Road Trip & VBS

The past two weeks have been very busy. First, the girls and I had a girls trip to see friends. On Friday we went to meet Kristina, Sadie, Kinnick, Stephanie, & Hannah in Bloomington. We took the five little ones to the zoo. It was a small zoo and only took us about an hour to see everything. The girls enjoyed the petting zoo. After the zoo we ate a picnic lunch. Then Grace, Faith, & Sadie put on their swim suits and did the spray park. Grace said this was her favorite part. We had planned to go visit a dairy farm but ran out of time. We are hoping to schedule that for a different day. We then all caravanned back to the Gorsch's for the night. The kids enjoyed playing together and us big girls even got time to visit. The next day we hosted JoniKay's bridal shower. It was fun hearing about all her wedding plans. I am looking forward to her wedding this fall. We actually got all five kids to nap during the shower (even Grace!!). These days I don't entertain like I used to so it was fun helping fix the party foods & putting together the center piece.

This week didn't slow down. We had VBS at our church, Studio Go. I once again taught Bible for 4's-1st grade. I was SO drawing a blank on how to decorate my room this year-game show just wasn't an easy theme for me. Luckily with an idea from my dad and help from my sister we got things pulled together. I ended up making a Wheel of Fortune type game for the older kids to play each day. They really liked it. Grace & Faith both enjoyed VBS this year. My girls wouldn't normally get to attend VBS. But all helper's kids get to attend a preschool VBS. Gramy & Nana & "Aunt" Jean came to see the girls perform at their program on Friday night. Faith sang enthusiastically both then and Sunday morning. Grace was much more shy this year. She kept saying, "I am not singing!!!" But in the middle of the song she said, "Faith needs my help." And she voluntarily joined the preschool group in their song. She however could not be persuaded to sing on Sunday morning. Oh, well. She wore her VBS shirt each day except for one. Each day the kids were supposed to wear a special something. Grace participated in favorite day & crazy shoe day. She would not wear her clothes backwards or inside out on that day. She kept telling her dad his clothes were wrong, she just couldn't get why anyone would want to wear them wrong on purpose. (yeah, i know she is just like me...)

Outrigger Island-Vacation Bible School

The week after CIY was VBS. (Like I said it has been crazy!) I taught a Bible class for 4 year olds-1st Grade and Jeremy was in charge of games for the older kids. Every year I get stressed out with all the preparations of planning the lessons and decorating my room. The age I teach is challenging since two classes haven't been to school and two have. I have to really adjust my lesson for each age group. This year's theme was a fun island one so I had a pool full of colored sand they got to dig in and find objects for the story. This was very popular with the littlest ones. It is priceless when you are telling the story about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the kids say, "Wow," when you tell them the ground was dry! Or when they gasped as I tore up the scroll that Jeremiah had written God's words on. That is why I keep teaching Bible each year.

I was very nervous going into the week about Faith going to the nursery because in general on Sunday morning she is not a fan. Pretty much 80% of the time I have had to go pick her up after five minutes. But she did great!! She stayed in the nursery the entire time each day from 8:30-11:45. I was very excited. I was also excited for Grace because this was the first year she got to attend the Preschool VBS program. She loved making crafts, playing games, and singing songs. This was also the first time she was in the closing program on Friday nights. It was so much fun going to her first program. She didn't sing but did the actions with enthusiasm. She had quite the audience as her Grammy, Papa, Aunt Jo Jo, Mark (Josie's boyfriend), and Great Grandma Holst all came to see her performance.