Marshall Forest

Last week our family went over to Marshall Forest on Horseleg Creek.

We walked on the trail and had a lot of fun on a gorgeous spring day.

There was a bridge over a dry creek bed.

There were fallen trees to stand on.

There were trails to follow...

...and lots of plants to see.

It was warm and sunny.

Where last season's life ended...

...this season's new life began.

There were even cool bugs to see.
Here Julia points at a caterpillar.

It was a fun afternoon jaunt for the family.

And even Daddy got to strike a pose,

Easter Hunts

Easter, as Pastor Mac likes to say, is "the Super Bowl" for Christians.
Interesting metaphor.
This years was full of Easter egg hunts.

There was a hunt at the Library.

Julia went on her first hunt...

...and Junior helped show her the ropes.

Julia was all about eating the treasures she found.

We had another hunt put on by our church, Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church. You can see Julia was just content to pick up rocks and put them in her basket.

The church hunt took place at the Burk Farm, and Julia roamed the grounds with Daddy.

Stephen rescued an open egg.

The hunt was over in less than a minute, with speedy kids like Junior snapping up the eggs.

Syndi was in a different hunt with older kids.
She's getting so big!

Here she is hanging with Eli and Abbie.

Stephen had fun wading through the grass at the Burk Farm...

...and so did Junior.

The kids had a lot of fun playing after the Bible message.

Junior and Parker hanging out in a house.

At home, the kids decorated their own eggs again this year.
Syndi is ever the artist.

Stephen and Junior are very creative, too.
It's been so fascinating to watch how they are different from one another in their artistic styles.

Thirty farm-fresh, hard-boiled eggs, and they didn't even last us two weeks!
Hope you had a happy Easter!
He Is Risen!

Kidz Blitz 2009

Our church, Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church, recently held the Kidz Blitz program in our sanctuary.

Kids and parents alike went on stage and were involved in the competition. This particular game (shown above) had children using a razor to shave shaving-cream-laden water balloons atop their fathers' heads.
Mom held the balloon on Dad's head while the kids shaved off all the shaving cream. As it worked out, neither balloon popped, leaving the fathers dry...and rather relieved. That is, until some assistants came over and popped the water balloons on the dads' heads!
Hundreds of children from our church, other churches and our local community attended. The kids repeated after the leader, shouting scriptural truths which they were being taught throughout the night. The loudest team won points.

Even the assistants, Tony Carver (L) and Lana Ogle (R), were pulled into the fun by our event coordinator, Donnie Slade (C).

Here they ended up with powdered faces!

They hadn't bargained for that!

Kids did all kind of cool games, unlike your standard kid games. You don't normally see kids hanging from a harness on the stage of the sanctuary.

Kidz Blitz was a great event!

Kids and parents both were excited and eager to see what would happen next.

Kids learned truths from God's Word.

Kids came forward and were saved at the closing invitation.

I'd certainly give it my recommendation!

http://kidzblitz.com/