Cousins' week - The Lord is my Shepherd

 On Monday morning, Jill and Adam left for Colorado.  Cousins' week would now really begin!

 Silly waves good-bye!  (we started this tradition when the kids were little so they wouldn't be so sad about their parents leaving, or us leaving them.)  Claire didn't get in this picture, but as soon as the parents were out of sight, she was inside getting out her horses that she got last night at Target.

She painted for awhile and then we called all the children to the "shepherd's fold" for our lessons.  We decided that this week our theme study would be about the Good Shepherd.

God IS our Good Shepherd!  What does the Shepherd do?  He takes care of sheep.

He takes care of us!

Sheep can not take care of themselves.  They are helpless without the Shepherd.

Are the sheep in charge? NOPE!  They wouldn't do a good job of that!  And we also are not in charge, even if we think we are!  We are in the care of the Shepherd.  

He knows us better than anyone else does.  He knows us intimately and He is crazy over us (imagine!).  He will search and rescue the lost one.  He sings over us (like David sang to his sheep).

Zephaniah 3:17 New Living Translation (NLT)

 For the Lord your God is living among you.
    He is a mighty Saviour.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
    With His love, He will calm all your fears.
    He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

I told the story of the lost sheep using the big, stuffed sheep I had.  I had purchased these sheep several years ago when my friend, Mary Ellen Tippin, had done a play, The Christmas Birdie.  I use these sheep now when I tell the story of the lost sheep at church to little children.  They came in handy for this week's lessons!

I had t-shirts made locally and gave each child one in their favorite color.  They put them on and I had them stand in a circle.

We read Psalm 23 off the back of the person in front of us.  We would be saying Psalm 23 every day of our lessons.

God is personally acquainted with each of us and knows our names.  I had each child pick out a construction page of their choice.  Then I had lots of magazines that the children could cut pictures out of.  They were to look for things that described themselves and make a collage.

Do you know the Shepherd?  Do you follow Him?  That is His desire!

Cousins' week - Croissants and the Purple Martin invasion

After our great time at the Botanica seeing the Lego sculptures, it was time to eat!  Emeri and Elijah had never eaten at Cheddar's so it was decided to go there!

They have the BEST croisssants!!

YUM!!

Everything tastes SO GOOD!

We were headed to see the purple martins roosting.  

They gather from all over Kansas and other states.  

We had noticed that for awhile our martins were around during the day, but in the evening, they would leave.  So we looked up on-line to see where they were roosting this year.  Seems like each year they pick a different spot in Wichita.  Last year, we don't know where they met up.  

We wanted to have the kids experience this amazing phenomenon!  We knew the birds wouldn't begin circling the skies until sundown, so, having a little time, we went to Target and let the kids pick out a little gift.  We gave them a certain amount and they spent time searching the aisles for just the perfect thing!  Horses for Claire, of course!  Can a boy have too many Nerf guns??  The older girls got clothes and make-up.

We read that the purple martins were gathering in the PF Chang parking lot.

We didn't see any other bird watchers at all.  Was this really the spot where the martins would gather?  There was a security guard there so we asked her if she had noticed bird watchers the evenings prior gathering for this.  She had no idea what we were talking about!  We explained it to her.  We told her that in days to come, to expect a crowd of people. (and we were right!)

Claire was the first to spot the birds.  Just a few at first.

The kids wanted to go to the little lake and 

since the birds were just starting to gather,  we walked over there.  

We headed back toward the car as we could see more and more birds arriving.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

Ever watch "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock?  It was almost like that, except they didn't attack us.  Unless you count the fact that they did poop on a couple of the kids!

What a great show!

God  has done amazing things!  Only He could create birds who know to assemble with 50,000 other birds each year for migration to Brazil; who can fly across the Gulf.   And who can fly without bumping into each other!   It was like a praise service to Him to watch these birds!

When we got home, Jill was doing her master's class on-line and needed help on the computer.  Hannah to the rescue!

Cousins' Week - the Botanica

What kid doesn't like Legos, right?  When we found out that the Botanica had larger than life Lego sculptures, we knew we had to go!

 It is part of a nationally touring art exhibit called "Nature Connects" featuring over 300,000 Lego bricks throughout the gardens.  The sculptures were created by New York-based artist Sean Kenney.

It almost looks like a pixelated photo!

butterfly gardens

I love all the bronze sculptures too!

This girl was getting her pictures taken, probably for her 15th birthday celebrating quinceañera.

This goldfinch sculpture uses the least Lego bricks, at 1,078 pieces.  Even the bird seed are Lego pieces!

This one uses the most at 61,372 Lego pieces!

Making music!

One of my favorites!

If you live in the Wichita, KS area, this exhibit is showing through September 19!  Go see it!!  The kids really enjoyed it!