Armor of God Preschool Curriculum

I've had a great time teaching the preschoolers (ages 3-K) at our church about the Armor of God from Ephesians chapter six.  If you follow me on Pinterest you can see my idea board for creating the curriculum I wrote. Or, even better, you can get the whole 7-week Armor of God curriculum for FREE on Kidology.org. Check it out and drop me a line to tell me how you used it in your church or family. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks Kidology for posting my Armor of God series! 

Save the Date for VBS

2014 Daddy Daughter Banquet

Our Daddy Daughter Banquet this year had a Candy Land theme. 

It was a good time and had a good turn out. Thank you to all who helped with this event and to all the daddy's and daughters who attended.

Photo Backdrop

Flying Lessons

I am so thankful I found out about this great opportunity at our local airport for our kids to be a part of. It's called the Young Eagles flight experience. Private pilots give up the first Saturday of every month (weather permitting) to give kids ages 8 to 17 the chance to see what it's like to fly an airplane. And it's FREE!!!!! So cool! My kids had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

Here we snow again!

This time we got the storm of the decade it looks like. It snowed for almost 24 hours straight and we had about 6 to 8 inches of snow and sleet. This is the real stuff. Fluffy, sticky, heavy, perfect for packing down for a sled run or building snow creatures. Once again we had so much fun playing in the snow. (I think the parents had more fun than the kids.)

Our neighbor generously plowed the street and driveways with his four wheeler and plow.

I love that the neighborhood kids come to sled down the big hill in our yard.

...even the big kids.

Snow Break

Well who knew after our little trip north last weekend to see the snow we'd have snow at our own house just a few days later. The kids got out of school early on Tuesday then were out all day Wednesday and Thursday. Tomorrow is delayed start due to icy roads. We really enjoyed our little mini-break playing in the snow. We probably got about 2 inches of snow when it was all said and done.

 We love sledding on the long hills in our neighborhood and yard!

 It was great to have neighborhood kids to play with between 4 families we had 9 kids!

 This snow was too powdery to build a snow-anything so we put water and food coloring in balloons, let it freeze, then cut away the balloons and stacked them into sculptures. Looks cool.

 We made "maple candy" like on little house on the prairie. It's basically maple syrup and brown sugar boiled to hard candy temp then poured on snow. It freezes instantly making this hard candy that kinda taste like butterscotch.

 It was snow much fun!
Well at least on the first day when we played outside almost all day and had friends over for chili and chocolate chip cookies!

Today the snow was melting a little and it was still very cold! Our baby didn't go out much, complained of headache and just wanted to lay around watching cartoons mostly. When he woke up from his cat-nap he had a fever over 100 and we went to urgent care to find out he has strep throat. What a rotten way to end a fun snow break! No school for him tomorrow. Poor little guy.

Winterfest in Blowing Rock NC

Well if it's gotta be freezing cold we might as well see some snow! Even if we had to drive 45 minutes to get to see the snow it was still fun. We decided to take off to Blowing Rock, NC on Saturday to attend the Winterfest event. It was so cold! The temp in the car said 27 but the windchill made it feel more like 11 degrees. The snow falling was beautiful and the kids were super excited about it.

There was a lot of ice on the mountains but luckily none on the roads.

So excited to be in the snow I don't even care my toes are numb!

Ice carving demonstrations

Snowball anyone?

Hayride in the snow with complimentary quilts to bundle up in with strangers all enjoying seeing the sights of downtown Blowing Rock all snuggled in the hay behind a John Deere. 

Catching snowflakes!

Big brother gathering a handful of snow to get back at brother.....

resulting in this.  Payback hurts....

Warm crafts indoors at the community center sponsored by the Girl Scouts.

Mmmm....cookies!

Downtown restaurant recommended by the locals. Only open for breakfast and lunch and serve hearty comfort food.

Best hot cocoa ever!! Or maybe it just felt like a luxury to be warm after walking out in the snow.

We missed watching the 115 people who paid to take the polar plunge in the frozen lake earlier that morning (CRAZY!), and we didn't go tubing because of the windchill and crowds, but all in all it was well worth the drive just to play in the snow a little bit. Our oldest son said he was glad to see the snow and glad to leave it there. Apparently not a fan of the extreme cold.