Easter Salvation Storyboard Craft

Easter is coming up in just a few weeks so I thought I would post my all time favorite Easter craft.  I first made this about five years ago when I was preparing the Easter lesson for our church's nursery kids (ages 0-5 years old).  I have used it in several other lessons.  You can adjust it to fit the needs and ages of the children you are teaching.

Scripture
Matthew 27:32-28:10--Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb.

Lesson Objective
Jesus saves me from my sin
-or-
Jesus is alive!

Memory Verse
"All who believe in Jesus have their sins forgiven through his name." (Acts 10:43, simplified from the NIrV)
-or-
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." (1 John 3:16)
-or-
A different verse of your choosing

Salvation Storyboard Craft
Materials
-Illustrated picture of Jesus (check out a free one here)
-Crayons
-Craft sticks, 3 per craft
-Glue
-Construction paper, blue, green, and brown
-Dark colored felt, cut into circles
-Cotton balls

Directions
Ahead of time
-Cut blue and green construction paper in half lengthwise.  Glue together so that the green is overlapping the blue slightly.  Put glue at the ends, leaving the middle open.
-Cut brown construction paper into a semi-circle.  Glue this in the middle of the green paper and tack it down with a dot of glue at the top of the circle on the blue paper.
-Break one craft stick in half.  You can do this by cutting a notch on each side of the stick - it should break easily.


With Child
1. Have child color picture of Jesus.  Glue to a craft stick.  Set aside.
2. Give child a prepared storyboard, a piece of felt, a few cotton balls, and one full plus one half of a craft stick.  Glue craft sticks together to form a cross.  Glue the cross onto the storyboard.

3. Glue the felt circle onto the storyboard.  This will be the stone in front of the tomb.

4. Glue the cotton balls to the right of the tomb.  These will be clouds.
5. Write the following text across the bottom of the storyboard:
     "Jesus died on the cross for my sins."
     "He was buried in the tomb but He came back to life."
     "Then He went home to heaven.  Jesus is alive!"
6. Use the storyboard to tell the story of Jesus dying on the cross, being buried in the tomb and raised to life, and then ascending to heaven.

What's your favorite Easter craft for toddlers and/or preschoolers?

We are Called to Serve - Follow up to the Serving Ones

To post my perspective of the minor sickness epidemics that go through our household I was thinking about Jesus' call to all believers everywhere to serve.  

As He says in Matthew 20:28 after responding to the request of James and John's mother:

²⁸ even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Or I like the Amplified Bible version too that puts it like this :

²⁸ Just as the Son of Man came not to be waited on but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [the price paid to set them free].

There's something so intensely powerful about Jesus' life and ministry.  Yes He is God and yes He was called to die on the Cross for forgiveness of sin and be raised on the third day to overcome death and Satan, yes He was obedient to the Father to the point of death, even death on a cross!  These are all great theological/religious truths and I don't want to downplay the importance of them but until recently, the Holy Spirit has only really begun to cement these into my heart, mind, soul and strength.

I begin to view life like the Paul says in Romans 14:7-8 after talking about considering others in how we live out our freedom in Christ Jesus and not causing anyone to stumble by how we live out our freedom:

⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

We belong to the Lord.  We are not our own!  We were bought at a price!

Do we all fully understand that, WE ARE NOT OUR OWN!

Paul tells us clearly how to respond to this revelation in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (emphasis added):

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Yes this is the context of not indulging in sexual immorality, but the context is clear, honor God with your bodies or as elsewhere:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." - Romans 12:1

We are living sacrifices to God, our lives, our actions, our thoughts, our time, love, money, effort, possessions, spouses, children, family, whatever it is in our lives all belongs to God.  We can try to hold onto them and cheat Him out of those things and try to enjoy life here for ourselves, but ultimately we're going to leave that all anyway and our souls will be demanded from us for accounting before God.  

Another illustration from the Gospel of Luke that has really struck me about how I live life here on earth too from Luke 12:13-21 (emphasis added):

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.  Wow, thats powerful, the whole world tells us to be greedy!  It's so easy to rationalize that that's ok given that everyone else around us doing it.  Or worse still to look around and think to ourselves, we're not so bad, we're doing better than everyone else, I can indulge a little and so toe the line rather than living fully for God.

But Jesus doesn't stop there and leave us hanging, He goes on in Luke 12:22-30 (emphasis added again):

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
²⁷ “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰ For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.

For the pagan world runs after all such things and your Father knows that you need them.

Do we trust God enough to believe that He does know what we need and supplies it as we seek after Him first and foremost in our lives?

And the punchline:

³¹ But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Amen!

But again, Jesus doesn't stop there, He's interested in a more complete transformation Luke 12:32-34:


³² “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What has struck me about verse 34 is that it talks about the heart.  There are many many people doing many many good things, many many Christians doing many many good things, but where do our hearts dwell?  Do they truly dwell on and with our Father or do they still dwell on and with the things of this earth?

Where is my treasure?  Is it in preserving my own life, possessions, well-being?  Or is it in our God?  My prayer is that it would be in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen!

The Serving Ones

The one thing that makes me quiver in my boots and want to hide in a hole in some remote mountain is the thought of the stomach bug rampaging our household. During my Facebook days I would see posts from faraway friends and think, "I hope we don't catch whatever they've got!" Well, it's been about two years since we had a round of the stomach bug, and five years since we had a really horrible round, and I guess it was time for us to go through it again.

Patient zero was none other than 7-month-old Jeremiah. We aren't sure how he got it, but when he threw up all over me and the couch on Monday morning I thought, "How nice would it be to spend our week off from school battling the stomach flu?" I'm living to tell that story. :)

So far it's just been the little guy and the girls, myself included. It's been almost 24 hours since it struck us and I'm hopeful that we're on the mend. However, Jeremiah lost his entire dinner before we even got him out of his highchair tonight, so I'm not sure what that could mean for everyone else. I don't really want to think about it...

The last time we had this bug we had to throw out all of our area rugs (thankfully they were cheap ones from Walmart) and I'm not quite sure how we kept up on laundry. This time around we have the luxury of a washer and dryer, which have been running non-stop since about 1:30am. While I was getting our last clean blankets from the car to put on the girls' beds last night, I was thankful that our car is all of 5 steps from our front door - no walking up a steep hill in the dead of night and the cold of winter to retrieve blankets. And when I could feel the sunshine and a gentle breeze coming through the bedroom window this afternoon I was thankful that it's not the middle of winter and we're not cooped up in a one bedroom apartment. Praise the Lord!

These "perks" have encouraged me, but the thing that has made this sickness bearable is the relentless service of one very godly man and one godly man in the making. Claude and Joshua have been serving us girls all night and day, from keeping up with the laundry to cleaning couches and carpets. I am so grateful for a husband who puts aside his own needs and plans to take care of his family. It not only enables our household to keep functioning, but it gives Joshua an excellent example - one that he is following despite his talk of running away from throw up. :)

So, here's a big thank you to the serving ones - the men of our family who are truly living out the servant-leadership demonstrated by Jesus Himself.

Homeschool Series: What’s in Store for Next Year

Previously in our little homeschool series we have discussed why we homeschool, what we have done and are doing with toddlers and preschoolers, and what we are doing this year for kindergarten.  Today I’ll be writing about our plans for next school year when we will have a first grader, a kindergartener, a preschooler, and a 1-year-old…and I thought life was a bit hectic this year!  ;)

At the start of August when we began our first official year of homeschooling, I read that it would be wise to already begin thinking about first grade.  This overwhelmed me more than I can describe.  We were learning a memory verse each week and Joshua was starting a phonics/reading program – and that was more than enough each day!  But after following this advice, I now see the wisdom in such a suggestion.

I visited all of the major Christian homeschool curriculum publishers – A Beka, Sonlight, and Horizons to name a few – but none of them seemed quite right.  So, I kept adding to our daily school lessons and continued looking into grade school options.  Then one day in the church nursery, one of the volunteers told me about a program her grandson was using.  They memorized everything from the Five Kingdoms of Living Things to the Hittite Empire to the multiplication tables through 12’s - and her grandson is only six years old.  This, surprisingly, seemed doable to me because it was right in line with how we’ve taught our kids from before they could talk.  We read, we memorize, we recite, we retell, and we repeat, repeat, repeat!

I ordered the book for this program – Classical Conversations – and so began our journey into the classical model of education.  It’s a model that I automatically turned down in all of my reading about different styles of homeschooling.  Who would want to spend all day reading Homer and learning Latin?  But the more I read about the method, the more convinced I became that this would work for our family.  Besides, it's more than ancient literature and dead languages - it's a method that, to me, seems very natural and workable for our family.  I’m not sure that I can give a great explanation of the method, so please refer here to learn more about it.

I read "The Well-Trained Mind" and really liked that the emphasis for the early years is to produce strong readers and writers, and to take time to learn well the foundations of math and English grammar.  I also really liked how natural the history, geography, and science was laid out.  And I loved that history and geography are taught in chronological order starting in first grade with the ancients.  Again, I’m not going to attempt to recreate the wheel here.  If you want to learn more, please read this book and check out this blog or this website.

"The Well-Trained Mind" not only gives a very thorough outline of teaching your child in the classical method from preschool through high school, but it also gives great reviews of the main curriculum choices for math, English grammar and spelling, Latin, and every other subject that is needed in grades K-12.  It is by far the best homeschool book I have ever read because it gives the big picture and also the nitty gritty of how to do it.  I highly recommend this book!

Anyway…back to our plans for next year.

Joshua, turning six in July, will be in first grade.  His school day will look something like this:

-Memory Work – Bible verse, *Science, *History, *Geography, *Math Skip Counting (memory work from Classical Conversations - we will not be doing the CC co-op, but will be using the memory work as a guide in our own lessons)

-Math – Singapore PrimaryMathematics U.S. Edition 1A and 1B (plus Intensive Practice, Extra Practice, Challenging Word Problems, and Math Sprints as needed)

-Handwriting and Structured Reading – A Reason for Handwriting: Manuscript A; reading about weekly science and history/geography topics and writing short notebook entries about what he reads

-Spelling and Grammar – Spell to Write and Read; First Language Lessons, Level 1

-Writing – Copy work and letters to friends and family; Writing with Ease: The Complete Write

-Music – Violin and Piano practice as usual

-History (Mon, Tue, Wed) – The Story of the World, Volume 1; library books and other resources; note-booking about what we read together

-Science (Tue, Wed) – the human body, animals, and other living things using library books and encyclopedias like this and this; hopefully some fun projects to go along with our topics; note-booking about what we read/study together

-Art (Thur) – Drawing with Children; other fun art projects as time allows

The days look full, but Joshua is a busy guy and if he’s not gainfully occupied I’m never really sure what condition the house will be in at the end of the day.  He definitely thrives on structure and lots and lots of fun and appropriately challenging plans.  I’m looking forward to diving into this with him later in the year and I think he’s going to have fun, especially with history and science!

Hannah, turning five in October, is officially slated as a Kindergartener but her work is primarily on the first grade level.  Instead of keeping her on a Kindergarten level in subjects where she’s ready to continue progressing, I’m choosing to keep her load light so she can still work at a good pace in the core subjects but wait on things like grammar and writing.  Her day will look something like this:

-Memory Work – same as Joshua

-Math – same as Joshua with the option to work slower if she needs to (although, math seems to be a strength so I anticipate her keeping up just fine)

-Handwriting and Structured Reading – with Joshua; no required note-booking

-Spelling – Spell toWrite and Read

-Writing – with Joshua with the option of skipping writing if she is tired or needs a break

-Music – Violin and Piano practice as usual

-History (Mon, Tue, Wed) – with Joshua; no required note-booking

-Science (Tue, Wed) – with Joshua; no required note-booking

-Art (Thur) – with Joshua

As for Abigail, who is turning three in September, I have not yet decided the best way to get her involved in school time.  They will certainly join us for the beginning of our Memory Work – we always learn Bible verses together as a family, no matter how old our youngest kiddos are.  Abigail already joins us for Handwriting, so I think we will continue that.  She will certainly be able to participate in special history, science, and art projects, and will also be with us for anything we read aloud.

My plan for Jeremiah is still hatching but I think it will involve one of these.  He is proving to be the most active baby we’ve had so far…I need to keep him safe somehow!  ;)

So, that’s our 2013-2014 academic year in a rather large nutshell.  This year has been challenging but rewarding and fun…overall.  We’re developing a stronger and stronger sense of family community through the common pursuit of “school time”.  I am looking forward to what’s in store for next year.  I am especially excited about diving into the life sciences, ancient history, and geography!  We get to order maps and globes and all kinds of cool books…see Mom, all of those summers playing school in the garage are paying off!  ;)

For all of you homeschoolers out there, what are your plans for next year?

 

Chores

Around the time of our character crackdown escapade, we instituted some assigned chores  to the kids.  This has given them a sense of contribution to the household, some responsibility, and some useful skills that they will need for the rest of their lives.  It has also helped us keep our house in order and has given us some set times of day when we're all working on something together.  Some days our chore times are fun and productive.  Other days we have a handful or more of complainers, but we always make it through and everyone is learning the value of hard work.

Our kids are 5 1/5 years old, 4 years old, 2 years old, and 7 months old.  They're chore routines look like this:

Morning Routine
All three of the older kids accomplish these tasks on their own.  I usually walk Abigail (2 years old) through her routine, but she does all the work.  I simply remind her what she needs to do next.
-Get dressed and put pajamas in the laundry basket.
-Make bed.
-Brush teeth.

Morning Kitchen Chores
-Joshua, 5 1/2 years old: Empty the dishwasher.
-Hannah, 4 years old: Set out cereal, bowls, and spoons for breakfast.
-Abigail, 2 years old: Help Hannah with breakfast set up.

After Meal Chores
Everyone clears their own dishes and puts them in the dishwasher.  I rinse them off when necessary.

"Foursies" at 4pm
Each of the kids has two jurisdictions that they are responsible to clean up at the end of the day.  Abigail is my "Foursies" buddy since she's still very much in training.  "Foursies" is a time of day that the kids have latched onto as a major anchor in our routine.  They get a bit stressed if the clock passes 4pm and we haven't cleaned up.  But, it has to remain flexible.  Some days we do "Foursies" at 1pm so that we can go play at the park and come home to a clean house.  Other days we wait until 5pm, but usually we stick to 4pm.  We try to have fun with this one.  We turn on some upbeat music - the kids like Veggie Tales, Raffi, and Chris Tomlin and I like to throw in some Prokofiev and Shostakovich when I get a chance.  We set a 15 minute timer (or less if we don't have much to pick up) and we race around trying to finish before the "quack".  Then when we finish we have a little treat - a small snack, a game, or a read-aloud time.  Here are the kids' jurisdictions...
-Joshua: Boys' Room and Living Room.
-Hannah: Girls' Room and Kitchen.
-Abigail (with Mommy): Girls' Room and School Room.

Evening Kitchen Chores/Dinner Time Clean Up
We all pitch in with this task.  Claude and I usually clean up pots and pans from dinner preparation and wipe down the counters and stove top.  The kids jobs look like this...
-Joshua: Sweep the floor.  Help load and/or wash the dishes as needed.
-Hannah: Clean the table, chairs, and bench.  Help load and/or wash dishes as needed.
-Abigail: Usually she is asleep by this time, but when she's awake she clears the table, loads the dishwasher, or helps clean the table and chairs.

Dinner clean up isn't always this exuberant, but we're all getting the hang of pitching in so that the work is both easier and more enjoyable.

More Footage of "Leviathan"

Here's some live footage of the alligator we saw 2 weeks ago, hope you enjoy, it's much more awe inspiring when you're actually standing there watching it and hoping it's not annoyed at you!

Coffee and Common Grace

Well I never thought that I would become a coffee drinker but here I am now drinking at least 24 oz a day!  The reasoning to start drinking was simply to help me stay awake on the roads so that I am able to see my family again at the end of the day after work which is something that I just had to make a priority rather than taking chances with falling asleep at the wheel!

So as I drink each day I often think about God's grace and how His grace comes to us.  I'm no theologian nor claim to be but I have heard the term thrown around of God's "Common Grace".  And here's how Dr Tim Keller of NYC's Redeemer Presbyterian explains it:


"The Bible consistently teaches what theologians have come to call “common grace,” a non-saving grace that is at work in the broader reaches of human cultural interaction. This gift of God’s grace to humanity in general demonstrates a desire on God’s part to bestow certain blessings on all human beings, believer and non-believer alike. Understanding common grace provides the basis for Christians to cooperate with and learn from non Christians."

- taken from http://timothykeller.com/images/uploads/pdf/What_Is_Common_Grace.pdf

At least my layman, simpleton interpretation is that God showers grace upon grace down upon humanity and Creation, He certainly doesn't have to but choose to because of His character and nature of being Good and being Love.  I guess in Him He personifies those characteristics because He is those, before we even came to recognize or define the pale attempts of humanity to emulate those characteristics, He is!  

In fact Jesus' exhortation to us to love our enemies in Matthew 5 comes from the call and command to us to be like God, to be holy as He is holy or perfect as He is perfect, i.e. to be transformed by His Word and Spirit and empowered to live by Him so much that loving our enemies flows out of His nature in and through us, not our own.

"But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." - Matthew 5:44-45

So God's grace is not limited to those who believe or who are 'good enough' to believe, or those whom we think are worthy, because frankly we aren't worthy, but Jesus is and that's why we needed Him to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin and to be raised again on the third day so that we too can be raised with Him to eternal life!

So His grace extends to all, whether all acknowledge Him or not!

But how does this relate to coffee at all???  Well in my random thinking, it seems like He has enabled me to recognize this common grace at this time so that I can drive safely on the roads to be present with my family!  Believe me I have prayed and prayed but it doesn't seem like God wants to zap me with some kind of supernatural staying awake power, but part of my dependence on Him at this time is exercising the wisdom to drink coffee!  It's a lesson in trust because we are on a budget and so the thought of having this ongoing expense could lead to worry and anxiety but what does Jesus say:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matt 6:25-33

So, apparently God's going to look after us as we seek after Him first!  Pretty good deal I have to say, pretty good deal :)  Although to be so blase about it would be silly seeing that God would see right through the, "I keep my end of the bargain and you keep yours," type thinking.   But as we passionately and wholeheartedly seek after Him and His heart and what's important to Him, He will supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus as we go on our journey and mission with Him.  

So I guess I don't need to worry, I can trust God which is awesome because He is more than trustworthy!  But I love the punchline of that passage of Scripture in Matthew 5:34

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Even better, it's not our job to be in control of everything in our lives, let alone what's in the future, that's God's job and He seems to do it infinitely better than I could, so I'll just choose to trust Him to do that!

But again back to coffee, as I drink it I meditate on God's goodness and grace and provision.  You could say that even that time of meditation in and of itself is a means of grace to take the time to reflect on Him and give thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all that He's done and is doing for us!  

Praise God!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Friday Funnies: Pretend Play

Joshua and Hannah just came in the room to get Abby.

"Come on, Abby," they coaxed.  "Don't you want to come be put in jail?"

Just before I started a speech about not putting their little sister in jail I heard Abby say with a smile, "Yeah.  I like going to jail."  And off she went, arm in arm with the self-proclaimed Babylonian Jail Arrestors.

Even as I'm typing I hear from the other room, "Abby, do you want to be handcuffed?"

And she replies, "Yeah!"  :)

Incarceration is definitely not my idea of fun, but Abby seems quite happy with her place in the pretend play.

Potty Training and "Pribacy"

Abby (2 1/2 years old) has started potty training...kind of.  I'm not fully on the bandwagon yet, but I need to hurry up before this train takes off without me!

Today I couldn't find Abby in her room during rest time.  I called out to her and heard a little voice shouting back to me from the master bathroom.  "I'm in the potty, Mommy, because I had to go potty because I had to."

This is the third time this week she has gone to the bathroom, taken off her pants and diaper, and sat down on the toilet.  Her favorite thing to do is tear off pieces of toilet paper and stuff them in between her legs.  But my favorite part is hearing her say to me, "I need 'pribacy' because I really do need 'pribacy'."

I'll give her (almost) all of the privacy she needs, but I will take the toilet paper roll with me as I exit the bathroom.  :)

Celebrations: Valentine's Day and the 100th Day of School

We've been celebrating around the Chew house.  Last week we celebrated Valentine's Day as a family.  Keeping it simple, we prepared a special breakfast, decorated the table (with help from the kids), and wrote each other notes to say how much we love one another.

And today we celebrated our 100th Day of School.  That's right...we've made it through the first 100 days of homeschooling.  We had fun with some friends counting fingers and toes, snack mix, stickers, reading 100 words, and even spinning 100 times.  And to make it extra special, Claude took the morning off and was able to join us for the festivities.

The only disappointment was when Joshua said excitedly, "Do we have school tomorrow???"  I replied, "Yes, we do."  To which he answered, "But now we're all done with school because we finished 100 days."  It is a milestone, especially for a kindergartener, but I have a feeling the next 12+ years could be pretty painful if he thinks it's over so soon!  :)