A piece of summer pie

And just like that, June is over.  I am ending this month with a great amount of peace and happiness in my heart, because the huge project that I have been working on since the start of this year and in earnest for the past month is complete, and I think it was a success.  Vacation Bible School can be just one piece of a Christian Educator's job, but this was my first time running the show and it's invigorating to know that I really can do this thing that I say I'm called to do.  Plenty of thoughts in my head about how to do it better in the future, of course, and lots of debriefing and volunteer thank you notes to write.  But so much less pressure now!

First morning of VBS, and by God's grace we were still all smiles at the end

I pray that they will always find strength and confidence and joy in their faith

Despite the fact that my mind and time have been overwhelmingly devoted to VBS all month, we managed to fit in a lot.  Little B went to see his first professional theatrical show with Grampa at the Kennedy Center (Sound of Music, and yes I am jealous that I wasn't included).  Little P turned 4!

Invited a friend over for a birthday play date, which included a silly string fight!

Both boys took a short trip on the Amtrak train, which might just be the highlight of their whole summer so far.  They had a sleepover at Gramma's and Mom-Mom's homes, both of which included trips to the pool.  They visited a Smithsonian museum and an Amish Village.  They helped raise a huge American flag at Ft. McHenry and went strawberry and blueberry picking.

Yes, that is a giant strawberry playground.

 They are devouring Harry Potter books as frequently as Hubby T and I will sit down to read to them and delighting in a newfound favorite show (SuperWhy, thanks for the suggestion Aunt A!).

Sound like enough for one summer?  Time to slow down and eat the massive amount of zucchini that our garden is producing?  No way, there is much more to come.  Watch out July here we come!

Enjoying a few quiet days at home before we're off again!

 

Made for This

So this happened...

Turtle and Ladybug years complete - onto the Froglets!

and this happened...

Last day of kindergarten - check!

Onto bigger and better things...

And now summer is here - calendar wise (mid-June) and weather wise (90 degrees, phew) and schedule wise (wait, I have both kids all day every day now?!).  Kindergarten was not rigorous enough to make me breathe a sigh of relief now that it's over.  Instead I am finding myself at a bit of a loss, as both my kids keep looking to me to entertain them and it's happening almost non-stop from sun up to sun down.  What's a restless crew and their uninspired mom to do?  Get out of the house!

Yesterday we adventured to a familiar place to see a new thing.  The main fountain garden at Longwood has been closed for renovation ever since we joined almost two years ago.  But now it's open and beautiful and there are new things to be explored, like a (shaded!) grotto!  And a waterfall near the chime tower!

 
Today we adventured in the other, mostly unfamiliar direction to find an Amish lawn furniture company that has 18 play sets out for display and is open to the public for free play time.  The heat didn't put any sort of damper on the excitement of these two at such a display.  They ran hard until they started asking for water and I observed that every piece of hair on their heads was drenched in sweat.  Time for this mom-referee to call the game.

This play set had a slide that ended in a ball pit - jackpot!

Then we drove a short distance away to visit The Amish Village.  I have been wanting to visit one of these places and learn more about the Amish ever since we moved here.  The place we visited was a little weak, I can't say that I learned all that much new about the Amish, but it was an interesting and entertaining visit nonetheless.  Little B said his favorite part was seeing the inside of the buggy they drive in that we pass on the road sometimes.

Hard to believe that some people still learn in rooms like this

And simmering in the background of all this summertime is Vacation Bible School because this year, for the very first time, I am a VBS Director.  I have been working on this since January and now it's less than two weeks away and I am thinking about it all the time (hmm, maybe that explains my lack of inspiration for entertaining my kiddos?)  On the one hand, I am terrified of being unprepared or mis-planning something.  I want to get everything beyond just right, I want it all to be great, like Tony the Tiger gggrrreat!  I also recognize that no matter how hard I work, something will go wrong and I need to accept that I can't make everything perfect for everybody, especially my first time around (it's all about grace in a church anyway, right?)  On the other hand, I am absolutely thrilled because I am finally digging into the work that I was called to do.  I don't have time to search back through the blog and see if I ever wrote about my "call" story to provide a link to it but if you haven't heard it, rest assured that I do have one and helping children learn about God and a life of faith is undoubtedly my God-given calling in life (along with being a mom of course).  So you can imagine the joy in my heart as I drove along the beautiful country roads this morning, my amazing children in the backseat, singing away with me at the top of our lungs to our VBS songs.  I kid you not folks, the words to this year's theme song are,

"I was made for this, I live for this
God has a reason, a reason for my life.
I wanna shout it out, without a doubt,
I was born for this, built for a purpose."

Adventures with my children?  Planning VBS?  All of us using this summer to sense our ways forward from here?  It may sometimes be hard to do it all but I am treasuring this season of life.  (And, let's be honest, the anticipation of vacations that are on the horizon...)  Bring it on summer!