Our week, March 17 to March 23, 2013

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Cadet Sunday, previously blogged about.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Playing UNO with the kiddos.  They use books to hide their cards from the other players.  

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The trailer backed up to the barn means one thing right now . . . a new cow and calf are arriving from the other pasture!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Cadet Car Races, previously blogged about.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Our homeschool presentation on the Pilgrims, previously blogged about.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Friday it was warm enough to take a walk to the crick.  We also brought with us our Little House on the Prairie Book we're reading.  We're finally on The Long Winter.   Here is Ephraim reading another book to the other children.  

Saturday, March 23, 2013 

Cadet-O-Rama in Pella, previously blogged about.  

Cadet Sunday, Cadet Races & Cadet O Rama

After the first of the year, the boys bring home their block of wood that needs transformed into a pinewood derby car.  With a little guidance and help from Daddy, the block is transformed into an image that the boys have picked.  This year, they both wanted to mimic cars from the movie CARS2.  Emmet chose Doc Hudson and Ephraim chose Francesco.  

Here are the photos of them painting their car.  

My pet peeve is seeing cars at the competition that you just know were not done by a 1st or 3rd grader.  That's not fair.  If the dad's wanted to make car, they should do their own.   I'm primarily talking about Cadet-O-Rama, where all the area churches come together.  

Yes, I used a black sharpie and did the eyes on Ephraim's car.  Yes, I used a pencil to make the "51" on Emmet's car so that he could paint it in.  I think that's fair enough to do the minor detailing that they ask me to  help them with.  We were all pleased with their final product!

On Sunday, March 17, the boys celebrated Cadet Sunday.  They had several of their projects on display for the church to see.  Here is Ephraim with his car and rocket.  

Here is Emmet with his car and electric motor.  

Here are some of the boys on stage during 2nd service.  They had to say their name and their favorite part of Cadets.  For most it is the derby cars or the 4-wheeling!

New this year (due to our church basement remodel) was the car races on a Wednesday night at the Youth House.  I think it worked out well.  Here is a picture of most of the Cadets.  

Ephraim and Emmet are 2nd from the right in the front and back row.  

Their cars raced ok.  Not always the fastest but at least they stayed on the track!

Emmet's car won this race.  

Ephraim's just lost this one!  

Luckily, the boys are good sports and just enjoy seeing their car race and aren't too concerned about being first and they aren't too crushed about being last, either.  

On Saturday, the 23rd, it was Cadet-O-Rama in Pella.  This is when all the area church Cadets come together to race cars and show off projects.  The competition at this race is pretty competitive and some cars looked professionally done, hence my previous opinion about parental involvement.  

The boys raced in same race this time.  They came in 4th and 5th and at least advanced to one more race.  

Emmet, at the end of the day, with his car.

Ephraim with his car.  

Emmet and Ephraim with their biggest cheerleaders! 

All in all, Cadet-O-Rama wasn't so bad.  The boys were done racing by 9 and had to help run the carnival games.  The girls and I did some visiting with friends and family at Cadet-O-Rama.  We got some ideas for projects for next year for Ephraim.  He'll be in 4th grade and can work for badges.  I think our first project is going to be coin collecting.  Anyway, that's our Cadet posting for the year!

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday for us started out Sunday morning with the children singing during 1st and 2nd service.  Seth also had to usher in the morning, I had to serve coffeetime and teach large group to the K-2 class.  

Singing "Days of Elijah", previously blogged about.

A wreath we made for Great-Grandma Elizabeth's door.  The idea is from the boys' Focus on the Family magazines and it is simply egg cartons, cut apart and painted.  They are embellished with pom poms in the middle and then glued to a piece of poster board cut in a circle.  Simple and fun for the children to make.  Grandma even says she's gotten a lot of comments on her wreath!

After all that, it was time to go to Grandpa Harold & Grandma Twyla's house for lunch and an Easter Egg hunt.  We enjoyed a yummy lunch of ham and all the side dishes to go with it.  Then it was time to hunt for eggs.  Grandpa Harold hid some of them pretty well, but we did manage to find all of them.  This year's system was that each child had to find 6 eggs, one of each of 6 colors.  And mom had thought ahead and put the same items in each colored egg.  See where I'm going with this.  Each child got exactly the same six colors and the same items inside.  What was inside?  Chocolate and Money!

Eden loved listening to Alyssa read to her.  

And later, Eliza joined the reading party.  

The boys were busy downstairs building forts and I didn't get a picture.  

Anyway, it was a blessed Palm Sunday with family.  After family time, we stopped by our church's event "Stations of the Cross" on the way home.  It was beautifully done.  Our family was walked through 6 stations depicting major events in Jesus' life the week of the crucifixion.     I hear they had over 400 people go through the stations in 2 hours.  That's a terrific turnout.  It was good for our children to see the actors and to visualize some of the events we've been reading about in our dinnertime devotions.  

Hosanna!

It is church tradition that all the children sing on Palm Sunday.  They walk into church with palm branches, saying "Hosanna!"  This year they sang the song "Days of Elijah."  They've sang it before and are familiar with the song.  The congregation joined them during the last half of the song.  Everyone did a great job!

1st service.  

Ephraim's in the back row, black shirt.  Emmet's in the middle, black shirt.  Eden's on the left in a pink shirt.  Eliza's in the middle, pink shirt.


2nd service:

Ephraim's in the back on the right.  Emmet's in the middle again.  Eliza's in the middle left and Eden's in the middle right.  

There's a lot of children in our Sunday School program and it is exciting to see them all sing together.  

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  

Luke 19:38

Haiti Mission Trip Photos

A guest post from Jenny's mom & dad:

Harold and I went with a group to Haiti Feb. 20-March 1.  We went with the organization Many Hands 4 Haiti.  Here are some pictures of our trip.

Harold and I when we got to Haiti.

Students at the Pella Christian Grade School at Pignon, Haiti.  They have 4 or 5 students sitting at one desk.

We went to the market on Saturday, we don't know what they were cooking but it didn't smell good!

Joann Blom and I painting a chalkboard for a school.

The Minnesota Rotary built this house for teams to stay in.  It was very nice.

We had fresh cole slaw everyday. The meals were very good.

Phyllis Stam and I stenciled the alphabet and numbers in several classrooms.

This is one of the girls at the orphanage.  Some parents bring their children to the orphanage because they don't have the funds to feed them. 

We are writing our names and scripture verses on the inside of the desks that we built.

Women were selling their handiwork and sewing items.  This is how they make money so you wanted to buy from all of them because you knew they needed the money.

The desks were upside down on the truck and that's how we traveled to the school.  We went about 5 miles and it took us 25 minutes.  The roads were EXTREMELY rough!!

Pete Verhey and Harold walking in the river.  In the background are women washing their clothes.  In the same area of the river was an ox taking a drink and some guys washing a bus.

Harold with a gal who just received her PET cart.  She was thrilled, now she can get around on her own.  Harold helps build these in Leighton on Monday's and Friday's.  We gave 3 PET's to girls and 1 to a man.  This was a highlight for Harold.

I was bagging rice and beans at the orphanage for the feeding clinic.  Parents brought their children to be weighed and checked by a nurse.  They were allowed to take some rice, beans, and peanut butter.

We painted the inside and outside of a school.

Harold finishing a PET for this little girl,  She was so thrilled,and her father was thankful.

Pella Christian students watching a skit of David and Goliath. 
We had a great time and are ready to go back.  We have so much and they only have one meal a day.  If you want to read more about Many Hands 4 Haiti, go to www.mh4h.org

HSAP Presentation day

Today was presentation day for our HSAP group.  We signed up to do two presentations:  one on the Pilgrims/Indians and another to play the Doxology with our bells.  

I took this photo after their presentation since I was busy asking them questions during their presentation.  They had a nice display board, some of their Mayflower and Pilgrim crafts and then the Indian toy that we just made last week.  They showed off some of the books they've been reading on this subject, too.  We've really enjoyed learning more about the Pilgrims, Wampanaog, Squanto and others.  I think I've learned a thing or two, too! 

All the kids had a great time with the presentations, pizza and games!