Vacation Bible Camp: Roadtrip

Our church had what we used to call VBS last week. On the first day, 1400 children between age 3 and 5th grade were present. They were expecting 1500 by the end of the week. I am amazed every year at the commitment and hard work of so many people that it takes to pull off an event like this. It seems like they think of everything!

Here is one of our pastors overseeing things, so to speak...

I was so excited for my granddaughter, age 4, to have a great experience this year. Last year she was a little too young and all the noise and commotion frightened her. The first day's events were actually held on Monday evening from 5:30-7:30 pm. The rest of the week, it was held from 9 am till noon. There was every bit as much noise this year, but she did really well and loved going every single day!

Snack time...notice the orange ID tag that was worn every day. Also, each family had to create a password in order to safely retrieve your child when it was time to leave.

The atrium of our church was transformed into a city park. This water fountain was a big hit!

Every hallway and every classroom was decorated for the Roadtrip theme. Some hallways were destinations, such as a beach. Other hallways took you through farmland. It was amazing!

There were all kinds of cute little shops near the city park...

My mom and my grandson stop by the pasta shop...

The popcorn machine was a favorite too!

I have no idea who the creative people are that thought of this, but every day the marquee changed to reflect the lessons of the day.

This is a favorite stop for the young moms. Each morning, refreshments such as cheese cubes, scones, grapes, coffee, tea and juice were offered along with some chairs to give the moms a chance to visit and just pamper themselves a little. A daily gift was given too, such as travel mugs, shopping bags, and flower seeds.

The most important part of the roadtrip of course were the lessons learned along the way. Each day the kids were given a printed card to take home which reviewed the day's Bible story. I'm looking forward to using these in the days ahead to review and reinforce the memory of them with my granddaughter. She had a great week, and loves singing the songs she learned and retelling the stories.

Thank you Hudson Community Chapel and each and every person who contributed in any way to an awesome Roadtrip! God bless you for investing so heavily in the eternal destinations of so many precious children!

Thrifty shopping for children's clothes...

I just love to shop for children's clothing at our local thrift stores. With four grandchildren ages 4 & under, I have a good excuse to hunt for bargains. Here is my latest catch, all from one store:

7 dresses = $15.05

7 pr. boys socks = $1.20

4 girls tops = $6.00

4 boys shorts/overall shorts = $3.95

3 boys shirts = $1.80

1 boys swim trunks = $.30

1 girls panties = $.20

Grand total = $28.50

Since I (sadly) don't sew, I never buy anything that needs repaired. And I look for clothes that are not faded, spotted or out of style. Usually I buy items the kids can wear "right now" ... unless I happen to find a real bargain on something I know they will grow into and in the right season.

The name brands on the items above are such as these: Gymboree, Circo, OshKosh, Glo, Carters, Sophie Rose,Youngland, Chaps, & Children's Place.

But even more fun than finding these great bargains is taking my four year old granddaughter shopping with me. I show her the rack where her size is, and tell her which color tag to look for (the ones that are 1/2 price that day!) and away she goes! "Oh grandma, look at THIS! This is BEAUTIFUL!" ... She holds a dress up to herself and twirls around in delight. Sure, at those prices, pick out seven! When she gets a little older I will teach her more about the money part so she can understand it all better. Until then, I'll just keep on being an obnoxiously giddy and doting grandma!

Anyone out there who shares this thrill of the bargain hunt for quality children's clothing? This exact Sophie Rose sailor dress is for sale at Kohl's for $30. I paid $4. for it, and it doesn't look like it was ever worn. Yippee!

Children in the kitchen...

My grandson, Deacon, who with his mom and little brother are visiting this week from SC, made our supper tonight. I don't know where I caught onto this, but every now and then if I have any leftover spaghetti meat sauce, I make these little "pizzas". Deacon is four and he was so proud of himself that I let him put these together. Here's how he did it:

First we opened up a package of English muffins, and splitting the muffins, layed them out on a cookie sheet.

Next, we took the reheated meat sauce and spread it generously on the split muffins.

And the last step was to cover each pizza with a slice of American cheese.

The pizzas then got baked in a 350 degree F. oven for approximately 8 minutes, until the cheese melts and the bottoms get slightly crispy.

Deacon also fixed the salad...

And set the table!

I was so proud of him and loved watching him be so happy to be helping me in the kitchen tonight!

These little "pizzas" make a quick hot lunch from leftovers and you can use anything you want for toppings. Enjoy! (Not only the food, but the kids!)

I got a new car for my birthday!

I had so much fun playing with the new toys the grandkids got for Christmas that my hubby decided I needed a new toy for myself. So he bought me a new car!

I think he's lost his marbles, but then again, this thing is actually pretty impressive. It has a remote control, and can not only go backwards or forwards, but can turn corners too. And it goes really fast! My eye-hand coordination isn't what it used to be, but I'm getting the hang of it! So never let it be said this old granny is just wastin' away in her rockin' chair!

My birthday happened to be a babysitting day, and when Elylah arrived, she started pulling balloons out of the drawer and trying to blow them up. She just assumed we were having the only kind of birthday she knows about...with a lot of fanfare. I told her I was too old for that, but what I really wanted was for her to make me a cake! She happily obliged!

She is using the electric hand mixer for the first time. She's always been afraid of the noise before.

We used a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix. It called for a whole stick of butter which made it very yummy! I just love yellow cake with chocolate frosting...but I don't care for prepared frostings. This is the recipe I like to use, which is very simple and the taste is well worth the extra time.

Fudge Frosting

2 cups sugar

1/2 c. shortening

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2/3 c. milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix all ingredients except vanilla in saucepan. Heat to rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Boil one minute without stirring. Place saucepan in bowl of ice and water. Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency; stir in vanilla. About 2 1/2 c. frosting.

from Betty Crocker’s Everything Chocolate Cookbook (1993)

...they each got to lick a beater of course!

Elylah found four candles in the drawer, since she is four...and that was fine with me! So we sang the birthday song and blew out the candles...and I got what I really wanted for my birthday: another precious memory!

January 27, 2010

snow ice cream and dirt pudding make for a fun party!

Last Saturday, we had a birthday party for my South Carolina grandson, Owen, who turned two this week. The chances of him being in Ohio for his birthday are rare, so we were so excited to do this. We rounded up some little people and some big people too, and my daughter-in-law Ellie and I threw together a great theme party. It didn't hurt that our good friend, Jennifer, had a whole grocery bag full of "free" dump truck themed birthday stuff that she donated to the cause.

As the children were arriving, we sat them down at the table where they colored a picture of a dump truck that Ellie found on line and had made copies of. This kept them occupied for a few minutes.

But Ellie and I had decided the main "entertainment" would be making snow ice cream, since we had a very plentiful amount of clean, fresh snow right outside the kitchen slider window.

The kids loved it!

Instead of traditional birthday cake, we decided to make dirt pudding, and we served it from a large dump truck, filled with gummy worms of course!

Here's the birthday boy the night before they had to leave, trying out the shaving set we got him. Does it get any cuter than this?

SNOW ICE CREAM

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream (or half & half)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix until dissolved.

Mix in 4-6 cups packed snow.

Serve immediately.

DIRT PUDDING

2 cups cold milk

1 package chocolate instant pudding mix (4 serving size)

1 - 8 oz. tub Cool Whip

1 - 16 oz. package oreos, crushed as in a food processor

gummy worms

Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk until well blended, 1-2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in Cool Whip and half of crushed cookies. Place into bowl (or dump truck!) and "hide" gummy worms in pudding, with a few sticking out of pudding. Cover with remaining crushed cookies.

Memory-making in progress...

What a busy and fun month it has been...and will continue to be! Hope you will enjoy these pictures of what's been going on around here!

Here's a picture of my niece, Sarah. In early December she borrowed my house to have a jewelry party with items she either designed and made, or items she repurposed. Sarah is a 3rd year student at nearby Kent State University. She is a sweetheart. It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season and made me hustle to get decorated!

The same day as the jewelry party, in the evening, our small group had our Christmas get-together. Here is a photo of me and Bob that was taken there. Oh and in the morning of that same day was the funeral of Mary Talbot, who I wrote about earlier. (Story here.) So December started off being really busy!

Princess Elylah turns four on Christmas Eve, and she has had a month long celebration already! Her parents gave her a "children's party" (at our house) earlier in the month...

Here she is with her Uncle Jonah, who is 7.

This past Saturday, her Papa and I took her to a children's play at a theater in a nearby town. She got to wear her Christmas dress. Isn't she beautiful? When her cousins get here from SC on New Years Day, along with her little brother Ethan, we will get a picture of all four of them in their matching outfits. (I reserve my right to be an obnoxious grandma!)

After the play, which we attended with friends, we all went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.

Jonathan (5) and Benjamin (3) celebrated with us!

I think this shot is priceless!

Jonathan's and Benjamin's parents, our dear friends, Ken & Jen.

The following day, Elylah had yet another party at our house, this time we were invited! In attendance also were her other grandma (Lola), her great-grandma's (GG and Amma), her great aunt, her mom's cousin and fiance, and her uncle Jonah, her mommy and daddy and little brother, Ethan. Joanna made her princess cake (again!). It was absolutely amazing!

If all this activity wasn't enough, we had a birthday party for JESUS on Monday!

The kids made these darling foam nativity sets from kits I bought at Michael's on sale for only $3.19 each!

They also made these pretty Christmas trees, using ice cream cones, frosting, and decorations.

(Had to sneak in a cute shot of Ethan and Curious George)

The children took turns telling parts of the Christmas story, using the Fisher-Price nativity set. One by one, the pieces were put into place, and we were amazed at how much these little people, ages 5 and under, know already and can tell with such excitement. Please notice the three kings that are placed face down. Without any prompting, Jonathan did that, explaining that they bowed down to worship baby Jesus!

The kids each got to choose a gift from my basket, as we explained why we give gifts on Christmas.

When they come back on Christmas Eve, they will be able to take home one of these rolls filled with candy. (See this previous post for these ideas.)

Tomorrow will be a busy day too. My favorite Santa will be making a surprise visit to some children. Humm...wonder when I will bake, wrap our gifts, finish my newsletters and mail them, finish some gift projects I'm working on, and well, FORGET about shopping for a new Christmas sweater! Also, I'm still trying to decide who to gift with my Christmas Jar (see this post for explanation.)

My journal says that last year on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23 I stayed up till 3:00 am to get everything done. That's not going to happen this year...and so I say, Merry Christmas to all, and to all GOODNIGHT!