What We've Been Up to This Month, or Last Month... Whatever.

Hi friends! Yes, we are still alive and kicking! I thought you might be interested to see what we have been doing that has taken me away from blogging... let's see if I can recap. Now, bear with me, I know this is July and we are talking about June. We'll get to this month in a minute.

We begin with Father's Day. Okay, well if you own a calendar you know we don't begin with Father's Day, but that is where our story is starting. Just go with me on this one, mm-kay??

We celebrated a really nice relaxing Father's Day at Marc's parents house this year. It was very low-key because everyone else (my parents and Marc's brother and his family were all out of town). So, we swam at Nana and Gran's and had a great time.

Happy Father's Day Marc!!

Cruisin' and Chillin'

Eatin' some s'getti's

While Father's Day was all fun and games it is not exactly the reason for our web absence. The true reason was a little thing we like to call VBS. Now, for most people this involves going for a few hours one week out of the summer. No sweat, right?? Well, let me tell you- you only think you've VBS'd... oh how wrong you are! You have to be on the committee to really get a feel for the game. Then you know the ins and outs of the whole thing! A friend of mine and I headed up the snack committee this year and I have to say that while it was a lot of fun and very rewarding... wow! It was a LOT of hard work. I am floored by the people that do this every year. The amazing amounts of time and dedication that they happily volunteer makes you realize what it is truly like to have a Servant's Heart. So, for the better part of June we were up at church almost daily making really amazing things out of butcher paper. (I kid you not!) We made trucks, boats and trees for the Missions room, Sharks, Scuba Divers and Jellyfish for the entryway, oceans, caves, and waterfalls... I could go on. That is why I had to take pictures of just a few of the highlights. It is truly amazing what can be done with craft paper and staples!! Anyway, on to the picture stories...

The first day... she was VERY excited to be wearing her "blue shirt". Little did she know she would be wearing it for the rest of the week! Funny enough she loved it the whole week and was actually sad she couldn't wear it on Saturday!! (I, on the other hand, did not share her feelings on the blue shirt... oh yes, I had a matching one.)

The road crew! These are our dear friends that we have been riding to Sunshine School with all year. We loved being able to ride with them to VBS again!!

The Snack Shack... AKA my home away from home for three weeks!!

We served 300 children daily for a week here. Yes, that's right 1500 snacks and 1500 drinks in a week. And these were not mere goldfish and kool-aid snacks. We served Fruit Kabobs, Trail Mix, Oatmeal Cookie Turtles, Pudding with crushed cheerios and shaved chocolate on top (looks like sand) and various drink concoctions like fruit smoothies and slushes. Then on Friday we served about 600 people and made hot dogs and cupcakes that looked like the beach.

This was 1/2 of the cupcakes that we made... yes, that's a LOT of cupcakes!!!

Everything was decorated in our theme of Outrigger Island. It was all so cute! These are the bulletin boards. There are about 25 of them and they were all done this well. Hats off to Tara and her mom and crew!!
Check out the fruit- it's 3-D!!

This was the Crafts Cave next door where the kids had crafts everyday. SO creative!!

This is the kids foyer known as the RT Tyler area. It was so very cool!! The kids would just walk in and look around in amazement!

After VBS, we have had a nice relaxing break of just hanging out at home getting caught up on life. Here are a few pics. of Ashley and her friends. :)

I had to add this last one b/c it cracks me up. Ashley has gotten to where she now asks to have her picture taken. We came home from church one day and she was sitting on the couch reading and all of a sudden started saying "Mama, cheese?? Mama, picture peese?" And she began to "pose". Unfortunately she has also begun to have the fake "picture" smile (as shown here). I am not really crazy about it, but at least she sits still. I'll take what I can get!