2011 Easter Passion Play at OBC

Last night I got the opportunity to take Emma Claire to our home church's annual Easter Passion Play. I was so excited when I found out that it was going to be going on while we were home this trip. I have been a part of this program almost all of my life and I miss singing on that stage in this performance so much!

Last night was a perfect time to go because it was actually their dress rehearsal and I got to sit with Emma Claire and answer all of her million questions without bothering others around us. It was really amazing to see her face light up when she put all the pieces together from her bible stories and realized she was seeing the story of Jesus life.  She would say "Mommy, this is when.....", and "when this happened, then this happened".  There were points in the program that I was having to explain to her through my tears Jesus amazing sacrafice of love for us. The passion play is just that good.

*Interesting Fact: When I was I was a small child I played the part of the dead girl! : )

Another interesting fact: I was in the very first group when they started adding choreography to the program.

Emma Claire and her cousin, Branna!

The program was SO good as usual and Emma Claire loved seeing all of our friends and family members particitpating. They do 5 nights of the Passion Play so I'm sure we will going back to watch it again! : )

Great Grandparents

Thankfully this trip to MS we got to fly! Praise the Lord. It was so much less stressful and easier on the kids. For some reason the drive here doesn't seem to get any shorter, but only longer! : ) Benjamin is going to be busy working everyday we are here traveling to the area schools, but we are free to do whatever we want! After sleeping in and being lazy this morning we dropped in to see the kids great grandparents.

GRANDMOTHER & GRANDADDY'S:

POPS & GRAN-GRAN'S:

Easter Program 2011

Today was Emma Claire's Easter Program at school. This year they did it a little different and had each age group do their own program. It had almost gotten to be a safety issue trying to get all 250 kids on stage. : )

Before we left for school I tried to get some pictures of the kids in their Easter shirts that mom had gotten them this year but of course that didn't work out so well. I have just learned to love action shots. : )

Emma Claire LOVES to model new clothes! When I came home with all of her new clothes from the Kids Exchange she tried on EVERY outfit, modeled around the house, and then asked us how it looked. Silly girl.

Jelly Shoes are BACK!!

I was so proud of Emma Claire because this is the first time she has actually gotten on stage and participated. In the past she has just sat there and looked around or cried because she couldn't find us. She did really well! I will never forget the look on her face when she first saw us sitting on the front row ready to watch her. She gave us the biggest grin. She also knew every motion and every word to all the songs!

The picture at the bottom right is just priceless of Emma Claire flicking her hair. I was actually taking the picture to show Emma Claire's entire class but I caught her in action. She is completely ALL girl. Our director of the program, Eva Mathers, even came to me afterwards and said "Hey, where did Emma Claire learn to flick her hair like that?!" She just kept flicking it back and forth over her shoulders through the whole program. : )

So proud of the big girl she is becoming!

Of course, we had to run by the gym and see Camp in action!

Here are just a few clips from the program. We have the whole show on our video camera. : )
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

Pretty Girl

Emma Claire just got this cute new spring dress in the mail! ; )

Diaperless Camp

This morning Benjamin and I were being super lazy and didn't want to get out of the bed so we turned the kids a movie on in their rooms so that we could get some extra sleep. It was so WONDERFUL!  At 9:00, I finally rolled out of the bed to go get Camp up to have some breakfast. However, I did not expect to see the sight I saw when I walked in his room. He was jumping up and down in his bed dancing to Blue's Clues completely diaperless. He had taken his diaper off and thrown out in the floor (thankfully there was no stinkies in it!). But the bad part was that during the excitment of his dancing he had sprayed his entire room carpet and all. Let's just say that I'm not so sure I'll be sleeping in again on next Saturday morning. : )

*Disclaimer: I typed this story because I knew Camp would enjoy reading it when he is older. : )

Mrs. Cow

Emma Claire and Camp for the most part have always gotten along wonderfully. They love to play together and most of the time Emma Claire will bend over backwards just to make Camp happy. However, today was a different story.

Several days ago Emma Claire had broken one of her favorite bracelets and still held on to the pink and white beads that went on it. Somehow she had lost every one of them except for this one pink bead. While they were playing in her room yesterday Camp purposely stuck that bead down the air vent in her room. Emma Claire was devastated. She came running out of her room crying saying, "Mommy, Camp put my bead down in that hole! I am so MAD at him! I don't think we need a baby anymore!" over and over. I kinda laughed it off and told her it was okay and that he didn't understand that it was her favorite bead and that I was sure we could find another bead somewhere. She continued to cry so I asked her to go to her room until she was done and then she could come out and we would talk about it.

What you don't know is that there is this one toy cow of Emma Claire's that Camp is terrified of. Not just a little scared of it, but he screams something awful.

Click Here to watch how he has responded to this cow in the past; Video 1, Video 2.

So, now that you get the picture you will better understand what happened next. When I sent Emma Clarie to her room she was so mad at Camp that she went straight to her toy bin and found this dancing cow. She opened her door, sat it in the hall, turned it on, and then went straight back into her room shutting the door behind her. Of course Camp was scared to death and came running to me hiding his face in my legs!

My first thought was 'boy, she was really mad at him and she got him good!'. I could not help but laugh out loud that she thought to do this to get him back. She has NEVER done anything like this before especially not to Camp.

So has it begun?! Do I need to prepare myself for the sibling rivalry? I sure hope that I am able to get a good laugh out of it as a I did today!

Thank you, Mrs. Cow.

Camp Fun Facts

Camp cut his first eye tooth today! Boy are those hard ones to cut!

• His top right eye tooth.

Little Gym

Yesterday I took Emma Claire to one of her friends birthday party at Little Gym in Raleigh. She LOVED it! We have actually talked about letting her take classes like this somewhere, but weren't sure if she would enjoy it or would even get in front of everyone and do it.

Boy, was I wrong and she was actually REALLY good at it! She was fearless.

Here is a Video of her going through one of the courses they had set up for them.

Watch this Video of them doing a warm-up!

She really impressed me on the bars. This was her first time ever on them and look how she just swung her legs up there!

Such a fun day for her and I had a blast watching her enjoy it with her friends!

Camp Said Emma Claire

Today I finally heard Camp try to say Emma Claire! It's not exactly right, but it sounds the same every time!

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

Tooti Ta

Emma Claire demonstrating a song she learned at school, 'Tooti Ta'.

Click Here to Watch It.

Ignore the bad videoing! This was the first video I shot with my new camera. : )