Grandpa should be proud

Today I'm wearing orange and black. When I came into the kitchen I showed my pistols and yelled "Go Pokes!" Xavier responded with "Go Bucks!" As Ulysses said, at least he's cheering for OSU. Poor Illinois. We haven't done our job for you with the kids...

One of our children know their true colors though. At lunch, Ezekiel told me he really wished we could go to Eskimo Joe land. I told him I did too and we'll go the next time we're in Oklahoma.

Teaser

I haven't gotten a chance to go through all of the pictures, but I had the boys' picture taken last week and I got the disk today. I'm really excited! If you're in Geneva and want the contact info, let me know. Ezekiel didn't cooperate real well, but Xavier tried to help. The photographer was able to get a lot of great shots anyways. He followed the boys around the park for about an hour and just kept shooting. They still need some editing, but I'm happy the pictures on our walls are going to be updated very soon!

Bob Books

I just want to make sure I don't forget the day. :-) In the UK, they have these series of books called "The Bob Books" to help children learn to read. They remind me of the Dick and Jane books that I learned to read with. Well, a friend let me borrow her set a few months ago and the boys have been begging me to learn to read. Now that it's summer, I don't feel like Xavier is exhausted from French all day and VBS is over so I can focus on teaching him. This morning, I refound the books and sat on the couch with Xavier. He read the first book for me this morning and then tonight before bed he reread it to Ulysses and then read the second book! :-) They are very simple stories and use phonics, but I'm super proud. Xavier's really proud of himself too. Hopefully I have enough beginner reader books here to get through the summer!

VBS Prep

This is my second post tonight, so scroll down to read the non-VBS update on our lives. :-)

So, the mommy guilt has been quite heavy on my heart the past several weeks. We have 54 kids at our VBS this week! It has been amazing! The kids and parents are loving the program and we can really see God's hand in the lives of our kids and volunteers. But, I had no idea what I was in for when I said, sure I'm happy to lead it up. Group makes everything really easy, you just have to read the scripts. Wow. As much as that has been true for me the last two years helping at VBS, there is a lot of work that I haven't seen! Sally and Julie, and all the other VBS directors out there, THANK YOU! I pray that God continues to give you the strength to make an impact in the lives of the kids at your church.

The reason I've been so guilty? Ezekiel has been in front of the TV at church pretty much non-stop for the last two weeks as I've ironed out lots of little details that I didn't even know existed. It's been fun and I've enjoyed myself, but I've felt really bad for my youngest. I am VERY thankful though that I seem to have gotten over all my morning/noon/night sickness before the final push to put on the program came. My theme for the past two weeks has been "I've learned a lot for next year." I'm glad that we've already committed to doing this again next year, so I can feel like I'm learning these lessons for a reason.

I'll post pictures of the week soon, but here is some of the prep work.

Making our "God Sight Lights" - due to cost, we made our own lights out of construction paper tubes and tissue paper. These are some of my fearless volunteers stuffing the paper tubes!

Ezekiel helped paint the tree tops while Xavier was at school

Amanda, the children's ministry intern, and I did most of the painting. I learned for next year: 1. Use the profession set designers that our church has! (they needed more than 2 weeks notice, imagine that!) and 2. Recruit help for specific times and specific tasks (will be easier now that I know where paint and supplies can be found)

After Xavier got out of school on Thursday, he got to join in the fun of painting the shack on Friday. Ezekiel had had enough by this point and Xavier was only interested in painting the door. Oh well, at least they saved me that many paint strokes!

Okay, are you ready for the finished product?! We sure were.

Ulysses cut crocodiles out of outdoor carpeting to surround our dock

The finished shack, boat and dock. Amanda did an amazing job on all of the detailing work!

The finished backdrop! Yeah!

The whole set! Everyone has been very impressed this week. It's all been done with cardboard boxes and hot glue, so the kids can't play on it, but it looks good! The only sad part is there is no storage at the church so we're afraid it's hitting the dumpster on Monday. :-(

In Case You've Been Missing Us

A few of the things we've been up to in the last month. In pictures because I'm too tired to type.

I got to go to CERN and leave Ulysses at home with the boys. I got a tour of CMS the other big experiment at CERN, not the one Ulysses works on.

The boys have been mastering the art of sword fighting. Although, Xavier informed Ezekiel that fighting works much better when you just use your hands, no swords.

A nice day at the park - everyone got a turn taking Joelle down the slide

Xavier finished his first year of school!

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With his teacher, Fanny

With his teacher, Marie-Laure

With his assistant teacher, Martine

Oh yeah, there's this little thing called VBS that has taken over our entire life. It's done tomorrow! It's been a great week, but I'm ready for it to be over. I'm baking my thank yous for my volunteers, so another post might be coming as I wait on the oven. Words can't describe how much I've missed WalMart over the past two weeks!