The majority of this week was wrapped around our church's VBS program. Natalee and Xavier have spent many hours on Sunday afternoons preparing for VBS and it was beautiful to watch the culmination of that hard work (and sacrifice of Sunday lunches!). I am so grateful for how our church trains the youth to become Kingdom workers and gives them opportunities to become leaders.
The "week" actually seemed to begin on Saturday. Youth had to be at the church for VBS set up and final preparations at 9 a.m.
Sunday Mike and I taught the summer combined Sunday school class. It was a joy for me to be back into a group teaching role for an hour. Natalee and Xavier stayed after church for their final practice.
As I came in to pick them up the youth were divided into their groups praying over the students they would be serving throughout the week. Powerful. 
Our friends invited us over to enjoy their air conditioning, but alas adult responsibilities kept us home. Mike mowed the yard and I used the clippings to mulch part of the garden (a trick I learned and am trying from an Instagram I follow).
We had small groups and the weather turned about an hour before it was to begin and cooled the whole evening off! We thawed out a big bundle of Sam's beef hot dogs and took them along and everyone enjoyed roasting and eating those and other goodies.
We are so very thankful for our small group family. Life would look very different without them.
Day 1 was a huge success. The younger three were overjoyed to go to VBS and Natalee and Xavier did a great job serving (as did all the youth). Besides leading the groups of children around to their stations, the teens did all of the skits, puppets, song leading, etc.
The teens also stayed about an hour each day to run through the next day's skits, talk about highs/lows, troubleshoot, and just run things across to their adult leaders.
(Isn't our props/sets person phenomenal?)
Zayden went through a big batting slump that lasted several games. He started doing this "thing he read about in a book" where he 'points out his spot' with his bat before he hits - and I've never seen anything more adorable.
Home for showers and an excited night of sleep before day 1 of VBS!
Xavier was up with the birds everyday this week. Natalee was up with enough time to get around and get in the van for dad's drop off service each day. They grabbed Jace, and Mike dropped them all off at around 7:55 each morning. They had breakfast at the church before jumping into their responsibilities for the day.
We ended Monday evening at the ball park. It was a tough battle with not only a good team but one that kind of has poor sportsmanship. Those are the hardest games. I did love to see Jace pitch with Xavier catching. Fun to watch cousins. Jace got us out of the longest inning ever by striking a couple players out and letting us move on.
Truth be told, this was a hard season. It was discouraging at times and took a lot of character on behalf of our boys to stay in it. I'm so thankful Xavier had good solid friends to stand beside this season (and me, too). Without them it would have been much worse.
Mike did take our other 4 home early and get showers going since it was VBS again Tuesday morning.
Tuesday was beach/aloha day!
I helped in crafts M-Th so I got to see my kiddos come through each day. I thought I'd learn some names of more of the other kids but I'm not sure I was very successful.
Tuesday afternoon Mia had a doctor's appointment to check in on a couple of things. We had a kidney "scare" but it seems that things will be fine. That made an emotionally long week for mom.
We ended back at the ball field Tuesday night for Zayden's game. I took PB&J, apples, and fresh veggies and the kids ate while we were there which meant no table/floor for me to clean up at home. (work smarter)
We got home in time for the rain to roll in and wished our MO family was getting some, too.
I'd be lying if I said that the entire week was magical and without any hiccups. Some of the sparkle was tarnished from our overall excitement, but when I stopped to reflect on the small incidents that were part of the "tarnish" I could clearly see Satan at work trying to steal our joy at being part of the FBC family. We rallied and didn't let him do that. I'm so thankful for a friend who let me cry out a few feelings that I was carrying alone.
Both Natalee and Xavier were in skits on Wednesday.
Xavier is in the dark hat getting "slayed."
Natalee was a lovely flag bearer.
Wednesday was backwards day. Some of my kids participated and some of us are too sensory to enjoy that. Ha. Preschool VBS is only for kiddos whose parents are volunteering and it was the sweetest little group of 5-6 girls. Evie's awesome teacher sent me these pictures.
She kept them busy and Ev was definitely ready for nap each day!
Thursday was medieval day! Xavier helped lead songs.
Also, Evie chose to be a pirate instead of a princess which cracked me up.
Playing second base...
Natalee was a "big head" in Friday's opening skit. She's got on pink shorts in the middle.
On Friday I had the privilege of teaching the Bible lesson. I got to teach about the sword of the spirit. I prayed about how to best approach that lesson and kept feeling that I was supposed to get the kids INTO the Word. Cannot use a sword you do not practice with. Mercy that felt intimidating given the group sizes but we did it with the 2-3rd and 4-5th grade groups and it was a success! For the K-1 kids I read them the Bible story illustration from a children's Bible, but for those older grades the teen helpers assisted me and we got the kiddos turning the pages and into Bibles on their own.
After I taught the 2-3rd grade class a little girl came up to me and said, "I sure wish I had one of these Good Kingdom books in my house (Good Kingdom from our Kingdom Keepers theme). I've never seen one before." I asked her if she went to church anywhere and she said not. We chatted a bit more and then I reached over and took a Bible from our youth group's collection and handed it to her. She looked at me and said, "to keep?" When I said yes, she threw her arms around me.
Luckily I had 20 minutes to recover before my next class because she left me in a puddle.
Last day vibes.....
Because we like fun (wink) we ran over to family softball and played some softball with friends in a neighboring town.
This is a girl who survived VBS!
Random picture of my pot of flowers because they bring me joy.
Family softball is nice because the kids are kind and generous of heart. It's as much about the kinship as it is the game.
Mike and the boys replaced rotten boards off the swing set.
They also mowed. I did laundry, some kitchen work, and read a book. The laziest!
Saturday was an unbelievably lazy day for some of us. Mike wasn't lazy but I sure was and several of the kids were "laid back."
Evalynn loves Saturday. If she plays her cards right she can usually score first breakfast and second breakfast. Ha.
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