VBS

Our church's Vacation Bible School this year was about Psalm 23. It was Abby's 2nd year getting to participate and Ben's first. Their group was called the Little Lambs in keeping with the Good Shepherd theme of Psalm 23. Ben was the youngest in his group and had never been in any structured, classroom-type settings before, and it showed! There were moments when he would see me and start crying (I helped with crafts). He was completely obsessed with the construction going on next door to our church and probably drove his leaders crazy with his near-constant babbling about, "Machines! Machines! Look-ee machines! A dump truck, look-ee a dump truck! A Yoder (loader)! A Backhoe! Look-ee machines!" Seriously. He would go on and on like that for minutes at a time. :) But he did okay overall and was very excited to go back to church each day. And I know I'm biased, but don't you think he is just the cutest Little Lamb you've ever seen? :o)

Abby on the other hand made remarkable improvements since last year. No crying this year (at least none that I saw). She memorized verses, did the crafts with minimal assistance, talked to me about what she learned each day, and even participated during game time (a pretty big deal for my publicly-timid daughter!). She loved it all!

Class Time / Craft Time

Snack Time / Machines!

One thing that I always like to watch is how Abby and Ben stick close together in public. They may do a fair amount of fighting at home, but when we go out they are best friends and rarely leave each other's side:

If you are wondering where Jakey was in all this, he and the other babies were watched by several of our church's teen girls. I'm told he was basically fought over, as Jake seems to be the favorite baby at church because he smiles at everyone and is a great cuddler. :)

Naptime with Gracie!

As for me, if you are aware of my tardy tendencies, you can understand that I was quite proud of myself for getting my kids there on-time at 9am all by myself the first morning! :) And the feat is even more impressive when you know that we normally don't get up until 8 or 8:30, so we all had to get up extra early. Unfortunately, the second day we were five minutes late and the third day we were ten minutes late....I suppose it's a good thing we only do three days at our VBS! Ha!

PS) Check back later to see a video clip of Abby saying her verse - I can't find the cord to upload it!