Giving

Picture: The kids dancing to 'Father Abraham' playing on Pandora.

Elijah has a piggy bank. He recently got some more money, so I asked him, "Do you want to buy a toy or something, or save your money to buy something bigger?" He said he wanted to save it, so we let him put it in his piggy bank.

Our church is planning on building onto our church. The main construction is for a children's area. Elijah has seen a few pictures of the plan. Last night, we took the kids to the 'commitment service' where church members pledged to give certain amounts towards the project. They even had us sing 'Father Abraham' and Elijah saw our pastor dancing. Elijah was pointing at him saying "Pastor Bob!" in disbelief.

When it was time to present our commitment cards to the alter, our whole family went up to place our card up front. We explained to Elijah that we were giving money to God to build this bigger church. Then we sat back down. Elijah had his own card and decided that he wanted to give as well. He said, "This is something bigger that I have been saving for in my piggy bank." So I asked how much he wanted to give, and he said 55. I filled out a form for him, walked him down the aisle after everyone had sat down, and let him place his card up front. When we left, we passed a picture of the new building, and Elijah said, "There's my new Sunday school I'm buying."

Today, while he was praying at lunchtime, he said, "Thank you God for our house, Mommy and Daddy, our food, and our new Sunday school building."

I'm not sure how much he actually understands. But I do know this kid is so sweet and willing to give. He knows money could have got him more toys, but he wanted it to go towards something else, something bigger, something for God. He may think his piggy bank money alone will be buying this building, and he probably will be confused when it's not there for Sunday school this week. He wants to give, so he will.

"People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." 

~Mark 10:13-16

Twinkle Twinkle

Eva wanted to sing for 'Grandma and Papa'

Painting

I don't know if she's concentrating hard or thinking about eating the paint.

We painted boxes so we could play basketball with balloons.

We also made a huge fort. Elijah has his flashlight and Eva has her blinking wand.

Friends and New Stuff

Eva taking a picture of her friend, Lydia, playing the drums.

Silly faces! Regular smiling faces never work for this age. It's Elijah, Eva, Lydia, and Sommer. Elijah was so excited to have Sommer over to play!

Eva hugged her new dresser, called it beautiful, and made me take her picture with it.

Elijah filled his sticker chart with 30 stickers! He had to be extra good to earn stickers. Tonight, he earned his last sticker and was rewarded with a new toy. This is Heatwave, the firetruck on Rescue Bots (Transformers).

Masks

My kids love wearing masks, being superheros, and fighting bad guys.

Elijah's prayer at lunch today: "Thank you, God, for our home. Thank you, God, for our food. Thank you,God, for everything everywhere. Amen."

December

Filling our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

We've been doing lots of online shopping which means we have tons of boxes and bubble wrap to play with. Here's Eva in her 'castle.'

I did a scavenger hunt with the kids. Clues for the next bow were hidden inside bows.

At the end of the hunt, they found candy canes. Elijah keeps saying 'candy cans.'

These party hats are actually paper plates Christmas trees. The kids glued pom poms on!

We also played a guessing game. I hid small objects in the kids' stockings and had them guess what they were feeling before pulling it out.

Every night, we do our advent. We get a new magnet for the nativity and I read a few verses of the Bible.

We also have a countdown chain. One kid rips a link off the chain and the other gets to open the door to get out our new magnet.

We made angels!

We made marshmallow snowmen!

Can you see our Christmas trees? We made them out of Popsicle sticks and sheet music.

For preschool at home, Elijah has been tracing Christmas words and reading Christmas books. Eva gets to color a winter/Christmas picture.

Elijah knows how to set up his nativity. Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus centered in the stable. The shepherds out on a hill nearby. The wise men far off with a camel.

Eva loves all her giraffes!

I made a Silver Bells matching game.

We did matching upper case with lower case letters.

I read 15 Christmas/winter books to both kids in 35 minutes. They both paid attention the whole time!

Then Eva made a choo choo out of the books. 

Elijah made a nativity out of Popsicle sticks.

More coloring and tracing Christmas words.

The kids 'helped' me do laundry.

Jonah Week

Hot baby girl with sunglasses and a Pebbles pony tail.

Painting fish for our Jonah sea.

This week Elijah and Eva helped make the Jonah story with the sticker book I bought in Branson. We also made fish and a big fish. Our big activity was playing hide-and-seek...a very "Jonah" game. God will always find you!

I wrote the word 'Jonah' for Elijah, and he glued Goldfish onto it.

He was so happy when he finished!

I can't wait for back-to-school sales. We need more glue.

Eva wanted to glue too! Can you see Elijah pointing because he's excited for Eva?