Bible Bowl

Our church decided to start up a Beginner Bible Bowl team back in September. Nicole was approached and asked to be on the team of 3rd-5th graders. Bible Bowl is a type of quiz game/memorization/knowledge tested program. The kids are studying through Acts this year and Nicole knows more about Acts then I do, that is for sure. She loves this program and we love that she is learning the Word of God. The kids practice every week, sometimes two times a week, and then compete with other area churches up at Great Lakes Christian College on Saturdays once a month. There are two teams from Macomb Christian Church; the Nuggets(Nic's team) and the Magic. Both teams are improving with every competition.

Highlights:
The Nugget's won third place in Dec., Jan., Feb
The Nugget's won 2nd place just yesterday
Nicole won a "top brain" award for 3rd, 9th and 10th place for overall test scores of all of the kids. They give them a paper and pencil quiz to test their knowledge out of the buzzer game situation. Which I think is great for those kids who are not so quick on the buzzers.
In February, Nicole won first third grader overall. I think she is the most proud of this accomplishment.

Of course, one of the reasons she loves Bible Bowl is because her wonderful friend Julia is on the team!


The kids work as teams and use the buzzers to answer a question. Then they get bonus points for memorized scripture and general Bible knowledge.

The team mates take turns being the captain, and what the captain answers is the only thing considered. So... the captain must represent the team well.

Here is Nicole's 10th place finish yesterday. She really studied hard for this competition and was a little disappointed that her finish wasn't higher than her third place win.

The Nugget team is made up of Gabby, Nicole and Julia. They all complement each other in the competition and mostly work as a great team!

Yesterday, the other MCC team, the Magic went undefeated and captured the 1st place win. WOW, way to go team. This is such a great improvement.

This is a picture of the top brain's. Starting with 10th-1st place. The labeled children are all on the MCC teams. As you can see, our coaches, the Mason family, do such a great job teaching the kids.

So... Here are a few questions these young ones are expected to know. Put your answer in the comment section to see if you are "smarter than a 3rd, 4th or 5th grader"!!! Now remember, the kids don't get to reference their Bible's. This is pure memorization.
1. In Acts Chapter 6, who did "they" say Stephen spoke words of blasphemy against?
2. Quote what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 about seeking the kingdom...

Chicago Getaway

Mike and I were able to go to Chicago for a few days, just the two of us. We had a great time. We had mild temperature for January, but didn't see much of the sun. We left the car parked at the hotel and used public transportation to explore. We packed a lot in our time there and walked a lot, but had fun together doing the thing we like most-traveling to new places and for Mike a return to a "true" big city.

I took this photo from the planetarium. Loving that my new camera gets great night shots.

We ate at some fun places with really good food, this is the pizza place where we had famous Chicago deep dish pizza. A nice little neighborhood place and the taste was excellent. Excuse the hat, I hate being cold.

We walked around Navy Pier. Mostly inside because it was cold. But there were still die hard fishermen fishing off the pier.


The Rumbuc's suggested a great Steak and Stone Crab place for dinner. I knew Mike would love it. He tried the Stone Crab and wasn't disappointed. I of course got looks for my chicken order! We walked around the Lincoln Park Zoo. Wow, what a great zoo. One of the best I have been to. It was FREE! And no crowds-HA! We had fun even without the kids. I was loving experimenting with the new camera and we laughed and learned new stuff.




Thursday night we decided to go to the Adler Planetarium for a "night at the planetarium". We both didn't know what to expect, but figured this was a good chance to try something new. It was so fun, the planetarium was set up like a cocktail party with people browsing the exhibits. We learned a lot about the stars, Mars and balloon satellites. Information I am sure to soon forget.







We made a stop at the cheesecake factory for some sinful treats and then we went into the American Girl store to see what we were up against when we take the girls this summer. I will say it was overwhelming for even me, and Mike isn't returning(at least that is his stance now).
We also came across this great museum of Stained Glass. It was beautiful. Not something I would have thought I would like, but we just stumbled across it at the end of Navy Pier.


Thanks Mom and Dad for taking great care of the girls while Mike and I had a fun weekend.

New Year's Eve and the kids

We spent New Year's Eve celebrating at our very brave friends' house, the Rumbuc's. This is always a fun night, and a little crazy, with all of our kids celebrating with us. We enjoyed lots of food, good company, outside play for the kids and fireworks at midnight. Nicole and Morgan loved staying up and watching the ball drop and Mr. Rumbuc light fireworks. Rachel started saying she wanted to go home around 10pm so I am sure you know how that went. I was able to shoot a few pictures of the kids as they played outside. Not all of them were cooperative with my attempts because that would have meant time away from snowball fights and making snow sculptures. But here are a few pictures.

The girls were trying to make a snowman, but the fluffy stuff wasn't cooperating. So they decided to make smaller versions. This was Kaelyn's masterpiece.

Julia Rose eating snow. I am sure Jen will like this shot!!!

Morgan and Jenna

Ian

SNOW BALL FIGHT

Braden and Ian trying to get a fort going.