Face Plant

Here's the KidPak staff a few years ago, in a strangely sentimental picture today.  Strange, because it's a wacky photo.  Sentimental, because it is the last day for Pastor Jill Hayes today.  She'll retire, and good for her of course.  But bad for us - we'll miss her terribly.  Daddy and Mommy have worked with her for over ten years at the church, and it is as if there is a mighty big hole there.  Of course, we'll see her again, as we all go to the same church now.  But probably not downstairs with the children's ministry - she might be staying away from that for a while, simply so she doesn't get sucked back in!

It was a Wednesday, and a busy one for us as we got ready for our Back to School Bash 2014, which works out as B2SB14 if you're looking for an abbreviation.  The weather was absolutely perfect today. It was an unbelievably perfect day as far as that goes, just another reminder that fall is on the way and we're sitting here like "wha?"

The event itself went very well.  Daddy is actually in the picture above, one of the many who were helping with rides and inflatables as kids came from all over to have a great time.  Daddy was working a ride that was sort of like "Wipe Out," where kids tried to get across an obstacle course without falling down.  Many of them - including Daddy - failed in hilarious ways.  Daddy was helping out, making sure things were as safe as possible - and saw a whole lot of face plants.

Here's a face plant that our photographer caught.  "Face plant:"  this is an interesting term that Madison has learned lately.  She likes the phrase 'face plant.'  We're not entirely sure where she learned this term, but this afternoon she demonstrated a face plant for us on the couch.  She made sure we all stopped what were were doing - this was after school, of course.  We were talking about her day and so forth, and somehow the topic came up.  Lance was there, as was Mommy and Daddy, and from the great room, Madison announces that she is going to demonstrate a proper face plant.  Carefully, she lines herself up with the couch, checking for windspeed and any other possible factors that could hinder a perfect score on her approach.  And then she releases:  falling straight forward, without any hand support, she executes the perfect face plant on the couch.  Everyone roars their approval, and the judges award the highest recorded score ever.  Madison is an expert on the couch face plant.  But she can still get some lessons from Daddy elsewhere:

Obviously we were at work for a good part of the day.  We were doing a lot for setting up the evening's events, with tents, water, tables, inflatables and so forth.  And music - forgot the music.  Anyway, it was a lot of work, but Daddy did come home with Lance to wait on Madison to get off the bus.  It was such a pretty day waiting outside on the front porch with the rocking chairs in the shade there.  Madison had a great day at school, which is so wonderful to hear from her.  She's having a great time - no worries.

As for us, it was a bittersweet day.  We said goodbye to our friend Jill, who has been with us so long at the office.  We'll see her again soon, hopefully at the house.  But tonight was a sad one for us, as we lost a light, an ally, and a close friend.