"Thank You, God, for inventing Vacation Bible School."

One week down! We concluded today with pizza, ice cream, and cupcakes (a bit ironic considering our healthy food emphasis- but it was delicious.) On a slightly more nutritious note, we made trail mix that reviewed all our Bible stories from the week. In case you're curious how that works:

On the first day, we talked about the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt. They ate flat unleavened bread, which we represented with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (A couple of kids got this connection as soon as they saw the flat cereal, which reassured me I wasn't crazy with this idea.)

Day two was the Leviticus business describing all the festivals where the Israelites made offerings to God. Since they offered up the first fruits of their grain harvest, we included whole grain Cheerios.

On day three, we talked about Jesus inviting all who are thirsty to come unto him. Nothing makes you thirsty like pretzels! (Which, in hindsight, means it probably would have been a good idea to have something to drink with the trail mix...oh well.)

The fourth day we talked about communion (or "commotion," as one boy called it.) We used raisins, as I was thinking they were from grapes just like the grape juice or wine. A 9 year old girl, still thinking about the previous day, decided that raisins were all shriveled up like your heart would be if it were thirsty. I asked if she wanted to come along with us all summer and come up with good ideas like this, but I think she had other things to do.

And today we talked about Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and how through the Holy Spirit, we can celebrate what God is doing for us every day. Good celebrations involve chocolate, so we used M&Ms.

My good idea girl also noted that she got to "shake it [her baggie of trail mix] up," just like our theme for the week.

Then it was time to try to get everything organized again and loaded back into the van! What a fast week!