End of May

A lot of work goes into Summer Xtreme, and that's where we were at today.  There are these printed bits of material, and a lot of that.  There are booklets too, and also a lot of video material to film and edit.  This was the focus of the day today for the staff of KidPak, juggling all sorts of issues, and of course also dealing with the new service this weekend as well.  We've got quite a bit going on!

Madison's focus was a little more simplistic.  She was doing some piano today, having borrowed a few music sheets from Nana and Ye-Ye:  you can hear bits of different movie songs, like "A Whole New World," "Jurassic Park" and "Star Wars."  Another song:  "Colors of the Wind."  She's not proficient with these quite yet, as she's just getting started.  But those songs will be fun to add to the repertoire.

She spends time talking with her friends online, and playing a few online games, just relaxing the day away.  And that's okay - she worked hard during the school year, and we're building up to a few summer camps that will keep her busy.  The idea is to simply rest and relax, and get ready for some more camps coming up:  we have three weeks of camps in a row soon.  Then there's an art camp in July as well.  Plus hopefully a surprise on vacation as well - we'll see how that goes soon.

Tonight we were all watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and it was more like "Agents of Gross."  There's some sort of weird flying thing that gets into people's bodies, and it's pretty nasty.  The three of us were watching that episode tonight in the room, along with a bowl of popcorn.  It's our one television show - we've been watching this for six years now, which is neat.  Madison has only been around on this one since season five, but we may go back with her on some of the earlier episodes.

Today is the end of May, and tomorrow the first of June.  Just a few more days, and Madison will be a teenager, and then a whole new world after that.

Bananas, Splits

The funny thing about all those bananas the other day is that we had a whole lot left over!  So what do you do when life throws bananas at you?  You make banana pudding!  Mommy worked a lot last night and this morning on using up all those bananas to make two pretty big servings of banana pudding, and three banana nut cakes.  As you can see above, the guys loved the banana pudding.  The rest of the office did as well - we stopped everything to have a big Banana Nut Bread Celebration!

We're working hard on Summer Xtreme here, with lots of work in different directions.  We're trying to figure out the Zoo Tour, dealing with Mr. Poolcheck at Frances Meadows, and making hand-outs for parent meetings.  We're arranging car pick-ups and figuring out large inflatables.  It's all over the place, and it'll be that way a few weeks.  But it should be fun.

Meanwhile, Madison was working on her piano, and working on her drawing skills as well, completing a big project that she had leftover from the school year.  Later on, we were at taekwondo together, throwing around nunchucks, doing splits and ... hold on a minute.  We haven't talked about splits that much lately here.  Madison is actually getting better and better and closer and closer to doing a full, crazy split at the studio.  She's started out with a lot of stretching and a smaller angle with the legs.  But now, she's going further and further down.  She's doing great with these splits.  And yes, it looks painful to us grown-ups!

Later on, there was more Gravity Falls, and the continued adventures of the Cobalt Squadron.  We've been watering our plants outside, and picking mint from the back yard to place in our water overnight.  Diffused water has been delicious, with orange and lemon slices, along with mint leaves from the back yard.

In other news, it was a sad day for fans of Leon Redbone, who passed away this day.  Mommy and Daddy have always been big fans of his music, which is quite different of course.  And thanks to the movie "Elf," he's been immortalized as a part of Christmas.  Mommy got a CD of his for Daddy this last Christmas, and we were playing that on the way down to Florida.  Anyway, that's a sad note, so to speak.

But the day on the whole was decent, although pretty hot.  We're still in this heat wave, so the air conditioner has been really appreciated.  And also appreciated... that tasty banana pudding.

One more "Miracles"

One more time, we did a skit for the series, "Miracles."  It was a Wednesday night, but our actor who plays Jesus was happy to return for one more performance on stage, a simple one.  And the girls were excited to come back too!

There's Madison and a few of her Bible friends from this series, on stage in Bible costumes one last time.  They were happy to be up there one more time, and happy to help out with a message that Mr. Tucker shared with them, about hearing from Jesus, and obeying too.

The rest of the day, Madison was at the office with Daddy, helping out here and there, but also lounging about, playing games, talking with friends online and just hanging out.  It's okay this week! She's earned a week of rest and relaxation.

Mommy was at the dermatologist this week for a routine visit, and that turned out just fine.  And Daddy was there working on all kinds of stuff related to Summer Xtreme.  It's that sort of week, as next week will be too.

We're reading still from the Cobalt Squadron each night.

It's been a slower paced book, but Madison is enjoying it, going off to a galaxy far, far away.  We'll probably be with this book another week, and after that, I'm not sure.  But it's been nice reading each night, from this and the devotional as well.  We pray each night, and yes there are zerberts.  Can't do without those zerberts!

Miracles from Heaven

We had taekwondo tonight, and as a bonus, Madison is now signed up for her rank camp next week.  That means she'll advance by the week's end, although not to a new belt.  As the taekwondo belts get higher in rank, it takes two cycles or more to advance to the next belt.  In the case of the purple belt, she's got one now, but at the end of rank camp, she'll be "purple decided."  This will enable her to get to her blue belt some time in July, and then "blue belt decided" by October 2019, and somewhere in December, she'll move on to what I think is brown.  Calculating that out, I think March 2020 is brown decided, followed by the red belt in May 2020.  Yeah, the black belt is after that, and I'm not entirely sure.  But it could be by the end of middle school, which is insane.  We're really proud of her.  She says she wants to keep going with this, even after getting that black belt!

Today we were working on one thing:  this Sunday's "Miracles" message.  It's all about that movie, "Miracles from Heaven," and for that I've done related Parenting Matters, and the keynote, and we've found video clips, and this script below.  We watched the movie this morning, and it's going to be a great message for the kids.

Tonight, we were watching Gravity Falls again, and read from our devotional and the Cobalt Squadron book.  And Madison has been doing a few things today, completing her chore chart, playing piano, and sitting on the computer too.  It wasn't too much of an active day - it was certainly too hot to stay outside for too long.  We're still in the midst of that heat wave.  Daddy doesn't know that so much, having to spend so much time in the sub-arctic basement of Freeze Chapel.  But that's not necessarily a complaint, of course.  It's easy to go thaw out from time to time, and it actually feels great outside!

Anyway, here's the message Daddy finished up today.  There are images and video clips to go with this, and it is going to be something wonderful for the kids!

KidPak Adventures:  Miracles!

Miracles from Heaven

CUE SLIDE:  MIRACLES

HOST:  “Hello and welcome back to our final service of this amazing series, ‘Miracles.’  As you know, we’ve been talking about just a few of the remarkable miracles Jesus performed during his ministry here on earth. And as you’ve heard time and again, wherever he is today, you’ll still find…miracles.”

HOST:  “To help illustrate that point, today we’re going to look at the amazing true life story of a young girl named Anna Beam.  The miracle that happened in her life was so astounding, they actually made a movie out of it.  It’s called ‘Miracles from Heaven.’”

CUE SLIDE:  MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN

HOST:  “In this movie, we see that miracles from heaven didn’t stop with the stories we read from the Bible.  But we have to begin our story with Anna at a dire point in her life, where she desperately needs a miracle.”

CUE CLIP #1:  ANNA’S TERRIBLE NIGHT 

CUE SLIDE:  ANNA IN HOSPITAL

HOST:  “Anna needs a miracle.  She has been diagnosed with a rare digestive disorder.  And there is no cure.  And if you’re relying only on doctors, hospitals and all the medical skills of all the most educated medical people in the world… there is not much hope.”

CUE SLIDE:  MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN

HOST:  “But we don’t rely only on doctors and hospitals, do we?  Earlier in this movie, the family was at church, and their pastor had something wise to say, something we all need to pay attention to.  Let’s listen to Pastor Scott share something very good to hear.”

CUE CLIP #2:  PASTOR SCOTT

CUE SLIDE:  PASTOR SCOTT

HOST walks out on stage with helmet and umbrella.

HOST:  “These things here can protect us, but only so far.  Insurance can help us.  Doctors can help us.  But there’s only One who can really help us, and only One who can help, heal, and bring us miracles.  Who is that?”

Let audience reply.

HOST:  “That’s right.  It’s God. Now Pastor Scott here said something big, and it’s so good we made it our first point.”

CUE SLIDE:  “POINT ONE:  FAITH IS REALLY THE ONLY TRUE SHELTER”

HOST puts down helmet and umbrella.

HOST:  “Faith is really the only true shelter. Our faith in the Lord is just like a shield, keeping us safe.  Our Bible tells us this time and again.”

CUE SLIDE:  “PSALM 28:7”

HOST:  “David said about the Lord, ‘You are my strong shield, and I trust you completely.’”

CUE SLIDE:  “MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN.”

HOST:  “When we put our trust in Him, He’ll walk with us not just into, but throughthe darkest places.  Imagine trying to walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness… without any light with you.  Close your eyes a moment, and imagine walking around without the ability to see where you’re going.  You’re bound to bump into some trouble!  You’re going to crash.  I’d say you’re in a pretty hopeless situation!    You need the Light of the World.”

CUE SLIDE:  ANNA BEAM

HOST:  “Fortunately, Anna had that light.  She has faith, where many others around her do not.  Her mother in particular is so burdened and worried.  She had lost her faith.  They traveled from Texas all the way to Boston to go to this one doctor, just for a chance to get to him, even if they didn’t have an appointment.  And to begin with, they couldn’t see him.  It was bad news on top of bad news. Defeated and dejected, Anna and her mom went to get something to eat at a local place.  But look what happens next.”

CUE CLIP #3:  ANGELA

CLUE SLIDE:  ANGELA

HOST:  “Meeting Angela was a big moment for these two.  Angela saw how down they were, and no, Angela was not a doctor.  Far from it.  Angela was no counselor either.  Angela wasn’t even a rich bank executive that could help Anna’s family pay for any medical expenses.  But still, Angela did what she could.  She did something that seems so small – and yet it was such a big deal:  she showed God’s love.  There’s point two.”

CUE SLIDE:  “POINT TWO – DON’T MISS OPPORTUNITIES TO SHOW GOD’S LOVE”

HOST:  “Don’t miss opportunities to show God’s love.  Sometimes bad news comes, and we don’t have all the answers.  There are so many things we don’t know. But there is something we doknow.  We know that God loves us.  And that’s something we can share.”

CUE SLIDE:  “ANGELA”

HOST: “Like Angela, don’t miss those moments we can help lift others out of their darkest places.  Be a light unto the world.  In fact, that’s what he has asked us to do.  That’s why he says in Matthew 5:16 these words:”

CUE SLIDE:  MATTHEW 5:16

HOST: “In the same way, let your light shine so others can see it. Then they will see the good things you do. And they will bring glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

CUE SLIDE:  “MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN”

HOST:  “You can be a miracle for someone.  It doesn’t matter where or when.  I want to share with you a powerful moment, one where Anna – even when she was feeling her worst – let her light shine for someone else.”

CUE CLIP #4:  ANNA and HALEY

CUE SLIDE:  ANNA and HALEY

HOST:  “Can you see how important this moment here was for that little girl Haley?  Anna gave her peace, hope, and shared God’s love when that little girl needed it most.” 

CUE SLIDE:  “MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN”

HOST:  “And if you’re ever in need of a miracle, or you need one right now, the message of this movie is don’t give up.  Just hold on, because God is here.  Sometimes help comes from the most unexpected places.”

CUE SLIDE:  “ANNA”

HOST:  “You see, Anna went home to Texas after doctors did all that they could do. There wasn’t anything else that could be done.  And that’s when something amazing happened.”

CUE CLIP #5:  ANNA FALLS INTO THE TREE

CUE SLIDE:  “MIRACLES TREE”

HOST:  “On top of everything, as you just saw, she had this terrible accident.  Down she went – she fell headfirst into that hollow tree and was stuck in there for over five hours.  The rescue team was able to get her out and rush her to the hospital, and this might have been the lowest point ever for Anna and her family.  But listen carefully to the doctor on the scene.”

CUE CLIP #6:  MIRACLE REPORT

CUE SLIDE:  “HOSPITAL”

HOST:  “Wait? That fall and didn’t do anything to her at all?  How could you fall thirty feet, head-first, and be able to walk away from that like nothing happened?  But wait. It gets better.”

CUE CLIP #7:  MIRACLE HEALING

CUE SLIDE:  “MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN”

HOST:  “Who was it that told her?”

Let audience answer.

HOST:  “That’s right.  God.”

***************

HOST:  “Let’s hear her tell the story.”

CUE CLIP #8:  HEAVEN

CUE SLIDE:  “HEAVEN”

***************

HOST:  “When Anna was trapped in that tree, she had a vision or a dream where she was in heaven, and there she met God.  He told her she was going back, and she was going to be completely healed.  And that’s exactly what happened.  As we close, let’s look at one last point.”

CUE SLIDE:  “POINT THREE – KEEP YOUR FAITH.  MIRACLES ARE EVERYWHERE.”

HOST:  “Keep your faith, because miracles are everywhere.  Miracles are God’s way of letting us know He’s here.  And we’re surrounded by miracles every day, from those smaller stories of answered prayers to those epic moments like the amazing healing that happened to Anna Beam.”

HOST:  “But don’t lose the purpose behind the miracles, the reason for it all.  You can find it in John, chapter 20.”

CUE SLIDE:  JOHN 20:30-31

HOST:  “Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life, and be together in heaven.”

CUE SLIDE:  MIRACLES

HOST:  “The point of a miracle is to shine a light towards our Heavenly Father, who never stops loving us, and wants to be with us in heaven forever.”

HOST:  “If you know someone who desperately needs a miracle, you can be a miracle to someone who needs it.  And if it is you yourself that needs that miracle most of all, don’t let go of your faith.  Jesus is with you, and wherever He is, you can still find… Miracles.”

HOST:  “Let us pray.”

1. “Faith is really the only true shelter.”  A lot can happen in life, and without faith, it’s just like walking in the dark.  You’re bound to bump into some trouble, so why not walk towards the Light of the World?  Trouble can pour in at a moment’s notice, and to quote Pastor Scott, “You can get an umbrella, you can get a helmet and you can get insurance. But there’s one thing that we need that can’t be seen, and it can’t be bought.  And that is faith.”
   “You are my strong shield, and I trust you completely.” Psalm 28:7 CEV
   
   
2. Don’t miss opportunities to show God’s love.  Sometimes bad news comes, and we don’t have all the answers. There are so many things we don’t know.  But we do know this:  we know that God loves us, and that’s something we can share.  Don’t miss those moments we can help lift others out of their darkest places.  Be a light unto the world, and be a miracle for someone today.  The light at their tunnel… may be you.
    ^“In the same way, let your light shine so others can see it. Then they will see the good things you do. And they will bring glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 NIRV
   
   
3. Keep your faith - miracles are everywhere. Miracles are God’s way of letting us know He’s here.  And we’re surrounded by miracles every day, from those smaller stories of answered prayers to those epic moments like the amazing healing that happened to Anna Beam.  But don’t lose the purpose behind the miracles, the reason for it all:  so that we will put our faith in Him.
   “Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book.  But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life.” John 20:30-31 CEV

Memorial Day and Chia Pets

We went over to Nana and Ye-Ye's house today for some great traditions, one of them being a fantastic and filling meal!  The house was all decorated, and in fact we were all decorated too, dressed in patriotic red, white and blue.  Nana and Ye-Ye had all kinds of great food on the table, including grilled burgers - and the highlight, crab legs.  Oh my, those crab legs were amazing.  That's one of the greatest meals you can have, sitting and cracking open the legs, talking and tasting all that crab meat dipped butter.  Yummy!

After eating, it was time for another family tradition!

Tossing water balloons with large pool towels!  I'm not exactly sure when this started, but we had a whole lot of water balloons, and we thought we'd try this out, tossing it from team to team.

Inevitably, there'd be some misses, especially when some teams would launch the balloon so incredibly high that it became a bit of a challenge to catch it without it popping.  And yes, a lot of them were popping.

And you could never blame one person or the other for an errant shot.  So some of these shots would go astray, and right at each other...

And that of course evolved into the other great family tradition:  the squirt gun battles.

We were armed with lots of water balloons and squirt guns, and the weather was amazingly hot outside.  It was a perfect combination, and a great chance to immediately cool off.  Everyone was out there with these modern squirt guns, these miniature water cannons.  Daddy tried running around with two, sort of like Lara Croft.  Jonathan was doing his version of Rambo, with two machine-gun style water guns.  Madison was going after everyone, and Hannah didn't have a dry spot on her.  Nana and Ye-Ye were involved too, of course, once Nana got a large-sized water gun in her hands.  It's always good fun, and for some reason we reserve these big squirt gun fights for those patriotic holidays.

Afterwards we were inside for some dessert, which included Mommy's very own pineapple upside down cake, which has been the perfect treat.  We dried off and sat about sharing and talking while having dessert, and basically catching up on all the recent things going on.  Everyone's been busy, and will be busy the next few weeks.  The others are taking a trip to Yellowstone, and of course we have Summer Xtreme.

We got home that night, and watched some television, and were ready for bed a little quicker than normal.  It was a fun and memorable day.  A few days ago, we started a Chia pet - one we got as a gag gift at Christmas time.  It is a Statue of Liberty Chia Pet, one Madison and Daddy set up.  It's coming along nicely, along with another Chia Pet friend we also started.  We'll close this post with some pictures of both.  Happy Memorial Day!

"Give us your tired, your poor, your huddle Chia Pets."

"Hey now.  You're an all-star."

Shrek brings back memories.  It was in 2011 that we last put those seeds on this Shrek face.  Madison was so young back then, five years old.  Now here we are, another eight years later... wow.

Hurling Bananas

Here are some of our girls from KidPak from the stage this weekend, having a great time wandering around in their Bible costumes.  They've been having such a great series, enjoying each other's company backstage, and of course performing on stage.

This week, there wasn't as much of a role for them on stage, other than being there to support the other actors in their performances.  They were largely reacting to the scene that was taking place before them, which of course was Jesus healing a mute and deaf man.  Our message was about "having ears to hear," and it went very well this morning.  These last eight weeks of "Miracles" have been so fantastic!

Afterwards, the girls were wanting to go out and greet, which they did, saying hi to people as they entered the church and KidPak area.  But soon after that, we all went to the activity room, which you can see above.  Some of the girls were on the rock wall with their Bible costume, and some were even playing a game of pool!

It was a fun morning, and we all learned to listen to what God is saying over what the world tells us.  In other words, we were learning to "have ears to hear."

Madison doesn't know this next part, and she can't see this image above.  But you can see who is back for Summer Xtreme this year in a small cameo.  It's the Super Seven!  Five of them were here, and two others will return on Tuesday as well, and it's not a huge part, but it will still brings smiles to everyone's faces to see them again.

Yes, even Shadowhawk.  It was atrociously hot outside, but these actors and volunteers were all real troopers, enduring it all and having a great time while doing it.  We've got great plans for Summer Xtreme, and today involved a good deal of filming our mascot characters, who we finally got to see inflated and in action.

We had the "Tribes" characters of Eagles, Sharks, Sabretooths, Rhinos and Raptors, and they look amazing with their logos, and on the movie we had planned to do (that movie is being pushed back to next year to give Josh more time to finish it).  So for a comical video, we thought it would be funny to have inflatable versions of these characters, each doing relay races or something like that.  So Mommy and Daddy ordered these inflatables, and you can see what they look like above.

Look out!  There's a T-rex from Jurassic Park loose in the playground!  We had a "raptor" costume, but it turns out the costume only fits smaller-sized people. So we'll save that one for our "Lost World" series.  In the meantime, the T-rex and the others look great.  Even the cat:

There's an inflatable hippo, inflatable rhino, inflatable giraffe... there's just about any creature you an imagine that's got an inflatable version created.  But no cats?  No leopards, no panthers, no tigers, no ligers, no lions, no pumas, no cheetahs, no wildcats, no sabertooth tigers... what's up with that?  So above, you can see how we ordered an inflatable sloth. Yes, there's one of those.  Anyway, we printed out ears and a nose... and there.  Instant inflatable cat.  Crazy they had no original version of these.  

Today's filming was so bizarre!  We had characters from the past integrating with these current inflatable characters, along with other ones as well, and you wound up with imagery like this:

Possibly the highlight of it all was the banana toss.  That's why these characters above look so concerned.  They were hiding against a wall there to avoid getting hit by bananas, and a banana laser.  Yes, we had lots of bananas.  We had lots of bananas today.  We had over a hundred bananas.  And we had a whole bunch of us throwing them at these inflatable characters.  Not to give away too much of it, but a ridiculous moment comes when a super villain type of character begins hurling hundreds of bananas at our heroes.  He must be stopped!

But in the meantime, we all lined up behind the camera and on the count of three, all of us were throwing dozens and dozens of bananas as fast as we could at all of these fleeing inflatable characters.   Summer Xtreme:  it is unreal some of the random things we do for this sort of event!

Anyway, we got a lot done, and people had a great time doing it.  Madison was at home, because we didn't want her to know too much of what was going on, opting to let it all be a surprise for her when she goes to her last Summer Xtreme as a student.

Tonight we watched a few episodes of Gravity Falls, but sleep came easy for us after that.  It was a fun, full day.  It was pretty hot, but friendships and fun kept things moving forward with purpose.  It's going to be a great Summer Xtreme!

Towel Day 2019

"A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

The grandparents came over today, as you can see above, and yes, they had their towels.  It's Towel Day, another obscure holiday where people from all over this planet - and possibly others - celebrate the birthday of the author of the book series "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  You can see Madison holding the book, one she didn't quite know the story of yet.  But tonight we did watch the movie version of it, and we enjoyed it with some proper tea.  The movie is somewhat different from the books, but that sort of thing is to be expected.  Daddy has read all five - and now six - books twice, and perhaps someday these will be on Madison's reading list.  For the time being though, the movie would have to do.

Today was the first day of summer break, and as such, we spent the day doing ... not much.  Nana and Ye-Ye were over this morning, and we were outside, plotting and planning what to do about the vegetation outside the house.  The landscaping and such is in need of some expert care, which is something the grandparents excel at.  We've done a decent job with our front yard, which looks great from the street.  The sides of the house need help, as there is a lot of shade - and water run off.  Nana and Ye-Ye have suggestions, after a good deal of consultation!

We did some grocery shopping today, and we also went over to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.  As usual - as has been the case for a decade now - they don't make Blizzards the way they used to.  But as long as you lower the bar considerably on that, their ice creams are decent.  Next time though, we're heading over to the Mexican ice cream place, which is considerably better.

It was super hot today.  Just standing out there was a work-out in a way.  That said, we were indoors a good bit, playing Mario Party and also Jeopardy for the Switch.  Madison is obsessed with Jeopardy all of the sudden, as she's been playing it at school a lot lately.  It's a way for the kids to study, and it becomes a game that the students become very competitive at.  Madison really enjoys it.  The two of us were playing today, and doing rather well, actually.  Because of the multiple choice format, it was easy to get the right answer.  I'd say we knew about 98% of the answers so far.  I say "so far," because I'm assuming there is a greater degree of difficulty coming.  It's either that, or the two of us are of such superior intellect that we'd give the current ongoing Jeopardy champ a run for his money!

That was pretty much our day.  Daddy had stuffed clams for dinner, and Madison had a few more buffalo wings.  We had this star-spangled breakfast too - it was a massive meal that was essentially brunch, and it was delightful.

We had a good day today, a nice, relaxing one.  We're about to read, pray and of course there are the zerberts.  After that... it's so long, and thanks for all the fish!