Why I like kids

I recently had the following conversation with a 4th grade boy:

4th grader: Wow! Is that a Super Bowl ring?

Chris: No, that's my Aggie ring. I went to Texas A&M.

4th grader: ...and they gave you a Super Bowl ring?

Another Blunt Comment by Noelle

Usually when I put lotion on Noelle, I give her a tiny amount to do herself. Sometimes she asks if she can put it on me, and today I let her. She was being so sweet and rubbing my cheeks and forehead. Then she noticed my birthmark, apparently for the first time. Here was our conversation:

Noelle: What's that?

Sarah: It's a birthmark, sweetie.

Noelle: Why?

Sarah: It's just how God made me, with a little spot on my cheek.

Noelle: No, Mama. That's a BIG spot.

The Many Faces of Noelle

Not sure what to say...

We had a great Thanksgiving in Waco with Chris' family and will post pictures soon. Until then, here's a conversation from this morning:

Sarah, Chris, and his mom (Gram) were talking in the den while Noelle was busy playing. In response to a commercial on TV, Gram said, "I wonder if they ask, 'Do you smoke?'"

Noelle immediately responded, "Yes! Yes, with my Daddy."

Noelle's take on discipline

As we were getting into the van after church today, Noelle began to throw a fit, and we had the following conversation:

Chris: Noelle, you need to stop throwing a fit.

Fit continues

Chris: Noelle, you will get a spanking if you keep throwing a fit. Do you want a spanking?

Noelle: No!

Chris: Do you like spankings?

Noelle: No, but I do like bacon.

________________________________________________________

After thinking about our conversation for a little while, the following thoughts/questions came to mind:

1. Why did I ask her if she likes spankings? Did I think she was going to say yes? Was her answer going to have any influence on what I did?
   
2. Why would she all of the sudden mention bacon? Was this just a ploy to distract me?
   
3. Why would she say that she likes bacon? She's never even had bacon before!
   

The Influence of Puggles

Our church's AWANA program for kids starts with 2 year olds...it's called Puggles. For the first part of the year, the kids learned the Bible verse, "God made everything, Genesis 1:1". It's been a blast to see Noelle learn! She's taken it a little far lately, though. The other day she walked into her bathroom and said:

"Look at this BEAUTIFUL potty God made!!!"

AWANA lock-in (AKA: really long post)

Friday night three other leaders and I had a lock-in for the 3rd - 6th grade boys in AWANA at our church. We had lots of fun staying up late, playing crazy games, saying Bible verses, and doing a mission project. Here are pictures from 3 of the games that we played.



In the first game, I asked for 3 people who thought they could beat Mr. Butz in a Sprite-chugging contest. I had the boys open their Sprite, but then right before they started to drink, I informed them of one more rule: they would be drinking their Sprite through their sock.

In the second game, Spam Roulette, the boys began by sitting in a circle and passing around a block (6 servings) of spam. Periodically I would say "stop" and whoever was holding the spam had to answer a multiple choice trivia question about spam. (Side note: it's amazing how much interesting, random information about spam can be found with the internet.) If the question was answered correctly, the boy then got to choose the boy on his right or his left to take a bite of the spam. If the question was answered incorrectly, he had to take a bite of the spam. Then the spam was passed around the circle again until I said stop.

For the last game I asked for 2 volunteers who thought they could pick up Cheerios really fast. After choosing my victims...eh, kids...I spread out Cheerios on a table in front of them. Then I explained that they would not be using their hands. They would be using their face -- and the peanut butter that was slathered all over it. They each had 1 minute to see how many Cheerios would stick to their face.

A big thanks to Brian G for taking all these great pictures!