Bible Study

One of my New Year's resolution was to be more intentional in bible study with the children. I think we do a pretty good job in incorporating Jesus into our daily lives but I really wanted to go a little deeper into carving the words of Jesus on the hearts of the Timo and Cameron, hoping that they would look back on them to provide wisdom as they grow older. So we set up a daily bible study, typically at night, and started bible verse memorization with them.
I think the Lord heard my resolution, or better yet, knew my heart, and sent and amazing woman to our church as a guest speaker the first week of January. Ann Iorg, wife of Golden Gate Baptist Seminary president Jeff Iorg, spoke for two hours about helping children become followers of Jesus. She reaffirmed some ideas I already had in my head as well as gave me new insight into how the mind of a child works and what they are learning spiritually at different ages. She was able to point me in the direction of some great material and I came home excited about teaching Timo and Cameron a more Biblical worldview.

We started nightly bible study instead of bedtime stories (we moved story time to the afternoon, after nap)and started verse memorization with very simple verses. Their first verse was the first verse in the Bible..."In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1. Here is Timo and Cameron saying their verse. They learned this verse about 8 weeks ago but still remembered it a few nights ago when I recorded this.

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

And here they are saying the verse from last week...I'm so proud of them. "I delight greatly in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God" Isaiah 61:1

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

We spent the month of January on the beginning of creation. Now we kinda skip around from bible story to bible story...usually trying to apply it to what we did that day or a truth we feel the kids need to learn in the moment. Sometimes the kids want to read the same bible story three nights in a row. Timo's favorite is David and Goliath and Cameron's favorite is Jesus walking on water. I'm amazed at how much they have learned so far and how much they really enjoy it. Some nights I'm so tired and just want to put them to bed without story time but they always remind me, "Mommy, we didn't do our bible study yet."

A few weeks after we started, I was telling my mom how it was going and that I wanted to create a "space" for each of them to sit to listen and pray...to make bible study something special and separate it from regular story book reading. That's when she came up with the idea of making them bible study pillows! As I mentioned in my earlier birthday posts, she made each of them personalized pillows to sit on for bible study and prayers. They love them and we've used them every night so far.
Now don't get me wrong...this hasn't changed my children into little angles! I'm still waiting for their actions to catch up with words we learn in our lessons. And I'm still exhausted at the end of each day trying to deal with two typical 3 year old's temper tantrums...But I just keep telling myself we've started a good habit...and that's the most important part.

Valentine's Day Pt. 2

I thought it would be fun to take the kids out for lunch for their birthday with their friend Caleb. We went to a really fun place here in SF, Mel's Dinner....extremely kid friendly. The fun part was juke boxes at every table!

And crayons and coloring books...

And lot's of trains to go round....

"It's my party, I can cry if I want to...." There was a little disagreement over one of the trains and Timo got his feelings hurt (my sensitive little boy). Cameron was trying to make him feel better by handing him his milk (my thoughtful little girl).
Lunch time! How cool are the little cars that lunch comes in?! The kids took a few bites and then played race cars the rest of the meal...
Then a special treat...cake with two candles! It was so sweet of our waitress to bring a piece of cake out for the kids, each a candle and each a cherry...all for free!
Thanks for spending our birthday with us Caleb!! "I'm three years old!"

We had really great time at lunch and doing the last of our birthday celebrating. The rest of the day went completely downhill...the kids didn't nap so it was crankyville around here from about 5pm till bed time. The upside was they were in bed way before normal bedtime making it possible for Young and I to have a nice long, quiet evening together celebrating making it 3 years so far...oh, and Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Pt. 1

I can't let the actual holiday of Valentine's Day go by without acknowledgment...even though it is over shadowed by the twins birthday.

I was surprised they actually opened their cards before the boxes of chocolate...I asked Timo what his card said and he said "to Timothy Ko"...at least he knows his name!

A little chocolate before breakfast wouldn't really hurt, would it? Luckily Timo doesn't like chocolate so he spit his back out. Cameron's chocolate was caramel, which got on her fingers and made a mess so she didn't want it either...who's kids are these?? Oh well, more chocolates for Mommy!

And let's not forget chocolates for my sweetheart...only the best husband in the world!

The chocolates and stickers were quickly tossed aside as soon as they remembered they had new scooters to ride!
As the morning went on, as we were trying to get dressed, we got a delivery from the mailman...birthday gifts from Granny and Grandpa...Prayer Pillows!! My mom made these pillows by hand for the children to sit on for our bible studies and night time prayers. I/we love them!(I'll post more on these later)

Valentine's Cookies

The few days before Valentine's Day we baked and decorated cookies with our friend Jordan. I had some gingerbread cookie dough left over from Christmas, so we made ginger Valentine's Day Cookies! As usual, the rolling and cutting took far longer than the actual decorating...I think because they hurry the decorating so they can eat the cookies!

I thought I had a set of heart cutters but turns out I didn't, just one big heart cutter. So we took our Christmas cutters and made them into Valentine people, Valentine Snowflakes and rounds to say "I love you". (it's all about how you present it to the kiddos)

The decorating wasn't as elaborate as I have envisioned...no "I love you"s were written on the cookies...we were just doing good to get the icing and some sprinkles on, but the end result was the same! Yummy goodness!

To make it through 3 cookies before eating one...immeasurable self control!

A sign of a successful cookie baking/decorating operation...none of the cookies made it the three days till Valentine's Day. Can't wait till Easter cookie time!

We Got New Wheels!

Timo and Cameron's birthday party was on a Saturday and their birthday on that Monday so we decided to give them their present from us on Sunday afternoon...halfway in between. At this point they were already confused Sunday because I said "one more day until your birthday." And Timo said, "no, it's not our birthday anymore." Cameron piped in with "we get two birthdays?" I'm sure they will learn to love celebrating birthdays for a whole weekend!

We got them scooters for their birthday which I bought way back before Christmas on sale. I had this master plan of setting them up with bows and cards and having the kids run in and see them...well, you know what they say about best laid plans...
We were giving the scooters after naptime (good incentive to take a nap..."you get a birthday present if you go to sleep") and Young had a meeting until 3pm anyway. Well, a combination of his meeting running late and the kids waking up early resulted in the kids seeing them was Young was bringing them in the door to set up...Oh well, the end result was the same, just no great "surprise" pictures were taken! They hopped on the scooters immediately and off they went. I was trying to explain how much Mommy and Daddy love them and this was their birthday present...but not sure any of that was heard....

scooters from Sara ko on Vimeo.

3rd Birthday Bowling Bonanza!

For the twins party this year we decided to have a bowling party! After our successful night of bowling when we were in southern California, I thought it would be a great party idea...not to mention a way to have 15 toddlers party OUTSIDE of my house. It turned out to be a genius idea, most of the kids had never bowled before and they all loved it. And I must admit, not having to clean up before or after the party made it all worth wild!!

We got a super great deal at Serra Bowl in Daly City...an hour of bowling and an hour in the party room with the works...pizza, drinks, balloons, party decorations, etc! I thought two hours of partying would be plenty of time but like usual, it all seemed to go by so fast! We took way too many pictures so I tried to collage a few of them to save on space and length of the blog...

Like I said, we had 15 kids starting out bowling. They reserved 4 lanes for us and so neatly put each child's name up on the score screen...as if we were going to get 15 toddlers to play a real game of bowling...ha, ha. The kids just randomly started rolling bowls in whatever lane was free. There were balls going all over the place with parents running, trying to keep up with the next kid ready to roll. And thank goodness for the ramp!! It was so much fun watching the kids having a good time. I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids did!

Here is the cast...I totally forgot to get a group shot but did get individual pics of most of them in action...

Timothy was running around like a crazy man most of the time. He was so happy, and so full of energy...I think he really loved having all his friends around him. He stuck to one in particular, Jake. Jake is 9 years old, the son of my best friend Monique and my God son. He would only bowl if Jake was there to watch him and stayed at Jake's side constantly watching and immitating everything he did... plus I think Timo can play a little more rough with Jake than other kids his age. Cameron slipped and fell off one of the steps and slightly hurt herself, so she stayed close to Mommy for a portion of the bowling. But all in all, it was so much fun watching all the kids get a kick out of bowling! Here are some of the pictures and videos. (sorry so many of the pics are blurry...the kids were constantly moving..it was hard to get any shots of them standing still!)

bowling birthday from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

After bowling it was time to head to the party room for pizza!

Some of our non-toddler guests....

Even though we had the party at a bowling alley, I wanted to do a theme. The twins are completely into The Cat in the Hat right now so I decided that would be the most fun for them. The twins were wearing their "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" shirts I found and I designed a cute cake for them. The cake took about two days to make and I think Cameron and Timo really enjoyed it. Even though they each had their own cakes, they fought over who got to have the Hat!

Happy 3rd Birthday! from Sara ko on Vimeo.

I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed all the pizza, juice and cake!

And as part of the package, the birthday twins got their very own personalize, real authentic bowling pins. They absolutely loved them and insisted on holding them on the drive home. The balloons filled up the car which made it even more fun for them. Someone is getting sleepy...

I had to try my best to keep Cameron awake for the drive home, I knew today would be a good nap day...and it was! What a great way to end your 3rd Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Timothy and Cameron! You're 3 years old!!