Summer Activities

Quote of the Week by Sophie (so far): "The Golden Gate Bridge should be golden!"

This morning, the kids and I all had dental appointments and the kids had their pictures taken for the "Cavity Free" bulletin board. Whoo hoo!

Yesterday evening, our whole family went over to the rec center and went "swimming". We've taken the kids to three sessions of group swimming lessons and so far have seen no appearance of swimming. James and I are going to start trying to teach them some on our own. Evan, though, panics even in water that he can stand up in. If we try to hold him while he floats on his back, he gets a death grip on us and will not relax. I played with Sophie a lot in the water last night and got her to bob under water, holding her breath and to float on her back while I hold her lightly. She doesn't like it when I quit holding on, though, and collapses in the middle when my hand moves away. The kids love to play in a pool, but we are so ready for them to learn how to swim themselves. I have called about private swimming lessons and am waiting for the teachers to call back. The lady I spoke to said that I'll probably see a huge jump in what they can do even in the first lesson. We will probably invest in some private lessons at least until they can do the basics.

Last week our church had Vacation Bible School with the theme: "He Spoke in Parables: the Stories Jesus Told." Since I am the chairman of our Christian Education Committee, I also was the VBS director by default. We put together our own program instead of buying preplanned materials. Each night, a different storyteller came in and told a different parable. It was fun to see each person's unique ideas in presenting the story. James was Mr. Shepherd and dressed up in a bathrobe over his clothes and sandals and headgear and a staff. He hid a sheep puppet in the room ahead of time and had the kids hunt until they found it and then cheer. With the sheep puppet on his arm, he told the story of "Baby Baa" : The parable of the lost sheep. He also displayed pictures that he drew on large newsprint. The kids loved it. One little girl exclaimed: "Isn't that a bathrobe?!" James quipped, "It's my shepherd robe. I got it at Shepler's (a western wear store)."

Our theme psalm was the first two verses of 49A sung to the tune of 113A. Our song leader made up hand motions to go with it and by the end of the week, everyone had it memorized. Many of the kids also memorized all four verses of our memory program (and received prizes): Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, and 10:9.

Sophie just had me stop typing this, because she wanted to sing 49A with me. Matthew keeps saying that he wishes that VBS lasted a whole month.