Cheerios and Tupperware

Playing with the containers and the cheerios. :) Messy, but fun.

Chilling

Katie looking at my old "Little Women" book. That was the first version of Little Women I read.

Laura in her pen.

VBS - Kingdom Chronicles

This year James and I led our churches VBS - using Answers in Genesis' program - Kingdom Chronicles. Everyone did such a great job. It was neat to watch God provide different items to make it special - like the amazing castle set. Another church in Ontario had used the same program and were finished with it, and just gave it to us for our use! (and now, that we're done, a Bible Camp is going to use it next year) A lady in our church used to have a costume shop, so she lent us a bunch of costumes for the week. We had help making some of the fun décor, and with all the volunteers running the snacks, crafts, and all, it was a fun week.

Some of our costumed people.

Me leading the singing every night. It was fun - reminded me of the good ol' CI days. :)

Maid Marion and Robin Hood - Greg and Steph. They were such great sports to don the clothes.

Katie during one of the games.

William and Ben led them again this year.

One of the day's snacks - all directed by Shelly.

Glenda - our kid counter/greeter with her "knight in shining armor" (made by Bre and Emily)

Excuse the silly watermark - too lazy to remove it... Mike was Angus the Jester who started the evening off with humor and talking about the Armor of God.

Craft time - led by Nelly.

Shane and daughter Leah. :)

Little Tia- with her slipping crown.

Some of the décor - shields made by Doreen.

 William with his group of kids during the game time.

Nel doing her work.

Part of the obstacle course James set up for the kids.

 

Two of our three neighbors that came for a couple nights. Robert and sister Rachel. I was quite happy that they could come!

Caleb in the knight costume. A bunch of the younger youth were quite eager to wear the costumes while helping out.

Katie making her "sword of the spirit".

Janice and her daughter Amber babysat some of our kids all week, so that we could actually get things done during VBS. So thankful for their service.

The last night before assembly...

Krissandra and her class that she taught.

Shane was the speaker for the week. He always does such a great job. Relates well, and keeps their attention during the message.

So there you go - our VBS week. :)

And the next day, all of the Heikoop family packed up, and headed to NY for a week long vacation.

Perfect time for a bit of a rest.

 

Family at Sunset

Photo Shoot with another one of James' cousins - Alyssa, her husband Trevor and Felicity and Jenna.

9 Months!

Pretty in yellow.

Laura's greatest and latest:

-Switched to goats milk in a week

-Loves to do the "flopping routine" at bedtime - which consists of lying on top of me, and flipping every which way until finding the perfect spot to sleep.

-Crawls super fast

-Eats more foods

Getting them to sit still at 9 months is a challenge.

Lyd and kids.

Lydia came to help us for a few days when I wasn't doing so well, and prepping for the VBS. Such a big help. Lyd is so practical and thoughtful - sure appreciated her service to us.

Erik on Katie's skateboard.

Vanessa Joy

Two and a half days after she was born, I was able to take a bunch of sweet newborn photo's of little Vanessa. She behaved perfectly for me, and I got some adorable images of a sweet babe.