The Saturday 7

1. We survived another year of VBS! It was exhausting but fun. The girls loved it. Levi was not a fan. He really struggled with being in nursery for 3.5 hours every day. Poor kid. There's a new-ish family at our church with a boy named Levi who's only a few months older than my Levi. I'm unreasonably upset that he'll always have to be Levi V. at church. It already caused problems this week. I tried to label everything (Levi's bag, cup, even himself) but they got him mixed up with the other Levi - they tried to give my Levi the other Levi's blankie, they couldn't find my Levi's Binky because they were looking in the other Levi's bag, etc. I'm naming my next kid Pepper (after the doctor of course) so it's less likely that there will be anyone else named that in his/her class.

2. I tried something new at VBS this year. Instead of leading the preschool class, as I've done for the past few years, I took on 2nd grade, so I could be with Lucy. I had a nice small group - only 9 kids each day - but it was no walk in the park. Haha. I had 2 runners that had to be watched constantly. And I was amazed by the difference between the boys and girls. The boys were always running, playing tag, wrestling, and attacking each other. If I had a nickel for every time I said, "Keep your hands to yourself" this week, I'd be a gajillionaire. It honestly drives me crazy. Lol. This week is a reminder of why I abandoned my teaching degree well before I finished it. The girls were by no means angels, but they were a lot easier to handle. And they were the only ones interested in learning the verses. I had 3 girls who learned all the verses for the week - 2 homeschoolers and one Christian school kid (Lucy). They've obviously memorized verses before.

We had a lot of fun, though. Kids say the funniest things. And it was interesting to see how some of the un-churched kids view church and God and the Bible.

3. Two different things happened this week that reminded me what a small town we live in. One of my friends from Grand Rapids brought her kids to VBS at our church this week, so we decided to go to the park afterward one day. I gave her directions to the park, then ran to Subway to grab lunch. There was a wicked long line and she wasn't sure she was at the right park, so she asked some people who were there. They weren't sure what the park's name was (we all just call it "The Park" because it's the only one in town), so they asked who she was meeting. She told them my name and they assured her she was at the right place because they knew me and knew that was the park I go to. Haha.

That same day I got this screenshot of a snapchat from my nephew.

The top line is what my nephew wrote. The bottom line is the snapchat story of one of his friends. I'll try to explain this for people who don't do snapchat. Some chick at Subway took this picture of Levi and me unbeknownst to me. She put it on her snapchat story (like a facebook newsfeed) and all her friends could see it. One of her friends was my nephew - who recognized Levi and me! Haha. Small world!

4. Lena conquered another of her potty training fears this week: using a bathroom outside of our house. Until this week, she never used the bathroom if we went anywhere. She apparently has a bladder of steel and can hold it for hours. I was stressing out about what this would mean for school in the fall (she's going 2 full days a week). But this week she had her friend Harper at VBS with her - and the classroom they were in has a bathroom with 2 little kid sized toilets. She and Harper conveniently had to go potty at the same time every day, so somehow having a friend to go with made it easier for Lena. Since then, she's used the big bathroom at church a couple times, which is major progress. Whew!

5. And in a strange twist, Levi (who is 17 months old) has suddenly become very aware of when he pees and grabs his diaper every time. If he poops, he grabs his diaper, gets my attention, then toddles over to the diapers and lays down for me to change him. I just finished potty training my 4 year old! Do I really have to start the next one already?? My sister had her boys potty trained before they were 2, but I can't even fathom a kid this young understanding it. Not to mention that he is so tiny, I'd never find underwear that would stay on him!

6. I feel like Levi's had a word explosion lately. He's started to say no, yeah, ball, and ow in context this week. He also says hi, bye, ready-set-go, uh-oh, and yum. And he'll repeat "mama" and "dada" if I ask him to, but he doesn't call us that.

7. Pictures