VBS

Tomorrow begins a very busy week for me and JillyBean. Vacation Bible School starts and I'm so excited. Although Jilly is only three, she gets to go because I am volunteering as a teacher (I have been assigned to the five-year-old class). This is exciting because she will be doing the same preschool program as the older kids.

This is a massive program and the ladies from our church in charge of the children's ministry have been hard at work for months. As of today, they are expecting more than 470 kids for the week long program. It's a western theme, which is great for Jilly since she's all about horses and cowboys.

I loved VBS as a kid. I remember spending summers "church hopping," as we would attend Vacation Bible School at our church as well as VBS at our friends' churches. I hope that this is something Jilly will grow to love and look forward to each summer as well.

I have never led a class so I'm a little nervous but also excited about the opportunity. Keep us in your prayers as well as all the kids who will be attending and the volunteers leading them.

Little Miss Firecracker

Here it is July again and I have failed to come in and update the blog. It sure isn't for lack of things to share, I just haven't taken the time to do it - once again. I need to dedicate a time of day each day to do this, sort of like a job.

Until then, we had a fabulous July Fourth celebration. JillyBean had been looking forward to July Fourth for weeks. Although I had been talking to her about why we celebrate the date, she mostly saw it as a time to shoot off fireworks. We had a couple of neighbors come over for a cook out and to let the kids have some fun. Jilly's buddies weren't as jazzed by the popping of the fireworks she and Daddy purchased, but they enjoyed the sparklers. Jilly didn't want to like the explosive rockets, but I think she forced herself to enjoy them since she had been looking forward to shooting them off for some time.

I really love the Fourth of July and have great childhood memories of family gatherings in Kansas. We would get together with my dad's cousins and spend the day tying black cat firecrackers together to make huge explosions. They all had cellars in their backyard so we would light the suckers and throw them into the cellar to hear the echo of the boom. We'd shoot off bottle rockets that we set up inside soda bottles and throw cherry bombs across the yard. It was so much fun. Then we would all have a picnic, play a game of softball and gather in the town park to watch the fireworks display that was put together by the local volunteer fire department.