prayer, outdoor play, and Scooby Doo

Wow, has it been a week since I've posted?! Sorry to all who get the shakes if you don't get a regular dosage of "Sarah stories." ;) (You know who you are!).

Sarah is enjoying playing with our new neighbor, a 2-year-old boy. They have a great time together, playing in the combined backyards. It's great that she finally has a playmate close by. Later this week, one of her friends from church will be coming over for some play time. Sarah is quite the social little girl!

Nelson and I have a badminton set that we got out the other evening. We didn't actually play a real game, we just batted the shuttlecock back and forth. Sarah also used one of the rackets to attempt to hit the birdie. She kept saying, "I'm killing the birdie!" She has asked to kill the birdie several times since then. (Better than shooting the birdie, right? Sorry, bad joke--couldn't resist!). ;)

Saturday night Nelson and I actually had a date, and we got home very late. Because of the lateness of the hour of her bedtime, Sarah was less than enthused about waking up for church Sunday morning. Nelson went in to her room to try to rouse her. "Sarah, it's time to wake up," he said. Sarah didn't so much as stir. Nelson tried again. "Sarah, you need to wake up so we can get ready to go to church." Still no movement, no response. Nelson decided to try another tactic. "Sarah, you need to wake up. Scooby wants to eat breakfast." Without so much as an eyelash flutter, Sarah mumbled sleepily, "Scooby doesn't eat breakfast. He eats Scooby snacks!"

Sarah continues to like to pray (she prayed at our community group Sunday night, in addition to praying over several meals throughout the week). Her prayers follow a specific pattern. I can't tell if these are just things that a 3-year-old girl thinks to pray about, or if she has picked up a memorized prayer somewhere. She says, "Thank you, God, for all our food and all our hearts and all our strengths, and thank you Jesus, and all our food. Amen." Sometimes it varies slightly, but the basic pattern is always the same. Not a bad prayer at all, really. She's got the essentials covered! :)