World Mandate West Day Two

How cute the boys are with their backpacks. It's going to be a packed day! 

It's a beautiful crisp day. We picnic by the fountain with food from the food trucks and talk about session one with the Reyes'. We asked him how his time was at his own kids conference. He was enthusiastically telling us about how Saul became Paul and how he was blinded. He continued, but I didn't quite catch all of it. That turned into his Uncle Jason and Auntie Marnie making fun of me for not getting it when clearly they understood him just fine. Sorry, NJ, Mama needs to be a better listener! 

NJ starts out by watching J on his phone. But watch how he works his way in until getting his phone completely...

Session two begins, NJ has possession of J's phone playing frog games. 

His phone eventually dies from playing on it so much! Sorry J, but thank you for being so loving and helping to entertain him. NJ was so preoccupied and glued to this phone! This is what happens when you deprive your child of electronics. Ha, ha. But since it is not ours and we have time for him to kill. We really thought he wasn't even listening to the speaker. I guess Frances Chan is just that interesting even to a five year old. He was randomly repeating things and answering questions that he'd ask. It made us and everyone around us laugh. Silly guy, he has quite the ear! If only he'd listen the first time when we ask him to do something. Selective hearing... 

Poor guy was pooped! We went to meet our friends for dinner and he was dead asleep in the car. I stayed with him for a bit while everyone went in to eat first. Eventually, I just had to wake him up otherwise, he'd take too long to eat (and so would I). 

Session three. The music is like having a concert every time, love it! 

Our minds are completely blown and the music was awesome! So much so that all of us were speechless. Lots of processing to do before we can gather our thoughts, talk about it, and pray about it! I'm just happy to have people I love here to share it with. I'm missing my girls from last year, Nicole and Jenny. And everyone that I tried to invite, but just didn't work out. Gotta try harder and pray harder for next year! Hopefully we'll have a whole group standing with us in years to come. Can't wait. 

LL and WMW

On our way down to our weekend conference we met some friends. Trying to get every opportunity to use these passes! And it was nice to get together with friends. This time we did stuff we haven't before. Didn't even know they were there, but now we do. As much of a pain it was to get these, I'm glad we can get as much use as possible. The kids had lots of fun and that's what's important.

So excited to be here! It's been a long day since leaving in the morning, but well worth it. I've been waiting since last year and now I have my family with me to share it with. First speaker of the weekend, Francis Chan. Awesome stuff, a great start!

Penguin Party

The class has been learning about penguins and today they had a penguin party. Wish I could have volunteered in class, but with this weekend I couldn't take the risk. They could wear black and white so he wore black pants and a white thermal. When we picked him up from school he had some sweets left from class. It looked like a pile of toothpaste, we weren't sure what it was, but he really enjoyed it. 

This weekend is going to be packed, so when we got home we got straight to his homework. It took a while! Alpahbet (upper and lower case) twice, and numbers (1-19) three times, plus some math, and other activities. Yikes. I guess that's what happens when we try to cram it into one sitting. Poor guy. We're proud of him for sticking to it. 

NJ hardly ate any of his lunch which surprised me. He usually finishes all of it. When he has food left he finishes it when he gets home. 

The leftovers from the hot pot we did went into a noodle soup. I love watching him use his chopsticks. 

Pete the Penguin

Some dinner before getting down to homework. Mom made him some noodles with vegetables. 

He worked hard on his homework, I was proud of him. It was a lot of writing. He had to make up a story, write it out and draw pictures for each of the four pages plus the cover. By the time we got to the last page his writing was much better and easier to read. We really need to practice his writing with him more. He's been writing some letters backwards or the wrong way. It's weird that his writing  has gotten worse and so has his coloring. It's frustrating since we know he can do so much better. I'm not sure why he finds the need to rush through everything. Hopefully by practicing more at home will help. 

Chess Trophy, Lemon Picking

First place trophy for chess! We're so proud of him! It was going to be first or second and we were happy with either. We just practiced and told him to do his best. He was really excited about his very first trophy. When he accomplishes something that he feels is hard he always says to us: "See, I sticked to it!" Yes, something like that. That's a great attitude.

After showing us his trophy, I asked him to help me pick some lemons. I brought a big bag to book group. Along with pb&j cookies, and dinner for some new parents. 

Sunday Son Selfies

Having a little fun after church with some photos. NJ was being silly trying to block me from being in the picture, but it turned out better this way. Unexpected creativity is always better.