VBS 2010-Floating On Faith

Family VBS at church was this last week, and it was really great! Our theme was "Noah: Floating On Faith." Jennifer, our Children's Director, does an amazing job of planning, writing music, writing scripts, directing, etc. So many people in the church pull together to make the week a success.

The different children's classes meet for crafts, singing, snacks, & storytime. They were also able to go to the "Experience Room." This year, the experience room was made to look like the inside of the ark complete with a closing door. My friend Cindy told them more about what it might have been like to be inside the ark. The front lawn of the church was also marked off to show the children how long the ark was, and they got to play a game where they ran water to the "animals" to show them how much work it probably was to take care of all those animals that were in the ark.

Gracie's class did an experiment with cornstarch that allowed them to "walk on water," which took faith on their part that they wouldn't sink, like Noah had faith that God would keep them safe on the ark.

Some of the youth group helped with the various activities. Here is Ellie being helped by one of our sweet 6th graders, Chad.

At the end of each evening, each class met together in the auditorium (the adults had a class too) for the play. Everyone did such an amazing job with this, and it was a very cute way to share the story! I loved all the animals! When the entered the ark, the kids loved it!

Each night started with a funny little skit done by Mike (our youth minister), Mike (our youth intern), and Sarah (one of our college students.) They provided a lot of comedy to the evenings!

Here, Noah & his wife are experiencing the wickedness of the town as people are trying to swindle them!

After Noah & his sons have built the ark, the animals started entering!

The parrots (one of them being my boss!) were hilarious! Have you ever seen parrots with British accents?!

This was such an impressive scene!

Noah sent out the dove, which Chris controlled via remote control. It didn't fly exactly as planned, but it was still good!

The bees were my favorite! Frank is one of our elders, and the grandfather of one of Ellie's little friends, and I love that he dressed up for this part! They were so cute!

One of the cutest things was when the monkey came out....with a baby monkey!

Noah & his family make a sacrifice to God, thanking Him for keeping them safe in the flood.

Everyone is thanking God for the promise He made of never flooding the whole earth again. They are pointing to the rainbow in the sky, which is the sign of God's promise.

The last night, the classes got to perform a song for everyone. Here is part of Katie's Kinder/1st grade group. "And on that ark, he put 2 bears.........."

Here is Gracie's 4th/5th grade group.

One of the neat things that happened on the last night was "Pieing the Preacher!" If someone brought 5 visitors throughout the week, they got to pie the preacher. It was sooo funny! David was a good sport about it, but I have heard him mention that next year they should have "Pie the Parrot!" LOL

Jennifer Schroeder is our wonderful director of our Children's Ministry, thus our VBS. She is incredible!

updated statuses

Awhile back, someone asked me if I was recording all of my Facebook status updates as a way to keeping up with all of our memories, so I started keeping some of them here on my blog. All of them start with "Jacinda Shanks....."


& Chris are taking our birthday girl to see Toy Story 3! (Wish us luck on getting to stay for the whole movie!) (6/24/10)

is glad Ellie enjoyed her 2nd birthday. A birthday cake from a favorite babysitter, nice nap, watching Handy Manny, Pooh, & Mickey, going to see Toy Story 3, package in the mail from Grammer & Pappy, sisters sang to her over the phone, new baby doll & stroller, got to stay up late playing. She's so special to us! (6/24/10)

is looking forward to having all my babies back home SOON! :) (6/26/10)

my girls are coming home TODAY! ♥ (6/26/10)

is happy to have all 5 of us back together in one place again! ♥ (6/26/10)

enjoyed receiving a $10 gift card from the manager at Pei Wei tonight. (6/27/10)

loves that my daughter asked me last night if they would be able to sleep in this morning! (and they all 3 did sleep in pretty well!) I have trained them well! :)
(6/28/10)

‎"Get Her. Out. Of This. Room!" -quote by Katie to Gracie while trying to clean the playroom. I'm sure it's easy to figure out who "her" is! (6/28/10)

think a lot of people would have enjoyed the free entertainment that was me & Gracie screaming like little girls while trying to capture a roach. Based on some things I've seen lately, I think I will fire my exterminator! (6/28/10)

Ellie knew we had doughnuts, but I'd told her no. She kept sneaking closer to the box even as I kept moving it. I even found her hands stuck inside the box with the top closed. Chris & I started talking, thus not paying attention. I noticed it was quiet and wondered where she'd gone. I looked behind me to find her stil...l at the table with the box top wide open. Chris started getting on to her, and we both walked over to her as she stuck her hand inside her mouth, obviously trying to take something out of her full mouth. Looking inside the box, this is what we found!!!! Several doughnuts w/bites out of them! This is after I found her helping herself to vanilla wafers earlier in the day! (6/28/10)

is excited about my brother, his wife, and 2 nieces coming today! (6/29/10)

so Katie asked if she could watch t.v. I said, "yes," thinking I like a little Disney Channel from time to time. When the t.v. came on, it was on the World Cup. You'd have thought it was Christmastime, she was so excited. She is now sitting here watching ESPN like it's her favorite channel. (6/29/10)

is listening to happy squealing & playing from 4 little girl cousins....the 5th has been put to bed. (6/29/10)

wonders what mischief 5 little girls will get into tomorrow? I do know that a script for "Toy Story 4" has been written and costumes were being assembled when it was time for bed. We'll see where this goes from there...... (6/30/10)

is heading to NASA today with Josh, Beth, Ann Elise, Morgan, Gracie, & Katie. Chris & Ellie will be staying here due to the fact that she has decided to run fever due to an ear infection which is due to a virus. Oh! Can't forget that she threw up on him, too. I look forward to seeing NASA but have to admit the ide...a of staying home on a rainy, gray day is kinda tempting, too....... (7/2/10)

rowed the boat home from NASA, almost literally. NASA itself was a bit underwhelming. Maybe it was the weather making the day a bit off, but I am still glad we got to do together. I did take offense at the employee saying, "Cheaaaap" when we declined to pay $5 for a light saber. Of course, she denied saying it, but... I'm pretty sure my ears worked correctly. (7/2/10)

has had a truly wonderful time visiting with my brother & his family the past 4 days. The kids love playing together, and the adults have enjoyed visiting as well. I'm thankful for this time and pray they return home to Nashville safely. (7/2/10)

Keeps thinking about a very special friend who is about to have a fabulous week! Her husband returned home safely from Iraq last week and now they've surprised their children with a trip to Disney World! Thanks to Marcie Munoz from Off to Neverland Travel for helping put it all together in a short amount of time! (7/3/10)

is home with sweet Ellie this morning since she's still a bit warm. Chris & I were both supposed to teach class this morning which is always a dangerous plan with kids like ours! I'm sure my little babies were well taken care of by Leatha Bailey and Greg Schroeder ! (7/4/10)

what do you do when your in laws stop for a quick stopover on their way home from a trip and mention they'd like to nap? Leave the napping 2 year old who doesn't feel great with them and head to the pool with the 2 other girls who feel fine!!! :) Thanks!!! (7/4/10)

Is happy that Ellie's fever seems to be gone (and has had no Motrin all day). Gracie & Katie played with sparklers, enjoyed a little bit of fireworks from the front yard, and is now seeing some fireworks out our back window. (7/4/10)

has 1 child sleeping, 1 child having 'quiet time,' and 1 child off with a friend after playing at the beach club this morning. This means quiet time for me, too! :)
(7/6/10)

Was ready for bed awhile ago. However, Gracie-who will be 10 this month-found one of her favorite picture books earlier tonight while cleaning the playroom and asked me if I'd read her a bedtime story. Times like these are precious, so I just didn't think I could refuse. She's growing up so fast! (7/6/10)

-"When I woke up, I found my little self on the floor." quote from Katie (7/7/10)

Isn't feeling particularly confident of myself ever since Ellie pointed at a certain part of me and said, "Ewww!" (7/8/10)

Has a picnic packed & a destination on my phone's map....the girls & I are going exploring! (7/10/10)

Has had a fun day acting like a Houston tourist and is now enjoying an impromptu decision to attend the Astros vs Cardinals game...gotta love $7 tickets + kids got in FREE! Quite a walk up to the seats but great view once we got up here! (7/10/10)

had such a nice day: visited the Houston Arboretum, Discovery Green, and went to the Astros game. So blessed to have a family to share days like this with. Looking forward to worshiping with our church family tomorrow and beginning VBS tomorrow night. "Good 'ole Noah built an Ark......" (7/10/10)

had a weird experience tonight. As I was standing at the end of the aisle at church during VBS, ushering my 1st graders to their seats, I noticed a little blonde girl sitting a few rows in front of me, staring at me. I glanced at her & wondered who she was and why she was staring right at me like that. I then realiz...ed it was ELLIE! Seriously, when did my baby girl start growing up so quickly?! (7/11/10)

we were watching a sneak peek of "Kid In A Candy Store" on Food Network b/c our local Chocolate Bar is supposed to be on it at some point. A few minutes into it, Katie asked, "So where's the kid?" Gracie said it was just CALLED "Kid In A Candy Store." Katie was quiet for a minute then said, "so where's the kid?" (7/11/10)

after watching "The Bakery Bunch" on TLC, Gracie decided she needed cupcakes and proceeded to make them 85% by herself. They are baking now. Yum! (7/12/10)

Loves bonding with my girls, and believe me, Gracie & I bonded this morning while trying to kill a(nother!) large unwanted creature that found its way into our home. She was crying, we both were screaming, she had the shoe, I had the broom, she had the dustpan, I flushed. *shudder* She's such a trooper! Our adrenal...ine was HIGH! I'd rather bond over American Girl dolls though......... (7/14/10)

thinks the simple joys in life are often appreciated more by our children than us. I took the girls to Chick Fil A where they were giving away small samples of their 'cookies 'n cream milkshakes.' The PURE joy Ellie experienced while devouring those samples gave ME joy just in watching her. (7/14/10)

is blessed to have participated in MCOC's VBS yet again. A huge thanks goes out to so many, especially Jennifer Reinsch Schroeder for coordinating, directing, & dreaming up wonderful ideas for a great way to present a story to the audience! I know so many are appreciative of her hard work (along with many others!) (7/14/10)

Katie just got sent to time out because she was licking the inside of the butter tub. (7/16/10)

playing Houston tourist.......

This morning, Chris had VBS play practice til about 1:00. The girls & I were sitting around doing nothing much more than watching tv & playing on the computer, so I decided we needed to do something more constructive.

I made a plan (somewhat anyway) and we headed to the Houston Arboretum with a text to Chris to meet us there when he was finished with practice. It was a pretty neat place; I want to go back & spend more time. Inside the Nature Center, Gracie & Katie enjoyed finding animals in the artificial tree and listening to information about the animals. Ellie enjoyed walking around and pushing buttons, etc.

I had packed a picnic, but one of the workers said they don't really have places for picnics, so we planned to eat somewhere else. Meanwhile, Chris called & said he would head that way which wouldn't take long at all from the church. The girls & I headed out to walk one of the trails. We had forgotten mosquito repellant, and they were swarming! I was also a little nervous of getting lost out there with 3 girls (one being 2 years old and a sloooow walker) or getting on a trail that was longer than we were prepared to walk. So...we just walked 1 trail and Chris was there when we finished it and the girls were hungry! I liked it but we just got a little taste of it today. I will plan to go back. I took a list of some classes; I know the girls would enjoy them!

We headed to a nearby park to have our picnic, but after driving the wrong way on a 1 way street (that wasn't clearly marked) and not knowing exactly where the picnic areas were (obviously) we decided to head to another place I'd been wanting to explore: Discovery Green, a park in the middle of Downtown Houston. We found it and found a place to park and finally got to have our picnic. We were ready. We were pleased to find that in the shade, it was really quite nice weather. Even later in the sun, there were some nice breezes that helped break up the heat.

Our view from our picnic bench. Gave us an idea for later in the day........

This sidewalk where we ate reminded us of a street in Aiken, 'South Boundary,' that is lined with Live Oaks.

When I was looking online at information about Discovery Green, I saw that they had one of those water areas, so I had the girls pack their swim suits just in case we found it and they wanted to play in it. Of course.......once we found it, they wanted to play in it! :)

Poor Ellie. With so many kids running around and how big of an area it was, we decided not to let her participate since one of us would need to be with her and we didn't want to get that wet. She watched & fussed.

Chris decided to take her for a walk with the hope that she would nap. Of course, she didn't. ;)

I've been hearing about Discovery Green and wanting to visit it. It was......okay. The girls had a great time playing in the water, and it was neat to see it and be downtown. However, like I told Chris, the girls can play in water in our own suburb where we don't have to pay for parking. :) I'm still glad we went though!

We went back to the Arboretum to pick up Chris' car then decided to be spontaneous and go to the Astros game! Why not, right?! We dropped off his car somewhere else so we could ride together and headed to the stadium. We got cheap seats ($7 seats!) and the kids are FREE! Of course, we had to pay for parking and pay for food....but at least the seats were cheap! They were high up in the stadium, but it really was a nice view. It was just the climb that was a bit bothersome! LOL

So fun to sing, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch.

Eating hot dogs before the game started.

then some ice cream & popcorn

Ellie was restless.....then she was OUT! :)

I thought it was funny to see people watching from a rooftop next door, outside the stadium.

Gracie, not being quite the sports enthusiast, enjoyed her time playing on her daddy's iPhone! :)

It was a fun day!

We plan to go back to see the Astros play the Cubs in a few weeks when my parents are here. My dad is a huge Cubs fan. I think Katie is already planning to be unloyal and root for the Cubs with her Pappy! Forgive her....she's young! :) (and that was the name of her softball team, so she has a shirt & visor already! LOL)