Wild Week

Just after Jaden and Cody turned four, they attended Wild Week, our church's Vacation Bible School program. Both Jason and I were at church all morning during Wild Week, but neither of us was a leader in the boys' pre-K classroom. Thankfully, Cody and Jaden handled the long mornings quite well and truly seemed excited to go back each morning! It helped that a sweet friend of mine was the boys' classroom leader for the week. She helped them feel so comfortable and even sent me a few pics of the boys at game time. The pics of Cody didn't come out very clearly, so here is Jaden at least!

At the end of Wild Week, Jason planned a culminating family event on Friday evening. He kicked off the event with a kids' fun run. The entire theme of Wild Week was "Walk this Way," so the run fit nicely into the week's activities. The kids were encouraged to raise money for this event, and the money was donated to a few families in our area that have children with special needs. Cody and Jaden were proud to be in their first "road race"!

The fun run was less than a mile and even contained a water-gun shooting obstacle. Cody and Jaden ran the entire distance and crossed the finish line a little wet, but full of pride!

After the fun run, we were treated to a yummy sloppy joe dinner, and then the kids were free to play various yard games that were set up around the church parking lot. Also during the evening, Jason and his co-worker Amanda participated in their end-of-the-week challenge. Jason and Amanda had told the Wild Week kids all week if they raised a certain amount of money, they would walk across a large pile of jagged rocks. (This challenge was much more desirable to Jason than his challenge to kiss a snake last year!!) Of course, the kids met the monetary goal, so Jason and Amanda fulfilled their jagged rock duty. Ouch!

On the Sunday following Wild Week, the kids sang the Wild Week theme song at the beginning of both services at church. The number of kids singing was a small percentage of the 600+ attendees that week, but they still made a cute showing! :) I had Jaden and Cody sing for both services since we were there all morning anyway. The boys didn't know all the words to the song (God is on the Move) perfectly, but they knew the chorus pretty well and LOVED doing the actions! You can see Jason on the top right of this picture as well.

Here are a couple brief video clips that showcase the boys' favorite parts of the song. It was fun to see them up front and participating nicely.

We are thankful that Daddy planned such a fun, Christ-centered Wild Week that Jaden and Cody could enjoy!