{a fizzle of an experience}

I am sitting in the dining room finally getting around to eating some breakfast at 10:45 in the morning. Cold taco pizza is still considered breakfast if it is the first thing you eat for the day, right?

Katie and Drew are playing together in the playroom. I don't understand their game involving blocks and stuffed animals and marbles that are jewels, but they do and are having a great time. I love to hear their giggles.

While I eat, I thought I might share with you a lighthearted list of things you don't want to see or hear when dropping your children off at a new-to-you VBS program, all things learned first hand by yours truly this morning:

• You don't want to not see a single sign or ballon outside of the church to indicate where you are supposed to enter because it will just start the whole experience off with confusion. 
• You don't want to see that the other moms wandering around looking for the entrance are holding lunch boxes for their children since you don't have lunch boxes for your children. You weren't told to bring lunches or anything and rationally know that since you are picking your children up at noon, they don't need a lunch.... but you will feel like you messed up anyway.
• You don't want to be told by the greeter at the front table, "Hmmmm... I don't see Luke on here anywhere. Just write his name at the bottom of the list. I am sure it will be fine." This might upset you because you will realize that they might have a hard time quickly finding your number in an emergency if the paperwork is this unorganized. 
• You don't want to feel your four year old clinging to your leg, tearing up, and saying multiple times that he doesn't want to stay at this place.
• You don't want to see your friend Nicole walking up to different adults in the room to ask, "Could you show me an adult who is going to be with my son for the whole morning until I return? I just want to know that someone is going to keep him safe." 
• You don't want to hear a group leader in a different part of the room yell out, "Does anyone know if we have a first aid kit anywhere?.... Anyone?..... Could someone find out if we have a first aid kit?"  
• You don't want to see that the adults assigned to care for the group of ten four year olds are a timid young teenager, an elderly woman having trouble getting around, and a mom dealing with her own child who is in the middle of a tantrum. 
• You don't want to realize that after 45 minutes of being at VBS, the children have yet to do anything except to wait in line at check in, to wait in line to get a name tag, and to be shuffled from one place to another. No energetic hello from a leader, no songs, no games... nothing that has been your past experience with VBS.
• You don't want to realize that after 45 minutes, your child has not yet been directly spoken to by any of the three leaders of his group. You don't want to realize that if your child walked away, it is likely that nobody would notice.
• When you decide the situation might be a little too much for your four year old and for his mom, you don't want to have to search and search- ultimately unsuccessfully- for someone in charge to let them know you are leaving with the young child that you signed in.  

It probably goes without saying, but Drew did not stay at VBS this morning. I was disappointed at first that it wasn't a better experience for Drew because he has been looking forward to it for a while, but then I realized that some mornings at home this week with just my littles isn't such a bad thing either.

Gracie and Luke, however, seemed just fine and happened to be in the small group led by the pastor of the church. I felt fine leaving them for a few hours. They are older, more confident, and more self sufficient. I hope it is a positive experience for them. If not, we can say we tried it.