at the AWANA drive-in

AWANA does a drive-in movie night once a year where the kids get to bring a cardboard box car and watch a movie under the stars.  Due to poor planning, Lyla did not go last year.  But we planned ahead this time and marked it on our calendars.  I reminded Travis a few nights prior to drive-in night that he needs to make her a car.  Although he had so many other things going on, he decided to start on it right away.  I encouraged him to keep it simple, but in true Travis form, once he gets going he wants it to be exactly right.  He pulled an all-nighter on Monday night to make this awesome rat-rod for Lyla.  He used a diaper box for the body, pizza boxes, paper plates for wheels, paper towel rolls for the pipes, plastic bins for the front and back windshield, water bottles for the headlights and tail-lights, and a bottle cap for the fuel cap.  What a great creation!  I was shocked when I came downstairs in the morning to see this bad boy in our kitchen.  Lyla was pretty jazzed too.

We pulled up to AWANA and the kids got to "park" their cars wherever they wanted.  Some of these cars were really spectacular!

There was a volkswagon bus, hot pink cadillac, princess carriage, old-school batmobile, and so much more.  Some of these parents really spent time on these beauties.  A few of them even had working headlights!

130 kids watching Veggietales as the sun goes down.

Lyla sat still in her very cramped car enjoying the movie.  I somehow was able to stuff her in this thing with an entire mexican blanket to keep her warm and her jacket to use as a pillow.  Her little arms could barely maneuver enough to hold onto her box of popcorn.

She had such a great time and she was very proud of her little vehicle.  She got lots of comments like, "cool car, lyla!" to which she replied, "Thanks, but it's not a car, it's a rat rod".  She is surely her father's daughter.

cubbie graduation

Last night we celebrated Lyla's completion of one year of being an AWANA cubbie.  We walked into the room about two minutes late and the ceremony had already started.  Much to our surprise, Lyla ran straight down the aisle and right up on stage with no hesitation and gave mr. darius a big hug!  He was in mid-sentence and addressing the entire room when he was attacked by our daughter.  He immediately picked her up and held her in his arms while he completed his speech on stage.  Lyla has no stage fright whatsoever.  Yikes!

It was so cute to see all the little cubbies standing up at the front and getting their certificates.  Some of them got awards for completing their books and some got "good effort" awards.  My favorite part of the night is at the beginning when the kids do worship.  They sing songs like "Trust in the Lord with all your heart" and "Make a joyful noise (NOISE!) to the Lord" and "Jump up and down (hey!), I believe in Jesus".  The songs are really up-beat and the dance moves that mr. darius choreographed are fun too (even for me!).  Yeah, that's right...I know some of the moves.

Lyla received a certificate for completing her book!  We are such proud AWANA cubbie parents.  In Proverbs 22:6 the bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it".  I think it's wonderful that this is a promise in the bible that our children WILL NOT depart from the ways that we train them.  It doesn't say that they probably will not or may not depart.  The bible promises that if you train them in the ways they should go, they WILL NOT depart from it.  Wow.  I love to rest in this verse and know that our hard work as parents will pay off in the long run.  The time and energy we invest in them now will help them into their adulthood.  Thank you, Lord, for your awesome covenant!

what we're looking forward to this summer

There are so many fun events coming up that I wanted to share.  I am sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as our summer plans, but here's our list so far:

wednesday, june 6 - AWANA graduation night

friday, june 8 - We're going to the San Diego County Fair!  Admission is only $4 on opening day, so we are going to take advantage.

saturday, june 9 - Father-Daughter date night at Reliance Church.  Description from the website: "Reliance is excited to host a special Father-Daughter Date Night, featuring an ice-cream social and movie viewing.  Men are encouraged to take their daughters out to dinner before this formal event to spend some quality time together. Girls are encouraged to wear fancy dresses for this elegant evening."

sunday, june 17 - Father's Day.

monday, july 9 - Trav's 32nd birthday. 

friday, august 9 - "Meet your teacher" night at Lyla's school.  Lyla will get to meet her preschool teacher and see her classroom.

monday, august 13 - Lyla's first day of preschool!

I will be blogging about everything, so stay tuned for a lot of posts!

spider girl

Last night was "super- hero" night at AWANA.  The only thing that Lyla has ever dressed up as before is a princess, so this was a brand new concept for us.  She will occasionally ask us to tie a blanket around her neck so that she can fly around the house like super man, but that's about it.  She does love super hero movies like "Superman" and "Green Lantern".  So, I was pretty excited about super hero night.  Travis and I went to the Disney store to see what we could find.  The salesgirl had a really cute idea.  She suggested that Lyla dress up as Rapunzel and carry a frying pan as her super hero weapon.  I immediately thought about how many little AWANA cubbies would end up with concussions by the end of the night.  Nope, onto the boy department...

We had a good selection to choose from with "The Avengers" coming soon.  They had options like buzz lightyear, captain america, hulk, iron man, thor, and...spider man.  Since spidey doesn't require any props and is a fairly simple costume, spider man jammies it was.  We threw on a red beanie and showed her some spidey moves and she was ready for the night!

I wish there were sound effects here.  She makes a cute noise when she throws out her webs.

Lyla's bible verse for the night was "Children, obey your parents in the Lord."  - Ephesians 6:1.  For obvious reasons, I love this scripture and spent extra time in reviewing this with her this week!  I have to say that Lyla has been so good lately.  I think we are well past the terrible twos and onto a very enjoyable time with her. 

our little AWANA cubbie

Tonight was 3rd quarter awards night at AWANA.  Check out Lyla in her Cubbie's vest with all the patches she has earned!  We're so proud of Lyla for memorizing her bible verses and reciting them every week to her teachers.

And look who came to awards night...baaba, grandpa, and auntie trisha!  Trisha was here for her spring break trip this week, so we got to spend some time with her.  I snapped this photo during worship time.  Lyla was really enjoying herself.  She was so excited she could hardly sit still the whole time.  Lyla got called up to the stage at the very beginning of the night to share a testimony.  Darius said she came up a couple weeks ago and asked for prayer because she was sick.  The next week she went up and told everyone, "Jesus healed me!".  It was so sweet.  She had absolutely no problem with speaking into the microphone in front of everyone.

Lyla did win a prize as well.  She got a little goodie bag filled with games, candy, and stickers.  At the end of the night, she even had a chance to recite her verse for this week, "Love your neighbor" -Galatians 5:14.  She earned another patch for that gem!  That vest will be filled up in no time.

"I don't want to raise a good child"

A friend shared this article with me on facebook when I posted a photo of Lyla's incident report from AWANA. Lyla had to be disciplined with a time-out because she wasn't listening when she was told three times to hold onto the rope like all the other kids were doing. Lyla can be so stubborn when she doesn't want to obey (which is about 99% of the time). This article is so encouraging to mothers of strong-willed children. Please read if you are one of those moms!

March 15, 2012
I Don’t Want to Raise a Good Child
by Lysa TerKeurst

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (NIV 1984)

My daughter, Hope, is a senior this year. And she decided her senior year should be adventurous and a little out of the “normal” box. A lot out of the box actually.

She withdrew from traditional school. Applied with the state to homeschool. Enrolled in online college courses that would allow her to get both high school and college credit simultaneously. And planned to spend the month of January serving in Nicaragua doing missions.

This didn’t surprise me really. Hope has always liked charting her own course. This thrills me now. But it didn’t thrill me so much in the early years of raising this strong-spirited child.

When she was really little I was scared to death I was the world’s worst mom, because Hope was never one to be contained. And I honestly thought all her extra tenacity was a sign of my poor mothering.

One day I took her to the mall to meet several of my friends with toddlers to grab lunch. All of their kids sat quietly eating cheerios in their strollers. They shined their halos and quoted Bible verses and used tissues to wipe their notes.

Not Hope.

She was infuriated by my insistence she stay in her stroller. So, when I turned away for a split second to place our lunch order, she wiggled free. She stripped off all her clothes. She ran across the food court. And jumped in the fountain in the center of the mall.

Really, nothing makes the mother of a toddler feel more incapable than seeing her naked child splashing in the mall fountain. Except maybe that toddler refusing to get out and said mother having to also get into the fountain.

I cried all the way home.

Not because of what she’d done that day. But rather because of how she was everyday. So determined. So independent. So insistent.

I would beg God to show me how to raise a good child. One that stayed in her stroller. One that other people would comment about how wonderfully behaved she was. One that made me look good.

But God seemed so slow to answer those prayers. So, over the years, I changed my prayer. “God help me to raise Hope to be who You want her to be.” Emphasis on, “God HELP ME!”

I think I changed my prayers for her because God started to change my heart. I sensed He had a different plan in mind for my mothering of Hope.

Maybe God’s goal wasn’t for me to raise a good rule-following child. God’s goal was for me to raise a God-following adult. An adult just determined and independent and insistent enough to fulfill a purpose He had in mind all along.

Today’s key verse reminds us we are training children so that when they are old they will not turn away from Biblical principles, but rather implement them in their life-long pursuit of God. Remember, the things that might aggravate you about your child today, might be the very things when matured that make them great for God’s kingdom tomorrow.

I’ve certainly seen this in raising Hope.

I don’t know what mama needs to hear this today. But let me encourage you from the bottom of my heart with three simple mothering perspectives you must hang on to:
1. Don’t take too much credit for their good.2. Don’t take too much credit for their bad.3. Don’t try to raise a good child. Raise a God-following adult.

And all the mamas of fountain dancing children said, “Amen!”

The generous heart of my 3-year-old

Last night was Awards Night at AWANA. AWANA is a church program for kids that meets once a week. They break into separate age groups and they have different activities based on their group. Lyla is a "Cubbie" which is for the preschoolers. She has a short bible verse to memorize each week and she usually does a great job with memorizing and reciting. I invited my parents along for the awards ceremony because Lyla was going to be rewarded for preparedness and knowing her bible verses. What they do is give kids tickets whenever they get special recognition throughout the quarter. The tickets go into a can and names are drawn out at awards night. So, Lyla had two tickets in the can.

The night started with fun worship music for the kids (the pic above shows Lyla clapping along to one of the songs in her cute little Cubbies vest). Then they taught a message about transformation and how we are changed when we accept Jesus into our hearts. They wrapped it up with the big drawing and handing out the prizes. Lyla's name was called and she got a princess wand with inter-changeable jewels. She was pretty excited about it and waved it around proudly. This was not the type of event where every kid in the room walked out with a prize. A handful of kids didn't get anything. It was so sad! One little girl was crying and pointing at Lyla's wand. She said, "I always wanted that!" with tears rolling down her red cheeks. I was holding Lyla in my arms outside and explained to her that sometimes it's better to give than to receive and that sometimes God will bless us even more when we choose to bless others. Now, Lyla is a typical 3 year old...what I mean is that she is supremely selfish. I expected her to clutch her new toy to her chest and guard it fiercely. But, to my surprise, she said, "I am going to give my prize to that poor little girl". So I put her down and she walked over to the girl and gave her the wand! That little girl could not have had a bigger smile on her face! She sprinted toward her mom, exclaiming, "MOM, that little girl BLESSED me with this gift!". I was so proud of Lyla for giving up her toy to make someone else happy. It is so sweet to see God working in the hearts of little ones.