Vacation Bible School

It's that time of year: Vacation Bible School. I remember VBS when I was a kid. Now my kids are enrolled for the first time.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, our church has VBS in the evening (maybe because it's hot and there is no A/C on the second floor, where one of the stations is?). Last night was the first night, and it goes through Thursday. This year's Son Games 2008 has an Olympics theme. While my kids are with the preschool group, I'm helping out as a shepherd with the kindergarteners. We herd up the group, 12 of them, and escort them from station to station throughout the church, making sure no-one gets lost and assisting the instructors at each station as need be. Stations include one for games, one for snacks, one for storytime, one for music and one for crafts.

The preschoolers do all these things, as well, but all their stations are confined to one big room. Since I was busy I didn't get to hang out with Anna and Alexander at all, but when it was all over they emerged with stuff, including a sport's pennant for "God's Team" which they'd made during craft time, a music CD and colored pages. They had a blast and are looking forward to returning tonight.

That's tonight directly following our late afternoon swimming lesson. And it's the same schedule for the next four nights. My little guys are gonna be pooped come their much-later-than-usual bedtime this week.

Here's a shot of the kids in the church parlor donning their VBS T-shirts and a video clip of the preschool group "running" through the Olympic tunnel at the start of this year's games. Alexander is the first little boy in the white shorts. Anna is a bit further back, the only little girl with a big white bow in her hair.