A Boom Chicka BOOM!

Saturday, November 19, was an AMAZING day! We had a bunch of things on our "to-do" list, but they were things of FUN! We wanted to finish creating our Christmas lists, so we told the boys we were going on an exploration trip to get an idea of what they might want ask for when they write their letters to Santa.

The boys LOVE to explore, and it's fun for us to take them if we tell them in advance that we're not buying anything. Joshua wanted everything in the store, while Caleb doesn't usually fall in love with much but INSISTS on those things when he finds a gem. We have a pretty good idea what 'Santa' will buy both boys this year. And we're not going crazy - we're thinking about the gifts of the Magi and how they brought three things to Jesus. I think that we might try to stick to three things for each boy. The idea of Christmas is that our Savior came to the world to save us from our sins - what a powerful message that gets lost often in the 'gimmies' of the season!

While we were at Toys R Us, Caleb asked Daddy to go potty. When they were washing their hands, a man came in with a FULL white beard. Caleb cried out in excitement, "Santa's here!" Shawn said the guy didn't even so much as crack a smile. We thought it was hilarious, though. I saw the man walking around later, too. Haaaa!!! Kids are SO great!

After we were done at the toy store, we went to the Manheim Township Public Library. I wanted to get a couple books on loose teeth for Joshua to explain that it's okay to have wiggly teeth. When we got there, he found several he wanted to look at and take home with us, including one on astronauts. No loose teeth ones, though! We did come home with an amazing movie called "A Snoodle's Tale" from Veggie Tales. We watched it later in the week as a family. What a powerful message that God made us each special - we were created to give Him glory! So, it truly doesn't matter what others think of us if we know who we are in Christ.

As we were picking out books, Shawn saw that a special story time was about to start for ages 3-6. He volunteered to wheel Ryan around if I wanted to take the boys into it. It was on Thanksgiving. And it was AWESOME!!! Thank you, Shawn, for letting me go in with the little guys. They had a BLAST! I was highly impressed by the librarian who read the books and sang all sorts of songs. It started out with the kids getting a "situpon" to sit-upon. Then they sang the song about it being time for a story. The boys loved it!

The Librarian told the story of the first Thanksgiving, then read a book that was really a song about "one little, two little, three little pilgrims."

She had a felt display for the following song:

My Albuquerque Turkey

(Sung to the tune of Clementine)

 He's my Albuquerque turkey,

And he's feathered and he's fine,

And he wobbles and he gobbles And he's absolutely mine.

He's the best pet you can get yet

Better than a dog or cat.

He's my Albuquerque turkey,

And I'm awfully glad of that.

And my Albuquerque turkey

 Is so happy in his bed.

 Because for Thanksgiving dinner

We're having Egg Foo Young instead!

She also read the following Jack Prelutsky poem, which was one of my favorite authors when I was little:

Ate Too Much Turkey

By Jack Prelutsky

I ate too much turkey,
I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie,
I'm stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin',
I'm probably going to die.
 
I piled up my plate
and I ate and I ate,
but I wish I had known when to stop,
for I'm so crammed with yams,
sauces, gravies, and jams
that my buttons are starting to pop.
 
I'm full of tomatoes
and french fried potatoes,
my stomach is swollen and sore,
but there's still some dessert,
so I guess it won't hurt
if I eat just a little bit more.

She also read a great book (one I may have to get some year - we all loved it!) about "There was an old lady who swallowed (instead of a fly) a PIE, the Thanksgiving pie that was really too dry, perhaps she'll die." The song and book went on and on as the kids laughed, and Joshua would sing along with me.

 

She had hand motions for many of the songs, and then eventually she got out scarves and we followed her in a fun "I said a boom-chicka-boom." The boys thought this was GREAT! Then we did "Shake, shake, shake your shakies out; wiggle, wiggle, wiggle your waggles out; jump, jump, jump your jumpies out!" with little shakers. Again, they were having a blast. It was SO much fun! I was highly impressed by the quality of this free program.

We left the library right before the craft time because Ryan was ready to go. We had lots of books, but none on teeth. Such is life! It was still a GREAT trip! Later that evening, we went to Dutch Wonderland and donated four toys for tots and received four 'free' tickets to the Winter Wonderland. I was so excited! The boys are looking forward to going!

It was SUCH a fun Saturday!