Merry Christmas!

A little bit of magic!

I

Camp Allendale

Kayla and I just got back from our first experience at church camp, and she is so excited to go for a full week next year!  The weather was perfect, so that made it even better.

We were there with about 20 rising 2nd graders and their moms or dads. The 1-night camp started about 2pm on Friday and lasted through about 6pm on Saturday.  It was just enough time for me to know that this is an excellent camp and awesome opportunity for Kayla...and for me to know that it is not my calling to stay for the week-long sessions that are available starting in 3rd grade!

I had no idea that the camp was so large, had been around for decades, and that it had so many amazing activities to offer. Check it out here: 

www.camp-allendale.org

Kayla went swimming in a pool with water slides (now that is a camp I can get on board with!), fishing in the lake, learned to shoot a bow & arrow, and generally had a fabulous time. The cabins are even air-conditioned with the bathrooms inside. Provided you can survive bunking with about 10 girls, you are golden! (Yikes!!!!)

Here's proof that you can catch bluegill using hot dogs as bait. Who knew?!

While you can't really tell in this picture, Kayla is wearing a VBS shirt from another church...sorry about that Chris!

Here's a little archery.

Human fooseball!

Above all, we grew together in our walks with Christ. Kayla got a chance to learn about the fruit of the spirit, when we worked on the following memory verse:

Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

We are so grateful for MPCC and Camp Allendale!

Holiday Happenings

We found a few ways to celebrate the season throughout the month of December, including a trip on the Polar Express.  For those of you who don't know, there is a train that leaves Connersville and goes all the way to the North Pole to pick up Santa for all the boys and girls to see him.  Each child gets a chance to tell Santa what their little heart desires this Christmas.

 

 

Maren waits patiently for her turn with Santa.

 

Maren receives her bell.  The first gift of Christmas (you'll understand if you've read or watched The Polar Express).

 

Whenever I have board meetings on Tuesday's, Maren and Kayla get to go to Kids' Night at Chick-fil-A, where they do face painting.

 

Kayla gets herself dressed for winter...or something.  We had some VERY mild weather in early December!

 

Maren's Christmas spectacular at her preschool.  She's over to the far left, signing her heart out!

 

Fair Fun

It's that time of year again!  We started the annual tradition of going to the state fair a few years ago, and always seem to have a lot of fun.  We eat fair food and experience a few fun rides.  This year we even made it for $2 Tuesday.  All of the rides were $2 and several vendors had smaller sized options for $2.  Admission was even $2!

The ferris wheel is a good family ride, which allowed me to snap some photos.

What's out there???

The midway!

This ride was one of Kayla's favorites.  Even though it's hard to tell in the picutre, Kayla's in the back, Maren's in the middle, and Aaron's in the front.  They fortunately didn't get too wet.

Aaron took the girls to see some of the animals before I got there, but we all went through the barn that had chickens, geese, rabbits, and turkeys.  Watch the video below to see Maren "talking" to the animals...

First Day, First Grade

Kayla started a new school year today, with Mr. Hamilton leading the charge. While her best friend, Nora, is in a different class she was happy to be with several of her former classmates.

Backflips at the lake

Kayla learned a new trick today!