Saturday, November 26, 2011

Gobble Gobble

Over the river...

And through the woods.... To Grandmother's house we go!


Thanksgiving from WV:














A post-Thanksgiving dinner tradition at my parents' house: target shooting off the deck. Just call me Kara Palin!!

My honey is such a good shot: he hit the target every time!!!


What does everyone need on Friday after they're tired of turkey? Mexican food!!!






Sunday, November 20, 2011

Happy 50th Anniversary Clough Pike Baptist!

Sunday, the 20th of November, was the 50th anniversary of our church. Happy Anniversary, CPBC!!!

A new piece was hung which had portraits sketched of the 5 pastors in the church's history. That handsome-looking guy in the bottom right is my honey. :)


Jack Helton, the Ohio Director of Evangelism, made a presentation to our church.

We were so honored to have Dr. Bobby Welch be our keynote speaker. Bobby Welch is the 2-time past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Daytona.








Bobby really revved-up our congregation to look beyond its sometimes painful past and begin the work of the next 50 years. Dr. Welch is an amazing evangelist.






As a personal sidenote, John was so excited to meet the famous Bobby Welch that he decided at bedtime last night that he wanted to wear a tie to church in honor of the man who has led so many people to Jesus. So at 10:00 last night, Tim and John trudged to Kohl's so that John could pick-out his very own tie....


...which amazingly enough, was almost identical to Bobby's. What an honor in our little boy's life, who aspires to be a great evangelist himself someday!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Way to go Christopher!

OK. So Christopher didn't win the state spelling bee at the Buckeye Christian School Association's state bee. But we were so proud of him anyway for making it there! And Christopher was the only kid who was in the 4th grade... all the other students were 5th and 6th graders.


Way to go little buddy!












Saturday, November 12, 2011

Cincinnati Pops!

On Saturday morning, we drove down to Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati, home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Pops. They had a "Lollipop Concert" for children, where they play kid-friendly songs and encourage children to come. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Before the concert, the Pops had an "instrument petting zoo" in the ballroom of music hall. The ballroom itself was absolutely beautiful, and very, very old. Stretched all around the room were different symphony performers and students from the Cincinnati School for the Performing Arts, who were demonstrating their instruments for the children, and....get this....allowing them to try them! Our favorite station was the violin. The lady from the symphony actually gave a short little lesson to interested students, which my children definetly were! She was unbelievably nice.



Christopher absolutely LOVED that violin!













After an hour of testing-out instruments came our time to go to the actual concert hall. We had awesome seats in the balcony. Thankfully, for once, I hadn't bought bad tickets to see something!

The Pops did a great round of songs all about trains. They were SO GOOD. If you ever have the chance to see the Pops perform in person, I highly recommend it. They are one of the best symphonies in the world, and you have probably heard their music on soundtracks and songs. For example, that famous rendition of "Sleigh Ride" that you always hear on the radio at Christmas and on CD's was performed by the Cincinnati Pops.



The young children in the audience went crazy when Thomas the Train himself showed-up, and actually did an interview with John Morris Russell, the Pops Conductor. They also played the score from "The Polar Express," which sounded exactly like it did in the movie. They played pictures from the movie on the big screen above them. The last song featured the Cincinnati Children's Choir. Much impressive. My favorite song of all, though, was Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train." Totally jazzy.