Ahhh....did you just say that?

VBS has kept me very busy as of late. This is small part to my commitment to help with the smalls and in large part to Lance's knack for volunteering himself and subsequently myself for huge projects like decorations. So basically my world has been about dinosaurs and more dinosaurs for several weeks.....and then, it arrived! VBS smalls. I have to say, by the end of the week, I realized that the "black birds," the Mr. Boyer appointed name for the black handkerchief sporting 3 year olds, were one of the best groups around. We were blessed with 2 very, very special children who had 1:1 aides and a smattering of other quoteable tots. Here's a few of my favs to remember it by....
1. After being told the story-teller's name is Whitney, little blonde boy crinkles up his nose and declares, "Weeeendy? Isn't that the name of a restaurant?" (Giggles before clarification) "No. Her name is Whitttttney. Very close sounding to Weeeenndy though."
2. Upon telling the children we will be reading a story with every letter of the alphabet and asking them to tell us when we get to their first name's letter.....One over-eager sweetheart continued to declare "That's my letter" for every letter in his first name for the next 3 days when we read the same story. He even declared, "That's the last letter of my name" each and every night.
3. Regarding the same story we read 4 days in a row....Little blonde tot says during snack, "Are we going to read the alphabet story again? I reeeeeeaaaaallllly hope we get to read something else."
4. Sitting in story time 3 of the 5 nights....little black-haired cutie shared his many body functions. Clearly of the male persuasion and sharing it with others even at age 3 :)
5. During craft time, little blonde tot begins singing loudly "Blessed be the name of the Lord" and continued on until he perfectly completed the chorus.
6. The trying child of the week on her way down the hallway, I catch her digging up a nostril and quickly correct her and remind her this is "Yucky!" Glancing back at the sound of watching adults giggling, I see her shove it in her mouth!!! Arghhhh..a lost cause.
7. Waiting for 5 minutes to pass before it's time to go to the jumpy-jump, the favorite time of the evening.... "Is it time to go yet?" "No...5 more minutes"....5 SECONDS later..."Is it time to go yet?".....And simply repeat this over, over, and over again until you wish 5 minutes were 5 seconds.
8. After 2 nights of the sweetest little boy being unable to handle the magnitude of children for the closing section of the night and me having to escort him out to calm him down, I told his mom. The following night, I asked him about being able to stay in the closing. He tells me, "My mom says I can have a surprise if I go. There's a soccer ball in the car for my surprise." Low and behold, he made it both nights even enduring Father Abraham's repetitive intensity.
9. An endless amount of "Can I sit with you?" "Can I be the leader?" "Can I hold your hand?"...ahhhh...VBS has come to a close.