No Sleep and Church Revelations

We didn't go build on Saturday so I have nothing new to show. Emily asked if we could just stay home and play. We had to leave at about 1pm for a birthday party in Alabama so I was happy not to have to go out earlier. The little people played for hours, at lunch and then, without much arguing, they cleaned up FOUR rooms full of toys. Then we packed up and headed to Springville, Alabama for our friends 7th birthday party. The girls had a great time and stayed up WAY too late! They fell asleep on the way home from the party at about 10pm eastern time...3 - 3.5 hours later than normal. As we got in the car I told them that NO ONE was getting up at 6am on Sunday. Well, at 5:52am Sunday morning Emily wanted to know how much longer she had to stay in bed...will anything make this girl sleep?!?!?!?!

At 7am, when I finally let them get up, the girls had to get dressed for church immediately. I think Emily was afraid she'd be late...we don't have to leave until 9am and I've never seen a 5 year old take 2 hours to get ready but...
Anyway, when we first started going to St. Julians, the priest let me know that at an Episcopal church, the girls could take communion at their ages as I long as I was okay with that. I thought it would freak them out so she said that when they were interested to let her know and she talk to them briefly and "see them at the altar". Well, I have been trying to get them to come up with me, to get blessed, every week but they won't...okay, I won't push, it's not supposed to be a fight and it's not about me so I let it go. Fast forward back to Sunday morning on the drive to church, Emily & I have this conversation on the way to church:

her:I have going to go up to that stage with you today.
me: The altar?
her: yes, where Miss Stewart stands (a.k.a. Rev. Stewart, the priest)
me: okay, you just need to cross your arms in front of you and she will "rub" your
head and say a prayer for you
her: no, I want the bread
me:what????
her: the bread, I want to eat the bread
me: do you understand what it is?
her: yes, Miss Stewart told us about it and I want it
me: you realize that you can NOT drop it and you can NOT spit it out?
her: yes
me: okay, tell Stewart at Sunday school.
her: okay

So here I was thinking, well it's not the "First Communion" I had always imagined but that wasn't going to happen anyway (again, in the Episcopal Church all baptized people can take it, no big day in a white dress and veil for First Communion) but here it was. I was amazed that Emily wanted to do it so soon, she always asked me how old I was and I told her 7 she thought that sounded good until Sunday. I wonder how long she had been thinking about this? I really thought she was too young but again, it's not about me so if the priest says okay why should I say no? Emily and Ella went to Sunday School and then came and found me, we went into the church to wait for "kids church" to start and then they left again. The girls came back at Communion. I asked Emily if she still was coming with me and she said yes. I asked if she wanted a blessing and she said "No, the bread!" Again, I said "you know it's Jesus right?" she said, "yes, disguised as bread". So the 3 of us go up, I get communion and then help the girls find a place to kneel. Ella crossed her arms Emily held out her hands. Stewart placed the wafer in Emily's hand and then moved to Ella. By this point Emily was making a horrible face and trying to take the wafer from her mouth...I pushed it back in and got the girls up from the altar and tried to hurry them back to their seats. Emily took the wafer out of her mouth and said "what do I do with THIS?!?!?" I took it as discreetly as I could and ate it. She was so displeased. Here's what she had to say when we got back in the car:

me: what happened Em?
her: it wasn't bread
me: it was, it just doesn't taste like regular bread
her: i didn't think it would feel like that, it wasn't good
me: what did you think it was going to be?
her: like a snack
me: Emily, we talked about that fact that it was Jesus
her: well, I though it was just bread. I thought Stewart stood over it and said a spell and then you got a little snack.
me: I think next time you should cross your arms okay?
her: I think that's a good idea.