Mystery Breakfast

Every Sunday, our Bible Fellowship class, The HomeBuilders, have some sort of breakfast during class.  Most weeks we have DoCoJu (DOughnuts, COffee, JUice) but the first Sunday of each month is Big Breakfast. People sign up to bring breakfast casseroles, fruits, muffins, biscuits, and other things.

We usually sign up about a week in advance. Last week when the list came around, I could not think of anything I felt like making wanted to bring. So I wrote "something".....meaning I will cook, I will bring it in, but I have no idea what it will be.

We usually get a reminder email about Thursday or Friday, so whoever was not there on Sunday will see what's being brought and can decide what they want to bring.  When the email came out, by our name it said "Mystery Surprise".

Gee Whiz.

Not only do I still not have a clue what I want to bring, now I have to make something spectacular!

So what I made was this.....

....and the surprise is inside.....

I told our teacher, Zach, to be careful.....you never know what the mystery is!

PS....it was just chocolate chips!

PPS...No Sunday School teachers (or other church members) were  harmed in the making of this blog post.

Jacob's Baby Dedication

Sunday was Jacob's baby dedication day at church. This year there were 8 babies dedicated, and all families but one came from our Sunday School class!  Well, technically, two families, but one of them was in our class when their baby was born, so that still counts in my book.  There was definitely something in the water in the Home Builders Bible Fellowship class a year ago!!  All the babies were born last summer and the Sunday after the last baby was born, Buddy and I announced we were pregnant with Jacob. So even though he's nine months behind all these babies, they were all dedicated together!

We were so blessed to have the following family members attend with us: My mother and grandmother, Buddy's parents, sister Kristel and niece Maddie, and sister Dawn and husband Ron.  Unfortunately my dad couldn't attend due to a prior commitment.

With Jacob being the youngest, we were the first in line.

Right after the dedication...this is what happens when my mom is on one end of the pew, and Buddy's mom is on the other end....neither of us look at the same camera!!  Still a good picture though!  I love how we coordinated (by chance) with Jacob's outfit. He wore Quinn's first Easter outfit....pale green shirt with a green and blue sweater vest. My dress has green and blue, as does Buddy's tie!

Jacob was such a good boy and slept during the entire service. I just can't keep my eyes off of him!

And a couple more pictures of just Jacob!

The verse we chose for Jacob's dedication was Ephesians 3:14, 16-18

"For this reason I kneel before the Father....I pray that out of His glorious riches, He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power to grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ."

Jacob, I do pray that Christ will one day live in your heart and be your Saviour.  I pray that one day you WILL understand how much God loves you. He loves you even more that Mommy and Daddy do....and that's A LOT!!  I pray this verse for you every day for the rest of your life.

Love, Mommy



Geocache Bash!!

Our Sunday School class held a Geocache Bash a few weeks ago and we had such a great time.

What is Geocache?  Let's just call it 2012's version of a treasure hunt. There is a website you can go to, create an account, and it allows you to view where "treasures" have been hidden in your area. There's even an APP for smart phones so you can do this on the go!  It tells you the location and you can use the GPS in your phone or car to lead you to the treasure. Some are hidden in large containers, like a plastic tub or ammo box. Some are hidden in containers smaller than your finger. Most include a log that you sign, and sometimes you must exchange a small item. Then you can log onto the website to tell the owner you found their geocache.

Our youth pastor, Pastor Josh, got hooked on this and showed a lot of people how to play when several people from our class went to Gatlinburg back in the fall. Then someone got the idea we should do this as a class social. Buddy and I were excited to participate, since it was our first event to go to since he has come home from working out of town.  Some of the ladies stayed back to watch all the kids....the rest of us divided into 3 teams and went a-huntin' for treasures!  We were assigned a starting "cache" to look for and then we were on our own, with each "cache" counting for a certain number of points.

I was on a team with Buddy, my friend Pam and her husband (our driver and navigator), another guy from our class, Curan, and Pastor Josh's wife Abby.  My team was very courteous to let me not climb up and down the hills or anything else dangerous, as it had rained for several days and all was slippery.

We tied for 2nd place....a nice way of saying we lost. But it was a blast. Here are some pictures of some of the Geocaches that we found. Abby took a few pictures and I took the rest. Given that it was at night, rainy, and we were on a time-frame, please excuse the blurry, not so great quality of these pictures!



This was #3 out of 8 that we found....took us all of about 3 minutes. Curan is not bored with the pic...he is looking for our next location!



1. 

We wasted so much time at this location, not realizing until after 10-15 minutes of looking for the treasure, that we were at a "Virtual" geocache....meaning there was nothing to find. We just had to arrive at the location.




This one was neat....it was 1 of 20 along a roadside. This particular location held 2 separate Geocaches!

 


This was #2 out of the same location....notice everyone holding up 2 fingers!




This one was called a "skirt lifter". No we weren't being dirty....we had to lift up the "skirt" around the bottom of the light post.



This was the last one we found, although we did attempt to find one other after this. The top of the box that Curan is holding said "This is an official Geocache".....Abby was extra excited about this one!


We attempted to find 11, and were successful with 8 of them. The team that tied with us had 8 out of 11 as well. The winning team found 10 out of 12. So all in all, it was a good time. And what did the winning team win?  The privilege of eating the first slices of pizza! 

Gopher Buddies Awards Night

Our church's children and youth participate in Word of Life clubs for Bible Study on Wednesday nights. Quinn's age level group is called Gopher Buddies.

Quinn has a devotion book that we work through and special Bible verses to learn. The leaders also read a required book to the children each month. They participate in Christian service projects and get credits for coming to church on Sunday.  Then the WOL clubs have awards nights several times a year during the Wednesday night service.

The first awards night Quinn didn't get any awards. I had trouble this fall figuring out how to help him learn his required verses for Mrs. James's K-3 class at school, and then help him learn these additional verses for Gopher Buddies. Only one verse was the same for both groups, and the Gopher Buddies verses were longer, since they are meant for children up to age 5. One of the ladies who helps his group has a daughter who is in Quinn's preschool class. She mentioned that she helped her daughter learn her GB verse on the alternate week from Mrs. James's verse.  That helped, and so in January, when there was another award's night Quinn finally received his prizes!

Here he is with the Gopher Buddies group. I have no idea if this is all the children, but it is a large group!  Quinn is on the end of the second row. The girl beside him is in his class at school, but the other kids are some of the 5 year olds....and Quinn is their height!

They sang two songs, and then one of the workers came up to pass out the awards.

Quinn made "Membership" into the Gopher Buddies Club, which earned him the official Gopher Buddy Bag. He also earned "Level 1", which earned him a patch to go on the bag. 

He was so proud to show off his awards when we got home! Now, I've got figure out how to iron on the patch!

VBS 2011: Nights 4 and 5

The last two nights of VBS started out the way each one had, so I don't have any pictures of that part.

On night 4, the craft was making a cowboy hat. You could paint it with glue and then add decorations.

Here is Quinn, waiting on instructions from his buddy Johnathan.  Or as Quinn would say, "Johna". Please notice Quinn ALREADY has the glitter bottle in his hands!

Johnathan had barely gotten the hat painted in glue when Quinn did this.  Notice the grins of the other worker and even the other child.....

And here's a close up the hat.  You can clearly see why my friend Kim, who is our Pastor's wife, dubbed Quinn "The Rhinestone Cowboy"!  And every little bit of that glitter stayed put!

On the last night of VBS I was able to sneak away and get a picture of the registration area. The College and Career class did a great job of decorating the entrance area as well as the stage. With the theme being "Gold Rush", the designed the downstairs area to look like a gold mine. You can't see (and pictures inside didn't turn out), but on the walls are the Bible Verses of the week stuck to the walls with glow-in-the-dark stickers. There was also some black lights to light the way, and a wheelbarrow full of "gold nuggets" and other gems. The floor was laid out to look like train tacks.

Here's a closeup of the poster on the wall. The CC Class thought of everything...down to the little details. The three men in the picture are Pastor Ken on the left, Pastor Josh (youth pastor) in the middle, and Pastor Bailey (asst Pastor) on the right.

On the last night of VBS, the boys won the Penny War! The girls did win 3 nights to 2, though. I'm still waiting to hear how much money was raised. I did hear that this year's buckets are bigger than last year's buckets! A couple of the 6th grade boys brought whole boxes of pennies. I think I heard someone say that a box of pennies was $25 worth. There's 2 boxes on top and I think another box was dumped inside the bucket.

The last craft of the week was one that the craft workers had been prepping for all week. One night they painted the bottles, one night they painted the hats. But finally on the last night we got to put together the cutest craft ever.

A juice bottle painted green....add a cowboy hat, a bandanna, some arms, facial features, and a star....

And you get a Cactus Cowboy piggy bank!  Too cute!

Overall, I think Quinn had a great time at VBS. He talked about it throughout the week. He didn't always sit still like the other kids did, but he did enjoy the different events.  I am so thankful for all the workers who gave up their evenings to work with these children. It was worth all the sacrifice to know that several children came to know the Lord as their personal Saviour thanks to what they heard at VBS!  I'm already looking forward to next year!

VBS 2011: Night 2 and 3

Here is a recap of Nights 2 and 3 from VBS.

All day on Monday, Quinn asked if we were going to see the "Bible Show"?  I think he's getting Bible School and Puppet Show confused, but basically, that's what we are doing. The little children are getting God's Word through puppets.  When I asked Quinn what we do at Bible School, here is what he told me:

"See da cowboy with da orange Bible": One of the puppets wears a cowboy hat, and when we do the pledges, he holds an orange Bible.

"Put my corns (coins) in da blue bucket": The boys put their pennies for the Penny War offering in a blue bucket.

This is the puppet that starts the program each night and is also the one who has the orange Bible.

Each night the children have to help Mr. Sizemore "wake up" Kodiak the Bear. Then they read the night's verse to help Kodiak learn his verse.  Kodiak seems to have some memory issues, as he always begins to quote the verse from the night before, but quickly quotes the correct verse for some candy!  Quinn calls Kodiak "my bear". 

After teaching Kodiak his verse, the 3 year olds go to craft time. Monday night's craft was making bandannas. Each child got a plain white one and decorated them using paint and rubber stamps with various western images, like a cowboy hat, cactus, wagon, wolf, etc.  Quinn enjoyed painting the stamps. His new buddy, Jonathan, is helping him. Jonathan is one of the teens helping with Quinn's group.

I caught this picture of Quinn on Tuesday night (VBS #3). He is watching for Kodiak and other puppets to pop their heads up from behind the back drop. Quinn and many of the other little kids thinks this is hilarious. When any of them catch a glimpse, they all begin to squeal with excitement.

Because Quinn is in the youngest VBS class, his group is always called up first to drop pennies in the buckets for the penny war.  The girls dominated the first two nights, but finally on Tuesday night, the boys won!  Both buckets are overflowing with pennies! I've heard that VBS typically raises upwards of $1000 in pennies in one week!

Tuesday night's craft was cow print sheriff vests. We tied the vests together with yarn and then created a sheriff's badge to attach to the vest.

Somehow the 3 year olds always get done with their craft before the schedule allows. And we can't go back to the sanctuary because the older students are still having their Bible Time.  So the teens have been taking the 3s on a walk to go see the school buses! Sounds kind of funny, but the kids love it! They even open the door and the kids climb in the bus and sit in the seats. Quinn pretended to drive it! Hey, if he can "drive" a fire truck, he can "drive" a bus!

During the Bible time on Tuesday night, the puppets had 2 special guests...Amazon monkeys!  I think these guys may have been used in a previous VBS unit, and are also going with the group to New Zealand.  Mr. Hartman asked the kids if they had any questions for the monkeys. Quinn saw all the children raising their hands to ask questions and he raised his too and said "My Turn!" Mr. Hartman handed him the microphone and I thought to myself...oh my, what in the world is he going to say?

Quinn's question was "Can dey sing?"  And so the Monkeys sang Jesus Loves Me! So I took a picture while they were singing in response to Quinn's question.

Quinn is remembering and understanding more than I thought he would about Bible School. He hasn't quoted any verses and he doesn't always sit still, but he does seem to be enjoying all the aspects of VBS. I am so glad I get to experience this with him each night.  2 more nights to go....can't wait to see what is in store!

VBS 2011: Gold Rush...Searching for the "Rock of Ages"

Quinn is finally old enough to go to Vacation Bible School at our church!  Tonight (Sunday) was the first night of VBS. Our theme this year is "Gold Rush....Searching for the Rock of Ages."

The Bible verse for tonight was John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."

The stage of the sanctuary was set up to look like an Old West town.

The fence area was where the puppets would come up and interact with the children. One of the puppets, shown here, kind of scared Quinn a little bit, but thankfully I got him settled down and we were able to enjoy the rest of the time. 

One thing I found comforting was that first part of Bible School was saying the pledges to the American Flag, Christian Flag and the Bible.   The only thing was that the pledge to the Christian Flag that I grew up saying was NOT the same pledge that was said last night!  I'm not sure what that's about.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and this church is an Independent Baptist....but the flag is the same.

(Perhaps some of my church friends who read the blog can chime in here!!)

The buckets at the front of the stage were for the kids to place their offering in each night. Apparently the church is famous for having a "Penny War" between the boys and the girls. Each year the money is designated to go towards a certain missions group or need within the church. This year, the money will be given to our College/Career class for the upcoming missions trip to New Zealand.

The church was smart to have plenty of pennies on hand for kids to swap their dollars, quarters, etc. They had set up a booth called the "Gold Exchange" and had boxes and boxes of rolled up pennies. Quinn was so excited to put his "corns" (coins) in the "blue bucket"!  Because Quinn is in the youngest age group, he got to go first!  Unfortunately the girls won the first penny war.   

The first activity was Craft Time. Two of the ladies in charge of Crafts are sisters and friends of mine, and having read both of their blogs, I know how creative they can be!  Tonight's craft was a horse. Take a white tube sock, paint the toe area brown for the nose, attach a couple of googly eyes, and add some brown yarn for a mane. Attach it to a paint stick and voila...a horse!  Quinn was really proud of his horse!

After craft time we went back to the sanctuary for singing, story time, and more puppets. When we got back to our seats, he said "Mommy, I not scared now. We watch da movie again?"  He meant...more puppets please? He really watched during the puppets, and I wonder if it reminded him of when we went to see Veggie Tales?

The song tonight was Jesus Loves Me, and Quinn sang along to every word! He enjoyed Mrs. Pam's story and was super excited when more puppets came out to tell the story of Jonah! That's one of his favorite stories, again, thanks to Veggie Tales!

After this was snack time (grilled cheese, chips, and a cupcake.) Then it was down to the gym for game time. The game workers tried to adapt some of their games so the little ones could play but that proved to be a little difficult. Quinn is pushing 3 and a half, but a couple of the little girls in his group won't be 3 until the fall, so getting them to understand "rules" for a game was pretty hard. So in the end, the kids just ran around the gym, which was perfectly fine with Quinn!

We had a great time and can't wait to see what tonight holds for us at VBS!