Daddy and Farewell to Church Family

Several of you in blog land or through emails have asked about daddy. He is doing very good. He was back at church and playing in the orchestra yesterday. It was good hearing him toot his horn. ha ha
Thank you, Katie, for taking our picture. :D


Last night we said goodbye to our Youth Pastor and his wife, Mrs. Liz. Mrs. Ava had Liz sit on the platform and honored her a moment by reading a poem, The Pastor's Wife.


Mrs. Ava gave her a Pastor's wife survival kit, which was both cute and funny, and also a packet of all the ladies Bible studies and fellowships we've had since she and Brother RJ came to the church to take the youth program.


And then Brother RJ preached a wonderful sermon. His last sermon as our Youth Pastor. I have always thought he was a tremendous preacher and I have no doubt he will do a good job behind the pulpit in Vermont.

Best wishes to Pastor and Mrs. Parris.

Pee Wee Pirates

The Pee Wee Pirates came down to the service last night and sang some songs for the congregation. The kindergarten pirates quoted the ten commandments. They all did a fabulous job.

I wish that I had gotten a video of them singing the "sing and shout" song. That was hilarious. I loved it. But here's a video of them singing Read Your Bible, Pray Everyday. It's cute too.

She's Four Folks!

The ladies in our church go on visitation each week to visit the shut ins. They take them something personal that they may need or want and just visit with them, trying to encourage them and lift them up spiritually.

Mander always takes Carissa. Carissa will sing for the shut ins and they just love it. We miss visitation for school, but I'm looking forward to it this summer.

Anyway, the ladies that go on this visitation absolutely love Carissa and they planned a birthday party for her Monday, which Mander invited Hannah and I to attend. It was so fun.


I thought her cake was sweet...pun intended...since she sings to the shut ins, it said Happy Birthday Our Little Song Bird. :D


The birthday party was a surprise for Carissa. We didn't want to yell surprise and scare her, so we gently sang Happy Birthday to her. She was so shocked at first. And then the sweetest little smile crossed her face.

Mander kissed her and put her at ease and she had a GREAT time at her party.

Mrs. Gail made sure the Birthday Princess had everything she needed. Her sash, lighted birthday button, wand, and tiara.

Isn't that precious?

The Birthday Princess.

The princess giving her paw paw a hug. So sweet!

And of course she gave Hannah love too. :D

She was so funny. Everytime someone called her name, she would pose for their camera. It was really cute.

Her daddy said grace over the food and then it was time to dig in.

Me and the Princess...

The princess with her grandparents. Don't they look great in their party hats?

The ladies prepared a hot dog lunch with all the fixins. They did a fabulous job.

And Carissa ate like there was no tomorrow.

Mrs. Gail lit the candle on Carissa's cake. She did it with such ease too. ha haaaaaaaa

Mmmm....cake!

After birthday cake it was time to open presents. She got a new bicycle from her mom and dad!!

She jumped right on it and took off!

She was very happy!!

Then she opened gifts from the ladies. She loved everything she received. So sweet.

We bought her a Disney Princess basket for her bicycle. It came with handlebar tassles and a bell.

I love this picture of Mander. She always looks at her kids like this....ok, not always...but most of the time! :D

I moved behind Carissa to get a special shot of her, but I got so tickled at the ladies standing around watching her open gifts. I loved that so many of them had their party hats on. Isn't that sweet?

Mander, Chris, and Carissa. I hate Celine couldn't be there, but she had school.

And then we just had to get some special pictures. She was so cute. She loved having her picture taken and chose a lot of the poses herself. So funny!!

Love this one. It's my favorite. :D

But then this one is good too. LOL They were all good of her.

We had a great time at her party. I'm so glad we were able to make it.

Happy Birthday, Carissa. We love you!!

Patch Quiz Bowl

Each year our Patch the Pirate program has a quiz bowl and awards dinner for the fourth through sixth grade Patch class.

Brother Johnathan, his wife Mrs. Jennifer, and Mrs. Kim do a wonderful job teaching this class. Harrison has BLOOMED in their class! Pun intended for the picture.

:D

The Quiz Bowl is set up so that the parents go head to head with their children in answering questions from the Patch year. This year the children were taught some New Testament survey and it was hard. LOL

Our wonderful Pastor.....:D

After prayer we ate a dinner that the children chose of rolls, corn on the cob, chicken tenders, and macaroni and cheese.

Behind Harrison you'll see his picture and something above it. The children were asked to write a verse and what that verse meant to them. Harrison chose and wrote:

Psalm 118:1, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good. His mercy endureth forever." We need to give thanks because no matter what we go through, His mercy will be with us forever.

Brother John O' the ninth gave us our devotional for the night. I'm excited about this summer because he will be doing his internship at our church, helping with the youth from, I believe, second grade all the way to teens. I may be wrong about that, but that was my understanding. Anyway, I know he'll do a fantastic job!

For the Quiz Bowl, our distinguished *giggle* panel of judges were Brother RJ, Brother Johnny, and Brother John.

In the first round, we were given multiple choice questions and had to write our answers on a marker board. The kids beat us (the parents) pretty bad in the first round.

In the second round, we had to use the bells. The kids beat us pretty bad in that round too.

In the third round, the four kids that would be leaving this Patch class and moving up to SIGMA went against adults they chose from the room, which were Pastor Goodman, Mrs. Ava, Brother Howell (missionary to New Zealand), Brother Jeff, and Mrs. Janet (who pretty much gave up as soon as the question was asked. LOL)

Brother Johnathan asked them to name the months on the Jewish calender. Uhhh...yeah. BUT! Thankfully, the parents side had Brother John and Pastor and did quite well. However, we still got beat pretty bad.

Needless to say, the parents lost and the children won.....again......as usual.

GREAT JOB, KIDDOS! But we're taking you down next year!!!

Next came the presentation of awards. All of the children did a great job this year. Harrison won the trophy for saying the most memory verses. Brother Johnathan couldn't remember if it was 130 or 140.

Harrison also received the trophy for second place and the highest point scorer for the boys. Deborah won for the girls and was also in first place for the class. Way to go, Harrison and Deborah!

Each child received a certificate of completion.

And the Fishermen were the winning team. They received medals. Congratulations, Madison, Coby, Kaylyn, Deborah, and Harrison. Y'all did great!

My Patch the Pirate kid with his booty. hahahaha

Harrison with Brother Johnathan, Mrs. Jennifer, and Mrs. Kim.

Harrison with Bruce and me. :D

After the Quiz Bowl, Bruce took Harrison to Wal Mart to purchase anything he wanted. We've always awarded the kids if they work hard and do exceptionally well in their Patch and Sigma classes. Harrison did exceptionally well this year and has overcome so much! He struggles with his reading (not near as much as he used to) and so it took a lot of effort for him to make it to the top like he did. I am so proud of him!!

Way to go, Harry!