The boys!

It seems the past couple of blogs have rather focused on the girls, so today I shift to the boys to give them their fair share! Today was the year end awards day in Jack's class & it was so sweet. We have been SO thankful to be able to send Jack to a Christian school this year & both of his teachers are such kind, godly women. I have praised the Lord for placing Jack in their classroom and I know that Jack has enjoyed being there as well. For the awards today, the lead teacher had chosen a character trait for each child that he or she had exemplified during the year. She presented each child with a certificate for their trait and a scripture to go along with it. She called the children up one at a time to receive their certificates and she spent a moment praying over each child. What a blessing!

The children received awards for loyalty, truth, kindness, wisdom, love and many other wonderful qualities. What a special gift for each child to feel honored and receive praise for displaying godly characteristics. Jack was the last one called and I found myself wondering what his trait would be...

 Here is part of the prayer she prayed over Jack (she was so thoughtful to include a printed copy of each child's prayer in a folder for the parents!)

"Dear Kind Heavenly Father, Thank you for the blessing of teaching your patient child Jack. He is patient in everything he does. Thank you that Jack reacts as Your word tells us, 'A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.' He is so sweet and forgiving. I love his warm smile! Jack takes his time in his work and is therefore very successful. Please help Jack to continue to have empathy towards others and to trust in You and in 

Your master plan for his life. Please strengthen Jack with all power, so that he may have 

great endurance and patience always..."

Again, what a blessing to have such wonderful teachers who pray godly character for my child!

On the way home in the car Jack commented to me, "Huh, I didn't even know I had so much patience!" So I took the opportunity to praise him & tell him that I often need to pray for more patience myself. It got me thinking how truly wonderful the power of praise & "accentuating the positive" really is...I am sure his teachers have seen Jack exemplify characteristics of patience, but of course he is seven & there are a lot of times when he is rather impatient at home! But he was so proud of that recognition & I think it will actually help produce more patience in him just knowing that someone else "noticed"...and it was a great lesson to me. I am going to be more specific in how I praise my children in the future to further cultivate the Fruits of the Spirit in their lives. 

By the big rug where they sit for the morning "circle time" (I can't remember their official 1st grade term!) I snapped this photo of the daily prayer & praise sheets. They spend time each morning and afternoon praying for each other & praising God for what He has done. It is so sweet to see that the children know they can take requests big or small to the Lord in prayer. I am sure they have seen many examples of the Lord's faithfulness in answering prayers throughout the year.

Drew went with me & was awake for most of the presentation, but didn't make a peep! Afterwards many of Jack's classmates gathered around his carseat to smile & make faces at him. I think Drew liked the attention!

After the classroom ceremony, it was on to the pool for the fun stuff! A pizza lunch & 2 hours of swimming and then popsicles! I have never seen so many kids put away so much pizza in so little time! Talk about an amazing race! Everyone wanted to get in the pool first! (So much for that 30 minute rule my parents used to always enforce when I was growing up..."No swimming for 30 minutes after eating!" I was never quite sure the reason for that. I remember being told something about getting a cramp or tumy ache, but being a mom now, I'm pretty sure it was just a clever scheme devised to give the moms a break...and I'm okay with that! But I digress...)

Here's Jack saying, "Mom let me eat my pizza!"

In the pool at last!

Drew was so good the whole time! 

He loves being outside & he sure enjoyed all of the attention from the other moms. 

All in all, it was a wonderful day & thankfully the weather was great!

~~~

And just because I'm focusing on the boys this post, here is some of what Drew has to put up with having 2 older sisters...

He doesn't feel much like cheering right now! 

(It may have something to do with the tangly, tickly pom pon someone put on top of him?)

Drew was relaxing outside one day (I was right beside him lest anyone worry!) and the girls thought he could use a little "decorating"...

with flowers...