Vacation Bible School

Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church. The theme was Crocodile Dock, which was a Cajun theme that Xander loved. Tonight I heard him in his room through the monitor saying, "God is with us!" His first day was a little rough, but the rest of the week went great. Since I had to drive him there every day I decided to volunteer, and that was interesting. It reminded me why I'm glad I decided not to be a teacher.

I tried to take pictures of the backdrop, but one of them is a little blurry. And of course we don't have pirogues here, so a kayak had to suffice. One of the leaders is married to a man from Houma, so she pointed out one day that Blossom the Possum was wearing a purple bandana because he must be an LSU fan.

The kids also spent some time with my mom Thursday night so Jason and I could go to dinner and attend a memorial service for one of my former co-workers. They had a great time playing water boats in the tub and eating my mom's homemade popsicles.

On Saturday the kids and I went to Logan with my dad to the Washboard Festival. Xander had seen it on TV and we haven't seen my dad since April so I thought it would be a nice way to spend the afternoon together for Father's Day. My dad's parents are from Logan so we thought about visiting his aunt while we were there, but that didn't work out so well. All in all, it was a nice day though, and the kids loved riding rides and eating lunch at McDonald's. My dad did not love the whining, beating each other up in the back seat and the forcing of Xander to clean-up the trail mix that he threw all over the car.

After the festival we met my step-mom at Eagles Pizza by their house for dinner. I've always wanted to try their pizza and it was REALLY good.

Jason was working 2nd shift that night so we stopped to see him on our way home. They had fun visiting with him and two other officers, especially Mr. Travis. He came for dinner one time and read Jordis a book and drew sidewalk chalk with her, so she likes him a lot.

It was a tiring week so looking forward to this next being much more restful.

Xander meets his idol

Xander got to meet his favorite news reporter today!

I watch Fox 28 news in the mornings because it's on until 9 a.m., unlike other stations that switch over to Good Morning America or the Today show. Xander loves to watch Johnny DiLoretto, who travels to a different central Ohio locale every weekday morning to showcase a food, activity, community event, etc. I'm not sure when the obsession started, but since he started talking Xander has had to see Johnny every day. He used to scream "Johnny!" when he got up in the morning and saw the news on. Now he likes to watch him each morning as he eats breakfast. He has to know where he is, what he's doing, who he's talking to, what he's eating, and so on. It took me a long time to get him to understand that Johnny is only on TV Monday through Friday and that he'd have to watch NBC4 on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, today Johnny was in Delaware at Garth's Auction House. When I turned on the news I knew that this was the day I was going to try and get Xander to meet him in person. He was a little resistive at first since it meant an interruption in his routine and he wouldn't get to ride the bus to school, but once we talked about it he was really excited. Poor Jordis was woken up, quickly dressed and whisked to the car with a baggy of cereal so we could make it in time and still get to school.

Johnny was so nice. After his live shot he came over to meet Xander and talked to him as much as he could, since Xander was not willing to stand there for a conversation and kept roaming around. Johnny even posed for a picture with him and I was shocked that Xander came within a foot of him and stopped to say "cheese."

I wanted to stay so the kids could see him do an on-air segment, but it was pretty quiet in there and I wasn't sure if that would go over so well. Xander loved just meeting him though and then when we went outside we took his picture by the news van.

We had some time to kill before school so I took the kids to McDonald's and let them play outside on the playground while I got some coffee.

When we got to school Xander had to tell everyone that he met Johnny. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but I'm so glad I took him.