Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Love Out Loud November 30

This past Sunday ROCKED! We had a special worship concert for our kids during KidStuf, featuring Dave Hopkins, who came all the way down from Monterey to bless us and lead our kids in worship, along with my sister in law DANA and the rest of Dave's band, "Love Out Loud." We've been using some of Dave's worship songs in KidStuf for about a year, and it was so fun to have them here in person. The kids LOVED it and I was amazed at how much they participated, how much they SANG from their hearts, and how much FUN we all had. Here are a few of the pictures!

(Backstage before the concert began. The band and our worship girls, Courtney, Sabrina and Natalie!)

(Lord, we lift your name on high!)


(Hugo, Bailey, Alyssa, Cooper, Kennedy and Kalyn down front singing their hearts out, while the worship team girls are up on stage between Dave and Dana! Boy were they excited!)

Thanks Dave for coming to lead us and worship with us! It was awesome! Come back again soon!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

18th Annual Fall Festival

Fall Festival... the biggest event of the year... and the event where we work the hardest, need the most volunteers, and certainly eat the most candy! 1500 people (I think a few more than that actually) great music, delicious food, smiling faces, adorable costumes, and wonderful memories... at least enough to last us until next year! Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a wonderful evening.





Monday, September 29, 2008

Fabulous Fifth Graders!

We have had some very exciting times with our fifth graders the past few weeks. These kids are so amazing. They reach out to new kids and make them feel at home quickly, they love to talk about God's Word and memorize Scripture, they love to serve and help others in our church, and I just love each and every one of them.

We had a Progressive Dinner on Friday night and took 18 kids from house to house BACKWARD! Dessert First Of Course! They loved it! I was afraid they had filled up on dessert too much, and wouldn't eat and the next 2 houses, but I was wrong! We stopped to play some games in between eating, and we had a blast! Thanks to the Bartons, the Armstrongs, and the Coxes who hosted our wild and crazy kids!


Here's a shot of our Sunday morning kids this week wearing their "PT Cruisers" T Shirts that they won in a game we were playing.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Arbor Road 500 Race and Barbeque!

June, 2008: One of my favorite events of the year... our Pinewood Derby, which we affectionately call "The Arbor Road 500" (our church is located on Arbor Road!) Here are some of the fantastic cars our kids made and brought to race!


We have 4 categories: Preschool; 1st - 3rd; 4th - 6th; and Youth/ Adult with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner in each division for both the fastest car and the most creative design! I love this event so much because it is so fun to watch dads hang out with their kids for the day, and watch moms, grandmas, aunts, uncles, etc. all come out to cheer on their children, eat hamburgers, and get sunburned together! All from a simple $4.00 block of wood!


Saturday, May 24, 2008

Sermon on the Mound Was Great

As usual, our kids choir was amazing last Sunday... they never cease to surprise me. We always get nervous during those last few rehearsals and wonder if it's going to come together. Are the kids going to remembe their entrances? Are the microphones going to work? Will the kids remember all those lines they memorized? And will they actually SING? (Sometimes they get so excited about all those people watching, and trying to remember the choreography, that they forget to sing!) Sermon on the Mound has a great message and our congregation really enjoyed it.
Here are some fun pictures: Sarah Barton and Bailey Gray as the sports announcers, "Dizzy Deano" and "Jackie Rawlings." And the four cheerleaders: Aubri, Sabrina, Samantha, and Kennedy. They were so adorable!
One of the highlights of the program were our nine "dandelion" girls who came out and danced around Phil Davis, the hot dog salesman, "Mr. Oscar Meyers." Show stealer for sure! Thanks to Shelly for all the wonderful choreography! And our nine baseball players, "The Soaring Eagles" were as handsome as ever!
Great job kids! Can't wait to do it again!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Great Year at Kid U

We had such a great year in Kid U... we always want the focus to be on establishing godly relationships between kids and their leaders, and I truly saw that happening this year. From woodworking, to knitting, to scrapbooking, to leather crafts, to "Fun with Food" and in each small group/ discipleship time, it was all about CONNECTING.



Thanks everyone for a great year. We're sad it's over. See you next year!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Kid U Study Abroad



Every year during our Wednesday night club program, Kid U, we hold a Missions Emphasis to help our kids get a global perspective on what God is up to, with the prayer that they will begin to look and listen for the call of God in their lives, and hoping that many of them will some day ANSWER that call to be involved in kingdom work all around the world.


This year, we studied the countries of Thailand, with my friends Dan and Judi Juhasz, then the country of Ethiopia with one of our church members Bill Stamps, and then the country of Zululand, which is in South Africa, with our missionary, Katie Gurzi. Here is a picture of Judi serving some rice, curry, and papaya to the kids. They definitely liked the papaya more than the curry!


Here's Bill Stamps explaining Ethiopian food to the kids. These huge "pancake" things are a staple in Ethiopia, and the people there use them kind of like forks or spoons, and they scoop up their food with it. We tasted lamb, beef, and pork. Again, mixed reviews from the kids, but such a great experience for the kids to see the many different types of people in the world. Here they are making Ethiopian flags and learning a little more about the Ethiopian culture.


What fun! I love our church, and I love all the people who have a global view of the world, and mostly, I love the fact that those people are willing to share their passion with our kids!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

More Winter Camp Photos!




Here are some more photos of our weekend at Alpine Winter Camp with our 3rd - 6th graders, which took place Feb. 1-3.
Here's our group of 3rd - 4th grade boys having fun in the snow!
Looks like quite a crazy game.... building a snowman perhaps?

Friday, February 8, 2008

Winter Camp at Alpine 08!!!

Wow, when our kids pray for snow... WATCH OUT! Our 3rd - 6th Graders enjoyed a great weekend at Winter Camp at Alpine (in Blue Jay) Feb. 1-3, and they had more snow than ever! In fact, they had so much snow, they got a little stuck on Sunday trying to get home and had to stay a little longer for new chains to arrive for the bus... but that's a long story. Here are some pictures that give the story much better than words ever good. All these great pictures were taken by Wendy Spradlin, one of our counselors.

Here's our fun group of 6th grade girls with their counselor Sarah.

Some of our boys keeping warm inside playing pool.




Lots of girls having fun in all that snow!




A beautiful picture of the chapel where the kids had their time of worship and time in God's Word with Mr. J (Kurt Johnson) our camp speaker and worship leader.



Thursday, January 31, 2008

In looking for fun family activities to pass along to our parents for LENT and EASTER, I came across a few fun and meaningful websites I wanted to list.



http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/easteractivities.html

http://www.first-school.ws/activities/bible/resurrec.htm

http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/clr-indx.html

Have fun together as a family this season of the year. Invite some neighborhood friends to come over for a little Easter party and put the easter story inside a set of easter eggs (which has come to be known as "Resurrection Eggs" which you can purchase at Lighthouse, or online at www.christianbook.com... but as a preschool teacher, I used to make MY OWN using a rock, a piece of cloth, 3 dimes, a thorn from a rose bush, etc.... leaving the final egg EMPTY!).

Let me know what YOU'RE ideas are for making Easter and Lent significant and special for your children.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Children's Choir Resumes in February!

Back by popular demand! Children's choir will resume February 10 for Kindergarteners through Sixth Grade. In December, our musical was only 20 minutes long, and our Kindergarteners did great, but this musical is a little longer (about 35 minutes) and a little more challenging, but we have an extra special job for them, so I think it's going to be great!

The next musical we're going to begin working on is called "Sermon on the Mound" by my all time favorite children's composer, Celeste Clydesdale. This musical is actually a few years old, but it's still a favorite of mine, and we've never done it here at LFC! (My kids Stephen and Emily were both in this musical when they were in 2nd grade, and it was a blast!)
Here's what Celeste has to say about "Sermon on the Mound."
"For quite some time it has been my desire to write about the importance for believers to put on the armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18) The baseball uniform correlated perfectly - then the musical seemed to take shape. In Matthew, chapter four and five, we see that Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the desert, praying and being tempted by Satan. He defeated Satan by standing firm and responding with the very Word of God. After these victories, He began His public ministry by teaching the Sermon on the Mount, and teaching us how to pray. Our "Head Coach" is the Lord. We are the team (the church), encouraging one another and uniting our hearts to stand firm in this spiritual battlefiedl. We need to take time out to train and pray before we can be effective Christians in this world. Every one of God's children need to know the incredible value of hiding God's Word in their hearts. How else can we possibly put on the "Helmet of Salvation," hold up our "Shield of Faith," and be ready to respond at the appropriate times with the "Sword of the Spirit"? Through SERMON ON THE MOUND I pray that God will use the baseball analogy to help our children see the battle that is reality... is your armor on?

So kids, I really hope you can join us beginning February 10, at 4:00 pm. The musical will be performed on May 18 in our morning service. More details soon about auditions, etc. BATTER UP!



Friday, January 4, 2008

There's SNOW in Long Beach!


The final day of extra special fun that we planned for our kids at Lakewood Family Church during the month of December was a SNOW DAY on Dec. 23. We brought in 5 tons of real snow (well actually, a company called "The Ice Man" in Bellflower brought in huge blocks of ice, shredded it and BLEW it all over our play area.It was a little expensive, but our kids and families sure had a blast. We served free hot chocolate, and let the kids play in shifts. After a couple of hours, most of the families and kids had gone home, and we just let everyone have at it! The Snowman was provided by "The Ice Man" company. They also do movie sets and in Santa Clause 3 they had to make a ton of these snowmen identically, and quickly, so they discovered a way to make them in a large barrel, remove the barrel, a bucket of snow for the head, add the eyes, nose, pipe, hat, etc, and wa-la! Instant snowman! The snow was very packed, and so not really adequate for making snow angels, but here's one of our Jr. Highers, Alyssa, trying to make one anyway! I don't know who had more fun, the kids, or the parents who were taking pictures!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Way Too Cute


Couldn't resist posting this picture of some of our adorable toddlers! Each of our classrooms in our early childhood hallway depict a different part of God's creation, and this room is called the Fish Room. Here are some of the kids having their snack.