Good bye 2014...
Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store!
***
To see (and read) a bit about the
Life and Times of the Fantastic Five
in the year 2014,
just click HERE...
***
Linking up
with
Collage Friday
and the
Showing posts with label Collage Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Collage Friday. Show all posts
Thursday
Friday
April 25th-June 5th
April 25th-May 8th
Highlights from these weeks included:
*A small celebration for Jungle Girl's 12th birthday
Eek- I almost have a teenager in the house!
:0)
*Enjoying some beautiful weather with bubble blowing
*Going through Letter T activities with the littles,
which included some
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fun
*Welcoming Super Dad home from his business trip
to Seattle, Washington
*Beginning plans for our church's VBS
*Going with Jungle Girl and 17 other middle schoolers
to Believe
*The BIGGEST life changer of these weeks?
Becoming Woodlawn Christian Church's
full-time
Children's Minister!
For-reals.
It is crazy awesome, and surreal to me.
I have attended this church since I was
7 months old,
and worked with either the children or youth groups
since I was in middle school.
I LOVE this group of people-
this FAMILY of mine.
And now to serve as a paid staff member?
CRAZINESS!!!
I am thankful.
I am blessed.
I am amazed by God's plans-
which are somehow always different than mine,
and always so much BETTER.
:0)
This means some changes will-
and have already-
occur for our family.
I will still continue to homeschool,
but it will be more often a "check in" system
with the kiddos.
Also,
my parents will be more involved.
I am happy to have a couple of Summer months
to work out the kinks.
Sadly,
I will not be watching the littles anymore.
I LOVED this time in my life,
but I now have to focus my energies on a larger
group of kiddos now.
THANKFULLY all of my families
were able to find alternative childcare,
and I will still get to see them all occasionally.
God takes care of all the details,
so I am trusting him to help me work out
all of the details in this season of our lives!
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
*A small celebration for Jungle Girl's 12th birthday
Eek- I almost have a teenager in the house!
:0)
*Enjoying some beautiful weather with bubble blowing
*Going through Letter T activities with the littles,
which included some
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fun
*Welcoming Super Dad home from his business trip
to Seattle, Washington
*Beginning plans for our church's VBS
*Going with Jungle Girl and 17 other middle schoolers
to Believe
*The BIGGEST life changer of these weeks?
Becoming Woodlawn Christian Church's
full-time
Children's Minister!
For-reals.
It is crazy awesome, and surreal to me.
I have attended this church since I was
7 months old,
and worked with either the children or youth groups
since I was in middle school.
I LOVE this group of people-
this FAMILY of mine.
And now to serve as a paid staff member?
CRAZINESS!!!
I am thankful.
I am blessed.
I am amazed by God's plans-
which are somehow always different than mine,
and always so much BETTER.
:0)
This means some changes will-
and have already-
occur for our family.
I will still continue to homeschool,
but it will be more often a "check in" system
with the kiddos.
Also,
my parents will be more involved.
I am happy to have a couple of Summer months
to work out the kinks.
Sadly,
I will not be watching the littles anymore.
I LOVED this time in my life,
but I now have to focus my energies on a larger
group of kiddos now.
THANKFULLY all of my families
were able to find alternative childcare,
and I will still get to see them all occasionally.
God takes care of all the details,
so I am trusting him to help me work out
all of the details in this season of our lives!
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
***
May 9th-15th
*My last day of babysitting the littles
*sniff, sniff*
*Celebrating our 7 graduation high school Seniors
at a church reception
*Getting my "niece" ready for her 8th grade dance
*Honoring (and being honored)
Mommies on Mother's Day
*Beginning my new job as
Children's Minister
with an office clean-out!
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
***
May 16th-22nd
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
We went to the Zoo,
babysat their twins,
visited old stomping grounds,
and enjoyed a
Memorial Day cookout
with our partners-in-crime.
Such a good weekend-
I was EXHAUSTED come Tuesday!
:0)
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
***
May 30th-June 5th
Highlights from this week:
*Getting a kitten!
I am a cat person-
and yet we have 3 BIG dogs.
I like the dogs.
But I have wanted a kitten for a while.
When my "niece" Mimi told me about a
friend of hers cat having kittens,
I wanted one.
On Friday,
we met and fell in love with this
little grey and white kitten,
soon to be named
Thumper.
He is active and loving-
all I that wanted in a cat!
Two of the dogs have adjusted fine
to this new presence,
but we are still keeping an eye
on our pit bull.
He hasn't done anything,
but he always walks around whining for the cat.
I am hopeful everyone will adjust accordingly...
*We ended May with one last party-
to honor another graduate friend of ours
Her name is Ying,
and she is our regular waitress at a local
Japanese/China buffet
we frequent.
We discovered her parents were not
throwing her a high school graduation party,
so we volunteered to do the job.
It was simple,
but I I think she discovered how much she means
to our family-
and to our church family-
since most of the guests were regulars
at her workplace.
I am so grateful for the people in my church family
and their generosity
to the people in our community!
*Continuing to prepare for
VBS
*My husband getting the LAST
Build-a-Bear Toothless Dragon for jungle Girl
We made the mistake of not heeding our daughter's warning
about how POPULAR this stuffed animal was going to be,
and missed getting him when
he arrived during the first shipment.
This shipment of Toothless dolls
SOLD OUT NATIONWIDE
in less than 48 hours!!!
So on Wednesday we knew another shipment
was coming in,
and Super Dad played the role
of Super Hero
and booked it over to Build-A-Bear
after lunch and bought
the LAST ONE in the store.
That is CRAZY to me!
Based on this experience,
we have already bought our tickets
for the movie premire on June 13th-
we would be crazy NOT to!
***
Linking up
with
Week in Review
Weekly Wrap-Up
May 16th-22nd
Highlights from this week include:
*Watching my flower girl/"niece"
graduate high school!!!
*Enjoying some pool time when
Nana and Papa came to visit
*The last of our Sunday evening activities
at church before a Summer break
*Getting CPR and First Aid certified
*Filming a "Weird Animals" VBS promo video
with our "Dr. Paws" character
*Went to an
"End of the School Year/Beginning of Summer"
youth group cookout
with the family
above collage, just click HERE...)
***
May 23rd-29th
Highlights from this week include:
*Hosting a Belle-themed personal bridal shower
for a lovely lady
*Watching the Puppy Prince
*Watching the Puppy Prince
play his last Wee Ball game of the season-
and receive a trophy
*Spending the weekend with the Long family!!!
*Spending the weekend with the Long family!!!
We went to the Zoo,
babysat their twins,
visited old stomping grounds,
and enjoyed a
Memorial Day cookout
with our partners-in-crime.
Such a good weekend-
I was EXHAUSTED come Tuesday!
:0)
(To read a photo play by play of the
above collage, just click HERE...)
***
May 30th-June 5th
*Getting a kitten!
I am a cat person-
and yet we have 3 BIG dogs.
I like the dogs.
But I have wanted a kitten for a while.
When my "niece" Mimi told me about a
friend of hers cat having kittens,
I wanted one.
On Friday,
we met and fell in love with this
little grey and white kitten,
soon to be named
Thumper.
He is active and loving-
all I that wanted in a cat!
Two of the dogs have adjusted fine
to this new presence,
but we are still keeping an eye
on our pit bull.
He hasn't done anything,
but he always walks around whining for the cat.
I am hopeful everyone will adjust accordingly...
*We ended May with one last party-
to honor another graduate friend of ours
Her name is Ying,
and she is our regular waitress at a local
Japanese/China buffet
we frequent.
We discovered her parents were not
throwing her a high school graduation party,
so we volunteered to do the job.
It was simple,
but I I think she discovered how much she means
to our family-
and to our church family-
since most of the guests were regulars
at her workplace.
I am so grateful for the people in my church family
and their generosity
to the people in our community!
*Continuing to prepare for
VBS
*My husband getting the LAST
Build-a-Bear Toothless Dragon for jungle Girl
We made the mistake of not heeding our daughter's warning
about how POPULAR this stuffed animal was going to be,
and missed getting him when
he arrived during the first shipment.
This shipment of Toothless dolls
SOLD OUT NATIONWIDE
in less than 48 hours!!!
So on Wednesday we knew another shipment
was coming in,
and Super Dad played the role
of Super Hero
and booked it over to Build-A-Bear
after lunch and bought
the LAST ONE in the store.
That is CRAZY to me!
Based on this experience,
we have already bought our tickets
for the movie premire on June 13th-
we would be crazy NOT to!
***
Linking up
with
Week in Review
Weekly Wrap-Up
March 28th-April 24th
March 28th-April 3rd
Highlights from this week included:
*Going to see Mr. Jim
(our family friend and a Physician Assistant)
on a Saturday to be diagnosed with
Strep throat
Mr. Jim has all kinds of critters at his house,
including baby bunnies
and a very vocal turkey-
such a fun place to visit,
even if you are sick.
*Hosting a small Nerf Rebelle party
via House Party
I wanted to do SO MUCH MORE
than we got to due,
because I was sick and the weather was RAINY.
BUT the kiddos made the most
of the Nerf Rebelle gear,
and battled each in the house,
which brightened up our dreary day.
*Leading the kiddos at church in a song
during Family Sunday
I have greatly enjoyed working as our church's
Interim Children's Director
during these past few months.
I have been SO ENCOURAGED by our youth,
and I hope to work with them
in some capacity for years to come...
*Continued decorating the house for Easter,
with a focus on the front porch
*Celebrated April Fools' Day
with a SWEET prank
(Read more about the prank HERE.)
***
April 4th-10th
Highlights from this week included:
*Spending a fun afternoon
with the Nussbaums
at Dollywood!!!
*Admiring some gorgeous art work
at the downtown Chalk Walk
*Lots of prepping for our church's
Community Easter Egg Hunt
I went shopping, made decor, planned the lesson,
and helped distribute flyers
with our middle schoolers.
*FINALLY got back into our
"Expecting Easter" lessons
with a secret flower mission.
(You can read more about our
"Expecting Easter" activity by clicking HERE...)
*Kept my cool and FINALLY got my youngest
little to take her bottle
She is breastfed at home,
and recently she has decided
(even though I am feeding her Mama's milk)
to fight me
TOOTH AND NAIL
about taking it from a bottle.
I will do A LOT for the littles I babysit,
but breastfeeding
just ain't a possibility!
;0)
As I worked on getting her to eat from the bottle-
basically tiring her out-
I was reminded about how I
COULD NOT
have handled a baby like this in my 20's.
It would have brought me to tears.
Oh, aging does bring with it glorious benefits-
like mellowing and wisdom!
***
April 11th-17th
Highlights from this week include:
*Our church's community Easter Egg hunt
*Getting my littlest Flower girl
ready for her Senior Prom
(sniff, sniff)
*Continuing to prepare kiddos' hearts for Easter
by
during Communion time
*Focusing on Expecting Easter lessons
with my kiddos and the littles
during homeschool lessons
You can read about the following lessons
by clicking on the words below:
*Babysat for a sweet little nugget
on Tuesday
She ALMOST made me wish I had
another baby-
ALMOST...
***
April 18th-24th
Highlights from this week include:
*Finishing up our Expecting Easter lessons
*Finishing up our Expecting Easter lessons
with
(and a simple snack, too!)
*Helping our sister Hispanic church
with childcare for their BIG Good Friday service
We watched the movie
(I know- Thanksgiving at Easter time-
What?!?!?)
I picked this movie
since I knew a lot of kiddos
had not seen it yet,
(I needed to avoid Frozen like the plague!)
and it was about birds.
After the movie
(and some pizza),
I read
to the kiddos
(do you see my weak Easter connection now?).
We then did an old VBS Balancing Bird craft
we had lots of leftovers of in
our church resource room.
See-
it all makes sense, right?
;0)
As long as it kept the 30+ kiddos entertained,
I was happy!
*Prepped for all of Sunday's
Easter fun
*Celebrated the Resurrection
with our kiddos at church
with a fun Easter party
(Click HERE to see all the details)
*Had Easter dinner with
family friends
and then attempted our first
night egg hunt
Our glow sticks did NOT work,
so the plan for next year
is to paint the eggs with
some glow in the dark paint.
It did not matter too much,
though,
since all the kiddos had flashlights.
This hunt definitely lasted longer
than a typical Easter Egg hunt!
*Hosted a
Children's Ministry Coordinator meeting
for my favorite
Peeps!
We looked at plans for the Summer
and the beginning of Fall.
I am looking forward to planning and
putting together our
Weird Animals VBS in June-
it is going to be
SO MUCH FUN!!!
*Had a fun visit with
Ticia Messing from
(and her kiddos)
This is my first blogger friend I
have ever gotten to meet
face-to-face,
and it just proves to me the VALUE
in blogger friendships.
in blogger friendships.
We IMMEDIATELY clicked,
like we were old friends,
because of all we have learned about each other
via our blogs.
Ticia drove
OUT OF HER WAY
by hundreds of miles
to meet me,
and I cannot express to her enough
how grateful I am that she did!
She lives in Texas,
and I live in East Tennessee,
so on her way to the
in Ohio,
she just detoured my way!
SOMEDAY my family WILL
head down to Texas,
and hopefully I can spend more
than just a few hours with her then...
***
To read more about the photo collages,
just click on the following links:
***
Linking up
with
March 14th-27th
It's been a busy couple of weeks
here at
The Fantastic Five,
so I will be giving highlights for two photo collages-
please stick around for the fun!
:0)
***
Highlights from March 14th-20th include:
*My mother (the kiddos' Marmee) came over
and set up the girls
newly renovated dollhouse
It-is-fantastic!
I wish my home was as cozy and put together as
their doll house is!
My mother has ALWAYS had a creative sensibility
when it comes to many things,
including decorating-
both the big and the small.
*Received our Nerf Rebelle Party Pack
in the mail this week
The kiddos
(boy included)
are pretty pumped about this party-
we can't wait to be
"at war" with our friends!
"at war" with our friends!
*Celebrated St. Patrick's Day
with some Lucky Learning activities
The day began with a treasure hunt
left by our Leprechaun, Shamrock.
My littles were especially excited about the hunt-
it had them running up and down and all around
the house-
which was good-
since it RAINED all day.
We were not able to dig for coin letters
in the sandbox
or
play 4-square Shamrock,
but we did a couple of crafts
and ate a lot of green treats.
*ANOTHER pipe burst at our house
This makes the THIRD pipe to have burst
during this Winter.
Thankfully,
two were in the garage and this one
was under the house.
No damage in doors.
And I want to give my HIGHEST praise
to the employees of Home Depot.
They helped me hunt down what we needed
for a temporary fix-
even if it took 5 of them
walking through several departments.
They were so helpful
to this plumping challenged girl!
*Spent several hours planning and organizing
the 4th and 5th grade trip to
***
Highlights from March 21st-27th include:
*Shopping for SuperStart with my girls
They were quite comical while we were in Kroger.
Jungle Girl kept tying up Baby Girl
in her jacket and hauling her around the store
like a servant.
Cracking-me-up!
We have taken our 4th and 5th grade
kiddos to this event every year for the past
six(?) years.
(You can click HERE for some tips
I have about traveling with tweens
from the trip.)
The slideshow above shows you all the fun we had-
and why I am WIPED OUT this week.
Really-
we have done the bare minimum
with school and housework.
Well,
it could also be because...
*Baby Girl acquired Strep Throat
and I am pretty sure my body
is trying hard to fight something off too
These are weeks I am so glad we homeschool.
We will make up the work load later.
For now-
we rest...
***
To read a photo play by play of the
above photo collages,
***
Linking up
with
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
