Presenting chapel

For the past several weeks, the two Junior Kindergarten classes at Leo's school have been practicing to present chapel.  It has been a big topic of conversation at home as well.  Since bringing Serafina to chapel last time was a disaster, I arranged for a friend to watch her.

Here's the banner they made for the entrance.

I love how excited he is when he sees me in the audience.

The class was presenting the story of Jonah and the Whale.  While we waited for all the classes to file in, there was a slide show of pictures from the classes.  That's what he's pointing at.

The kids were assigned different "jobs".  Leo and another little girl were in charge of lighting the candles.  He sat in a special section during the opening songs.  He still sung along.

Time for action.

Leo did a great job of singing along for all the songs.

In fact, he was so intent of following the cues from his teacher leading the class, that when his teacher put her hand to her ear to get the kids to sing louder, he did it too.

Here are a few videos of him singing.  You can see him put his hand to his ear in at least one of them.

After it was all over, they gathered with the teachers for some pictures.

The teacher in this picture is Mrs. Hufana.  She teaches in the other JK room, but gets all the kids that stay until 3pm.  Eventually, Leo will stay full day, but not yet.

After chapel, the kids and parents gathered for some snacks and playtime.  I couldn't stay because of my garage sale duties, but I heard my pumpkin muffins were a hit.  The principal gave each kid a cross and a note congratulating them on doing a great job at chapel.  This is his first cross.  

I was so incredibly proud of him and got a little choked up during it.  It amazing to see him participating in such a big kid activity.  

I would have liked to stay, but I had to come home to this...

Amazing, isn't it.  Like an episode of "Hoarders".  Before I started collecting donations, I put a note on my neighbors' doors so no one reports me to the city.  I had four volunteers helping me this morning.  The very first box one of them grabbed today had a dead bird in the bottom.  Oh great.  That quickly became the trash box.  A little while later, I discovered a box full of used underwear and bras.  Sigh.  

 My friend brought Serafina back and stayed to help make signs and sort stuff.  She marveled at how much Serafina ate during her brief stay at her house.  Girlfriend can put it away.  I always pack plenty of snacks.  

She got stuck in the hoard at one point and wasn't happy about it.  

Here was fun discover (better than carcasses and undies).  Cute Halloween costume, right?  It won't be worn by my kids, but hopefully someone will pay top dollar for it.  

I doubt I'll be blogging again before the sale.  We had a sudden downpour last night and since most of the stuff was in the side yard, Tom and I were running around like loons, getting soaked while throwing tarps on piles and cramming stuff into the garage.  I just kept yelling "this can't be happening!"  Right now all the weather reports are showing 0% chance of rain for Saturday.  I can only hope.  I've got a lot of help scheduled, so even if a lot of people flake I should be okay.  I just have to make it through the next three days.  And remember to breathe.