4th of July Picnic

Our church's 4th of July picnic was at the end of June.  The kids enjoy playing in the creek and being with the other kids from church.  They have a blast, and look forward to it every year.  They know that they are supposed to wear their American Flag shirts from Gigi.  haha!

Our family at the picnic.  Last year Mercy was so tiny, and this year she is a big girl!

the kids:)

Some of our 6th grade girls at church with Mercy.

Josiah wet from the creek.

Aedan enjoys fishing.  He caught a lizard!!

Welcome Joshua!

Baby Joshua was born on Father's Day!  (What a great Father's Day!!!)  Ryan and I were able to see Daniel and Rachael the following day.  Rachael looked great, as usual, and Joshua looked so tiny to me.  He is so precious and cute!  Congratulations!  We are so happy for you guys!



Look at these sweet little feet!!!

Happy Father's Day!!

Here are Ryan and the kids on Father's Day!!  (All the boys are wearing their Judea Project shirts.  Mercy's was just too big for her.  The smallest size they could do was a youth medium.)  Ryan is a fabulous father to our children.  I am so thankful for him and his love for our family!  Love you, Ryan.

Judea Project

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

The Judea Project was the following week after VBS.  Our kids (and teenagers) went from VBS to another week packed with ministry.  This is the 4th Judea Project that Ryan and I have done, but this one was different in that it there was a morning, afternoon, and evening outreach.  (In the past, we've just done the morning and afternoon.)  It made for LONG days for Ryan and myself with the kids.  Each afternoon during the week we did a Backyard Bible Club in a local apartment complex.  Josiah, Aedan, and Mercy participated each afternoon in the BBC.  It was awesome to see Josiah and Aedan within different teaching groups (taught by the teenagers) throughout the week.  Many of the lessons we used were the same ones (with some editing) that we used on a Samaria Project in 2004.  Other activities that were done throughout the week were prayer walking, a light bulb outreach (going door-to-door and giving free lightbulbs~who doesn't need a lightbulb?), cooking dinner at the local rescue mission, surveying the community, a talents outreach, and a block party Friday night at the the same apartment complex where we did the Backyard Bible Club.    

Josiah doing some sand art with Paige.

face painting

Claire~the amazing face painter!

The kids liked to play a game called "Rainbow Man"...a made up game, I think.

Ryan and Mercy Cate

Austin with kids

Anna Grace and Megan teaching

Garrett and Josh teaching a group

Here's Markie with her group.  She did a FABULOUS job throughout the week.

Paige with her group!

silly boys

VBS

Our VBS was the first week in June this summer.  It was called "Big Apple Adventure"~a New York theme.  The boys LOVED it!  Their room was decorated like the Bronx Zoo so they were in heaven!  I taught the 5th and 6th grade girls with Teresa.  Our room was a Macy's theme...the only thing we were missing was manikins.  Oh well, I think it still looked pretty good.  We had different displays set up around the room and hung up Macy's bags around the room.  Next year's theme is Amazing Aviation.  I already have a cool (Southwest) airplane hat to wear!

Here's a shoe display!

a clothes rack

a jewelry display

Our class~5th and 6th grade girls 

Aedan and Josiah in their taxi cabs!

 Here's a quick video of Josiah and Aedan singing at Family Night at the end of the week.

artwork

My mom got the boys some art notebooks last month.  Josiah, especially, loved his and filled it up quickly with drawings and stories.  He used to be very timid in drawing animals, but he is willing to try now.  (He used to ask me to draw animals and he would draw the background, such as the trees, sun, sky, and ground.)  He loves drawing and coloring, which is so odd to me since he didn't like it and was uninterested for a long time.

a Josiah drawing

Another Josiah drawing.  giraffes, lions, elephants

Josiah's trees

I divided this paper into three sections and Josiah picked the alligator, his favorite animal.  He spelled it all by himself on the top of the page, drew a picture in the middle, and then I showed him how to spell it correctly on the bottom.

This one is Aedan's.  I did the samw thing with him.  I thought he did a pretty good job with it! (He spelled cat correctly all by himself!)

 

He's one more from Josiah.