Cantata 2012

The kids had the great privilege to sing in the church cantata tonight. S, M and B are in the children's choir and E is in the youth choir.

Their choirs joined the adult choir in singing a beautiful song for the cantata and the children's choir did a song on their own. It was wonderful! I am so thankful they have the opportunity to learn music and share their praise to the awesome God we serve!

Immersion 2012

This is a youth activity at church. They had several games they played that  included some of the ingredients shown here.

Things like a slip-n- with eggs, chocolate syrup, and oil just to name a few.

They had a huge relay race filled with crazy things they needed to do with all the ingredients. Things like "flour" ghosts, cracking eggs on someone's head, drinking gross things, etc. They all had an absolute blast getting dirty!!!

E with some of her friends after the games!

The Launch 2012

The youth group kicked off their new school year with The Launch last night. E had a fantastic time eating supper, playing games, and being challenged from God's Word!

photo: via Breaking Point 

I am so thankful that she has a great group of friends who love the Lord and desire to have a closer walk with Christ.

Seed Spitting contest

What is summer without a seed spitting contest?

(B is the 2nd from the right)

On Wednesday night, the RA/GA classes had a watermelon seed spitting contest. The funny thing is a girl won!!!!

Rewired 2012

For camp this year, E went to Rewired with our church. This is an event where they stay at our church from Sunday to Thursday. During the day, the participated in local community projects and at night, they gathered with dozens of other church youth groups and had an amazing time of worship.

Photo  via Breaking Point

She had an amazing experience and is already looking forward to next year!

Camp 2012

E is going "away" to camp this week. It is actually only 5 minutes from our house! Our small town church is participating in a camp that connects other church youth groups together through large city wide ministries throughout the day and collective worship each night. This is her first year participating and she could not be more excited.

I will share more pictures when she returns later in the week!

Preschool Choir

M had her first performance with her Preschool Choir. Here they are waiting for the program to start.  Aren't they so cute???

Singing "This Little Light of Mine" 

  She did a great job especially being in front of such a large crowd for the first time :)

Awana Races

This year for the Awana races, the kids got a little creative with their cars.

S wanted to do a hot pink race car.

B made this dog bone car.

M made this penguin car.

B won 3rd place in the Truth and Training division.

M won 2nd place for Speed in Cubbies.

E's First Camp Trip

Group picture of the youth that went to camp in IL.

The Giant Water Slide

One of the highlights of VBS Week is the GIANT water slide.

I love this next picture even though he is not looking at the camera because it shows pure joy all over his face  :)

Scot's Race Car

This is the race car that Scot built for the stage. He made it out of PBC pipe and cardboard. Pretty impressive huh?

E was excited that she was finally "too old" for VBS :) However, she did get to help with VBS! This year she was in the snack area along with her friend M.

This is the girls delivering food to some of the workers. She had a great time...and how could you not when you get to spend all morning with your best friend!

My Race Car Drivers

The kids got to sit in a real race car at their VBS sign-up party. They thought it was the coolest thing ever :)

They are SO excited that VBS starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

Youth Group Bound

My baby girl is growing up!!!! Tonight E goes into the youth group for the first time. She is so excited...beyond words.....

but I am a little sad, it feels like yesterday she was M's age and now the YOUTH group?!!!??! Time please slow down!!!!

Pilgrims and Indians

For AWANA, the kids are suppose to dress up like a Pilgrim or an Indian to celebrate Thanksgiving!  S and M loved this idea and could not wait to do it!

S, my cute little Pilgrim

and  M, my adorable little Indian

You can be assured that my 6th grader was NOT going to dress up for the occasion. I can understand that - 11 year olds are just at that age where things like this is "so not cool!"

However, because she didn't, B did not want to either. He thought it was "baby".... I wonder who he heard that from???

Silly Hat Day

It is Silly Hat Day at Awana. I thought I would show you the creations they came up with for the big contest.

M had a boa hat. We simply wrapped and pinned a boa to a winter hat. She won first place in the cubbies.

B had a a dirty sock hat. Scot stapled his old work socks to an old ball cap. He won 2nd in his class.

E made a pom-pom hat which we thought was pretty creative. When we got her from her class and asked if she won, she said, "NO, my little sister beat me!" (S and E are both in Truth and Training so they were in competition!)

S won first place with her crow hat....and not only that, she won GRAND PRIZE!

She was super excited because she won $5 for the Grand Prize!

They all had a great time with Silly Hat night. I am so thankful for the Awana program. It teaches them the Word of God and makes it FUN!

Candy Scramble

The last night of Awana is marked with a lot of excitement not because the kids are glad it is over (because trust me they are NOT!) but because they are having a candy scramble!

My kids have been counting the weeks, days and now hours till it was time!

If you are not familiar with a candy scramble this is what they do. First, the workers cover the floor of the gym with candy, then the kids fill a brown lunch sack with as much candy as they can in a given number of minutes.

I had hoped to be able to take pictures of this exciting activity, but S got sick and was not able to go to church. She was devastated that she was not able to go because like I said they have been counting the days till the candy scramble.

When the kids came home, E had a bag full of candy for S. She said that her Awana teacher had made a bag just for her before the game began. How sweet is that! Our Awana workers are always thinking of the kids. They are so sweet and thoughtful. We truly are blessed to have a church who cares about our kids and continually show the love of Christ to them! It was such a simple little thing, but one that spoke volumes to S and her mama!

The Race

Today is race day and I have one who is too sick to go....I hate that S is missing the race especially after all the hard work that she did on her car and I hate that I have to miss watching the other 3 race their cars. Sometimes things just do not go as planned, but at least Scot was able to take pictures and I was able to share in their excitement over the phone.

So today was their first time participating in the Grand Prix.  They spent time this week getting their cars ready for the big race. They sanded, painted and decorated their cars. I showed you that here.

This being their first year, we really did not know what to expect so they went with simple designs. Next year will be a different story...they already have some pretty incredible designs in mind!!!

The cars were judged on design and of  course, they raced the cars in each of their groups to determine the top three fastest cars in each age group.

All together they brought home 4 trophies.

B's red racer won 2nd place in design.

E's polka dot car won 2nd in speed

M won 1st place in design and 1st place in speed

Great job, kids! We are so proud of your hard work and your good sports attitudes!