Eli's Week at VBS

What a difference a year makes! Here is a picture of me and Eli at Vacation Bible School last year in June when he was only 7 months old. He was so little then!


Here is our picture this year. Look at how big he looks at 19 months old. What a handsome little cowboy!


This year I helped co-direct VBS with my friend from church, Mrs. Brenda. We use Lifeway's material every year and this year the theme was super cute and fun! We celebrated Saddle Ridge Ranch all week at our church. It was so much fun to see all the little girls and boys dressing like cowboys and cowgirls during that week. The best part was seeing the kids learn the message that if they need answers they can always turn to God and his truths. What a fabulous week of learning and growing!

Eli was SO GOOD the entire week at VBS. He's not old enough to attend yet (our youngest class is for 4 year olds), but he did get to sit with them every morning during our Worship Rally. "B", the 4 year old teacher, came and got him from me every morning and Eli got to sit with her class and participate and have lots of fun.

As you can tell from all the pictures below, all the kids had TONS of fun the entire week. I'm so glad Eli and I were able to participate again this year.

The cutest cowboy at Saddle Ridge Ranch this year!

Eli looks like a deer in the headlights and the little girl next to him is very unimpressed with what is going on around her. Fun times at VBS!

Notice the stuffed animals in Eli's hands? Mo the monkey and the pony he got from Grammy and Pop his 1st Christmas came to VBS everyday with Eli. They were his friends all week :)

Another day with Mo and the horse
(we need a name for the horse, so any suggestions are welcome!)

Every afternoon I helped with our dismissal which meant I wasn't able to get Eli out of the nursery immediately, so Kassi usually went and got him for me. It didn't take Eli long to become pretty smitten with her. He wouldn't even come to me some afternoons after playing with her. He wanted to go home with her. It was so cute to see him flirting :) And, yes, he eventually HAD to go home with Momma instead of the pretty college girl!

Eli with his VBS girlfriend, Kassi

Watching the opening worship rally with B

The next picture cracks me up! Holden, the teenage boy on the right, was one of our youth helpers this week. Our youth group came through in a HUGE WAY this week. We had over 75 workers everyday and the majority of them were youth workers. Holden helped out in recreation the entire week. Once he figured out I was his ticket to being in the picture slideshow at the end of the week, he did everything he could to become the most photographed youth at VBS that week. I don't have enough blog space to post all the pictures that he managed to get in, but he usually did a pose similar to this one. What a goofball! The kids had so much fun being around him though and we couldn't have done VBS without great workers like him!


VBS creates lasting friendships for lots of our kids. What a fun week to spend with your friends!

Ms. Essie and Ms. Annie, our wonderful 5 year old teachers

Showing off my hula hooping skills to the kids in recreation.

Partaking of the delicious cookies at the Big Sky Grill
(or Big Sky Bakery as one of our kids called it)

Every year during VBS we pick a ministry to collect our mission's offering for all week. To make things a little more exciting for the kids we usually let our pastors pick sides and the winning side gets to put a pie in the loser's face. This year we collected money for our church's Single Mom's Ministry. Dusty, our youth pastor, and Stephen, our music minister, picked sides and the entire week we reminded the kids about one of them getting a pie in the face. The kids were doing so well that we raised the bar for them. If they raised over $500, then both of our pastors would get a pie in the face. The kids were up to the challenge and came through at the very end!

Dusty and Stephen-BEFORE

Dusty and Stephen-AFTER

The last day of the week, our kids put on a show for their parents to show them everything they learned during the week of VBS. They love getting to show their parents all the fun they had at VBS.

Claire and Katie during the horse racing contest

Milah helped me out SO MUCH by taking care of Eli for me during the first part of the performance. Because of all she did for me, I was able to take lots of pictures and help Dusty and Stephen when they needed it.

My co-director, Brenda, and her sweet little girl, Rachel.
Rachel and Eli are exactly one year apart. I love being able to get a preview of what Eli is going to be doing when he is her age.

Look at all those kids!
They did a wonderful job singing all the songs they learned during their week at VBS.

Towards the end of their performance, Eli was sitting with B and she asked him if he wanted to go sing and dance with the kids on stage. He said, "Uh huh!" They went to the front row and B put Eli down to see what he would do...

He decided he'd join them on stage and sing, too!

He turned around and grabbed B's hand to go up there with him.

B went but only because she was scared he was going to fall down the stairs. It was so funny to watch all this happen. I have a short video of this to post, so be watching for it.

All in all, VBS was extremely tiring (Eli took a 3 hour nap every day when we got home), but it was extremely fun. I loved being able to see the kids having fun, making new friends, and most importantly, learning more about Jesus. I can't wait until my little buckaroo gets to participate in this life changing week one day!