Sunday school candid

Here are Sam and Zachy (two months Sam's junior) in Ms. Cok's Sunday-school class yesterday morning. She is a phenomenal teacher and Sam always enjoys the class. There are usually three students, but one of the students was near someone who was sick, so his parents kept the whole family home, leaving just Sam and Zachy.

The curriculum has them learning Bible stories and doing crafts. It focuses on various themes. Right now it's on belonging to God. They see how this is played out in the various Bible stories.

They also manage, even with just three of them, to rarely work without bumping and nudging and interacting with one another. We'll call that Practicing Christian Community. :-)

I also have to put a plug in for the picture Bible Sam received from his Aunt and Uncle (and cousin?) for Christmas. (Someone at church calls it the "Prince Valiant Bible" for its artistic style.) We are up to Judges and he loves it. The thing I really appreciate is the care the editor took in straightening out issues which might otherwise seem nonsensical or contradictory or cruel.

The editor will have a severe test in Judges, though, with the dismembering of the prostitute.

Back to Sunday school: If you are reading this (and you must be), what are your best and worst memories from Sunday school when growing up?

Winter Aunt Amy Visit

Fun weekend visit from Aunt Amy!


These are always quick trips, especially when Amy has to drive back on Sunday. Highlights included a trip to the Science Museum on Saturday afternoon, and a family movie night that evening. At the Science Museum we saw a new exhibit which consists of about a dozen animatronic dinosaurs.

They swung their heads to and fro looking menacing (carnivores) or irenic (herbivores). To a t they all sound like giant, loud, hungry, scary birds. I think the two things which scientists really can't determine with any certainty are the color and sound of dinosaurs, but they don't let that stop them. If there had been a aviatic era in addition to jurassic--an era when birds ruled the earth--I suspect scientists would have cardinals and robins sounding like Godzilla as well.

Family movie night was Despicable Me, recommended by Aunt Ruth and others. Thanks for the recommendation--it was great fun and had some laughing uncontrollably several times.

In it, an evil genius adopts three orphan girls for his own nefarious purposes, and ends up loving and caring for them. I wonder what Sam thought as he saw the three girls waiting to be adopted?

On the way to the museum I drove by a house which always has the most amazing snow sculptures. We were lucky enough to talk recently to the fellow who makes them, and learned some of his methods. He colors them using colored water in spray bottles. The trick to building them, though, is to take snow inside his sun room in big bins, to allow them the snow to melt a little so it holds together better. His methods work very well.

Other than that, a quiet weekend. Got to see Amy's Israel scrapbook again, prior to her second trip coming up in March. Even now she is driving back to her world. Greetings from ours!

Sam and the Giant

It's -1 deg F at 9:26 PM Sunday night--so we didn't spend any more time outdoors than necessary. (We did our best to relate to Sam that it was minus 15 in Uncle Paul and Aunt Ruth's world this last week, during the day even!)

Appropriate to the weather we read a children's book about the Junior Iditarod race. Very exciting book based on a real boy and his dogs.

It was a quiet weekend. Susan and Sam and a friend, Lexy, made and painted a large number of salt-dough Valentine's Day ornaments.

Sam and I also made a trip to the Play Museum for the first time in eons. There's a new area devoted to video games, which has the above yellow Pokemon (?) statue.

Sam is shown here with a giant. It's controlled with levers and has a microphone which changes a child's voice into a rumbly giant's.

I remember clearly the first time Susan took Sam to the Play Museum, she said he hid behind her legs. I wonder if he's twice the height he was then. Now when we visit the PM, he ranges about, viewing the old exhibits as if flipping through a yearbook. Though he did spend a fair amount of time in one area (the Berenstain Bear exhibit), which is still entertaining.

* * *

Sam was walking gingerly, because he has a big bruise on his shin which his boots aggravate. Today's quote-of-the-day: "I didn't know bruises hurt!"

Skull and Crossbones Jammies

Isn't this heartwarming? Our little boy in his skull & crossbones sleeper! He's thrilled with it.

Here's a funny, recent exchange that demonstrates he's not ready to be an evangelist yet:

Susan: I wonder what you are thinking about.
Sam: I'm thinking about my neighbor classmate who doesn't know Jesus.
Susan: You mean a classmate from the other classroom?
Sam: Yes.
Susan: How do you know he or she doesn't know Jesus?
Sam: Because I asked her.
Susan (thoughtfully): Maybe we should pray for her.
Sam (innocently): Why would we do that?

In other news, Sam has had a bandaid on his hand for a little scratch he got a few days ago. When asked how he got hurt, he said, "Oh, this is from when I hugged Ariana too hard." We have no idea how the hug resulted in injury, and we hope Ariana came out of it okay.

Winterfest!

At the county park Mendon Ponds today was Winterfest, a collection of cold-weather activities. We went there for the last two hours and got in on lots of fun things, including sledding and visiting the injured-bird sanctuary.

At the sanctuary we saw owls of various sizes (all hit by cars and unable to fly), a golden eagle which was shot by a farmer in Seattle (he was then prosecuted), a turkey vulture which was harassing people at a downtown MacDonald's(!), and a bobcat which was declawed in preparation for being sold as a pet before the authorities put a stop to it. The woman talking to visitors about the bobcat was in the cage with him swinging a ball back and forth to play with him. Susan asked if he was dangerous, and she said, Not unless she made him unhappy!

The owls were fascinating. One was actually blind; another--a "soffit" owl, was shorter than a blue jay, and according to the person holding him, quite feisty.

There were plenty of other things going on: people showing more winter animals; free rides in a horse-drawn cart (thanks to the Rotary club); delicious-smelling food; balloon animals; and I even saw a group out on the frozen lake. Interestingly, they had a HUGE kite anchored to the ice.

One last image: We came home with frozen toes and eager to get into the warmth. The cold took its toll, though, and you will see Sam, stricken with ICE MADNESS, with his pants on his head.

Or maybe he's just a goofy five-year-old...