It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Dave @ Port-de-Paix, Haiti

Dave is on a mission trip to Port-de-Paix, Haiti this week. He left with our Children Minister, Casey, on Monday evening. They are leading worship at a youth conference (Breakout) held at Sonlight Academy in Port-de-Paix, while their students are on Spring Break. This picture was posted by some of the teachers at the school on FB yesterday (missionaries our church supports) . . . Breakout ran Wednesday through Friday. Dave has been able to message me several times and after the first day, was overwhelmed by how loud the students sang. He said he hardly had to lead some of the songs! He sent word tonight, after the last day of Breakout, that it was awesome!! They are doing some hiking and having a little down time on Saturday and then church services Sunday morning and evening. They are staying Monday all day so they can see the school in session and bring back pictures and video. Our children's ministry at our church has a missionary partnership with Sonlight Academy, so seeing it in session was important to bring back to our kids. Thanks to all for your prayers for the Breakout Conference and preparing the hearts of the students that were able to attend. Please continue to pray for the encouragement and support Dave and Casey can provide the missionaries serving there as well as safe travels on Tuesday as they return home.

While Daddy's in Haiti . . .

We spent several days at Grammy & Papa's house . . . went to see Rio, visited Great-Grandpa & Grandpa Jackson, visited Great-Grandma Mary at the nursing home, spent an evening playing with cousins (the Ritchie boys), and played outside (when it wasn't raining!!!). So nice to spend a few days out of our normal routine and to spend it with family!!

Easter 2011

We started our Easter with Resurrection Cookies (didn't turn out quite the way they should have . . . think we'll try Resurrection Rolls next year). Then we celebrated at church, family dinner at Aunt Wendy and Uncle Jim's (with Grandma's awesome homemade noodles and baskets full of candy and goodies for the kids) and ended our day with an indoor Easter Egg Hunt at Grammy and Papa's.

Our time leading up to Easter was really fun this year, Kinsey and Jackson both really got the true message of Easter. It was fun reading books and bible stories, doing the Resurrection Eggs and watching videos with them as they continually understood facts and events of the last days of Jesus' life on earth.

Easter Egg Hunt & Veggie Tales Movie @ Church

Preschool Easter Egg Hunt at our church this morning followed by the new Easter Veggie Tales movie. This was Kayleigh's first Egg Hunt at our church . . . she was more interested in trying to break open the eggs and get the candy out than to actually collect the eggs. She also found the trash can in the corner of the room and started taking the eggs over and dumping them in. I finally started carrying around the trash can for her to collect the eggs in rather than to the basket we brought! : )

Easter Art Projects

We made these 2 Easter art projects this week . . . with Jackson on "spring break" from his preschools and lots of rain in the forecast, I knew we would need some creative things to keep us busy. We made "Stained Glass Windows" inspired by the Veggie Tales movie, "An Easter Carol". And the second project was a "Pinecone Bunny" that I found in the Family Fun Magazine. Rainy days are always more fun with art projects!!

Coloring Easter Eggs

Jackson's 1st Trip to the Food Pantry

Our local food pantry asks for churches to take turns each month volunteer staffing the food lines. This month was our turn! Dave took Jackson with him this past Thursday morning to help begin to teach him about "serving". We explained why and what he would be doing and he was really excited to get to help out. His job was to put a can of vegetables in everyone's basket and then to run back and get more boxes of vegetables when he ran out.

When he was finished, they were breaking down the cardboard boxes and cleaning up. He was really excited to bring home 4 divided boxes that he was going to use to build homes for his stuffed animals. He designed one for Kinsey's baby doll and then we taped together the other 3 to make an "apartment complex". He spent probably 2 hours coloring and designing each compartment. It was a great way to keep him busy and to use his imagination!!!

News at Our House this week . . .

Jackson started tball practice this past week, which he is super excited about (his team is the Rockies), Kinsey got a new "big girl" princess bike that she LOVES (and figured out how to pedal forwards rather than going backwards and braking), and Kayleigh experienced her first Peep, which she really enjoyed (she LOVES ALL dessert)!!!

Jackson's Preschool Graduation

Jackson had his first of two preschool graduations tonight. He graduated from "Wee Learn & Play" Preschool. They sang a few of the songs that they had learned during the year, complete with motions, said their pledges and quoted one of the memory verses they had learned. It was a cute program and we were of course VERY proud . . . he sang out really well and knew all the words and motions. Dave took video of a couple of the songs . . . hopefully I can get it posted soon.

Easter Party Playdate

We got together this morning with friends for a fun Easter Party Playdate. The weather was beautiful, so we did a quick craft and then headed outside for an Easter Egg Hunt, playing and lunch. It was lots of fun!