Salem VBS

 COVID-19 has certainly changed the way everything operates this year! Instead of holding a huge on-campus Vacation Bible School this summer, the children's ministry team at our church moved everything online. They created videos for each day and sent out instructions to run five stations of activities for five days. Our family didn't do the five VBS days all in a row, but we did select our favorite activites to do over the course of a couple weeks. Daddy was still on vacation and was even able to participate with us for a few of the days.

BIBLE TIME

We started each day by watching the Bible time video. It included some catchy songs that the kids (sometimes) enjoyed dancing to.

Each video included a presentation of the daily theme and a brief Bible story lesson by a different church leader. Daddy was even the leader one day!

GAMES

Not surprisingly, our kids were most excited about doing games next. We typically put Jaden and Cody on the same team against Mommy and Daddy or against Mommy and Adley to assure that everyone ended in a good mood. :) During the week, we did relay races...

with Adley as our timekeeper!

More relay races...

balloon baseball-- blindfolded!...

a tag game that even included some neighbor friends...

and a racing game involving cups.

MISSIONS

Another station involved doing craft activities that could be used to bless others. Our favorite missions activity was decorating eyeglass cases that will be taken to Kenya on our church's next Eyeglass Clinic Mission Trip. We loved this hands-on way of getting involved!

For the next activity, our leaders wanted us to remember to be thankful in prayer all throughout our day. We printed off "thankful cards" and hung them in various places around our home as reminders to talk to God. We kept these signs up for several weeks.

The kids also liked decorating these cross suncatchers. They were encouraged to share their completed crafts with somebody else. Jaden and Adley gave their crosses to grandparents, while Cody gifted his to one of our neighbors, a sweet lady who lives on her own. This neighbor said the gift made her day!

SNACKS

Each day also included options of snacks that tied into the daily theme. Some days even included "building" with their food. The kids, of course, loved having permission to play with their food!

The final station was a "Family Chat Time" where we were given questions to talk about that related to our daily theme. We were encouraged to share pics of our family doing these VBS activities on our church's online Children's ministry page. It was fun seeing other families doing similar activities and fostered an important sense of community. We were thankful for our amazing Children's Ministry team that planned this wonderful, unique, and Christ-centered week for us!

Angels Baseball

This season of baseball was such a roller coaster ride! The boys were drafted to the Angels team with the same coach as last year, which we were very excited about. They began practicing in February. Then, just a week before their Grand Slam parade and opening game day, the coronavirus took over. The season was postponed, and we weren't sure if they'd be able to play at all. Thankfully, in early June, the league was finally given the go-ahead to continue with a shortened season. 

It was so enjoyable watching these boys play. The players on their team could all hit decently, and their fielding had much improved from last year, too. That means the games were much more action-packed with a lot more outs (due to good fielding, not just strike outs!) and exciting plays at the plate. We were proud of our two Angels!

 

CODY

Cody seemed to show a lot more overall confidence as an Angel. He was a very consistent hitter who didn't strike out at all this season! Cody would tear around the bases whenever he got a hit and especially loved stealing bases. The coach most often put him in the shortstop position. He did a great job of fielding the ball and being very aware of where to throw the ball next. He could even launch it all the way to 1st base, if needed. Cody also had to learn to back up 2nd base, too, as shortstop.

Cody in action...

JADEN

Coach Josh liked putting Jaden in as pitcher again this year. Their level was still machine-pitch, so Jaden's role was receiving the ball from the catcher after each pitch and tossing the ball to the coach on the mound. Because he was in a prime fielding position, Jaden had the opportunity to field quite a few hits and send the ball to 1st base. He made some good outs, both in tandem with the 1st baseman and by catching some hits on his own. He always had to be aware of where the ball needed to be. Jaden was a strong hitter (no strikeouts all season!) and would often hit the ball on the very first pitch.

After four official games (and one scrimmage), the boys and their team were on a roll. They handily won 3 games and lost, but came in close on the fourth game, scoring 10+ runs at most games. Jaden and Cody eagerly remembered their team's stats and enjoyed checking their division standings on the league website after each game. Unfortunately, at this point, the coronavirus spiked in our area, and our Little League was forced to cancel the remainder of the season. Jaden and Cody were so disappointed by this sudden change, especially since it was the second time their games had been cancelled. We were so bummed that that wouldn't be able to finish out their strong season.

Thankfully, the season's roller coaster wasn't done yet. Shortly after hearing about this cancellation, we heard from our team coach. He and another coach in the league were organizing an informal "Sandlot Baseball League." Our team was reassembling, with any players that felt comfortable playing, and would play three more games at a local park.

Our boys jumped at the chance to play again! We even got permission for our nephew Ryan (who had been playing on a different team in the same league) to join our "sandlot" team. These three were thrilled to play together!

These park games were definitely unique! The coaches kept to the normal league rules as much as possible but allowed for younger siblings to join in as players too. We didn't have access to pitching machines, so they played coach-pitch games. It was a very relaxed setting, a little hot, but enjoyable all-around. We loved having lots of family members come out to support the boys.

Here were both sandlot teams-- the Angels and the White Sox.

Angels players: Eliot, Dylan, Korbyn, Cody, Luke, Henry, Ryan, Alec, Jaden, Wyatt, Caffrey

 

And a few more action videos of both boys: 

(Cody--1st and 3rd video; Jaden 2nd and 4th)

It was a crazy season, for sure, but definitely one the boys will always remember!