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.

A Wintery - Wacky Time!!!

Last night, (Feb. 17) was a very special Family Fun night at 1BL! Every 7 weeks we gather parents and kids together for a time of fun, laughter, learning, and celebrating. Last night was one of those nights. In honor of the Winter Olympics, we hosted our very own "Wacky Winter Family Olympics." Families were divided into 3 teams (Germany, Canada and Russia) and we played "hockey" built "snowmen" and through thousands and thousands of snowballs at each other! (And the Fellowship Hall doesn't look any worse for wear today I might add!) Take a look at some of the fun we had!
Making a Family Flag together!
I know it may not look like it from this picture, but here we are "building snowmen!" Each team had a snowman to fatten up using as many balloons as possible. Our good natured snowmen, KC, Shelly, and Pastor Brent!

Lily grabbing up some snowballs to throw at an opposing team!




This is where one of the teams almost got disqualified :)










"I don't remember Ice Hockey ever being this messy before!"
At the end of the evening, each child received a MEDAL for their excellent participation!

Thanks everyone for coming out and "going for the gold!" We hope you all had a great time. See you next Wednesday at our "regularly scheduled Kid U Program!"

Bible Sunday for First Graders

If you weren't here with us this past Sunday (November 15) you missed a very special day! It was Bible Sunday for our 1st Graders! At 1BL, we love the Word of God and we Love our kids, and so we look forward each year to the very special day when we can put the precious Word in the hands of our Precious kids! First Grade is the year that typically kids are learning to READ and what better book to read that the BIBLE? Pastor Brent believes strongly in this as well, and so as a special gift from our church to our kids, we are thrilled to present them with their very own copy of the NIV Adventure Bible.

Here's a peek:

Psalm 119:12-17 is my prayer for you my sweet friends:"Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. I have recited your lawes, and rejoiced in them more than in riches. I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. I will delight in them and not forget them. Bless me with life so that I can continue to obey you. Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word."

More Fall Festival Pictures

Here are some more fantastic pictures taken on the night of Fall Festival! I love seeing faces of those I know and many I don't know! It lets me know we are doing a great job of inviting our friends and neighbors and reaching out into our community! Thanks again everyone for your faithfulness!

Fantastic Fall Festival Fun!

Here are a few photos from last weekend's Fall Festival! 1600 people (at least!) enjoyed a beautiful October California evening, complete with great food, games, 2 huge bouncers, great music, and lots of candy! Here's Lilly the Cat!

Here's Jillian and Hudson! I can't tell if Jillian is taking candy away from Hudson or giving him Candy! I'm sure it's the later :)

Looks like little Carlie was pooped out... good thing grandpa was there to give her a place to crash while mom and dad were working at a booth!!

Part of the Gilbert Family having fun... check out those tats on Lisa... wow, Lisa, I had no idea!!!

And of course our amazing band! Great job guys!

Thanks everyone for making our 19th Annual Fall Festival such a huge success! We hope to see many of those who came to "visit" come back again soon to see us on Sunday morning!

Atlantis Park Adventure Day

A fantastic day at Atlantis Park today for our kids! We have an outing just about every Thursday during the summer (except for VBS weeks and stuff like that!). It's great to see our kids making new friends, inviting their neighbors, and just hanging out together. Atlantis park is a small "play center" within the boundaries of Garden Grove park in Garden Grove. It's $1.00 to get in, and the cool thing is that kids are only allowed with an adult and adults are only allowed with a child, so there are no "strange" adults hanging around inappropriately. We started with a nice lunch time in the pavillion area, and then started exploring! It didn't take the kids very long to find the "wild" bunnies (that were obviously very used to having kids poke and chace it!) After a little exploring, we had a scavenger hunt, and then time for more exploring! Thanks counselors for a great day and thanks kids for making today soooo fun!

2009 Arbor Road 500

One of my favorite days of the year! This past Sunday was our Pinewood Derby race... a barbeque and then the race. We had 4 division... preschool/ 1st & 2nd grade/ 3rd - 5th Grade/ and then Youth & Adult. I love this day because we get to be all together as a church family.

Here is the Wahlstrom family (plus some boyfriends!), including Gary who did all our cooking in the red shirt and blue hat. Thanks Gary! And here's Beth's boyfriend Marcus, who

is from Sweden. He tried so hard to make a car that would beat Gary's car... sorry Marcus! But it sure did look good! And finally, here are our Grand Champion winners for the fastest cars of the day:
3rd place, Hannah Rockwood (2nd grade); 2nd place: Cayden Ziemke (8th Grade) and Firs Place: Bryce Love (4th Grade.) Great Job everyone... and thanks to all our helpers for making the day go so smoothly. Until next year!

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.