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

Burying Sin

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:

Touching the Crown

Taste of Sin

Sounds of the Crucifixion

*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

with

Sounds of the Crucifixion

(and a simple snack, too!)

*Helping our sister Hispanic church

with childcare for their BIG Good Friday service

We watched the movie

Free Birds

(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

The Story of the Easter Robin

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

Adventures in Mommydom

(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.

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

Great Homeschooling Convention

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:

March 28th-April 3rd

April 4th-10th

April 11th-17th

April 18th-24th

***

Linking up

with

Collage Friday

Week in Review

Weekly Wrap-Up