Pumpkin Patch 2018

As a second grader, George still gets eager for the pumpkin patch each year, and if we are all honest with ourselves, the girls still enjoy the inflatable pillow. 

We had planned two prior dates for the pumpkin patch, only to have those days canceled due to an unexpected conflict and weather. We made it under the wire by getting to the pumpkin patch on the last day of their 2018 season. Whew! We made it!  

It was totally worth it. 

The girls are the best sisters ever because they jumped, threw pumpkins, zip lined, slid and played. George was ecstatic, and they all had such a good time. 

George's Baptism

William George has been learning about Jesus since he was a baby. He has ready through all of the Bible stories, and his studied the preschool Bible all the way up to his current translation. He has attended Vacation Bible School and a Christian preschool. We study the Bible every night during devotional, and he learns about Jesus during basketball and baseball. At every opportunity, we have tried to teach him about Jesus. 

This year at school he joined the Discovery Club, an after school group that meets once a week to talk about Jesus. George attended for a few weeks with his friends. after Discovery Club, during our nightly devotional, George had some follow up questions. Like always, we explained to him the steps:

1) Admit that he is a sinner. We all make bad choices daily.  On any given day, if I tried to get through the day without sinning, I would fail. I would make bad choices; I would sin. Sin condemns us to death. 

But wait!

2) Believe in Jesus. George accepts and knows that Jesus is the son of God and that he was sent to save us from our sin. Jesus died for our sins. God knew we couldn't live a sinless life, that we couldn't do it on our own so he sent Jesus, the lamb, to die for our sins. 

3) Confess our faith in Jesus.  

After reviewing all of that again, we told him that, when he is ready we could pray together and invite Jesus into his heart.  

He looked at me and asked, "Can we do it right now?" 

We all gathered round and without a dry eye in the room (the girls were sooo happy!), George said the sinner's prayer... he became a Christian.  

The next day we shared this exciting news with the Discovery Club, our church's children's minister and pretty much everyone else. After George's meeting with our Pastor, baptism was scheduled for 10-28-18, and George was so excited. When they asked him to approach the baptismal, he ran up there and scampered up the steps. 

George, we are so excited for you!

Skip's Birthday

We celebrated Skip's birthday recently. When birthday's fall on a Wednesday, we have to get creative about celebrations, and sometimes that extends the overall celebration timeframe to a week. More is more, yes?  

We started out with lunch with Skip's parents, for early celebration the weekend before the actual day.  

On the 24th, we had dinner at home, along with some celebratory cupcakes. Skip had nonstop work that day, and the duo had a lot of homework that night. We sang, had cupcakes and vowed to celebrate the following weekend.  

By Saturday, we were ready for birthday cupcakes and gifts. Skip swore he didn't need a single thing, but we got him some new kicks. The trio made him a coupon book, and he is excited to start cashing those in.  

Early morning present ambush

Skip wanted to have lunch at Cheesecake so we definitely made that happen, along with making a slice of cheesecake happen as well. 

We had a fantastic time celebrating. Skip, thank you for being flexible and being willing to celebrate over the span of many days. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Field Trip: American Village

This was the week for field trips. George had a wonderfully scheduled field trip this past Thursday. School was closed for professional development on Friday, and his Thursday trip created the feeling of a four day weekend - a total score.  What was less fortuitous was the 90% chance of rain that had been looming over the trip for about a week. 

There's no such thing as bad weather... only bad clothing. We embraced that motto, and wore water proof shoes, rain coats and carefully layered. We were totally fine. By the way, I highly recommend LL Bean's waterproof shoes.  

The field trip was to American Village for their Thanksgiving program, and 80% of the program was outdoors. We took a simulated Mayflower voyage, landed on Plymouth Rock, and negotiated with Native Americans.  The negotiations took place in the a huge field, and I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out, causing us to sprint back to shelter. Although that was the one time we experienced a steady rain, the rest of the time was just a solid drizzle and was completed tolerable. If anything, the rain added to the experience, at least for George.  

Besides, it's kind of hard to complain about a little rain while hearing about the hardships the pilgrims endured.  

George and I had a great time with his friends. The girls missed out on this field trip because we had snow flurries back when they were in second grade and scheduled for American Village. I definitely recommend AV, if you have not had a chance to see it, and we may go back with the girls.