Collin's first awards ceremony

In college I volunteered with an AWANA (stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed from 2 Tim 2:15), a children's ministry program at my church.  And 13 years later, my son has completed his first year in the program at our church.  

AWANA helps children memorize Bible verses while watching puppet shows, playing games, and singing songs.  Collin - along with Cas and I - memorized 20 verses in the Bible.  It was fun to watch his confidence grow over the year, and in January, they split his class by age so he ended up as the youngest kid in the 4's and 5's class.  

Here he is near the center of the back row at their awards ceremony, singing the Cubbies song.  

Getting his award and ribbon . . . and looking like such a little boy (as opposed to a toddler)

Back at home he was proud of his new ribbon and also his "longest sidewalk ever."  We got the blocks back out for Maya to crash towers, but she's so fast that Collin was getting frustrated with how quickly she would knock them over - before he had time to put more than one or two on top of each other.  So he built sidewalks, refusing suggestions or help from me, and then walked his fingers down the colors.  He's got a mind of his own!

I wish we did a better job remembering all the funny things he says, but here are some that have entertained us recently:

• "Let's make this night even more special-er . . ." when he's asking to stay up late, read another book, get another dessert, etc
• "There's a boy in my gymnastics class named Pecan."
• "Boogers are stinkier than poop, right Daddy?"  Overhead from a boys bath time conversation
• "I'm not shivering because I'm cold, I'm shaking because I'm so excited" as his lips turned blue from spending too long in our chilly pool.