Scatterbrainedness- another week in our life gone by

Jayna Bells enjoyed her week of Camp Hydaway.  It tired her out each and every day!  She is not like her brother and made sure she had snack at the camp store.  However she also didn't go overboard and in fact I had to let her know that it is ok to get both a candy/snack and a drink.  That made her super pleased.  On day one she didn't get anything because she didn't know how the store worked.  On day 2 she got candy that she made sure to bring a bit home to share with Anthony.  On the day she bought an airhead, she said "Mommy I tried to save Anthony some, but I just couldn't! storying about the bible stories she had learned about David.  Absolutely priceless hearing my sweet girl teaching me about David and Goliath, David's Wisdom, the dead baby switch, King Saul and David's interactions.  She obviously learned a lot while having so much fun too!

It was too good so I had to eat it all!"  My absolute favorite was Friday at the end of camp.  She spent an hour after camp

 

While Jayners spent her days at camp, Anthony mostly got to do his own thing, which included too much video game time on day 1 and 2 so we traded the games for pool and kid's gym time at the YMCA for the remainder of the week.  On Thursday we swam 12 laps in the lap pool!!  That was in addition to exercise and hot tub and family pool time.  Next time I need to bring my goggles because it is hard to swim straight without them.

 

On Wednesday after we picked Jayna up from camp, we had to hop on over to  get her buddies birthday gifts for a Friday afternoon party.  In the midst of shopping the kids found a (dead) butterfly, that we had to pretend was alive.  Jayna wouldn't give a real smile.  Big Brother intervened and I got not only a real smile, but an exceptionally cute picture!

On Thursday we checked another item off of the bucket list.  It is a Bittersweet day.  On this day 10 years ago I got the worst imaginable call and for the first time and only time in my life, felt real pain, true heartbreak.  I still miss that precious perfect Godson of mine and a single day never passes without him entering my thoughts.  Two years ago I realized the ice cream place in town has "Christmas in July".  It is always on Blake's angel-day.  It is a good tradition that I am certain, if Blake was still alive he would be joining us in.  Visiting his grave works, but that makes me sadder.  I wanted something more on his angel-day, so this is our tradition on how to make a bitter day, my least favorite day of the year, a little sweet.  I know in my mind the countdown to the saddest day of the year.  I can't ever forget, so this allows for some happiness amongst the sorrow in memory of someone who brought me nothing but happiness and taught me more in 2 months than I could have ever imagined.

For you and in your memory Christian Blake Clark 5/28/03-7/25/03

We dressed in our Christmas gear and got into the extremely long line to get our free frozen treat.  The rules are if you wear anything Christmasy-- green, red, a Santa hat, etc you get a free ice cream or snow cone.  That is was too easy for us, so we go a bit over the top.  We even shared decorations with a family in line who was unaware about the promotion going on so they too got free Mr. Goodies!

Christmas can't be complete w/o bell ringers!  The man let Anthony ring it after he put in his donation.
And as if free ice cream isn't amazing enough Mr Goodie's matched donations in the kettle up to $1,000!!

Santa Clause gave the kidlets rings for Christmas in July!

On Friday after camp, was the Sprayground at Riverside park for Miss Jayda's 4th birthday.  And of course that included best buddy play time for Jayna and RyLee!  It was a great time and seemed an affordable do it yourself party with some great games, even though some of it didn't quite go as planned, the kids were clueless that there may have been more or less to it!  That is the perk to kids, they can re-invent fun into a game that may initially seem ruined!

Beautiful, sweet Leah

Anthony ready to get soaked

RyLee loved when Uncle Dustin would carry her through
all the spay parts and get soaked with her

RyLee with Uncle Dustin and Jayna getting soaked

birthday princess



Art paper to draw on and to keep the table clean



marble cake with raspberry icing is what Miss Jayda chose



silly best friends



sponge game

sponge game



sponge game

the big boys playing the big boy version of sponge game

no clue who won, both had fun

Best Friends again and again <3

 

VBS Week 3

This week we went to VBS at a church down the street from us that does multiple community events we enjoy throughout the year; Fort Hill United Methodist Church.  They used the theme Kingdom Rock: Where Kids stand strong for God. This week the kids enjoyed a mid-sized VBS.  This VBS showed the importance of ministering to others in need, whether financially, or in need of our prayers.  I loved that part.  Most VBS programs have craft time of some variety.  You make some super cool picture or trinket or even t-shirt and then loose it, rip it or throw it away a week later or less.  Here, they instead chose to do a ministry project.  I loved that!  Another neat addition was a family meal prior to VBS.  At 5pm they served "snack supper"-- which could just be called supper because it was for my kidlets.  It filled them up.  They also got dessert at 5:30, in addition to a snack during the VBS program.  VBS went from 6pm until about 8:40pm each night.

I think i enjoy all these weeks of VBS as much as my kids and all their countless friends we bring along!!  I think it brings back many fond memories of my own VBS filled summers both as a kid and then as a leader.

Day 1:
We were served sandwiches, chips, cookies and Lemonade

The mission project was  making teddy bears to donate to Gleaming for the World's VBS Teddy bear brigade.  In addition to making Teddies, they also collected stuffed animals.  If you remember, we joined that with our last VBS.  In fact Jayna and Anthony were ecstatic that in the VBS Promo video you can see the big Lion King Nala we donated there.

Before the teddy was stuffed and personalized

Day 2:
We were served fried chicken, mac and cheese, veggies w/ ranch, cookies and lemonade
We grew by 1 tonight.  Alonza joined my two kidlets.

Tonight's mission project was decorating cupcakes.  These cupcakes will be taken to Park View Mission for dinner tomorrow, or rather dessert after dinner. It is similar to a Salvation Army.  They also made 'quilt' place mats with bible verses for them.
In addition, they collected about $350 to be given to the Mission's dinner program.

Day 3:
We were served Pizza, salad, cookies and Lemonade
We grew by yet another one- Diamond joined the other three tonight!

Tonight's mission project was to make a prayer mix (pretzels, raisins, marshmallows, and m&ms) for our Firemen and Police along with an encouraging message each child designed.  

Day 4:
Tonight was amusing.  The staff joked, "You want to know how you know we are a family church?"  The answer was "we serve left overs"!  We had our choice of sandwiches, chick or pizza, chips, fruit, mac and cheese and then cookies and Lemonade.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of the kids today as I was in a rush at drop off with another appointment and then 1/2 my kids raced away at the end.

 Today's mission project was Backpacks for Kids Sake.  The VBS kids filled backpacks with nonperishable foods.  Every Friday elementary kids on free lunch take home the backpack to help feed them and their families through the weekend.  They return the backpack on Mondays and it is refilled Thursday for them to take the following Friday.  The kids stuffed 100 backpacks just in time for Bass Elementary School's first week of school. 

Day 5:
In honor of the close of VBS tonight was "Family Fun Night".  We had a cookout style supper, hotdogs, hamburgers, all the fixings, chips, cookies and Lemonade.  
Will and Tabitha joined our other 4 tonight.

Standing Strong for God

Part of the amazingly decorated church

Anthony's group singing

After we ate, they got to play outside in the inflatable bounce house structures, face painting, the playground, games for about 30 minutes.  Then we had VBS lesson and closing ceremony.

Jayna and Diamond's Group singing

Closing prayer along with part of our Missions offering: stuffed animals and cash donations

Our Mission project tonight was to pack 90 emergency health kits for families who have experienced misplacement by flooding, hurricanes, tornado, house fire etc. Each kit included a hand towel, wash cloth, bar of soap, comb, tooth brush, nail clippers, 6 band aids, toothpaste.

Anthony with his Health Kit he packed

They served ice cream cones afterwards.  Then the kids got to go outside and enjoy the festivities some more plus see two firetrucks and a police car who came to thank the kids for the prayer mix.  Jayna had 101 questions for the police.  Hmmm perhaps a future career;-)

Jayna and her VBS leader