Family night at The Big Apple Adventure!

VBS Family night is always a highlight... it is the night that brings tears to your eyes and makes all the work and long days worth it. While I was training the teachers I would tell them just when you think you can do another day or take another "rotten" kid just remember Friday night... the night when you sit there and watch the kid that has been causing some stress in your class or the one you thought was only there bc his/her parents were making them... you see them on stage praising God with a huge smile... Friday night always is my favorite.

The kids were all having a great time and the parents were all lined up to that photos and video... I was a bit busy this night so my friend was in charge of taking the photos... she did a great job and got to catch Pierce in action... being one of those rotten kids I was talking about earlier... I only had to take him off the stage once... you will see...

Pay close attention to Pierce in the next couple of photos... at first he was ok... it went down hill quickly. He is in the third row from the top looking down.

Now looking back... what are you looking at son, you are suppose to be singing and dancing.

Ok... there he goes... good boy!

Not sure when this happened (during rehearsal or the show) but you can tell he is the only one sitting down... I am sure he was suppose to be standing... :-)

Can you find him???

Now the "rotten" is coming out... he has made his way to the end of the row and just chilling (almost laying down) with his friend next to him... while everyone else is paying attention to the front...

Back on track... he is back in the game...

Uh OH... he found something shiny... a microphone.. he is no longer dancing and singing... he is playing with the microphone.

Thanks to my friend who took the pictures... she caught Pierce getting in trouble by one of the older kids... telling him to pay attention and not play with the microphone.

Didn't last long... he is back playing with the microphone.

Pierce got a good talking to at the end of that one (and you can believe all the people that walked up to us letting us know they loved the "entertainment"... but at the end of the day we were proud of our little man... Daddy enjoyed the "entertainment" as well.

Looking forward to the next VBS... can't wait... but happy for the rest now...

More Photos of our week at the Big Apple... in Singapore!

More photos of our week at VBS... (more pics than just Pierce that is... but don't worry grandparents Pierce is in some of these too).

Here are a bunch of kids so excited during one of the music practices... they were surrounding the stage.. if you look in the back ground you can see Pierce... what is he doing?

Look at all those kids...

This is one of our story tellers Betsy... she was acting like the guitar players on the streets in Manhattan.

Some of the kids during snack time... you think they are loving VBS?

This next picture is awesome and one of my favorites... they kids in the nursery (where Pierce has been for 3 years) were having so much fun that I had to run in there and take a picture... here they are throwing beach balls at the hoop which I happen to be standing beside... so cute right?

Here is our mission board... this year we collected funds for Projek AnaKawan in Cambodia... Last year we raised 22K and this year we raised 48K... God is good.

This board helped the kids understand how much we collected each day... and at the bottom you can see the little window stickers... these stickers are from when the kids gave money each day they got to go put a sticker on the building.

Throughout the day I would try to find Pierce... and see what he was up to... this day I got to catch him at snack time... and we both happen to be wearing our crowns...

Not sure what was happening in this next picture but I am sure Pierce was telling someone that they were doing something wrong (imagine that)...

Great Fun at VBS... the Big Apple Adventure!

5 days of fun... VBS this year will be remembered in our house for many reasons... but this biggest is that Pierce got to fully participate this year and had a great time. He would walk around the church with his group (the red bus) and I would constantly get reports about how he was doing. Out of 380 children Pierce was the youngest and he got a lot of attention so he was in hog heaven. Since he goes to chapel and is use to the routine of going to various activities at school we thought he was ready... and so glad he got to go... Here are just a couple of pics from his week.

We had photographers running around the church taking pics of all the kids... check this one out they got of Pierce during worship time.

This year Pierce really enjoyed the music part and here he is banging on the piano during music time.

Craft time was another favorite... they had some great crafts for the kids to make but this by far is our favorite and one that is still proudly displayed in his room.

Can you find Waldo... aka Pierce? He is the only one in a green crown.

Here is Pierce with his group... the Red Bus'! The lady on the Left was the lead guide for the group and every time she would see me she would say "we got a little Camille on our hands"... HE HE HE

This was taken on the first day... when they had not received their shirts yet... but thanks to JUJU he sure does look cute for his first day.

One happy boy... I love this picture so much I thought we should see it twice...

Here is Pierce's bible story/activity class room... oh what fun...

Visitors...

The Jones' are finally here... and we are having a blast... Christina is a professional photographer and she has a great pics (and also a blog)... check out her blog entry for Day 1 in Singapore... I will catch up soon I promise (grandparents :-)..

http://jonesscoop.blogspot.com/2011/07/singapore-day-1.html

Getting ready for the Big Apple Adventure 2011!

VBS 2011... The Big Apple Adventure! What a blessing IBC's VBS was to our family this year (and hopefully to many others). This is my 4th year serving at VBS and by far this year was the hardest and most rewarding. All the planning started back in Feb. of this year and I am just now getting my head out of the VBS fog just enough to blog about it... VBS at IBC is a well oiled machine... this year we had 380 children and 180 volunteers... and 5 days full of fun and many blessings... here are some pics to show you just some of the stages that had to get done before Day 1 of VBS...

Decorations started to go up the week before VBS... getting ready for the Big Apple Adventure... turning Singapore into New York City...


These buildings really lit up and the taxi head lights would turn off and on...this amazing stage was donated by an anonymous donor that saw a NEW YORK themed prom held at one of the huge hotels here (Marina Bay Sands) and cost over 10K.


The entrance of the church welcoming the children each morning.

Downstairs around the fellowship Hall was the underground subway system... check out those hand rails hanging from the ceiling... have you ever seen black Saran wrap... well I have now... rolls and rolls of it. And the upstairs hallway was painted (actually on the wall) the skyscraper scene of NYC. So amazing to see how much talent we have at IBC.

Some of our decorations were purchased by Lifeway but still our decor team had to add their final touches to it...

A shot of the stage with the lights out.... pretty nice huh... how about those shadow boxes...

The decor is up... and the music team is ready to go and teach the children all the songs and moves.

The Teachers are ready to go... they have prayed for all the children, gone over their material, collected all their supplies and ready to have some fun...

I had mentioned earlier that this VBS is a well oiled machine and it has to be... here is just a small example of how well... here is the schedule matrix of what each group of children will be doing in every 25 minutes of the day and where they will be doing it... at any time we can find a child and know which room they are in.

The T-shirts are complete and ready to worn by each child... every day... all the moms and dads are going to have to do a lot of washing this week.

The 3 directors... are PUMPED... a little crazy but ready for the day they have prayed for... for months... God is good!

And we have one excited boy... for his first VBS as a participant (and not in the nursery)... we have both been counting down for Day 1 to begin for weeks...

Stay Tuned for more pics... from Day 1 to Day 5 of VBS... a little late but better late than never :-).