My children are being currupted

So, Tuesday was muffins with Mom at Hannah's preschool. We got to go in, get our hands painted for a craft and enjoy muffin, coffee (for me), and juice (Hannah). It was really a fun 30 minutes. But here's the thing:
Hannah and I were sitting on the floor enjoying our muffins and drinks. She asks "Mommy, did you bring your camera?" All of a sudden guilt hits. Wow, big preschool event, I make an attempt to scrapbook, and I didn't bring the camera. No, I tell her feeling really bad. SHE, points to her napkin spread out with muffin on one side, cup of juice in the middle, and muffin wrapper on the other side and says "That's too bad, this would make a good picture." She wasn't concerned that we weren't capturing the EVENT for memories, she wanted a picture of her FOOD arrangement.
For those of you who fail to see the humor in this story, take a minute and look at my husband's blogs, right here. Look for the pictures....Very sad....

Next Step in Getting Relevant

I've taken another step in the getting Relevant! We've had a Netflix subscription, but basically Brian was picking out the movies he wanted to see, and sometimes a "family" movie. So this week we increased the number of movies we get at a time and I now have my own queue with things like Eragon, Jump In, and Ground Hog Day (yeah, I know that one's old, but someone keeps telling me I need to watch it :) ). The kids get their own queue too. If you know any "hot" kids movies coming out these days let me know and I'll add them to my list.

Getting Relevant with a Wii

One of my big "take aways" from the weekend with Aaron is that I need to get way more relevant with what kids are in to. Aaron gave us a 10 question "quiz". Everyone else who was there got between 6 and 9 correct. I, on the other hand, failed miserably with only 3 correct!
So I'm now beginning on my quest to "get a clue".
First order of business: Get a Wii! Actually we already had one coming and received it on Monday. It's officially Micah's, but I'm getting my fair share of time in. So far I think the sports stuff it comes with is boring, but I'm enjoying Rayman Raving Rabbids! I guess I'll have to try TMNT in the next day or two.
Next week I'll write about the other ways Aaron suggested we get relevant and why it's even important.

Aaron Reynolds at Kid Crossing

We had an awesome time this past weekend with Aaron Reynold's at Kid Crossing. Aaron came from the Chicago Area to spend some time with us in Workshops and Consulting. I think everyone who spent time with Aaron was challenged and encouraged.
Bottom line: There's a lot of good things happening in Kid Crossing (which includes Kid Fusion). We've got a lot of potential. And we've got a lot to learn yet. We need to work on our Intentionality (planning and creating - not the week or day before) and I need a leadership team. I can not effectively lead Kid Crossing on my own, as I am currently attempting to do.
Stay tuned for more info from Aaron's time with us in the coming days!

We have EGGS!

66,000 eggs have just arrived (3:30pm Wed.). Sunday they will be stuffed. (3pm at the CFC - be there!) Friday (4/6) they will be swarmed by over 1500 kids and gone in less than 5 minutes. Watch out Crossroads....Here they come!

Amazing People

I just had the privilege to spend the evening with an awesome and amazing group of people. These people pulled together, pretty much at the last minute, several of them not even with a clue of what they might be getting into and made a series of videos that will enhance our K-5 program for March. From Kid Fusion characters: Max and Kris Merkel, Starla and Rebecca Fick, Stephen Arsenault, Joe Emens, Robin Gruber, and Eric Doyle (who didn't actually get into the filming, but DID bring a guy who become Chef Eemerill) to Jeremay Piar, our K-5 Large Group Coordinator, to the tech crew: Jay Ely, Scott Champion, Pete Bishop, and Chuck Fick. Quadruple thanks to ALL of you for putting up with my last minute scripts, crazy ideas, and interesting smells (some of you missed the delectable soup delicacy we created). It was a fun evening!

Glorious snow!

My family and I just spent the last week skiing in Vermont at SugarBush. We even skied through what Vermonters are now calling the Valentine's Blizzard. My parents got close to 3 feet at their house and some of the mountains were reporting 45 - 58 inches. It was AWESOME, beautiful, and breathtaking. Of course fresh powder is always great for skiing, but there just may be such a thing as too much powder :) And it made the drive home over a mountain pass very interesting...
After the snow storm Micah and Hannah had as much fun playing in the snow as they did skiing, and actually chose to do that over skiing a couple of times. Which was ok with us, because it let Brian and I do some more challenging terrain. The conditions were great and I was finally able to ski on the fabled Castle Rock Peak, which I had never attempted before. I also developed a liking for moguls, probably a bit to Brian's dismay. Still can't ski them very well, but I enjoyed the challenge!
All in all it was a great family get away. I love the snow and would have been happy to stay there until spring.

Service

Our virtue in Kid Fusion for the month of February has been Service. Brian, Micah, Hannah, and I got to put that virtue into action last week after the big Vermont snowstorm. It was either a record or near a record for the most amount of snow VT's gotten in one storm. It was pretty cool. After we skied all day in the storm we headed back to my parent's house in my dad's 4 wheel drive truck. As we turned into their driveway we sent up a plume of snow. Amazingly we made it all the way back their 1/4 mile drive. But that's when the excitement began. My dad put his plow on the truck and promptly got stuck back in one of the snow banks. So we all got shovels out and shoveled, pushed, and pulled (with my mom's car) until we finally got him unstuck. That lasted for all of maybe 30 sec. and he was stuck again. Talk about service. We were able to demonstrate a lot of service by shoveling over...and over...and over again. Finally at about 9pm he got stuck again for about the 6th time and gave up. Thurs. morning dawned with a few more snowflakes, but beautiful. That is until we discovered that the entire passenger side of the truck was burried as high as the window from the back to the front. I was the lucky recipient of digging that side out. Amazingly after we dug him out on both sides and around the back he was able to back right up and a few hours later actually had the driveway completely plowed.
The kids helped practice service too when we dug a path through the back yard for my mom to get to her bird feeders. Then they helped to feed the birds and squirrels. The animals weren't too happy with us when we were back there shoveling. They were chirping up a storm. But later we could watch them through the window, enjoying the bounty we'd left for them.
Service in a snowstorm...that's my kind of service :)