baptism and AWANA awards

Just a couple of weeks ago Mr. S asked to be baptized! The timing was great to be able to do that at the AWANA awards night, which was extra fun for him. Miss J and Miss C were quite excited to watch him up there. I know the other kids were too, but they were sitting with their clubs, so I did not get to experience their excitement too.
Mr. S and Mr. M both finished their books, but just at the last minute. We've enjoyed AWANA over the years, and it has been a blessing in so many ways; a big one being seeing that kids CAN memorize scripture early on (at 3 or younger!). However in the last year or so we've been working on so many verses/passages or the catechisms as a family that the AWANA work has not been top priority.

Mr. R did very well in his first year of T&T and also finished his book! He was presented with the "clubber of the quarter" award, which was a big encouragement to him.

Miss E did not finish her book this year; that is a first for her. While she was fairly faithful in working on it, she had so many other things to do this year that it just took a back seat to those other things. Again, AWANA has been a blessing to our family over the years, but in the last few years they have been slowly changing the books. They've been simplified quite a bit; while the older kids used to memorize entire passages of scripture, they are now learning one verse at a time, similarly to the little kids, among other things. We kind of miss the old books.

After the awards ceremony we went to the gym for cookies, and the kids got to run around and play with some friends for quite a while while Rob and I visited with friends too. After that we went to Jack-in-the-Box for an evening snack to celebrate Mr. S's baptism and the kids' hard work this year!