Fun Fair

Leah LOVED the clowns!

Giving instructions for the night is Pastor Myles, our Childrens' pastor.

All year long, the kids go to Awanas on Wednesday nights. Each week they earn points for bringing their bibles, memorizing verses, and bringing show-and-tell items. Their points add up and can be spent at the annual Fun Fair and in the Awana "store". This past Wednesday was the fair and Jadon and Leah had so much fun. They played lots of carnival type games, ate fun food, and shopped in the store. They each had memorized extra Bible verses to earn tickets for raffle drawings. Leah's group doesn't have to memorize verses, but she does whatever Jadon does. At the end of the night, Jadon and Leah each won a raffle prize! Leah won a Baby Alive doll and Jadon won a Buzz Lightyear Lego kit and a tow truck. It was like Christmas morning for them. I feel so blessed to belong to a church that is able to do such nice things for the kids and make church such a positive experience. It isn't all about the stuff either. All the pastors and teachers are great and Jadon and Leah really are learning a lot about God and how He wants us to live.

Boys Night

Brian is a an Awana leader for the Truth and Training group, 3rd and 4th grade boys. On the 18th, he and Tim, the other leader, took the boys out to Pizza Hut and then back to our house for Uno Attack and general run-around-the-house-and-attack-each-other time. Leah and I crashed the party. It is a fun group of boys and Brian strives to invest in their lives and be a mentor to them.

Valentine's Day

Last week Jadon and Leah worked really hard on making their valentines. Jadon, who has become very interested in reading, writing, and drawing, sat down and wrote his name and each of his classmates names. He then stuffed envelopes and decorated each one with stickers. He focused on this project for 1 1/2 hours, which amazed me. Leah traced her name and the other students' names and decorated the envelopes with stickers. Watching the kids make their valentines was the highlight of this holiday for me. Leah had a cute little Valentine Party in her class and Jadon was home sick on the day of his party. Here they are with all their loot, which they're having fun sorting and playing with constantly.

B-rrry Scurry '11

On Saturday I ran in a 4 mile race in Clinton (one of the funnest races). I rode up with Anita and Pat and we did a little shopping beforehand. My goal for the race was 32 min., to run an 8 minute pace. I ran it in 31:21, a 7:51 pace, so I was very happy! My running continues to improve thanks to sticking with it over time and the support of the running club.

Here are some of the Rock River Road Runners present at the awards ceremony. We won for biggest turnout from a small organization.

My Little Sweetheart

On Friday, Brenda hosted a little Valentine's Playdate while Jadon was at school. Leah got to play with Emma and Charles and they decorated heart-shaped cookies. Leah turns 3 at the end of this month. She can be a stinker, but so cute!

Blizzard of 2011

Tuesday night we got hit with "The Blizzard". It created beautiful snow drifts and lots of wonderful snow to play with. The kids and I built a big fort in the front yard with tunnels and chairs. They had fun climbing on the huge snow banks and we were even able to sled down some little hills in our front yard. We were snowed in for a while since our van was parked in the garage and our alley wasn't plowed for several days. Finally, all our neighbors came out with shovels and we cleared our whole alley. It was a pretty cool community moment.

Harvest Time Friends

A couple weekends ago I hosted Girls Night In for friends from church. We looked back on 2010 and talked about expectations for the year to come. We also played my new favorite group game, Telephone Pictionary.

A Weekend with Sandy

Jadon's preschool has a class pet named Sandy, a stuffed monkey. Each weekend, Ms. Beth draws a name of the lucky student who gets to bring him home for the weekend, play with him, and take care of him. Jadon had a chance a few weekends ago. Leah got really attached to Sandy and Jadon took a little more interest in his chimp. They fed their monkeys play food at mealtimes, made beds for them at night, played with them, and took them special places. Typically, Jadon and Leah don't play with their stuffed animals to this extent, so it was a good experience to broaden their horizons.

Dale, Nancy, and Avery's January Visit

Dale and his family came back for a week in January. We had a pizza party with the Joneses on Sunday and Nancy, Amie, and I took the kids to the family museum on Monday. This time the big attraction was the stage. They have a juke box, dress-up clothes, tap shoes, and a stage with a catwalk. The kids hung out there for a long time, playing songs and dancing. That night we took them to Jungle Bungle. The following Friday, Larry and Cindy babysat all 5 kids, while the couples and Deb went out for dinner. It's so nice when we're all together.

Flemings and Rouses

On Saturday, January 8th, Jeff and Charity and Travis, Melissa, Eliana, Moriah, and Elijah came to Sterling for a visit. We hadn't seen the Flemings in a long time and it was good to reconnect. At first the girls were running around playing together and Jadon felt a little left out. Then he and Moriah discovered their common love for "How to Train Your Dragon" and played dragons together for most of the night. In this picture, the kids had just put on a little show, with Eliana as the director. Our kids had so much fun that night and so did we!