came. 
playing games, preparing cute and tasty snacks that reminded us of the Bible stories, we learned some fun new songs during morning worship, and then our Bible teachers helped bring the Bible to LIFE for us!
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! 
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
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!
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.
Here are some fun pictures taken at the Rob Biagi Concert a few weeks ago when he was ministering at Calvary Chapel North Long Beach. Emily and I took Jake, Cooper, and Jillian with us and "they could have danced all night!" We love you Mr. Rob. It was so fun to sing and worship with you again!
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...
But they sure are CUTE!
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?????
