Christmas Play

Jared and Alexa are going through a huge dress-up phase right now. They love to put together different "costumes." Pirates, ghosts, princesses, knights, and lately shepherds and angels. In the weeks before the Christmas play, they asked many times to put their costumes on and run around the house. Also, since Alexa loves singing so much and they would be singing two songs, they were pretty excited about the play this year.

They were in the Christmas play last year, and actually one of the songs this year was the same as last year, but this year we really noticed a difference in how excited they were to go on stage. Last year, Jared refused to practice on the stage, and then, during the actual performance, right after all the other kids had walked on the stage, he popped out of Steve's lap and joined the rest of the group.

This year my mom, Steve's parents, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came to watch the performance. We had fun taking group shots of the kids before they went on stage.

After the show, we went to eat with the family. All in all, it was a pretty good evening, although both kids became very cranky towards the end. I've included my favorite pictures of the evening below. Aren't the kids adorable?

Church Picnic

The day after visiting Lincoln Park Zoo, we went to our anual church picnic. We arrived right as the food was being served, around 2:00, which is an odd time to eat. There were so many bees out! I had forgotton how the bees come out in droves in the late summer. My dad smashed one bee between me his hands which really freaked me out.

After lunch Steve took the kids down to a playground, and I shortly followed with my brother. There were a bunch of older kids at the park, and Jared and Alexa really enjoyed talking with them, especially one boy who was about 12 years old.

They had a boucing house set up for the little kids while the older kids did some organized activities. The first year we took the kids to the picnic, when they were 14 months old, there were pony rides. I have no idea why they haven't had that for the past few years.

Still, the kids had a great time. Alexa really, really loved pushing Jared down. Jared would just laugh and laugh when she'd do that. Some of the people watching laughed nervously and kept looking at us like we should stop them, but the kids were both laughing, and even though she was a bit rough, it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

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Vacation Bible School

This was the twins' second year attending Vacation Bible School, and they are technically not even old enough to attend yet! There is a group for two and three year olds who are the children of the workers, and I've been in this group for the past two years.

They really, really enjoyed going every day. The big thing I noticed about how this year was different than last year was this year they didn't take a nap afterwards. I sure wanted to, though!

The pictures are a bit out of order, but they started the day in the auditorium with songs and watching a skit. Then the different age groups would break apart and go to different areas. Our group went to a workbook section first and then to crafts. The picture above and below show the kids stringing beads. The kids have bigger beads at home which they've strung before, but I was impressed, especially with Jared, at how well they did with the tiny beads.




They also did a lot of pasting during the first few days. The man who was leading the crafts section remarked at how it was a bad idea to have the twos and threes work with glue since they squirt out such big glops or get it on the table, and then he told us to do it for them and not let them have the glue. That really irritated me, and I wound up letting my kids glue their own stuff anyways. Crafts for the little guys are about experimenting with the materials, making a mess and letting them figure out different ways to work with things like glue, scissors, glitter and paint.

It also irritated me at how much the adults wanted to take things away from the kids and do it themselves instead of just being patient and letting the kids figure out things themselves. And the coloring pages. I am a huge believer in NOT giving your kids coloring pages. What adult does coloring pages as art? Do you go to an art museum to look at colored pages? I want my kids to do real art, to not think that coloring outside lines is "wrong" and to love art.

After getting bored because they really didn't have art or craft things for the kids that let them be that creative, Jared decided to make his own spaceship sculpture (his words and idea).

After crafts we'd go to the gym to let the kids run around some, then to practice a song to be performed at the end of the week, and then to story time.

Story time was by far their most fun time because Steve's mom was the storyteller. She did a really great job of dressing up and acting out the stories, really involving the kids by making it interactive and giving them a chance to move around a lot. Too many times people expect such tiny kids to sit still for quite a while and at the same time making the time they are sitting so boring for the child.

After story time, we'd go back to the auditorium to sing more, they'd tell how many points each team accumulated during the day and then be dismissed. I became really popular with the group because I'd always pull out a box of Triscuits which would get passed around.

The pictures below were taken in the gym. Alexa clung to me a lot towards the beginning of the week (I forgot to say it was July 20-24th), but she eventually warmed up. She loved the balloons.


Jared loved following this older boy helper around the gym and would smack him over and over again with the balloon, then the boy would fall over and play "dead."

While the kids and I both had a great time that week, there was so much trying to control everything the kids did all the time, with strict times and schedules for doing things, that it felt very, very schooly, I was just so glad that my kids will not have to spend years in that type of environment when they are growing up.

Worship Team Practice

My husband is an awesome guitar player. He has an acoustic and electric guitar, and has been playing for twenty-two years. He's played in a few small bands, but now that we have kids, he only plays about twice a week during church services. Sometimes I feel bad as I know this was a big part of his life before we had kids, but he assures me that time spent with us and the kids are his number one priority right now. The kids will only be little for so long. So, when we can, we like to go with him to practice during the week he has to play.

Jared especially likes being able to watch the drummer and gets so excited when he can bang away a bit on a real drum set. They love hearing the music, too. But I think their favorite thing is to run up and down the rows of the balcony. I love it because it tires them out, and they want to go to be earlier on those nights.

Sometimes we go downstairs in the room for the teenagers. The kids enjoy playing with the fuse ball game, looking at the movie screen and climbing all over the couch.

We also sometimes go to their Sunday School room and play with the pretend kitchen and food.

First Time in Sunday School!

5/4
It was the twins first time going to Sunday School today, and Alexa was really clinging. I couldn’t pry her off of me, so I wound up staying the whole time. Jared was pretty independent, though. Besides getting slapped in the face by another girl, he took everything else pretty much in stride.

I was actually glad I had to stick around. It was interesting to see what they were going to do. The more I took it all in, the more it solidified my decision to have to kids learn at home with me. Not that anything was that bad. It’s just little things like having the kids color pre-printed coloring pages instead of being allowed to free-draw. I cringed when I saw the teacher take one boy’s sheet, glance at it, hand it back and tell him he needed to color some more on the other side of the page. What is that! They also used cookie cutters to play with the play dough the entire time, and were served two Oreos for a snack. I don’t mean to sound snobby or uppity, but Oreos at 10:00 in the morning for two year olds? I don’t get it.

They did have a good time listening to the story and learning the verse. I also loved them getting a chance to hang around older kids, something they didn’t get to do in the nursery.

After their nap, Steve’s parents came over to check out the swing/slide/teeter-totter set they helped buy for the twins’ birthday. Jared and Alexa loved getting pushed on the swing by their grandparents. Jared also had a great time exploring by the bushes near the back fence. Every time I see him back there, I think I’d love to get inside his head to know what he’s thinking. He just looks so enthralled, like he’s a true explorer discovering a new land. Alexa was in her element after we came in to eat pizza later in the evening. She dragged out all the animals and told us the name of each animal.