VBS

This past week Liam, Aidan and Connor went to Vacation Bible School "PandaMania", which was sponsored by our amazing church.  It went Monday through Friday from 9:00- 11:30.  Since this was their first *school* experience, I wasn't sure how the boys would do.  So like all new experiences, I attempted to prep them as much as possible (focusing on God and Jesus, the fact that I wasn't going to stay with them, and that they must listen to their teachers).

Upon our arrival on Monday morning, all the kiddos were given a new shirt, along with big *name* buttons.  This was such a nice idea, but Liam despises buttons (every kind... buttons on shorts, polos, pjs, pants, etc.), so I had to attempt to convince my button hater that it was a privledge for him to wear his new, very special button. 

After the button fiasco was over (or so I thought), we introduced ourselves to the boys' teachers and I then got them settled in their seats.  Within seconds of sitting (literally), all three boys wanted to know why I was still there.  Apparently my boys do NOT suffer from separation anxiety! 

3 new ripped VBS shirts, thanks to the darn buttons.

When I came back 2 1/2 hours later, I quickly learned that things did not go as I had hoped.  I first asked a student volunteer how they did, who responded with "Um, okay I guess."  Not hearing what I expected (they always get glowing reports from the Y and church nursery staff), I made it over to their teacher who told me that all three had button issues the entire duration of the class.  So much so, she moved their buttons to their backs, so they could no longer see them or rip them off (she didn't realize at the time that my boys work as a team and would help each other get the buttons off each others' backs as well... ugh!)  And if that wasn't bad enough, my boys were disappointed with the session, stating "Jesus never showed up.".  It was nice getting all of the feedback, so I could prepare them more appropriately the following day...  Button rules AND the whole *spirit* of God and Jesus concept (one lesson was harder than the next!).

The rest of the week went much better.  Buttons were less of an issue, the expectation of God and Jesus walking through the front door had diminished, and I was able to watch my boys sing and dance in their seats, listen and watch performers, collect art projects, and most excitedly for me, hear all about what they learned while they were at Vacation Bible School.  In my opinion, not much is more adorable than my little people teaching me about God... Priceless!!!

On Friday, all the parents were invited to attend the cumulative assembly.  Again, priceless, albeit not what I expected!   To check out videos, go to my FB page (for some reason I can't load videos onto my blog).  Well worth the time to visit... 1st video- Aidan got in his first punching fight which so happended to be during the VBS assembly, while in the first row center (needless to say, I was mortified!  Still am!!!).  2nd video- Connor and Aidan couldn't have been more precious, singing and acting out the songs, and Liam was very obvious that he did not feel like performing what-so-ever.  Entertaining to say the least!

Even though these pictures don't do the amazing week justice, here are a few...

After the assembly, so many people who worked with my trio during the week came up to me and told me how adorable my boys are (we also had several picture requests!).  I also heard a lot of "cute", "entertaining", "funny", "energetic", and "personable" comments as well. 

Glaringly obvious words that were missing, however, were "quiet and well behaved".  Looks like we have some work to do before preschool starts in September, gulp!