GiddyUp Junction

Tonite, the boys graduated from their first VBS program of the summer!

Since Sunday nite, they've been participating in the Giddyup Junction VBS at Mrs. Shana's church, Burnett Siding Missionary Baptist Church. They have had a BALL, and I have LOVED the incredible crafts they've brought home. The first nite, they painted rocks to look like cactuses; they also   made "WANTED" posters, and for the grand finale, they made mop horses, which was perfect, because ever since week started, Jones has been tying up and taking care of an imaginary horse. As soon as he got the mop horse, he told me his pretend horse died.

Ain't that a shame?

Here are the most memorable parts of the week:

1) I walked in on Tuesday nite and noticed "You'uns Prayer Wall." The kids had given their prayer requests, and the teacher had written them on the wall. I saw "People at St. Jude's" and immediately assumed Freddie'd made that request - he's been praying for the kids of St. Jude's ever since he heard about them during the Trike-a-Thon last month. I was thinking what a tender hearted little fella I am so proud to have. When I talked to him, he confirmed that he'd made that request. It wasn't ten seconds later that Jones told me Freddie had punched a little girl in the nose, because she kept cutting in line. That's pretty much the yin and the yang of Freddie Bear. He has the softest heart I have ever seen in a kid - but he's also has him limits when it comes to classroom etiquette.

We talked about the thousand reasons why hitting ANYONE - especially a girl! - was wrong, and Freddie was humbly remorseful ("I'm just sorry," he said with his head down). At bedtime, I was curious as to how hard he'd hit her (Jones said her nose bled. Freddie said it just "got red"), so I asked him. He very earnestly told me, "Like a baseball hard? I don't know. SHE knows. I don't know."

In retrospect, I guess it was a stupid question.

2) After the graduation ceremony and subsequent pizza supper, the boys went out to play on the church playground. Jeremy overheard a little girl ask Jones why his daddy walks like he does. Jones said, "He walks like he's got a sprained ankle," and then he did what Jeremy called a pretty spot-on imitation.

3) As Jeremy told me about the exchange, we commented about the abundance of gnats bedeviling us under the church's picnic pavilion. Later, as we drove him, Jones got whiny and said, "Mama, I feel like there's a bug in my ear." I'm on HIGH tick alert, so I pulled over as quickly as I could and looked. Sure enough, there WAS a bug in his ear. It wasn't a tick, thank God, but it was one of those gnats that'd been bothering Jeremy and me earlier in the nite.

So that was week one of VBS. I'm assuming there'll be a few more weeks of the same - our church hosts its VBS in mid-June, and I'm planning for them to attend at both of our lake churches (Oakwood at Hartwell and Mount Pleasant at Chatuge). They seem to really enjoy it - Freddie asked every nite, "Are we gonna play GAMES?!?" I think he loves the physical aspect of it, while Jones prefers the imagination component. I'll be honest: I love a couple of hours off, that churches up here serve DINNER before Bible school, and that the boys are hearing the Gospel over and over again and from different people, so it's a win all around!