Because of the busyness of Christmas and my nephew’s birthday soon after Christmas, we always celebrate Eli’s birthday just a tad early.  Three year olds have FUN partying!

Our church celebrates Jesus’ birth a tad early, too.  Last night was the annual Christmas pageant.  My sweet little cow was more like a bucking bull who wanted out of his pen after the birthday party excitement.  He lasted just long enough to sing his song (first thing) and was completely done being cordial and pleasant.  Mahayla was the angel Gabriel (yeah, I know, we don’t have enough boys.)  And Caleb was the wise man bearing myrrh.  It was a busy day, but lots of memories were made!

On Sunday nights at church, I teach a Kidz Group class for children in 1-5th grades.  Right now, I have only little boys in the class.  What better way to catch their attention than to talk about dinosaurs!  Dinosaurs and church??  Of course!  Dinosaurs are a great topic for teaching the authority of the Bible as compared to evolutionary teaching.  And for children, dinosaurs are one of the biggest “hooks” public schools use to disprove Biblical authority.

Just how do you educate yourself on the truth of the Bible vs. what the evolutionary world believes?  It’s really as simple as children’s books!  There are so many wonderful children’s books available now that teach Creation vs. evolution.  And not only do they educate your children, they educate you as well!  I’ll include just a few dinosaur themed books here and if you’re interested in me posting more wonderful creation-based children’s books, just let me know.

Some of these are more in-depth than others.  If you’re hoping for a simpler book, I would suggest What Ever Happened To Dinosaurs or D is for Dinosaurs.  The others are more detailed and best suited for upper elementary and above.

Most of you probably remember that my husband is the youth minister at our church.  We try to be as family oriented in our activities as possible, making sure there is at least one family event per month.  This month’s event was planned by a very neat family that used to homeschool and love the outdoors.  We went seining in the creek on our church’s farm!

(Seining for sport is actually not legal in Kentucky, but fear not, we were only seining for educational purposes.  All the “catches” were put back into the creek unharmed.)

Our big “kids” – my husband and the gentleman who planned the event – enjoyed the seining tremendously.  Everyone else did, too – for a time.  Then there were bigger and better things to tackle.

Here are a few nature shots I took while I waited on the creek’s edge with Eli.

And here’s Eli deciding his turn had come to get in the water.

A wonderful time of food and fellowship ended the evening.  What better way to worship God than enjoying His creation with brothers and sisters in Christ?

Gotcha, didn’t I?    Our church took an “trip” to Rome during VBS this year.  We used Group’s Rome: Paul and the Underground Church for a unique weekend VBS where we invited entire families to participate.  I have to say that everything about this year’s VBS was a huge success!  The material was awesome, the weekend format was appreciated by everyone, and having families go through VBS together has already produced lots of fruit!

Because of the family atmosphere, we needed lots of people to help who normally wouldn’t, which proved to be quite a good tool for pulling our church members together for a common cause.  From young to old, everyone who was willing had a part to play.  It’s amazing how great a church event can be when everyone works together!

Below are just a few pictures.  If you’re interested, I’d love to talk more about how we set up a weekend VBS, how we included families and how we incorporated all ages in helping.  Let me know if you’d like to hear more and I’ll write another post with more info.

Paul, who is under arrest and his guard

Leaders of the Underground Church in Rome

Roman game time

Visiting shops in the Marketplace – These are just a few of the seven Marketplace shops the children visited.

Making leather bracelets

Building

Calligraphy and wax seals

The kids were told they could choose any pumpkin as long as they could carry it to the wagon by themselves.  Is it any surprise that Caleb’s pumpkin was larger than anyone else’s??

Hotdogs, s’mores, face painting and apple bobbing….what more can a kid ask for?