PANDAMANIA
Last week, a whole pack of fun-loving pandas invaded our church for Vacation Bible School! The PCP spent his mornings singing, playing, crafting and praying in a wild celebration of God’s unconditional love.
The highlight of the week for John was bringing home a color-changing water bottle craft. Some concoction of oil, water and red food coloring I suspect. Here is the conversation that ensued:
John: (as he lovingly holds it out in his arms) “Mommy, this is Color-Changer. I love him SOOOO much. He’s my second brother.” (then hugs the silly bottle within an inch of it’s life)
Mama: (snapping myself out of utter dumbfoundedness) “Welcome to the family…um…color changer… brother (clearly by another mother).”
[John proceeds to shake and twirl his “second brother” in a way that makes his first brother salivate at the thought of getting his hands on it. ]
Mama: (visualizing the top coming off and red colored oil and water flying all over the car) “Keep that thing away from your brother or you know he’ll screw that top right off in two seconds flat and try to drink your strange concoction. I mean…your strange second brother.”
John: “Heavenly Father, please help Coocoo to learn to be a good baby that won’t drink my color changer brother. Oh, and please help my baby (Cookie) learn to swim like Cae’s baby (who is also 2 years old and is no closer to swimming that Cookie). Aaaaaaaa-men.”
[Mama is torn between being proud to hear her son praying and perplexed about the topic of his prayers.]
John: “I have also crossed my fingers on both hands just in case God didn’t hear me.”
Mama: “Well then I’d venture to say we’re covered on all fronts.”
And as if color-changer bottle didn’t knock our socks off , the VBS week culminated in a concert where the littles showed off their songs, art work and new friendships. I think that my ears have never heard a sweeter sound than a hundred little raising their voices in proclamation of how much GOD LOVES THEM!
PANDAMONIUM
As if that wasn’t wild enough for one week, in our usual fashion, we thought it would be astounding to throw in not just a stomach bug and multiple power outages but a trip to the urgent care to boot.
Luckily the bug was short lived and limited only to the PCP. He missed Monday at VBS but was fully recovered by that afternoon.
It’s been raining cats and dogs here off and on all week! Our power has been out three times for hours at a time. So, we made the most of it by building indoor forts, coloring and puzzling by flashlights and playing I Spy In The Dark.
As for our trip to the Urgent Care, John took a little tumble and gashed open his knee this time around. The PCP took the three stitches in stride and, actually, found them quite unimpressive compared to the fourteen he “earned” in his chin last month. Just to make sure he was a-ok, we made a little jaunt by Pinkberry (recall how I treat my children with treats that I secretly really want) to sample their new summer flavors. While John’s watermelon cone was perfectly delish, my salted caramel cone with chocolate shavings has got to be just what frozen yogurt tastes like in Heaven.
On that note, we’re off to procure some waterproof bandaids, an ace bandage (to assist in keeping the knee straight) and some Pinkberry. You know, just be absolutely, positively, one hundred percent certain the PCP is O.K.
xoxo