C-H-E-S-T-A-T-E-E!

Here's Madison's costume for Spirit Day - she's rather proud of her cheerleading.  She can even spell out C-H-E-S-T-A-T-E-E, which is actually a pretty long word all of the sudden!

This is the Lego figure that Madison made.  Her name is Lilly, and she was created at LEGOland, Florida.  The Tooth Fairy gave her this figure above, one that Madison made in the store.  She wanted it, but we never made it back to the store there in the park.  And yet the Tooth Fairy somehow knew to get it, and as a result, she's with us now.  And she'll be with all of KidPak soon - we had a LEGO photo shoot today with three characters.  She'll be in all the services where we'll have a race on the big screen.  She's one contestant, and here's another:

This is a girl, according to Madison.  Daddy was assuming it was a guy, but that's because ... well, I don't want to make any more assumptions today.  Let's just say it's an alien.  He'll be driving a camper in the race.  Lilly above will be driving an ice cream truck, of course.  The funny thing about this alien is that we had it before our trip to LEGOland.  At the parks, the employees there all have LEGO figures.  You can bring a LEGO figure of your own, and trade it with one of the employees to get a new one.  SO, with that thought in mind, we brought this alien down, thinking that it would be one Madison could part with easily.  Only, as the day went on, we discovered it was not one we could part with.  We carried this little alien with us the entire day, and never traded it once.  It survived the whole trading experience, and now is somewhat of a mascot for us at the house.  This alien likes to ride in the dolphin cruiser boat, usually kicking back in a deck chair, or hanging around the kitchen inside the boat.  And for the next few months, he'll be one of our racers at KidPak.  This leaves us to our third and final racer - who is now our mascot for the entire series itself:

This is Bill or Mac or Buddy.  I don't know.  We haven't come up with a name for him yet, but in the days to come, you'll see him on the backdrop for our series, our official mascot for the entire series.  If I haven't mentioned it yet, the series is called, "Master Builders."  We'll be writing a description and messages for it this week - but of course, we're still "Under the Sea" right now.  In fact, we've been working on videos and skits and still even more puppets for this upcoming weekend.  It's a message called "Totally Righteous," which is based on the turtle in "Finding Nemo" somewhat.  Of course, we're made righteous because of Jesus.  Here's the homework sheet for the upcoming weekend:

It's going to be a great message, actually.  Here's what Daddy came up with, a description that sounds like something Crush the Turtle would deliver himself:

     God has a crush on you – He thinks you so totally rock!  If you have any doubts, check out all He’s done for us.  First He was like “whoa,” and then we were like “whoa,” and then He was like, “whoa!”

     Hold it – kill the motor.  You might be a bit confused in your noggin.  Let me lay it all out for you, showing you all God has done for you.

     Firstly, you’re totally righteous!  Seriously.  But it isn’t anything you’ve done – it’s all about what Jesus did for us.  See what I’m saying?  God sent Jesus for all of us, so we don’t have to float through life all bummed out about our gnarly past.  But don’t take that grace for granted – Jesus paid a pretty awful price, so we all can be righteous.
     The other thing God did was give us a Friend, to help as we float through life.  Hope you have some serious thrill issues, because the Holy Spirit is a companion and friend who will help you in every area of your life. First, find that exit buddy.  Do you have your exit buddy?  Of course you do – He’s with you always.  Totally sweet!
     Get that awesome info in your noggin, and coo-coo-cachoo, you’ll be on your way.  Your Heavenly Father will be like “You so totally rocked!  Give me some fin!  Dude!” 
     Yeah, He probably doesn’t speak like that.  But like any good father, there is no mistaking the joy and pride He has when seeing you succeed when you fly solo. 

     So grab shell and get ready to rip it, roll it, and punch it for a wild ride in the big ol’ blue.  Just don’t forget that exit buddy, and hold on tight.  It’s going to be totally righteous!
     Oh, and hey, no hurling on the shell dude, okay?  Just waxed it.

This has been one of Daddy's favorite series, ever.  We've got so many good messages, and the creativity is just all over the place.  We're having such a good time with it too!  Madison is getting these bottom lines so quickly, and of course this message here is the most important one of all.  

Tonight, Daddy didn't get to spend so much time with Madison - he was with a friend at the hospital for a few hours.  Our good friend Chad was having something put into his back to help deaden pain he's been experiencing.  We're so happy for him, because the last few years have been debilitating.  When Daddy got home, we did do a few things together - Madison wanted to play LEGO Indiana Jones for some reason, so we did that for a bit.  And just because, afterwards we watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular on the iPad (someone recorded it on their vacation), and we watched this all while sitting in bed upstairs.  Technology is cool!  It was a later night tonight, but that's okay because we get up later in the morning.  Madison got to see a little Indiana Jones, and then there was a little Bible too - the stone was rolled away!  

She nailed her spelling test today, by the way.  And she's having a great time in her music class, which was today as well.  She got to learn about tambourines, and play some as well.  We have one at home, so we'll have to practice with that one a bit, probably while singing "Oh, Susanna!"