Wondering If They're Ready

A few months ago, our Sunday am classes were studying and discussing the topic of baptism. Now for those in the churches of Christ, this seems like a pretty cut and dry topic. Baptism? Yes. Important. Essential. God told us to do it! Do we have to know all the reasons why? No. Not necessarily. When we put on Christ did we know everything we needed to know.

I chuckle at this and shake my head "no!"

So, at the end of this discussion about grace and baptism, someone brought up the question, "How do we know at what age children should be baptized into Christ? How do we know they are ready?"

The teacher brought in the very next week what he and his wife did for their daughter. I loved it and am putting it on here for anyone who would like to take this idea for their children or offer it to someone else who is struggling...and also bcs I am tired of keeping up with the paper and want to throw the paper away. :)

The teacher and his wife wrote down questions about God, Jesus, and Christianity for their daughter to answer. By her answers, and he read them to us, it was obvious that she was ready to take on Christ. And, now when she grows older, and wonders if she WAS ready "way back when", her parents can pull out the papers and she can read her answers written in her own hand and will know that her dedication to Christ at 8 was not instigated by her parents or the church or the idea of following her friends, but by her own heart. Here are a few of the questions (I only wish I had her answers for you, too. They would make you weep with joy):

1) Who is Jesus?

2) Why do people get baptized?

3) If you believe in Jesus and are baptized, will you stop sinning? What happens if you sin again?

4) Why do you love Jesus?

5) Why does the devil tempt people?

6) What does it mean to be a Christian?

I think that there were more questions, but these are the ones I was able to write down through my tears. :) Thanks for letting me post this. Now I can hopefully get that one small piece of clutter out of our house and begin working on the next piece! At this rate, all clutter will be gone in about 47 years!

Trunk Or Treat

The church here hosted a Trunk or Treat again. It gets better every year, I think. The trunks were not all as ornate as they were last year, but they were all very cute. There was another huge slide (like the one from our block party), a separate jumpoline, and another air compressor blown up thing where the kids were attached to a rope and would run away from the padded wall, only to be jerked back. I think it was like a horizontal bungee jump. :) Also outside was a large movie screen where they played "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" and I think they also had Narnia as a backup. Also, throughout the church's building there were fun little games and prizes as well as tables stocked full of bake sale items. Two restaurants came to sell some food for supper---pizza or bar-b-que. There was also a place set up for pictures to be taken. The kids had a great time. Our pictures did not turn out wonderfully, but here are a few:


Posing crazy for the camera

having fun on the slide

Fishing for some goodies. No real
goldfish, though! :)

D-D trunk-or-treating with a friend. two of five incredibles (other friends...not us). And our groups' trunk..."Cooking Up Some Ghoul-Ash!" The pic. is blurry, so making it bigger will not help you to see what all is there! :)

D-D and some of the girls
swapping candy. I really
think the girls were
feeding D-D the candy!

Neighborhood Halloween Block Party

I may have said this before, but I will say it again...our neighborhood is GREAT!!!!!! I hope that we can find one like it when we move back. This year for Halloween, the neighborhood hosted their annual Halloween party and parade. A lot of the kids are at the age where they think they are "too cool" to dress up, but they enjoyed the rest of the activities. There was a colossal jumpoline equipped with a climbing wall that leads to a slide. And, boy!!!! Was that slide FAST! After playing for a while, gorging ourselves on ghost cookies and orange frosted cookies and chocolate chip cookies and several other varieties as well as some great hot apple cider, we had a parade around the neighborhood. Very cute. Here are some fun pics of the kids in their costumes, on the slide-o-jump-o-line and walking in the "parade."

I love the above shot! It makes me think of
Carol Burnette!

A dream come true for E...he loved the slide

"Rar!!!" The parade begins...

Running ahead to get some pictures of the little ones...and they ran with me! We met D and Z after the parade. Z had just woken up from his afternoon nap and D was getting ready to go for a run.

Book Report

MG has a book report due tomorrow (oct. 27). For her report, she had to pick out a book, answer some questions for her book report, and then make a "character" pumpkin to go along with the book. She chose the book "The Paper Bag Princess"...which also happens to be one of my favorite books. In the book (for those of you unfamiliar with it), a princess named Elizabeth is engaged to marry Prince Ronald. But a dragon comes, destroys her castle, burns up everything and carries off the prince. The only thing the princess can find to wear is a paper bag. She puts it on and goes to save her prince. She tricks the dragon into showing off all of his stregths...so much so that soon he is so tired that he cannot do anything but fall asleep. She goes to rescue Prince Ronald and then...

You will have to check it out and read the ending of the book. Very cute!

So, MG and I went and picked out a pumpkin last weekend, I drew the dragon, MG painted it and helped hot glue the scales and did pretty much everything else. I drew on the ground for the characters to "stand" on. Didn't MG do great? I thought that her painting and drawing of the princess were wonderful!

The page in the book that the
pumpkin is "modelled" after...
Dragon: running on steam -->

Looking Up

This morning, as D-D and I were waving to MG and E on their way to school, D-D looked up at the sky. "Da mewn!!!" she said (interpretation: "the moon").

And, yes indeed, there directly above us, with the sun rising to our right and long shadows still shading us and our whole house, half of the moon hung in the blue, morning sky.

"Huh!!" said D-D with a few giggles. "Why is da mewn in da skoy's pockeyit? Funny, huh?!!?" (why is the moon in the sky's pocket)

When we turned to head inside, D-D took one last look at the moon and exclaimed, "Oh, no!!! I sink da mewn is foaleen ay-yout!" (I think the moon is falling out)

M-G's EIGHTH Birthday

MG had a birthday WEEK rather than a birthday day. We had some presents while the grandparents were here and then I began the baking of the cakes for the different birthday parties. The first few pictures are from her actual day, October 14 (MG helped put the icing and sprinkles on some of the cupcakes), and the other pictures are from her birthday/slumber party. That was a fun time for her. She had five little girls from school spend the night and her little neighbor friend came over for supper and some cake. I thought that my kids were loud at times, but never as loud as a group of giggly, squealing girls and a few neighbor kids! I think at one point during the party, including our children, there were 14 kids running through our house, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the driveway or the playroom or watching "High School Musical 2".

Family party:





Slumber Party Cake:

MG designed her own cake. Her name is really in the circles of the 8, but I photo-UNhanced it out. When first decorating the cake, I was afraid that it would look like an 8-ball...I am so glad I did not use chocolate icing as the overall coat of color!!


Friends:
I love these pictures of the girls being sweet AND goofy. This last one here is them following the leader to the Chipmunks songs. Too funny.

MG and friends opening up the presents, watching "The BFG" movie, and having a pillow fight.

Fall Break

Dana and the kids had their fall break over the weekend of Oct 10th. On Thursday the 9th Dana's parents and nephew drove here and stayed with us until Tuesday morning! Boy, oh boy!!! The kids certainly had a good time. They played and played and played! It was great fun to watch and hear them. And even though our nephew is an only child right now, he did marvelously with the cacophony of noise and chaos! He was certainly a terrific little trooper!
I think one of the kids' favorite things was hiking through the woods at a local park. Of course, they also loved going to McD's playplace and shopping with G-G (grandma), wrestling with Dana and jumping on the trampoline. They climbed trees and moved moss from one part of our yard to another, making "homes" for their Leggo men, watched some Lone Ranger and just giggled and laughed with each other. It was a treat! A wonderful fall break!

I love that the grandparents
will act silly with the kids. We sure had fun
on this hike!