Using Your Talents

I forgot to mention this in the last post, and it was something that really touched my heart. During VBS, our children's ministry director Kim did something special with the older kids (grades 3-6). They went over the parable of the talents - using what God gives you to produce fruit. Each child in that group was given $2 apiece. She said they gave out about $250 total. They were told not to spend that money on themselves, but to find some creative way to use it to make more money, whether it be having a lemonade stand, or buying popsicles to sell, or whatever they could think of. The money they made would be given to House of Hope, a ministry supporting orphans whose parents died of AIDS. She was hoping to double the money and get back around $500. My first thought when she was sharing this with the parents at the end of the week was, "I bet most of the kids just went and bought themselves candy." I just assumed they really wouldn't get it at that age, or really wouldn't care. Boy, was I brought to tears when she announced that those kids had taken that $250 and turned it into $1200!! Wow! Those kids got it!! I was just so amazed and God just really showed me that he can use kids just as powerfully as he can use us old people.

Vacation Bible School

Last week was VBS at our church. It was one of the only years I did not volunteer. I thought, Caleb is old enough to go this year, so I can drop them both off and actually have some Mommy time! Well, Caleb had other plans. He threw such a fit on Monday morning that they called us to come pick him up. He did fine on Tuesday, they talked me into helping on Wednesday (I'm a sucker for guilt trips), and he had another breakdown on Friday when he found out his class was performing on stage. So, I went from having a week to myself to having Tuesday and Thursday to myself. Hey, I'll take what I can get. Alex had a blast every single day. They had a performance for the parents on Friday, followed by a cookout and fun on the inflatables ( in the 100 degree weather). All in all, it was a good week.

Firin' Up the Grill

We had some of our friends from church over for a cookout this past weekend. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives! However, there are a few of them who are on my hit list at the moment. I'll get to that in a minute. The kids were just entranced by Andy's little fireworks demo. He also gave them sparklers and sent them running around the yard. Not quite sure what a smart idea that was, considering the majority of them were 4 or younger. Thankfully they all managed to leave unsinged. About my hit list - some of the guys thought it would be oh so funny to come back with their own fireworks and set a box of them off right outside our bedroom window at 1:30 in the morning. We jolted out of bed, wondering what on earth was going on and why our room was lit up in so many colors. All I can say is this - revenge will be swift and will be very, very sweet. Men can be such kids at times, can't they?

Beach Boys

Yet another wonderful weekend down at the Outer Banks. These boys LOVE to ride the SeaDoo with their Papa. It's their favorite part of summer.



Caleb is finally brave enough to go into the big pool with a life vest on. Up until last week I couldn't get him to leave the kiddie pool. He just has his own time for doing things, that's all.



Alex, on the other hand, has NEVER been afraid of the water. He's always been a natural water baby.




We finally found a way to tire these boys out before bedtime - letting them run up and down the hill at the Wright Brothers Memorial. Works better than popping an Ambien!

Farewell Franklin

Well, we decided to turn our turtle loose. The novelty had pretty much worn off for the boys, and they didn't seem to mind at all when we suggested letting it go. We took it to the park and boy, did that turtle book it into the bushes when we set it down. Turtles can actually move pretty past when they want to. I know it looks like Caleb is crying into his hands in the second picture, but he was just rubbing his eyes. PETA would be so proud of us!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

My mom and I took the boys down to the Outer Banks for a few days. With the weather topping 100 degrees here, we were thankful to be down there with the constant breeze. It was so beautiful and relaxing at the beach.



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See those 2 teeny weeny black things on the left side? They are tadpoles. Alex pulled a shell out of the water, and one of these tadpoles was swimming in the water inside the shell. Of course Caleb wanted one too, so he went and pulled a shell out of the water. As I am trying to explain to him how slim-to-impossible his chances of also finding a tadpole were, I hear him shout "I got one too!" Go figure.

No More Pencils, No More Books...

You know how the rest of that saying goes. Yeah - school's out for summer!! Let the beach season officially begin! We all got to join Alex on his end of the year trip to the zoo last Monday. The kids had a great time. His last day of school was Thursday. I so love not having to get up early and fight the carpool lines. No alarm clocks for the next 3 months. Life is great!