Kids Camp 2011 - Live Out Loud!

This past week, the girls had the opportunity to go to church camp.  Annah has gone to our church's camp for the past 2 years (2010, 2009), and had such a wonderful time, the girls have been looking forward to it all year!

Each of the girls had a friend go along to camp.  Sylvia and Ella were really excited to share their first camp experience!

There was a mistake made somewhere in the registration process though, and when we checked them in they were not in the same room/group as they were supposed to be.  God worked it all out, and they were able to be in the same group after all, thankfully.
When we left, they were on their way to the first chapel service and wondering when they were going to get to swim...

Annah's friend Ashley was able to go to camp with her again this year too!

The two of them were in a group with Kim and Celia as their counselors and 4 other girls from our church.  They did also have 2 other girls who were from another church in their room.  

It was really nice of Kim to text me a few pictures of their fun during the week, and Celia posted a lot for us after camp.

Here's Annah's group playing Rubber Chicken Rumble on their first night at camp.

Apparently, it was kind of like volleyball with rubber animals instead of a ball?  Sounds funny and fun anyway!

Ash and Annah bought stuffed animals at the "snack shack."

The girls got to experience tetherball!  Napoleon Dynamite would be proud.

The second night of camp was Crazy Hair Night!  The girls in Annah's group put cups in their hair to make it stand straight up! 

Annah also had her little stuffed fox attached to her hair!

This picture cracks me up!  They look like coneheads from the back!

This was some kind of slippery water hockey game.  There were dozens of players slipping and sliding on the plastic, which was covered with water and dish soap, and using pool noodles to hit the beach ball "puck."  Looks like hilarious fun!

Ropes and obstacle course...




Everyone has their friends sign their camp shirts with permanent markers on the last day of camp.

In the past, camp has always been held at the Nazarene campground in Manville, which closed last year. This year, camp was at Lake Williamson Christian Conference Center.  The grounds were beautiful and facilities very nice!  This is the view the girls saw when they walked out the building where they stayed all week.

This is the building where they ate...

Part of the dorm where the girls stayed...

Marc Hamman of Arrow Ministries, Inc. was the evangelist for camp.  We arrived in time to see a little bit of the last chapel service, and he was quite energetic!  He reminded me of a Christian version Dana Carvey.  The kids really enjoyed him.

He had a silly character called Egmont who was called by God to step up and be bold for Him!

The theme for the week...

We happened to sit close to Sylvia and Ella's group during worship and were glad to see them happily enjoying the service...

...and worshipping through the fun songs...

...Then we spotted Annah and Ashley's group and saw them "driving the bus..."

Sylvie and Ella and their junior counselor Sam

Our 4 campers, happy and tired after a great week at camp...

So grateful for their opportunity to go and have fun and draw near to Jesus!

For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light.
Ephesians 5:8

Brother Buddies

Since all their older siblings are away at church camp this week, Sammy invited Caeden out for a special evening.  Todd took the boys to see Mr. Popper's Penguins, out for pizza at Pizza Hut, for ice cream at Emack & Bolio's and just a whole lot of fun.  They even got to play in the fountain in downtown Bloomington.  (Or is it uptown Normal?  I get them confused!)

The little pirate had lemon sorbet with gummy bears on a cone!  Mmm!

We are glad for the boys friendship!

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity."

- Proverbs 17:17

4th of July Fireworks

Since we have an early morning tomorrow (getting the girls off to church camp), we didn't want to stay up late for a big fireworks show tonight.  I tried to find some local fireworks last night, but couldn't.  So, we decided to settle for little fireworks at home.  We didn't realize that not many fireworks are sold in Illinois, so we ended up with only Pop-Its, sparklers, and some little smoking things.  It was enough to excite the kids though.

Pop-Its are always good, noisy fun.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

We also had some party poppers, which were a bit difficult for the kids to pull.

Bet eventually they got them!

And they got me too!

Sylvia was feeling festive!

Jeremy was in charge of all the lighting/fire...

This was our most impressive one--The Smoke Factory.  (Kinda hard to "ooh" and "ah" over that, but the kids really did think it was neat.

The girls were mindful to put on their Americana shirts this morning.

Our neighbor, Andrew gave Caeden some tough looking soldier action figures, and they have fun fighting with them together.

As it got a little darker, Daddy lit the sparklers...

While we were out in the yard, I noticed the tiger lilies looked particularly pretty in the setting sunlight.

Andrew joined us for our little fireworks too.

We are proud to be American, grateful for the freedoms we have in this country, but even more so the freedoms we have in Jesus!

Happy Independence Day!

4th of July Parade in Sibley

We had a bit of a new adventure in our extended community today.  Annah and Sylvia rode on a float in a 4th of July parade in Sibley.   The float was for the ACT Theatre Company to help advertise their upcoming musicals--A Year With Frog & Toad, and Groovy.  Sibley isn't all that far from us, but we had never had occasion to visit before.  

The kids looked so cheery in their yellow show shirts.

Our friend Addie is in Groovy, and sat by the girls on the float.

Shannon and Jeremy found us a good spot at the beginning of the parade route.

Caeden showing his patriotism before the parade...

Veterans float

Thank you, Veterans!

Caeden saw Mrs. Tompkins across the street, watching for her daughters in the parade.  After they went by, he ran across the street to give her a hug during a pause in the parade.  She told him she had driven through Jeremy's and my hometown, Churubusco, Indiana, on the way home from her vacation last week!  It's a small world after all...

Lady Liberty on the Tea Party float

Annah and Sylvia were on the very back of the ACT float, melting and sweating and smiling and waving, and throwing candy.  

There are about 100 kids involved in the shows!  The girls said it was really fun to ride in the parade.

We live in corn country here in central Illinois... Further proof--no one seemed to think this car in the parade was hilarious.

We didn't stay around after the parade for any of the festival activities, but apparently there were cardboard boat races in the afternoon.  We liked the Angry Birds boat.

A patriotic painted pony!

After the girls finished their part in the parade, they were able to come sit with us and watch the rest of it.

The Sibley parade was a great way to celebrate our country's independence today!

Cars at the Drive-In

We went to the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In this evening with some great friends.  We hadn't been since 2 summers ago, so the kids and I were really excited.  (I discovered this evening that Jeremy doesn't enjoy the drive-in.  So I guess he "took one for the team" tonight, then.)  I thought it was really fun, and the perfect night to be outside watching a movie with friends.

We got there at 7:15 when the gates were opening, and there was already a long line of cars waiting to get in!  We got a spot in the back row--not the best for seeing the movie, but right next to the concession stands.  So we went for snacks before those lines got long.  The popcorn was all buttery and yummy.  Later, Jeremy got funnel cakes, including the new funnel cake sundae.  Whew, he couldn't even finish it!

I had brought glow sticks for the kiddos, and they had fun playing with those as it got dark and we waited for the movie to start.

Caeden and Addie had an impressive "light saber" glow stick duel...

Sylvia and Reece played a little Gameboy while waiting for the movie...

We saw Cars 2, which was especially appropriate because we saw the original at the drive-in when it first came out.  The movie was good, but I think a lot of the spy stuff in it was over the kids' head.  I'm sure we'll watch it again and again when it comes out on DVD.

It was a double feature night, but we were tired by the end of the first movie and didn't stay for the second.  It was a lovely evening though!