5th Grade Turkey Bowl 2010

Our monthly Friday Night Live for 5th Graders was so much fun! We not only bowled with a "baby turkey" but we also had a great time decorating and eating yummy cupcakes (thanks KC) but the kids worked hard making 2 special fleece blankets to give to "His Nesting Place" a home for unwed mothers that our church supports. It was fun seeing the kids work hard on the blankets (yes, even the boys) and also so great to see them so welcoming and friendly to the new students who had not been there before. Way to go 5th Graders!

Friday Night Live at the Mall

For our once a month "Friday Night Live" activity with our 5th Graders, we headed out to Lakewood Mall with a bunch of energetic kids, parents, and leaders for a "Scavenger Hunt." Each team of 4-5 kids was given a list of 35 items to find around the mall (mostly free stuff like a napkin, a straw, a namebag, a store display, etc.) within a specific amount of time. They were also given $5.00 to purchase the largest item they could find to bring back to the judging area. It was a blast!!!





The blue "Snuggie" was the winning item... they found it for only $2.50 at Target.... cool huh!?

5th Graders are Ready to MOVE UP!

At this time of year, our 5th Graders are anxious to promote up to Middle School, both at school and at church. We love our 5th graders, and I've known MANY of them since they were babies, so it's always bittersweet to see them graduate. Fortunately, I still get to see them around church, and many of them continue serving in Children's Ministries as helpers. I am proud of the loving, kind, servants they've become. Especially this group. We took a few of them to a concert a few weeks ago. For some of them, it was there first "concert" experience. We saw "Mercy Me," "The David Crowder Band," and a few more. It was at the Long Beach Arena, (I was glad it was close to home) and we had a great time.

Aloha To my Sweet 5th Graders!

This past Friday night was our goodbye party for our 5th Graders, as they will be "moving up" to our Middle School Ministry at church in a few weeks. It was at the fabulous Johnson house (Thanks Matt, Jeni, Toby and Tylie!) and the kids had a blast!

Here's a picture (below) of Sarah and Sabrina getting ready to HULA! Can you see that giant backyard! A 5th graders paradise!

As our dads, Matt, Geoff, and Dwayne, grilled the burgers and dogs, the moms had a chance to get to know each other better. After dinner we had some silly games (dress like a tourist.... wow, the kids really got into it!) ate more cookies and brownies and went home full of sugar!

Here's Julia doing gettin' her HULA on! Good Job Julia!And AJ struttin' his stuff as a tacky tourist in Hawaii! The hula skirts were way too big for them so they had to hold onto the skirts while running, as well as hold on to their hats, and sunglasses, to prevent them from falling off while running. This made for some very funny running!

Goodbye (or "aloha") to an amazing group of kids.... most of you I've known since you were TWO. I remember watching you play together in the two year old room at church when I first became your pastor. You are GOOD FRIENDS to each other, you are kind to new kids who join the group, you are serious about reaching your friends for Christ, you are eager to study God's Word and figure out what it means for your life, you are a LOT of fun to be with and I'd party with you any day! I will never ever drive past the Rockview Dairy on Bellflower and Del Amo again without hearing Solomon shouting in my ear, "Zombie Cow! Zombie Cow!" I can't wait to watch and see what God does in and through your lives. I know I will see pastors, missionaries, teachers, godly businessmen and women, loving moms and dads/ husbands and wives, and Kingdom/ World Changers! Oh yeah, and at least one Marine Biologist :) I'm glad we have a few more weeks in Sunday School together before you officially leave the Children's Department and enter the Middle School Ministry. And I'm also VERY glad that I will still be involved in your lives as you come back to serve in the Children's Department and use the amazing gifts God has bestowed upon you. I love you all. See you AROUND 1BL! Thanks for letting me love on you and be a part of what God is doing in your lives.

Preteen Kids Out on the Town!

Another fun preteen "Friday Night Live." This time it was a "car rally/ camera party" thing..... Three cars driving around town, opening up clues along the way, to find fun and/or unusual things around Lakewood and Long Beach such as...

*The giant cow at the Rockview Dairy on the corner of Bellflower and Del Amo

*The airplane at Del Valle Park on Woodruff

*The cinderella pumpkins at the park on Candlewood next to Gompers elementary school

*The pyramid at Long Beach State!

and finally, the fountain at Long Beach Town Center, where we of course stopped for ice cream or pretzels.

Thanks so much to our drivers, Becky Dugan and Heather Klingsporn. Oh and by the way... BOYS are WAY noisier than GIRLS when driving around town! I have the noisiest boys in the world in my preteen group! Wow! Seriously! But they sure are CUTE!

Preteen kids hit Downtown Disney

One of our recent activities for our 5th Graders.. the preteen group at our church. We had hoped to hang out at EPSN zone, but discovered that it was a 3 hour wait for a table on a Friday Night... not gonna happen with a dozen hungry 5th graders! So we ate at Wetzels Pretzels and then did some playing at the Lego store and the Disney store. I think the kids were just happy to be together and happy to be at the "Happiest Place on Earth!" So kids... if you're out there and you're listening, what kinds of activities to you like to do with your friends?????

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.