11 August 2008

Sun drenched and baked


The kids' birthday party went well. Sat on the deck by the lake with a wonderful breeze and just the right amount of sun and warmth -- not too hot, not too cold. Kids had a great time and are blowing out the candles on their birthday cake in the above picture (they share the same birthday, two years apart). It's a Scooby Doo cake, since they both love Scooby Doo. This may be the last year I can have just one cake, since my son was already asking for his own. However, it seems he's become wise at the age of five and knew when to cut his losses when I told him I could cut the Scooby Doo cake in half, but his sister would get first picks on what side she wanted.

The kids got lots of nice stuff and even some Star Wars light sabers. Don't know if they revoke your mom license for giving a light saber to a three year old. I think it at least requires some probationary time, possibly counseling.

Then came Vacation Bible School (VBS) this morning. This is the baked part...I'm cooked, well-done, toasted. 25 kids in one small room when it was warm, verging on hot. Thank God and all His Angels and all His saints for the two other saintly mothers and the teen helper because there were some "deer in the headlights" moments.

There were three children with various allergies. Solely by the grace of God, we managed to get through the day without scrambling for epinephrine for one of the children. I can only imagine gritting my teeth and having to jam the EpiPen into the kid's leg. Thank you God, for averting that crisis! Perfect storm for Vacation Bible School teacher break down.

The VBS topic this summer is about St. Catherine Laboure and Guardian Angels. I think my angel and I (and the other moms) will need combat pay for the week. The other VBS teachers were already talking about if it qualified for time off in Purgatory, which I'm sure goes without saying. God sees all...VBS is worth boo-koo points. Who needs to buy indulgences anymore, just teach a week of VBS and you're good to go.

But, Scarlett, tomorrow is another day. I need to actually survive VBS to gain the time off from Purgatory. It will be close.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Both Birthday's on the same day--what are the odd's of that? Let's see, about nine-months prior to that day was hmmmm...about Christmas time?

Oh, I want to be at the lake with a gentle cool breeze--sounds like a lovely day.

Happy Birthday to both of them!

Adrienne said...

God is wiping out many years on your purgatory sentence because of VBS. Just keep that in mind........

Anonymous said...

Glad you survived VBS. This was my first time running one this year (in June..>I was Director). Anyway, I looked at the program you're describing, really liked the curriculum and theme, but the music was too mellow and too "little kid" for our group. The parents and a couple teens I grabbed to review it with me as a "marketing group" all gave me consistent opinions on that.

I hope that their next program has better music because I REALLY LIKE them! Unfortunately, it's the music that "sells" it to the participants.

swissmiss said...

Adrienne:
Purgatory is a strong motivator! Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of class, but we don't do any instruction. Since it's a Holy Day, we all go to Mass then down to Schuler Hall for a reception where the children show all their projects and do their presentations. I'm pretty much done with my part!

Adoro:
I liked the program since it was nice to have a good Catholic theme, and didn't have a problem with the songs except one was oddly Protestant ("I've got a crush on Jesus"). Found there was WAY too much reading and sitting for the little ones (Story of St. Catherine Laboure, bible passages, lesson that was read, prayers and a memory verse) and some of the lessons were not quite age appropriate (I had the pre-K/K kids). We ended up improvising some things (thanks to a resourceful mom who had some experience teaching previously!) to have more movement and less sitting just to survive and to keep the kids' attention. My son loved the crafts the best but is looking forward to returning to bible study at St. Augustine's this fall because they play with toys there for the first part of the day and then do a lesson. He likes the toy part
;-}

What program did you use?