Palm Sunday Celebrations

For as shocking as it is after two snow days last week, it's Palm Sunday.

On the way to church this morning, we read the account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as the people laid palm branches at His feet and said, "Hosanna!" We then sang Sandy Patti's "Hosanna" as many times as would fit into our 30 minute trip, because it quickly became Jones's new musical obsession.

It laid a great framework, though, for what the boys learned in Sunday school and then what they got to do in church. As the Arden kids do every year, they carried palm leaves around the sanctuary. Last year, Jones and Freddie did it, but I walked with them. This year, they walked on their own, though the idea of it made Jones ... shall we say ... uncomfortable. Still, he did it without whining or crying or clinging to me, and I stood in the back of the sanctuary, taking pictures and praising God (again) for the growth in my big boy. In fact, on this video, if you listen closely, you can hear me saying to my friend Elaine, "He's doing it! He's doing it! He's not waving anything, but he's doing it!"



After the "palm parade," we tried to keep Freddie in "big church" with us. That lasted through most of a single verse of "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" before I realized keeping him in there would be at the cost of my sanctification; back to the nursery he went.

Freddie picked Culver's for a quick lunch after church. As we ate, I showed them the video of what they'd done. Freddie said, "My favorite part is REAGAN." Then, as we left, a couple told the boys that they looked so handsome. Both boys said, "Thank you," and then Freddie embellished his appreciation with a very deep, very dramatic bow, which, of course, made the crowd seated around us go wild.

From there, we went to the Shriner's Circus at Furman - I will try to write about this in a separate post, but to be honest, there wasn't much to it, so we left at Intermission and took a few photos of the boys in their cute suits at "Mama's cah-wedge."