reciting from luke 2 at church

the first week in december, we were asked if the kids would recite from luke 2 during "oh come all ye faithful" during the christmas eve service. since they had zero interest in be a part of the kids choir singing christmas carols before a sunday service, i wasn't sure they would be interested, but when i asked them they were very excited! and then this week we learned that the song was moved to today instead of christmas eve! yikes! we had not rehearsed nearly enough. matt was thinking that we should reconsider but i was confident that they could do it and worse case, madelyn could just read all of the parts off a note card. mason kept skipping a word here and there so we gave him a note card to 'read' as well thinking that it would help him count words with some practice (which it did). maddux delighted in his line and did great reciting it. they could all say it from memory but felt special with their note cards. manning really, really wanted a speaking part but can't speak clearly enough for anyone to understand much of what he says other than our family.

so here we go...

the second i stopped the video, manning grabbed hold of the decorative plant at his side only to be surprised when it moved and they both started rolling down the stairs (i think he was trying to use it like a handrail). there was a group "gasp" and "aw" from the congregation when he fell and then recovered. he was scared more than anything because he stopped crying the second i picked him up.

the most difficult part was keeping all four of them quiet in the front row through the entire service because the song was first one after the sermon ended. but they did pretty great - it helped that i had enough coloring books, notebooks, crayons, color pencils, stickers, etc. to supply a small classroom.

to celebrate a job well done, we stopped by sweet frog for some soft serve! this was such a neat opportunity for them. maddux said his line over and over the whole way home too. he was pretty proud of himself. love.