It All Happened in the Country

Our Children's Church puts on a Christmas play/musical every year. This year I was asked to be in it. I was asked to be Granny. At first I was like, "Sure!"  Then I remembered Granny had a solo and I about backed out. Then I realized I had to sing the song just like a Granny so it really didn't matter if it was horrible. And it was!!!  Ha ha

We had lots of practices. Things were hectic at first and we no doubt made Sis. Tammy worry that we would never be able to pull it off. 

It did come together and it was wonderful. We had a dress rehearsal at school to give us some practice before the big day. 

Josiah had a main character part as a city kid and he did awesome!!  He even had a rapping part that was hilarious. The plot of the story was 2 city kids found themselves stranded in the country. The country folks taught them the true Christmas story. 

Titus had a few speaking parts and he did great as well. 

Now poor, poor Amelia. She was supposed to be a car with all the other little kids. She got to be in the dress rehearsal play for school, but on the big day she was throwing up. I felt so bad for her. Her heart was broken. 

Here is a video of Josiah's song. 

https://youtu.be/SmSpqdj7AGk

Here is a video of me singing. 

https://youtu.be/eIsLUkf0AWs

And if you have time and want to watch the whole play it was videoed on live stream. 

https://youtu.be/si6dak4cHcM

Operation Christmas Child

I have heard about Operation Christmas Child for a few years now, but have never participated. This year our church wanted it's members to fill 100 boxes. I was excited at the opportunity to get involved. We picked up 3 boxes. One for each of my kids. Maynard and I took the kids to Walmart and we had a lot of fun shopping for our boxes. 

We went over our budget. Like way over. Thankfully my Mom pitched in and gave us some money in on it. 

We came home and they got busy trying to get everything to fit in their box. 

Amelia's box had the following items (what I can remember)

Gloves

Toboggan

Socks

Barbie

Cup

Silverware

Soap

Play doh

Harmonica

Toothbrush/Paste

Notebook

Coloring book

Crayons

Candy

She also had fun filling out her paper for the child. She told them her favorite food was rice and beans. Which makes me laugh because the boxes are going to foreign countries and that's probably all they get to eat. 

Titus' box had:

Gloves

Toboggan

Socks

Cup

Silverware

Soap

Play doh

Harmonica

Toothbrush/Paste

Notebook

Coloring book

Crayons

Candy

Soccer ball/pump

Hot wheels

I'm glad I double checked Titus' paper because he gave them my phone number. Ha ha 

Josiah's box was the same as Titus's. 

After the boxes were filled, they were delivered to the church and the church prayed over them before they were delivered. 

This is something I pray we get to do every year. I just wish I could see the child's faces as they open their gifts. 

Thanksgiving 2016

Every year after our kid's program at school, we go to my parent's house for our Harper family thanksgiving. 

As always there's tons of food. As well as lots of bodies. This year was the first year that no one's food got picked on. We usually pick at least one dish that everyone will declare terrible. I think all the cooks decided to stay off Pinterest this year and just fixed only our tried and true recipes. 

As always, Titus made sure he got a turkey leg. 

We also did the mannequin challenge for fun. 

https://youtu.be/TRSD5QKDins

We had a nice enjoyable visit and went to church the next day. Maynard got the opportunity to preach and we headed home late to get the kids in bed for school the next day. 

We only had 2 days of school and then preparations were made for the Parker Thanksgiving. This would be my first year to host Thanksgiving dinner. Tara and Rueban was coming in for a visit. Wednesday I cleaned like a crazy woman and Thursday was spent in the kitchen. It was a stress free, relaxing day. 

All the food turned out super good. I even made homemade rolls. 

After we ate and the dishes were done, we spent the rest of the evening playing games. 

It really was the best Thanksgiving. Thankful for our family and our health. 

Thanksgiving Banquet 2016 "AmeriKids"

One of my most favorite things at LCA is their Thanksgiving banquet. The kids work so hard practicing to put on a special program for parents and family members. 

This year they did a program called "AmeriKids". It was a patriotic musical. 

Amelia had a small speaking part. She was thrilled. 

Josiah had a solo. Here's a link to part of his song. 

https://youtu.be/uWQ8e24SDHQ

Titus was a cowboy and he had a speaking part too. 

I helped work with Kindergarten this year. They had a cute program with speaking parts. 

It was so cute!!

Hillbilly Harvest Festival

My friend Heather and I had the privilege of planning our church's annual fall festival. We spent lots of hours working side by side. Whether it was planning, shopping, or crafting. We had our most laughs while making our games or props. Neither of us claimed to have real talent in that area. 

Our pastor's wife suggested having a Hillbilly theme this year. 

So on October 29th, we were as ready as we would ever be for our guests to arrive. 

It ended up being a beautiful day. It felt more like the dead of summer instead of a fall day. We set up everything outside except for the eating area and the cake walk. 

We had a chili cook off like we did last year and nachos and cheese. It seemed like a big hit. Popcorn and funnel cakes were the deserts. 

We were so thankful for all our workers that came and helped attend the games and all the booths. We couldn't have done it without them. 

This was all the candy and prizes. We are always afraid we won't have enough and then end up with way more than we need. 

This was our toilet paper toss game. The wind was working against us, but it was still fun. 

Candy corn toss. 

Pumpkin painting booth. 

Maynard won the hillbilly costume contest. 

Sack races. 

Only picture I got of the 2 inflatables we rented. 

Tire rolling relays. 

 We also had hayrides going. 

So as you can tell, there was lots to do. Everyone seemed to have a great time. 

It was a lot of hard work, but totally worth it. My kids came home with tons of candy. We also found out that day that Josiah won a coloring contest at Krogers. So we stopped by to claim his prize. 

 Yep!  He needed more candy. Ha ha. Titus and Amelia entered that contest too so they wasn't too happy. 

Halloween was that following Monday after Titus' birthday. I took the kids to Gondoliers where they ate free if they were in a costume. They scrambled to find something to wear. 

After they ate we stopped by a church to see some friends. 

After Halloween and things slowed down, Titus wanted to go skating to celebrate his birthday. 

He was excited to have friends from school to show up. They spent most their time at the arcade instead of skating. I only got this picture. 

I didn't even get one of Titus!!  

He had a blast though!!!

We sure was busy, but sometimes it's nice being busy!!!!