VBS 2015

It is Friday morning and our entire household is sleeping in after a fun and amazing week at VBS 2015.  

The theme this year was Thailand Trek and our two youngest have loved it so much.  I know VBS is exhausting for everyone but it. is. so. worth. it.  There is nothing like taking an entire week to focus on God and to fellowship with your church family.  VBS is time and money well spent!  One night Bryan, our worship minister, and David were in the sanctuary getting ready for opening and I heard my sweet boy belting out I Am by David Crower.  I then got this picture texted to me :) 

Hope and Sydney!  This girl is blessed with some sweet christian friends and that makes me so happy.  

This also makes me so happy.  They learned this week that God's love is real! It makes me so happy that our church values VBS - some church are getting away from doing it but blessedly FUMC has an army of volunteers that show up to make it happen each year.  

So, this year I was blessed with the opportunity to spend a week with this huge and amazing group of mostly middle schoolers.  The youth Director's husband has been very ill in the hospital this week and so I have tried to fill her shoes.  The 6th and 7th graders for VBS were doing a love your neighbor study and focusing on local community mission projects.  We visited some church folks at their homes and in the nursing home, we volunteered at the food pantry at church, we made a meal for Jackie and her family, and last night we ended by volunteering at Sprouting Hope, our community garden.  

Here we are learning some cool stuff about gardening!  This community garden is amazing.  What a wonderful ministry and opportunity we have right here in Marion.  

Kyle harvesting tomatoes!  Some of our group harvested and some planted onions last night.  

Here are our youth visiting Mrs. Wampler, who is 104, in the nursing home.  We baked cookies and made cards to share with those that we went to visit.  Jackie's original plan for these sixth and seventh graders was to introduce them to youth and get them comfortable with each other, and to learn the importance of loving their neighbor.  I think her vision was a success!  

On Wednesday of this week Mike took Hope to her splash bash for her swim program that she has been in this summer.  She has loved it so much and her times really improved over the summer! We are so proud of our little swimmer girl. 

Thanks to sweet swim Mom friends I got this picture texted to me as well.  Here are our little girls lining up to dive off of the block!  Thanks Meg and Margie for a wonderful summer of swim. 

This week has been full, but the awesome kind of full.  There is nothing like being in God's house night after night, learning about Him and spending time with our church family.  I have loved every minute of spending time with these youth and seeing my youngest two learn about our God makes me so happy.  VBS is exhausting, but my heart has been full watching these youth love their neighbor and serve the one that loves us all so much.  

Week in review

We have had a busy week here in our household.  

I have been a blogging slacker this week because I  have been working very hard around the house on some crafty projects and home projects.  I made this little scripture canvas using my cricut for our new bathroom.  I love my cricut!

Our bathroom has desperately needed a facelift since we moved in ten years ago:)  It had flowered wallpaper and I took that down, Mike sanded the walls, and I repainted.  

My other crafty project included framing our familly mission statement in a scrapbook frame with a family picture included.  I desperately want our children to understand where our values come from and so I saw a version of this manifesto on pinterest, and I tweaked it and framed it.  

Friday Mike had to go Richmond to speak to the General Assembly.  We rode along and while he was in his meeting, I took the kids to Sky jump which is a trampoline park.  They loved it so much!  

Kyle spent most of his time dunking it!  This was really a fun outing that all three kiddos loved.  

I found my way back downtown to pick up Mike after his meeting, and I realized all three children had fallen asleep after all that jumping!  Ha!  

We love family road trips and after a late night dip into the hotel pool, the kids got their jammies on and we went to IHop for late night dinner.  They were so excited to go eat in their jammies:) 

Saturday we came home the long way to visit the UNC basketball museum.  I am not a bg fan, but it was really cool!  Yes, Kyle is almost as tall as his Daddy now.  

After we went to the basketball museum, the boys realized the football stadium was unlocked and  we went in the stadium.  David even wanted us to introduce him coming out of the tunnel!  Ha!  

Then we were so close to Duke, the boys wanted to stop there as well.  Both of the campuses are so beautiful!  We ended our road trip with some outlet mall shopping and made it home in time to catch the opening cermony for the Special Olympics on ESPN.

My heart was so full seeing my boys snuggled up in our bed watching this on ESPN.  I will never know why God chose us to parent David, but I am so thankful.  He has blessed all of our lives for the better.  Kyle and Hope often fight over who David is going to live with one day-it touches me that they both want him in their adult life.  

We ended this busy week with a baby shower/welcome home baby party this afternoon for some sweet friends.  Baby Dow was born late May and has been in the NICU in Johnson City since his arrival.  This week he is scheduled to be discharged and so today a party was held to help the Hall family prepare for his arrival.  He is truly a blessing and miracle from God!! Here is Hope at the party with Baby Dow's sisters, August and Laurel and kindergarten friend Aubrey.  

This week coming up is our Vacation Bible School for church.  Hope and David are very exciteed and I have been moved last minute to working with the sixth and seventh graders with local mission projects this week.  It is going to be an awesome but busy week!  

Summertime Fun

Summer is flying by so quickly but we are working hard to squeeze as much fun in as possible.  Our school year calendar is so full and regimented that we truly love the unstructured days of summer. 

Each week at church a meal is served at lunchtime on Thursdays to anyone that needs it.  This past week was Kyle's youth groups turn to cook and serve.  Kyle was at basketball camp, so the littlest Robinson's and I went in his place.  I was worried that David would not do well, but the dude rocked it.  Hope and Dave are serving up some hot dog dinner plates and hopefully learning the importance of service to others.  We love because He first loved us.  

Thursday night was a total treat-Dave and I went to Kingsport Funfest with some of our Georgia Pookies to hear Brandon Heath and Tobymac.  The girls in my cabin from the mission trip came home with the name Georgia Pookies:) David was in heaven at a christian concert with these sweet and pretty gals.  IF you ever get a chance to see Tobymac do it!  His show is amazing and we had such fun praising God at Funfest. 

I am so happy that I have one child at least that loves a good christian concert like I do!  David is my concert buddy and he had such fun.  This picture melts my heart.  This dude loves music and loves his Jesus.  

He gave us a scare today with some intense bellypain and we spent a few hours today in the ER getting some labs done and an x-ray.  The good news is that nothing scary showed up in his labs or x-ray but he needs a good dose of Miralax!  Today sitting in that ER waiting for results brought all those yucky cancer feelings  and we were both scared.  Cancer is so sneaky because it will never leave you alone.  

Tobymac on stage!!!  It was hot but we had such a fun night with our Georgia Pookies praising God.  One of my favorite Tobymac songs says I dont want to gain the whole world and lose my soul and that song is so powerful to me.  All the riches, success, material possessions this world offers us are worthless unless we have God. 

Kyle was gone most of last week to spend the week with GG and Pops while he attended VT basketball camp.  We picked him up Friday and then spent some time on the lake.  David and Kyle on the tube.  

AFter some bribery we finally got Hope to try tubing and she loved it!  She kept asking to go faster until the boat was going as fast as it could!  HA  She is our daredevil:) 

Kyle had a great week at Buzz William's basketball camp.  Basketballl is definitely Kyle's love and he had fun with some friends at camp.  He won the slam dunk competition on the last day and he has a sore wrist to prove it.  Dunking might look cool but it is painful to the wrist:) The goal was lowered for this dunk competition!  Kye is tall but not dunking yet on a regulation sized goal. 

Speaking of Kyle's height, he has now surpassed me and has caught up to his Dad.  When and how did this happen is a mystery to me?! 

This week is a big weekend in Marion. Downtown has tons of awesome events going on and the Hungry Mother ParkArts  and Crafts Festval is going on as well.  It is really a fun weekend to see lots of folks out and about and David certainly enjoyed seeing these pretty gals at the festival.

Tomorrow is mission trip Sunday at church.  For all services tomorrow, the youth are speaking about their experience on the trip.  Kyle is reading scripture. I am so excited to hear how this trip has affected these youth now that they have had some time to ponder all that we learned and encountered. The mission trip has impacted me tremedously and I know God spoe to these youth on our time in the beautiful mountains of Georgia.