If You Give a Kid a ......

Yesterday I got to go out for lunch with Selena, Curtis, Nora and Levi. It has been a while since we have done the food court lunch time, but Nora remembered very well that Auntie Charlotte shares her Chinese food with Nora for lunch. And Nora went with me to the counter to help pick the food, and carried her own little extra plate back to the table so I could balance the tray of food and drinks. Then, after she was done and she had heard her Mommy and both Aunties talking about ice cream, she looked around for where the ice cream was going to come from. She was the first one of us to get an ice cream and enjoyed every moment of her dessert! She was so careful not to waste any of it that Stacy even made the comment of "like grandfather, like grand-daughter"!

Levi is also getting into the Chinese food a bit, and loves the fried rice. Curtis shared more with Levi than I did, but Levi also got to try some of the noodles that his sister loves so much! Soon I'll be needing to get a bigger meal to share with both of them! ;-)

Individual Crafts

These are the individual craft that we did this past weekend! The children, for the most part, were very excited to be heading for the craft portion of the after skit time. One child even made me a gold ribbon bow to wear because I was the "Queen of Crafts"!! How cute, eh??

We split the children into two, fairly even groups, and each age group had a half hour to complete their craft. I also planned two extra crafts just in case there were some children who finished their lesson themed craft early. Those two are the styrofoam ball head/pipecleaner robe man, and the plastic fork/swathed in fabric man! Two of the children who came this weekend got all 5 crafts done!!

Kids Rally 2007

Aaaahhhh! After all the planning and all the work, Kids Rally 2007 is over. We had 25 kids there last night, and maxed out at 30 kids today, which was GREAT!! The organizer for Kids Rally this year had me pick some crafts to do with the children, and I had plenty of help to get these crafts finished in the half-hour after the skits to help teach the lesson that I had!

Here are pictures of the shear number of crafts completed by all the children!

Criminal Minds

For those who know me well, you know that the TV show 'Criminal Minds' is one of my favourites! Well, it's such a favourite that I will carefully pick and choose who I will answer the phone for if you happen to call when a new episode is on! ;-)

Well, tonight I heard about a contest that CTV.ca is doing with the show 'Criminal Minds'. I played the game, and my first "arrest" was the correct one!! Go me!! Anyways, everyone with correct "arrests" get to enter a draw for money, so I am now entered. It was fun to play, even though I will likely not be drawn for the prize, I had lots of fun playing and feel good that my first arrest, and my 'gut' instincts with the various clues, was right!

If interested in playing too, go to ctv.ca!

On Holidays

Well, day 1 of my holidays and I am taking care of myself-relaxing, crafting, opening the blinds, making sure that I do things for me. I have two weeks of holidays straight, and I am sure that the time is going to go by fairly quickly, and I do have plenty of things to keep me busy with crafting, writing, and developing new exercise and eating habits.

I was able to laugh alot yesterday as I took care of Nora and Levi (my niece and nephew) so
Selena and Curtis could have their anniversary date. I and the kiddos stayed for the potluck at Church, and then came back to my place. Nora was very excited to be going to "Auntie's house" and even told me when she saw my place. They had a very full afternoon of playing with the toys here, and picking up things that weren't their toys. It was so different from the other times I have taken care of both of them because Levi is walking around on his own now, and that makes for even more vigilance on my part.

But all of us loved the time together, and I like to think that the kiddos enjoyed their time of being (moderately) spoiled by Auntie!

A Humbling Experience

Last night was the International Dinner that my Church puts on every year, and this year was wonderful in so many ways! The food was, as usual, incredibly delicious, and there was so much of it that you really had to pick and choose what you wanted to eat. The visiting time was great, as several of our members invited other people that they know from work or their neighbourhoods and I got to meet several new people. Nora, my niece, was old enough to try a swing at the pinata that they had for the kids and was so cute at it!

I also had a very humbling experience because of one of the entertainers last night. He was a drummer from Trinidad, excellent man, excellent drumming, and so very friendly. I had passed by him many times on the streets close to my workplace as I waited for my bus to go home, thinking that he was just some homeless busker trying to scam as much money out of hard-working people as he could. Well, he may not be a scammer, and he may not be homeless, or really a busker because busker's are by nature more transient and therefore no permanent home address, but he is a child of God, and a wonderful person, covered up in grubby clothes that is all he can afford, and using the talents he has, and the abilities he has to be useful, and to pass on a love for music to all who pass by him in downtown Winnipeg, and other places he is invited to.

I think I'll be stopping and saying hello to him when I see him next time!