Pillars of Fire/Cloud

These stick puppets are TOO cute and easy! Cut out 2 clouds from card stock per child. One one cloud, glue cotton balls to God as a pillar of clouds.
On the other cloud, glue torn red, orange and yellow tissue paper or crepe paper to be God as a Pillar of Fire.

Then tape a tongue depressor to the back of the Fire and glue the Cloud onto the back of the fire.

Samson's Hair

This was SO fun to make and so silly to wear!!!

To make Samson's hair, you need one sentence strip and 2 9x12 sheets of black construction paper per child. Staple sentence strip to fit your head. Then cut slits up the black paper leaving about 1 inch solid at the top. The more slits you cut the more hair Samson will have. After you are done cutting the slits to make hair, staple the black to the sentence strip. Staple in the 1 ince border at the top of the black and make sure that the bended part of the staple is on the outside so that it will not get caught in the kids real hair. Leave about 1/3 of the sentence open at the front for face to show thru.

WARNING - Do not let kids cut Samson's hair!!!

To make this personal-sized Daniel and the Lion's Den, start saving your cocoa cans today!

Use fun foam and die-cut angel, man, clothes and hair. Use adhesive backed brown fun foam to cut out "stone" to go on top of the lid to "seal the den."
On the inside of the cocoa can, have 2 adhesive-backed yellow fun foam lions die-cut. Kids stick one lion on each side of the cocoa can.
Kids tell story with the fun foam figures. Copy a song or brief story to keep in the can.
Seriously, how cute is this!!! :)

Joseph and the Grain bags

To make: Buy brown lunch sacks...one per student. Fill with popped popcorn. Before class, spray paint cups silver. (We used an 8 oz. plastic cup in this class...I may try to find small flutes or small Dixie cups because this cup seemed a little big for the bag) Kids tie bag closed with black yarn. Then they can search through the bag for the silver cup. The black thing on the bag is a die-cut of a wheat stalk that was die-cut on adhesive-backed felt. Money is from party store.

Learning Road Trip...

Last weekend Daesha and I travelled to Austin for a Bible Class Teacher's Workshop. In a nutshell, it was FABULOUS!!! We came back so pumped and excited that we truly could not handle ourselves!!!

Our strategy was divide and conquer, so we only sat in one class together. Friday night I had the privilege of hearing Denell*Dennis speak. She was extremely motivating and hit home about the spiritual warfare for our minds. It was a lesson geared towards adults and was outstanding. She talked about how Satan and Jesus battle for our minds and ultimately, Jesus will win! She also encouraged us to 4:8 our thoughts. I LOVE THAT!!! Philippians 4:8 is one of my most favorite scriptures. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - anything that is excellent or praiseworthy - think on such things. She has written a Ladies Workbook that I bought and cannot wait to dive in to!

Friday night we also got to go to 2 different "Make and Take" sessions. Check out our Bible Teacher blog for all the details! :) LOTS of pics of crafts that are oh.so.cute!!!!! www.kidsandthebible.blogspot.com

Saturday was FULL!! Daesha went to lesson from the wonderful people at www.ourspiritualheritage.com I also went to one lesson was was blown away. The lesson I heard was about how to praise God and how to teach our kids to praise God. Do this exercise that she had us do and I know you will love it. Read Psalm 145. Make a list titled "God, you are..." and another list titled "God, you can..." Then read the Psalm and fill in your list. After reading the Psalm, start your prayers with those adjectives and verbs describing God. I have not given her lesson justice, but call me if you want a full recap! :)

If you are a Bible Teacher in Texas, I HIGHLY recommend going next year. We are planning on taking the church van! Their website is www.crccaustin.org/ctbtw.html (Someday I will learn how to do a link! hahahha)

On our way home, we got stuck in a terrible rainstorm...the kind with horizontal rain and hurricane force gusts of wind...

After hiding out under an overpass for about 20 minutes, this is what God gave us...
A beautiful reminder of His promise to us...and hope for the future!

Who wants to play...

Barber Shop??? Last week Jason and Dad took the boys for a trip to the Barber Shop and lunch at Whata*burger. After their delightful afternoon of "boy time," the boys played Barber Shop for HOURS!!! These are their "barber tools..." First is the Shaver, next are the Clippers, then the Snipper and last is the Blower.
The boys spent hours and hours taking turn sitting in the chair, putting on the blanket cape and then being the Barber. Jacob is concentrating on shaving Rylan's neck...just like they shaved Daddy's neck.
To finish the job, Jacob blows off the extra hair.
I'm glad that the boys love going to the Barber...who cares if they need a sucker bribe to sit still...when they get home it shows that they love getting (and giving) haircuts!

Happy Birthday America!

A local town just a bit down the road had a fabulous parade for the 4th. We went last year and had been looking forward to going again all year. The boys were so excited to see the bands play, to see the firetrucks (old and new), and all the cool cars. But seeing the horses was by far the highlight of our morning!

After the parade, we walked to the park and let the boys ride in the barrel train! It was their first solo train ride and they LOVED it! Jacob was so proud to hold on to the tickets and give them to the conductor. They even got train whistles to toot while on the train ride. Best $3 of the day
Look at our healthy lunch! HAHA!!!
Rylan and Mommy at the parade
Jacob and Daddy at the parade
For supper we had a burger and hot dog cook-out at Pat and Robyn's. It was so fun! The kids all slipped and slid on the coolest water sslide in the world...that Robyn found on a trash pile! Jacob loved going down head first! Rylan loved staying in the pool and splashing the other kids as they came down. The bigger girls were so sweet to help the boys go up the ladder. Thank goodness for almost big sisters! :)
While the mommas watched the kids in the water, the daddies (and Reid) played Washers. It is their favorite thing to do when we all get together!
We could see the fireworks from their backyward. It was a good show! The boys were in awe of their first fireworks show. Then after the show, we did some sparklers...about 100! It was a blast!

On a different note...thanks for all of the prayers about my Granny. She fell on June 13 and fractured her back. She has been in a rehab facility since then. Some days are good and some are terrible. Please keep praying for my mom as she is bearing all of the caregiving responsibility.