Summer Xtreme - DAY TWO

Here's Daddy's little girl in her yellow Summer Xtreme shirt. This is one of the nicest t-shirts we've had for the event - glad to have Madison's debut in a good t-shirt! Each day the kids wear these so that they are easy to locate on excursions, although the ones that are Madison's age don't leave the church. Instead, the activities come to the church. Like today, for example: Madison is seen here, jumping on a trampoline because today Gainesville Gymnastics visited the younger kids at KidPak Discovery. They brought along all sorts of tumbling items, mats and tunnels too!

It's been neat having Mommy down there at KP Discovery, taking photos and interacting with Madison, helping her, and helping the other kids too.

She had a great time today!

She's here in this photo, hopping from one froggy to another. While she was moving about like an amphibian, Daddy was also with the other kids, going to the Frances Meadows Aquatic Center. It's a big pool, with water slides and so forth - the kids had a good time there. Daddy got a lot of sun today too. I guess that's why they call it Summer Xtreme - although technically, it's still Spring. You wouldn't know that though, if you went outside. It's HOT! Fortunately, Madison has been indoors all day long and still having a good time. Daddy and Mommy are having a good time seeing her have so much fun too!

Summer Xtreme - DAY ONE

Madison's first day at Summer Xtreme was quite enjoyable for her - Lee Bryan "that Puppet Guy" came to KidPak Discovery, and had all the kids in his hands. It was so easy to make them all scream and laugh - he had all sorts of undersea puppets swimming about, bumping into each other and yes, even squirting water out into the audience. This got Madison and the others screaming, of course! She sat right there in the front row, watching every detail and really getting into it. Here's a photo of her laughing at a few of the puppets who were trying to scare each other:

She had a good day at church today, making crafts - and making friends. Here's a photo of her making something in the morning. She'll be crafty all week long - and she'll have a nice big collection of things to take home at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, Daddy had a great service for the older kids, with all sorts of laughs and excitement. It was a great message about God's promises, and how they are as numerous as the sand. It was a great day there, and a great day down at the roller skating rink where we took the kids afterwards. Daddy's a little tired though - pulled an all-nighter preparing for this one. Hopefully we can get a little rest tonight!

Boardwalk

Today we began our new series, "Boardwalk." It went really well, and actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Mommy came up with a brilliant idea for our series story line - those are our scripts for the actors who act out our bottom lines each day. We do a serial story, which continues from week to week - and here's our cast for the next few weeks:

They're on a scavenger hunt, somewhat along the lines of the movies "Rat Race," "Scavenger Hunt," and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." You see, the owner of the Boardwalk has passed on, and somewhat like in the movie "Scavenger Hunt," and just like in that movie, he has left in his will a scavenger hunt to find deeds to the properties around the Boardwalk. In that respect, it sort of touches on the theme of Monopoly, where everyone is trying to collect all the deeds. The hunt is on! The characters are trying to figure out clues, which makes it looks like this will be a pretty crazy series.

Summer Xtreme is tomorrow, and Daddy hasn't been home much. Here's an image Madison drew of Daddy - he's looking at it via Skype (Madison held it up to the computer's camera).

In moments, Daddy will go home to say goodnight to Madison. It'll be a long night of preparation, but knowing that Madison will be involved in the camp sort of adds a bit of excitement to the whole ordeal. It should be fun. Tomorrow's activity involves puppets and crafts, and it'll be great to have Mommy there as well. Really looking forward to seeing Madison have a good time at camp!

Here below is a sneak preview of a news segment we filmed, featuring a news dream team, including Daddy as Brian Fantana:

We shot a lot of news segments and interviews, which all should be pretty funny. You might see more later on in the week. Better get back to work - long night ahead!

Getting ready for the Xtreme

Here's a photo of Madison with some of the girls at church today who were here to help set up for Summer Xtreme. In fact, Daddy is still here working to make it happen.

It was a busy day, but it's been somewhat fun as we've been working together for a great week. Madison is really going to enjoy it, of course. There's so much planned for her grade level each and every day.

She's been helping us put it all together today too. Today she was helping Mommy and Daddy and everyone else carry things or clean things or put things away. Our newest series, "Boardwalk" starts tomorrow, and she's even got an official t-shirt to wear.

We'll have fun on the Boardwalk this month - lots going on!

Madison on the Boardwalk

We've been tremendously busy in preparations for the newest series - and Summer Xtreme. While at Disney, Daddy took several pictures at the Boardwalk, which is the theme of our newest series. Here's one of Madison pushing her stroller along - as well as some of the goodies we picked up at some stores there. One thing we picked up was salt water taffy, which the three of us have been munching on ever since. We got together on the way there - and even while we were there at the Boardwalk - and we came up with as many ideas as possible to make messages about. At first, we didn't think we could come up with too much - but after some brainstorming, Mommy and Daddy came up with quite a bit. We wrote a devotional "from the Boardwalk," and a few good sermons as well. June should be a good month for the kids.

Today, Daddy was pretty busy. It'll be that way for a week or so - and I'm glad we had our time to go on vacation a few weeks ago. Here's a devotional entry from our upcoming Boardwalk series:

You haven’t been to the boardwalk unless you’ve had some saltwater taffy. This delicious candy comes in all varieties of flavors, and can’t be beat. Even better, many of the candy stores along the boardwalk let you peek in their windows to see how saltwater taffy is made!

Stop for a moment, and peer in the window. See how the taffy is pulled and pulled and pulled? There’s only one way this taffy can get a light and chewy texture!

Some places have automated machines that yank and pull the taffy time and again, while other candy stores have their employees stretching that taffy by hand, twisting and turning the long strands of it. Talk about an upper body workout!

It’s all worth it in the end! Once you’ve placed a tasty piece of saltwater taffy in your mouth, you almost forget about all the work that went into making it. These candies are legendary!

Have you ever felt pulled and stretched and yanked about – like a piece of saltwater taffy? We all have. Sometimes things happen or stress comes upon us, and we feel like we are being stretched too thin, almost to the breaking point. When that happens, from this point on, remember the saltwater taffy.

God uses these moments in our lives to stretch us, and yet it is all designed to make us sweeter! Just as the taffy has to go through a process to become what it was made for, we too have to go through things sometimes, in order to become what He has designed us to be.

So trust God with all your heart. He won’t let you break, so allow Him to take you through those twists and turns – and not just into them. You’ll come out on the other side much sweeter, so much so that you’ll nearly forget all you’ve been through.

Gnome Hunt

This morning, Madison woke up to a Gnome Hunt. Daddy somehow knew there was one in the backyard somewhere, so he and Madison went on an expedition to go looking. She brought along her camera, and took pictures of the flowers along the way - and after a bit of walking and searching, we quietly made our way to the backyard. Rounding the corner, Madison gasped, "There it is!" Sure enough, there was a gnome in our backyard! Madison got close enough to take a picture for evidence, which we're posting here. This was pretty exciting news, obviously - we seem to have quite a few gnomes around here in this neighborhood, particularly around our house!

Honey

You may remember the "buzz about our new neighbors," which was just a year ago. Nana and Ba-Ba got themselves a beehive and have been official beekeppers for over a year now - and today we got to reap some of the benefits. Earlier, Nana gave us a tray with honeycombs and honey in it, which tonight we started to "harvest." Madison watched on as Mommy scraped it all into a strainer, so that the honey would be separated from the wax. Madison was reluctant to try any, but Mommy and Daddy told her to just try it once. Fortunately for her, she did - and a smile crept across her face. Soon she was dipping her finger in the honey all on her own, and sharing it with us as well!