The early part of my week in El Paso ...

I've been busy editing my photos from El Paso. I'm finding it difficult to chronicle those eight days. We did so many fun things together! I'm afraid that this blog is not a very good medium to use for some of the stuff that we did, basically because a lot of it was repetitious and simple kinds of things ... but that's really the stuff that life is made of, isn't it?

Pastor Jim gave a sermon on Jesus being our Good Shepherd a few months ago and as I thought about those wonderful truths later on throughout that following week, I wanted to pass some of it on to Emma, Christopher and Matthew. But I needed a plan!

I had 3 stuffed lambs at my house ~ but two of them were identical ~ and I thought it would be kind of fun for each of the grandchildren to have their very own lamb. So I went shopping and found this "girly" looking lamb for Emma. The other two lambs very much looked like boys to me!
I love this picture of Emma so much ... just glowing with happiness! She loved her little lamb! (She is wearing a knit hat her Aunt Kelly made for her ... she would NOT take it off!)
I gave Christopher the lamb I purchased in Israel ... in Jerusalem actually. It's kind of been a personal treasure of mine since 1999, the first time I ever traveled to Israel. I knew it would be just perfect for Christopher. He really liked it. He gave it a hug, ran into the dining room, plunked his lamb down on the table and promptly sketched it! Didn't he do a good job?!
This is the little tiny lamb that I had a duplicate of at home ... it was the smallest one and therefore HAD to go to Matthew! I used ribbon to tie name tags around each lamb's neck: Emma, Christopher, and Matthew! We talked about how wonderful it is that when you love and follow Jesus, He makes us part of His family and knows each of us by name.

"He (Jesus) calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out." John 10:3

Here is a watercolor painting, illustrating Psalm 23. Christopher did the painting!
We also talked about how David was a shepherd boy and how brave and strong he was to protect his flock from danger. I'm pretty sure Emma painted this picture, but I forgot to have the children sign their names to each picture ... and so I'm not sure!
I know Emma painted this shepherd's crook. She said she painted like it candy-cane because she remembered the story we read last Christmas about the origin of the candy-cane and that if you flip the crook upside down, it forms the letter "J" (for Jesus!).

We did our usual mega-amount of artwork throughout the week. I'll show you more pictures the children drew in later entries ~ don't you just love children's art?!
I brought two of my favorite Ed Emberley drawing books for the children to use. They are favorites of the children too!
Emma really loves the thumbprint book ... look at the cool thumbprint people she was able to make.
We had so much fun just sitting around the dining room table creating stuff together.
Chris still loves dinosaurs, dragons, sharks and sea creatures. I love to watch him draw. He is very confident, and a wonderful artist.
Didn't his dragon turn out cool?
Matthew did a lot of drawings too ... I'll show you more of those later. He had a lot of fun putting puzzles together too.

My carry-on suitcase was typically packed to the brim with books, games, puzzles, art supplies, etc. I've gotten to be almost an expert at packing it ~ you cannot believe what I can jam into one of these small bags!

For bedtime, we read John 10 together and talked about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. The children were really attentive, and cuddled up with their own little lambs while I was reading. Each night we talked about a different aspect of how shepherds take care of their sheep. We had a great time together. I'll share more pictures with you in the next few days ... I have a lot of editing to do!