of any old-fashioned tent revivals where the music rocked the house (or tent) quite like our worship band does.

Check out picks of Express HERE.

Carnival and church pics are HERE.

Pray for Bob

I don't want to cause too much distress for those of you who know my father-in-law, so let me start by saying that he seems to be okay.  He is, however, in the hospital in Paris, France with a major gull bladder attack.  They decided to keep him overnight to monitor him, and if he doesn't have any further attacks, they plan to release him in time to make their scheduled train to Rome.  Please pray for Bob to not have any further pain or discomfort (the indigestion felt like chest pains, which is why they took him to the hospital in the first place).  Also pray for Pat.  I can't imagine how scary it must be to see your husband in a hospital bed, especially when you are in a foreign country without any family near-by.  Thank you everyone!

For those who know Bob and Pat and want more details, feel free to call me any time.  I really don't know much more than what I just wrote though.  Please feel free to share this, especially if you know them and know others who know them.  We appreciate your prayers, as do Pat and Bob.

Smilebox Update

Here are a couple of smileboxes that I was unable to post during the two weeks when I couldn't log-in.  Enjoy!  Oh...and since this is actually my second entry for the day, I just want to make sure you all read my entry below this about dear, innocent Tim the Turtle. 

FAMILY PICNIC

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Here Lies Tim

Eric be-headed poor Tim the Turtle the other night.  Poor Tim was new to our family.  We only had him for a month.  He was living happily in our front flowerbed until Friday evening when Eric stumbled upon him and tried to use poor little Tim to attain his balance.  Things will never be the same again.  Eric is remorseful and full of regret.  To see a photo of our precious little Tim the Turtle, please click HERE.

Convention Overload

I have survived yet another CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) convention with flying colors.  I say "survived" because the very moment one walks into the vendor's hall, one is completely blind-sided with a creeping, nervous feeling that gets worse and worse until you take your first step and dig in to the endless stream vendor products. 

It wouldn't have been so bad if I had known what curriculum we were using for the fall, but I didn't.  And so, with hesitation, on Thursday evening, I took my first glimpse of this year's CHEO convention vendor's hall, spanning the oversized room with wide-eyed awe, and, even though I had seen it before, the room was not any less intimidating as I looked at the never-ending spread of curriculum, supplies, nutritional supplements, books for fun, music and art programs, educational toys, just-for-fun toys, inspirational speakers, and the list goes on and on and on.  I smiled, glanced at my convention booklet briefly, and then planned my attack.  Right to left.  The best way to see anything, right?  And so it began...the great curriculum search of 2007.

Honestly, this convention was incredible.  I have left with my head so filled with information that I scarcely know what to do with it all.  I feel inspired and equipped for the year to come.  I think that Lukas is going to love the curriculum we chose for him to use this year.  We decided to use Singapore Math again since it worked so well for him last year, and we'll be using Explode the Code to reinforce some phonics rules and spelling for him(he's reading very well, but we haven't spent much time on spelling yet).  We basically put together our own customized package of curriculum, and I think it's going to be fun for me to teach as well as for Lukas to learn.  I didn't get to spend any time looking for anything to occupy Ava, but the truth is, that DLTK's site has more to offer for her than I will need, so why buy anything else? 

On Friday afternoon, I was able to attend a Renee Ellison workshop called No Monkey Business.  It was about child training, and I have to say that her tips are practical and simple to put into place.  I shared with Eric as much as I could remember from my notes, and I bought a booklet with more info in it.  We immediately started putting some of the tips into action within a couple hours of picking our kids up.  It is making a difference already.  How exciting is that?  Practical tips that work!  That is what this household needed right now.

Let me just tell you how great Renee Ellison was.  I wish I had been able to attend all of her workshops, but I was only able to hear her speak twice.  Both workshops were animated and captivating.  This woman is wise and filled with a wealth of knowledge.  I will be perusing her website often and hoping to hear her again in the future.  I highly recommend that you check her out!  You won't be disappointed.  You'll find info on managing your home, child training, home schooling, academics, Christian growth, and much more.  Her ministry is my convention favorite for this year.

Those are the highlights of the 2007 CHEO convention.  Today was recovery day.  We went to church and then took a family nap this afternoon.  It felt great, and I feel so much better!  Tonight we had a family movie night because after all the thinking and processing I have done for the past three days, I really felt like I needed some down-time to let my brain chill for a while.  Tomorrow...we'll get back to the grind!

Catching Up

For reasons that my non-technical mind does not completely understand, I was unable to log into my blog for almost two weeks.  I've been able to get into it for a few days now, but haven't had time to write.  So here goes a long update of recent events:

1.  On the 7th, Eric and I went to a Kenny Chesney concert, and it was tons of fun.  Pat Green, who was unpleasant because of his bad attitude, opened followed by Sugarland, who I totally love.  It was a great concert.    Eric's favorite country singer is Kenny, and I love, love, love Sugarland.  They must have planned this concert with us in mind (well, maybe not since Pat Green was there too and two people spilled beer on our blanket.  YUCK).  We had a great time!

2.  We had a family cook-out on the 9th at my brother-in-law's house.  The kids had tons of fun playing in the lake, riding the paddle boat and 4-wheeler, and bouncing on the trampoline.  I used my old camera that day, and it is currently lent out until later this week.  I'll try to post pics later.

3.  Let me back up a bit here.   We had an unbelievable incident occur on the day of the concert.  Our house gets very overrun with black ants in the spring.  On the 7th, Lukas took a drink of a juice box and two ants got into his mouth.  You're thinking that should be no big deal, right?  Oh, but you would be wrong.  He spit out one of the ants, but the other attached itself to his uvula.  And I mean it was totally attached.  It sunk its little talons or whatever an ant has into his uvula and clung on for dear life.  Lukas drank water, ate a slice of bread, gargled with salt water, and then cried, screamed and squirmed as I tried to remove it with tweezers.  I tried a finger sweep before all of this, of course.  I finally called the pediatrician, who suggested all that we had already tried.  When their office opened after their lunch break, we were waiting in the parking lot.  Lukas was still and calm for the doctors, and I say doctors in the plural because they were so fascinated that two of them came in just to see it stuck in there (Dr. Kebe wasn't there or he would have probably checked it out too.  He has 10 or 11 kids, but this might be a new thing even for him).  Lukas was the talk of the doctor's office since none of them had even heard of this happening before.  So after 15 minutes of mommy not believing that an ant could possibly be hanging out in his mouth (how terrible is it that I didn't even look in his mouth for 15 minutes?), over two hours of having an ant attached in the back of his throat (he described it as "a crunchy feeling") and 10 minutes of Dr. Kirkby tugging away at it with various instruments, Lukas survived his ant-ectomy.  I'm not sure the boy will ever look at a juice box again.

4.  The kids both went to the dentist a couple weeks ago.  I admit, it was the first visit for both of them.  I'm feeling a little guilty about not taking Lukas sooner, but all is fine (actually, I took him to a dentist in PA, but the place was filthy and smelled of mildew, so we never made it past the waiting area).  No cavities at all.  Thank you to Tom's Natural Strawberry flavored toothpaste!

5.  We spent Father's Day weekend in Coshocton (If you are reading this and are from Coshocton, check out the link).  It was nice to spend it with my dad, and we visited my grandfather as well.  I can't remember the last time I saw Grandpa on Father's Day!  He had heard from 4 of my 7 uncles as well as my aunt and dad, so I got to catch up on what they were all doing.  That was a nice treat.  

6.  We went swimming with friends yesterday, and I have my first burn of the season.  It hurts.  A LOT.  I'm such a wimp though.

7.  Our co-op cancelled our zoo field trip today.  I admit, I thought it was an unnecessary cancellation, but, I was wrong.  It started raining here at 9:15 or so.  Truthfully, I am MUCH relieved.  We have been on the go lately, and with the CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) convention Thursday-Saturday this week and our upcoming park ministry for church next week (I'm super busy with this because I'm in charge of crafts), I really need a day at home to get some things done.  Obviously, if I'm taking time to blog, I have been relieved of some of the time crunch issues I was facing.

8.  I missed all my readers.  Talk to me!  Hee, hee.  

Have a great day everyone!  I know this is long, but hey, I'm making up for two and a half weeks here!  Plus, that ant story would have been an entry all on its own if I had been able to log in.