Pandamania Day Two

Today was the second day of Pandamania VBS at our church.

Today's theme was God listens to you.  The story going along with the theme was Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal.  1 Kings 18:16-39

Today's snack was cupcakes with blue frosting and red candy decorations on the top.  Each kid got to frost their own cupcake and put on the red candies if they wanted.  We had red Twizzlers, Red Hots, and red hot Tamales.  Our snack represented an altar Elijah built to the one true God.  The blue represented the water and the red represented fire.  This snack was to help remind everyone that just as God listened to Elijah, God listens to you.

Kids can tell you exactly what it's like to be ignored or unheard.  They know what it feels like to talk to a busy parent or teacher, who responds with a distracted "Mm-hmm".  (Even I catch myself doing this to my girls.)  And, some of these kids have been the one with their hand waving in the air, that didn't get called on to share an answer.  As the kids learned about today's theme (God listens to you.) we hoped they could discover that God is always listening when they talk.  God not only hears our voice... God hears our heart!

"Call unto me and I will answer thee..." Jeremiah 33:3

"You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord." Psalm 139:4

Pandamania Day One

Today was the first day of VBS at our church.  The theme this year is Pandamania, Where God is wild about you! Based out of Psalm 139.

Today's theme was God creates the world.

God made you.

I am helping with the snack area this year.  Today's snack was peanut butter play-dough.  It is super easy to make and the kid's all liked playing with their food, and trying to make something out of the peanut butter play-dough, before eating it.  Sarah made a flat face, and then some peanut butter caterpillars.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup of peanut butter

1 cup of corn syrup

1 1/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 1/4 cup of dry powdered milk

Mix all four ingredients well.  Play with it and eat it!  Can be stored in zip lock bags in the fridge.

Sarah won a prize today (Giggle Goggles) during the closing wrap-up session.  Questions were asked about the lesson and story of day one.  Sarah raised her hand and answered the question.... What was the first thing God made?  Sarah's answer was, "He made sun, daylight, and darkness."  Then everyone cheered for her!

"I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

Let's Dance

Eric's cousin, Nathan got married over the weekend.  He is a Marine, so it was a military wedding.  Welcome to the family AND to the Marines MRS. Blackwell!

Our girls could not wait for the dance to start... Once the music started we couldn't keep them off the dance floor!  During some line dancing I had to try and keep them to the side of the dance floor so that they wouldn't get stomped on, knocked down, or fallen on.  They both enjoyed dancing with their little cousin Eli, and with Daddy.

There may have even been some fighting and tears over who was going to get to dance with Daddy....  Both girls did take a short break to sit with Grandma Great while Mommy and Daddy got a chance to dance.

Eric's relatives ~ pictured left to right: cousin Bruce, Mom Sharon, Uncle Tom, Aunt Carla, Great Aunt Nene, Grandma Dorothy, and Aunt Karen

Preschool Graduation

Sarah's preschool had a graduation ceremony last week, complete with caps, gowns, and a certificate of graduation!  Popee and Nanee came to see the big event.  Sarah was a little sad about not seeing her teachers anymore... Here is a picture of Sarah and her teacher, Ms. Lila before the ceremony started.

All of the little graduates paraded in to "Pomp and Circumstance" and headed straight up to the front to perform for their captive audience.... They played "Do Lord" on the hand bells, and then sang "Jesus Loves Me", "The Teachers at Asbury", and recited a graduation poem.

Sarah is standing in the second row, in the middle.

Here she is getting her certificate from Ms. Lila, and then all smiles when she got to come and sit out in the audience with all of us.

Afterwards their was a reception.  Sarah's teachers both came over to talk to her and to tell her that they would miss her too.  Thanks Ms. Lila and Ms. Sheryl for a good preschool year!

May Papers

The last month of preschool came and is gone... Sarah did some fun projects in May and reviewed all her letters and numbers.  She also worked on learning her address, phone number, color words and some sight words.  The clown below that she made was hung on the wall at school before the school carnival.  She liked showing me it each day as we walked past it to her classroom.  We always laughed about the funny mouth that she drew on it.  

 

Coloring, reviewing letters, and writing numbers practice...

Sarah made this letter train one day in May and colored the "Walking With Jesus" shoe.

Sarah had been working on The Pee Wee Penguin's Alliteration Book all year long.  Each letter has a page and a sentence.  Sarah had to find and circle all of the particular letter in the sentence, and draw a picture that went along with the sentence.

"allie alligator has an awesome ant as a pet."

 "bubba bear bought a big blue bouncy ball." " catina cat can count her colorful cups."

"dee dee deer does a dance at dinner time." "ellie elephant eats eleven eggs every evening."

"francy fish flips over four friendly frogs floating on a log." "gordo gorilla gobbles giant green grapes on the grass"

 "honey horse has happy hearts on her hat" " inny inchworm has nine pink ice cubes in his cup."

 "jerry jellyfish juggles jars of jelly as he jogs." "kayo kangaroo flies a king-size kite in Kansas."

 "lizzy lizard likes ladybugs to lay on her legs." "missy mouse munches many muffins on Monday."

 "nigel nightowl's nest nest needs a night light at night." "olive octopus eats oranges only in the ocean."

 "peewee penguin paints pink and purple pictures." "queenie quail quickly counts quiet quilts for the baby quails."

 "robbie rabbit runs races around the river in a race car." "sammy snake sits and sips soda from a straw for a snack."

 "timothy tiger takes turns with his toy truck and train." "umber umbrella bird sits under an umbrella until it stops raining."

 "vincent vampire bat goes on vacation to the vet in a violet van." "willie weasle wins awards for his wacky worms."

 "xavier fox can fix extra big boxes for his x-rays." "yancy yak likes to lay long yellow yarn in the yard."

 "zeke zebra zips, zooms and zigzags at the zoo."

Sarah's teacher Ms. Lila made each kid in her classroom a "Watch Me Grow" book.  It has memories in it from throughout the year and a message from Ms. Lila.

Sarah posed for this WANTED poster...

The last day of preschool, standing by the Asbury Preschool sign.

Sarah told me some of her favorite things about going to preschool were "making stuff", "going outside for recess", "going to chapel and singing the songs".  And, she liked "going there to see her teachers".

The memory verse for the month of May was "God will help you."  1 Chronicles 12:18