Friday, July 1, 2011

VBS (Times Two)

The boys finished up their second week of VBS yesterday. The first was at our church at the beginning of the month. The boys had a good time singing songs, playing games & doing crafts for three hours each morning. This was Ethan's first time to go to VBS, and he was excited to be a part of everything. I was surprised that he had some separation anxiety each day when I dropped him off. He is generally pretty ready to jump into something new, but I guess I am usually around when he is jumping in, so me leaving threw him for a loop. As long as I sat with him for the first few minutes, I was able to give him a quick hug goodbye and slip out before he got upset. This was actually my first year to not be a part of VBS. I've always been a crew leader, but Lydia was just too young to leave in the workers' childcare, so I opted out this year.

Caleb (who has never had a moment of separation anxiety in his entire life) marched right over to his group as soon as we arrived each morning. He has such a maturity about him at all things structured these days. He has a little "school boy" persona that takes over in settings like Bible class and VBS, and it is really cute. He seems to have learned how to put his silliness aside for learning, and that has come just in time for the start of kindergarten (which is only seven weeks away, yikes!). He got pretty involved in the singing and hand motions this year. We missed the program at Sunday morning church because that was the weekend we were in Gatlinburg, but I think this would have been the first year that he was really into the performance.

The second VBS the boys attended was at a large community church nearby. I was introduced to the church last summer by a good friend, and Caleb attended their VBS last year, as well. The boys both had a GREAT time at this VBS program. I'm not sure what they do, since the kids are dropped off at a checkpoint and I didn't even get to talk to the boys' group leaders until the last day, but whatever they are up to must be FUN. The boys chatter all the way home, tag-team telling the Bible story of the day and describing in detail the delicious and creative snacks that they were treated to. And they can't wait to go back the next day! Ironically, Ethan had an easier time with me leaving him there than at the church he was familiar with. I have a feeling that the aforementioned treats may have had something to do with it :)

The end-of-VBS program was last night. Caleb did a great job, singing and doing all of the hand motions. Unfortunately, his friend beside him thought it was more fun to poke Caleb, put his hand in front of Caleb's face, and all-in-all distract him in any way possible. Caleb handled it great for the first few minutes: he just moved out of the way over and over and kept singing. Eventually, it got to be too much for him and he responded a few times in kind. Thankfully, neither boy got upset and soon they both went back to singing appropriately. I was so proud of Caleb for being so into the program this time. His little face was so focused and his smile so huge and joyful at the end of each song. My little man really is growing up!

Ethan didn't have as smooth of an experience. (It was much more like Caleb's first little 3-year-old program.) He sang and did hand motions for a few minutes, but soon got bored and decided it would be more fun to try to climb on the huge speakers behind him. Fortunately, I was sitting on the front row and was able to jump out to the aisle and stop him just as the speaker started to tilt. I think I scared him with my frantic, "Stop!" and his little face just crumpled up. He asked if he could come sit with me, and I nodded my head. So he spend the rest of the program standing in the back with me (and Lydia), where he was much more comfortable singing the songs and doing the hand motions all by himself.

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