Rally Day

One of my favorite days of the year is "Rally Day" at our church - it's a day when, after the church service, everyone gathers in the big hall to look at exhibits showing all of the ministries and other things going on at the church... and eat fried chicken! The church supplies the fried chicken and tea and lemonade, we bring the sides and desserts.

My kids LOVE fried chicken. And for the most part, there are only two times a year they get to eat it - Rally Day and the church annual meeting in January. I had to tell Amelia to stop at the bone, and Sophia stole the chicken off my plate when I turned around to take care of Henry!

Rally Day is also the first day of Sunday School after summer vacation, and I have too much fun meeting my new batch of three year olds. I love three year olds!! The beginning of the year is so funny, because I realize how far these kids come in one school year, when I think back on how last year's students were acting at the end of the year, compared to these new kiddos. It's going to be a great year, I can tell!

Our curriculum focuses more on allowing children to experience God and worshiping together, rather than just teaching them Bible stories (we just use the stories as a backdrop to the bigger message). And I can tell you, there are times I feel closer to God in that room, sitting criss cross applesauce on the floor, than just about anywhere else.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20

Normally Davis comes with us for Rally Day, but he had to work this year. It was a little bit of a challenge to wrangle the three kids, my Sunday School class, and man the table for our ministry - but I managed with lots of awesome friends to help (random people kept bringing me Amelia ha ha!) and I even managed to eat some friend chicken and those WICKED Kroger sugar cookies (they are like 900 calories per cookie, for real, but sooo yum!) You know, these ones

The kid's got good taste.

Poor Henry, he was DONE by the time I got around to taking his picture.

In other news - can you tell how Sophia feels about Kindergarten after one full week?

And I am SUPER excited about this week. You know why? Because there is NOTHING going on! It's just a week, with school and work during the day and dinner and bedtime at night. Sophia's school is actually have a back to school party (another one!) at a mini golf place on Saturday, but we're not going. It's really hot, I will have three little kids by myself, we have been running from activity to activity for weeks (months). In case you had not noticed, I'm a big believer in sticking to our routines and not over-scheduling. I love the enthusiasm of her new school, but I also love my sanity.