June 2014

In June, we celebrated Emma's 4th birthday and the last day of school (both on June 13th), and enjoyed a visit from Baba, Meemaw, and Abby, who also flew in the night of June 13th. We went down the Kitty Hawk, NC, to see Kill Devil Hills, where the first flight was made, drove up to Williamsburg to see the historic town, and took a tour on the Victory Rover of the naval base areas in Norfolk. Abby stayed through the weekend to see Emma's first dance recital at the Sandler Performing Arts Center on June 21st. June also signaled the end of the Awana year, and a break in dance classes for Emma after her recital. She loved dancing on stage. I was afraid she'd get nervous or freeze up (the theater seats right under 1500 people), but she had a blast. Her class was very cute, and we enjoyed seeing the other performances too.

We had Vacation Bible School (themed Agency D3: Discover, Decide, Defend) June 22-26, while Jered was on a work trip in Fort Worth, Texas. I taught the grades 1-3 Bible Study class with our pastor's wife, and really enjoyed the curriculum. Each kid was a "secret agent" investigating the evidence of Christ's saving power. The kids were very excited about it, and Will was totally on fire about the study. They gave the kids a song CD to take home (definitely not the same kind of VBS songs I remember - think secret agent movie themes!) that they listen to in the car a lot. Will had been asking us about baptism for a couple of months prior, and attended a class on baptism the week following VBS. We are very happy that he has decided he wants to be baptized and make public his personal relationship with Christ.

We also started Summer Reading programs through the Virginia Beach Public Library (and partnership with Will's school, Shelton Park Elementary), and the JEB Little Creek base library. The kids read a certain number of books per week, and they get prizes. Will finished all 20 of his books for both programs within a couple of weeks, and Emma and I have about 15 each, so we're still getting some prizes.  They also have programs like weekly crafts, movie afternoons, puppet shows, and other weekly activities like Lego Club that we have been enjoying this summer.