The Last Wednesday Night Youth Group. . .

Wednesday night was the last youth group of the season. . . I brought my old camera (the one that went in the lake and miraculously survived) to commerate the day. (It was also officially Jered's last youth group at BFC, but I'm still deeply rooted in denial so that's all I have to say about that. . .)

I sent the camera with Steph to youth group and here are just a few of the pictures they came up with!:

Good kids, good times and great youth workers/mentors!

Area Rally, Youth Fundraiser

We had an area rally at BFC on Sunday so we turned it into a camp fundraiser for the youth group. Everything turned out just great with an easy baked potato bar and the kids (young adults???) had some time to just hang out. They even worked on our upcoming play while they waited for the potatoes to cook:

Stephi:

I may get in trouble with Zach for posting these next two pictures, but he doesn't read my blog very often, so I'm taking my chances. In the first picture it looks like Zach is checking out Morgan when, in reality, he's anticipating the upcoming tackle that Jered is cooking up:

Wham! He didn't even have time to take his hands out of his pockets! He can totally take Jered when his hands are free. :)

I love this next picture of Andrew. It's not often that I can catch him with a serious look on his face:

He's usually quicker than me and makes a face like this!:

Third Day Tunnel

Speed and Velocity. . .

Understanding speed and velocity is easy. First you need a good cast of characters. . .

. . . a little determination. . .

. . . a solid ramp with a good slope. . .

. . . a healthy imagination. . .

. . . a strong stomach. . .

. . . a sense of humor. . .

. . . a mother who doesn't mind a little mess. . . and. . .

. . . what were we learning about. . . ?????????

. . . Oh yeah, speed and velocity. . .

Friends

Megan came to visit while the rest of her family went to the Styx concert. We are usually at the shop when Megan is with us, so both of the girls thought it was a real treat to hang out at the house. They played outside the entire time, even after the sun went down.

Dancing Queen

This winter has passed by in a fairly painless way for me. I feel like I am finally keeping my head consistently above water instead of drowning in the uncontrolled chaos that has been our life since we started this business. It's a little more like controlled chaos these days. Rob is just as busy as ever but we have enough help now that I have been able to focus on the stuff about the business that I enjoy. Paperwork! "Enjoy" may be too strong of a word but I like my color-coded files and my Excel formulas and I've been able to keep everything much more organized and caught up than ever before.

However, now that summer is looming over us, I have to physically and mentally prepare myself for the coming onslaught. We ended up being triple-booked on Saturday and I didn't have any time to fret over it since it was all pretty last minute. We also had Kurt's help so I really didn't have to do much. And. . . the first "event" was just a speaker on a stand with a mic for a clown so maybe that doesn't count. . .

The second event was a fancy-schmancy art auction/fundraiser. We brought the kids along to "help":

It is pretty handy to send Gloria under the stage to transport cables. . .

This set-up was also a pretty easy one (especially since Rob and Kurt did all the work). It's a "stacks and racks, set and forget" deal. Basically, we provide the stage, speakers, amps and cables and the DJ runs the show.

Gloria is always very interested in stuff going on around her. She is usually a welcome addition to any event coordinators decorating team at these kinds of events.

The theme they were going with was right up her alley. Her "job" was to dress the Barbies they had on display:

It was a tough job but someone had to do it. . .

The third and biggest event of the day was a disco party/fund raiser downtown. Once again we put the kids to work:

Gloria had another stage to crawl around under to transport cables, but she doesn't seem to mind. . .

The band is one of our favorite's: Soul Purpose.
The set-up went very smoothly and the sound check was short and sweet.

The party started off with high energy and plenty of disco dancing that lasted the full three hours (9-midnight). Gloria danced the night away. . .

She was even invited up on stage and handed a tambourine. . .

I see the future and I'm a little scared. . .

Mary introduced her to the crowd and thanked her for "helping out". . .

After the show, Gloria mingled with the band while we took everything down and packed it away in the truck. . .

She really has such a difficult life. . .

Among other things, she nabbed a new tie-dye shirt and. . .

. . . a huge balloon bouquet. . .

. . . Just what we needed. . .