Beginnings and... Leprosy?

Mike has been telling me for months that I need to write a blog about all the crazy things the kids do. When I came home today and told him about the leprosy cookies at vacation bible school (I'll get to those in a minute)and he told me for the one millionth time that I needed to write a blog, I decided to finally sit down and do it.


For those of you who don't know us, let me introduce you to the clan. Mike is a SSG in the US Army. He's an Army bandsman (plays trombone) and has been in 14 years as of this past March. He just got back in October from a year-long deployment to Iraq and is set to go again this fall with just a little over a year at home in between. I am a stay-at-home mom to our five (soon to be six) kids. No, we are not Mormon OR Catholic. Elisabeth is the oldest at 10, Eleanor will be 9 in July, Carrie is 7, Henry just turned 5 in May, and Michael is 3. The newest one, a boy yet to be named, is due in September, right around Michael's 4th birthday.


We are currently stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Mike has technically been stationed here for over a year and a half with the majority of that actually spent in Iraq. The kids and I have been here since October. Hawaii is gorgeous and there is so much to do here. I don't understand the people that say they can't stand it here and can't wait to get off "the rock."


So this week is the girls' first week of summer vacation from school. I signed them and Henry up for vacation bible school at the post chapel this week and today was the first day. I dropped them off at 9 and picked them up at noon, then it was on to the PX for lunch. As we were eating, I asked them what they had learned at VBS. Henry, of course, started talking about the snacks they had had. So I asked the girls what they had learned.
Carrie said, "We learned about how Jesus healed these people who had this one disease that started with an L."

"Leprosy?" I questioned.

"Yeah, that's it," chimed in Eleanor.

"We made smiley face cookies for the snack." Henry put in.

"Yeah, we put icing on the cookie and used M&Ms for the eyes and nose and sour gummie things for the mouth except they were supposed to be sad face cookies, not happy face." Carrie added.

"So, we had to draw a picture of a person we really liked or were thankful for and I drew a picture of me and Uncle Matt at the beach." Eleanor interrupted.

"I drew a picture of me talking to Jesus!" Henry shouted.

"And then our teacher put stickers all over our arms and faces that were polka dots and told us we had leprosy and that we couldn't hang out with the person that we drew in our picture again." Carrie said.

"Oh, and then they made us all stand in a group and tied us up with caution tape." added Elisabeth.

"And we had to stay there like that until Jesus came and "cured" us." said Eleanor. I was trying very hard not to laugh at all of this.

"So, why were the cookies supposed to be sad faces instead of happy faces?" I asked, hoping to get to something that would sober me up.

"Oh, well we put dots on them too see, candy dots." Eleanor said.

"So they were supposed to be sad because they had that L thing." Carrie explained.

"Leprosy? You made leprosy cookies at vacation bible school?"

"Yep and then we ate them." Henry said.


What kind of vacation bible school is this? I SO wish one of the kids would have saved their snack from today so I could have a picture of the leprosy cookies to share with you all but I guess I'll just leave that up to all of you and your imaginations.