AWANA Games

Saturday found us hanging out most of the day at a local community college. Our AWANA group was meeting there with other groups from around the state to participate in the AWANA games. J6 would be participating in the Spark-O-Rama and N8 would be playing the AWANA Games for T&T. I didn't go last year but I couldn't get out of it this year. Hubby is a coach so it's helpful for him to have someone there for our boys. Overall it wasn't bad but it was just loud very loud and there were a ton of people in a small area. I don't particularly enjoy loud places or lots of people in small spaces.

I did get a few photos but since I couldn't get all that close to the playing area - I have a lot of various other kids in them and I try not to post those to my blog. However, I'm making an exception here since they are all moving so fast. I took a video of the "Sparky Crawl." I'll explain it a bit after...



AWANA games are played on a square. Each side has a color: red, yellow, blue, and green. For the Sparky Crawl, all the players for each color line up on their colored line of the square. On the whistle they all have to crawl to the opposite side of where they are. The last person to get to their side, jumps up and runs in to the middle. In the middle there is a bowling pin sitting on a bean bag. The first person in grabs the pin for first place and the next grabs the bean bag. In the video, J6 is the little boy with the blue shirt and black pants with a red stripe. He didn't realize the other little boys had run to the middle first. He wasn't mad - he was celebrating their win.

J6's Sparky team took first place. They played seven different games. They had six different teams so they had two "flights" and three teams played at once.

This is how B13 spent most of his day and N8 spent most of his morning:

Because there are about 12-15 kids on a team and they only play so many players at once, not every child plays every game. N8 kept reminding us after that he only got to play three games. He did the three legged race and unfortunately they were trying to be careful and a team behind them passed them. This meant they had to step off and were unable to complete the race. N8 was pretty upset about this (and I was pretty confused but I don't normally watch Game Time since I'm a secretary for our AWANA group). 

Hubby hooking N8's leg to his teammates for the 3-legged race.

N8's T&T group came in fourth. They had eight teams so two "flights." All-in-all it was a good day albeit a long day. I sat with friends and that helped the time go by fast. The boys really seemed to have a good time as did hubby who coached the Sparky team and helped out with the T&T team.

My random, crazy, busy life....

So I have realized in looking back at my blog posts, that it has been almost two weeks since I've posted anything not related to a review. I apologize. So here's what's been going on around here lately complete with photos.

We took a tour of our "local" fire station (the town I live in doesn't actually have a fire department of any kind - a couple towns over has one - volunteer only). Their junior axillary showed us the ins and outs of the various engines. It was a late night but a fun night too.

I looked outside the other day to see this.....

I never asked him to do this. This was totally self-motivated. He is barely making a dent in the amount on the ground, but he loves doing it & loves to work. I'm very blessed by this child.

Speaking of N8 - he played recreational soccer this fall. He loved it. It was tough. This league is a step up from last year. Last year it was all about learning skills and having fun. This year is all about learning skills and playing hard! His coach is great though & they ended the season with a winning record.

Fall is really here. Here's some evidence:

And since hunting season has started (birds when we went for our walk but now deer) - we now go out with our orange on during walks/bike rides:

We spent a very fun morning at a "local" (i.e. 1+ drive) corn maze. We've never been and I've been wanting to go. We went with my sister & I had the little ones along as well. We spent about two hours there and had the place all to ourselves. Bonus!

We had another science class. This time we talked about mollusks. The boys even made their own sea shell collection. We only have one more left & I'm not sure we'll make it since hubby will have my truck that day. It's hard to fit six people in a subcompact car.

I spent last Saturday (the 24th) at my baby sister's wedding. It was, um, an interesting event. I'm glad she's happy.

my niece, my sister, her new hubby, and his best friend

The Sunday after the wedding I spent the afternoon at a baby shower. It had been an interesting few days. On the 22nd I found out that my 95-year-old Grandfather had passed away. So in the course of only four days I attended a wedding, a baby shower, and a funeral.

Although my Grandfather was 95 it was still rather sudden. He had been doing well but had a fall in the shower & broke his hip & ended up with pneumonia. He passed away only a few days after falling. He was such a happy man & going to his funeral this past Wednesday showed how many, many lives he touched with his joy. My own included. As my cousin shared, I have no memory at all of my Grandfather being anger. Annoyed maybe or slightly peeved, but never ever angry. Imagine that.

My oldest brother & his family flew out from California for the funeral. They arrived last Tuesday & had a whirlwind visit while here. They spent some time at my older sister's house, my dad's house, and even managed to stop in here for a brief visit yesterday afternoon. Friday night we had an early Thanksgiving dinner since they were all here. It was good to have all the family together but also sad since it was one of our first big gatherings without my mom. Just hard.

Since we don't "do" Halloween around here (for various reasons), Saturday night was a great night at home and by that point we all needed it. It's been a lot of long days lately for my kids. Wednesday we went to Massachusetts for the funeral (down & back in one day). We left around 6am (well - really almost 7am but they were all up & moving by then) and didn't arrive home until almost 9pm. Then Thursday night was our AWANA Fall Fest and another late night (home by almost 9:15ish). Friday night was the dinner at my sister's (home by 9pm again). My kids don't do late nights well. Of course, then we added in the time change and I think we are all back to normal on our sleep today.

So that's it - in a long nutshell - busy probably doesn't even cover it does it?

AWANA Grand Prix

Every year our AWANA club puts on a Grand Prix race (think Pine Wood Derby race like the Boy Scouts do but with a bit more leeway to it). My boys look forward to it all year long. It was today.

I didn't get to see much of the racing this year. The woman I volunteer with (the other secretary) was very sick & couldn't come to do her usual job. That was to help get all the awards ready. So I was in a back office writing up the ribbons that are given out to everyone who participates plus figuring out who would win for design (adding up the judges scores). I did have some time at the start though to mingle & talk - once check-in was done.

This is my super adorable nephew. Yup, that's me holding him. My MIL forgot her camera so I gave mine to my SIL. All these photos were courtesy of her. Thanks, Dawn!


J is ready to go!
J's truck is the blue one in the back. Daddy cut it out for him & B did the rest of the work. J didn't mind but we'll try to get him to do a tad bit more of it next year.

I am always simply amazed at the designs that people come up with & execute so wonderfully! For example....

Yes - all made with just wood and some clay thrown in there. That sandwich still blows me away. The "bun" is made from the wood & the fixings are all made from clay. The piano one? That's her daughter's entry. Oh, and the penguin - her sister. Those are some creative genes!!!!

This year only J came home with a trophy. I really like how they do it here & I'm not sure if all AWANA clubs do it the same way. We have five categories: Cubbies (ages 3-4), Sparks, (grades K-2), T&T (grades 3-6), Leaders (anyone who volunteers to help at AWANA each week) & "At Large" (anyone from our church at all - child or adult - races in this one).

There are four tracks on the raceway & each is a different color. Each racer is assigned a colored track & gets a chance to race their car on each one so everyone has four chances. Now everyone will race against everyone else but awards are determined by the categories. So while a Cubbie, Spark, Leader, and T&T'er may race in the same race - only Cubbies are judged against each other.

At the very beginning of the race all the cars are lined up in the "Pit." Hubby works in the "Pit Crew." All cars have to be no more than five ounces & a certain height & length in order to fit on the track & under the electronic timing device at the end of the track. The Pit Crew ensures all the rules for the cars are met. They then hand out the cars for each race. They are kept pretty busy.

We have "design" judges as well. To ensure fairness we only use folks from church who do not have anyone racing. That sometimes is difficult to do but we had three judges this year. Once they are finished judging on design, the races for speed begin.

My job this year was to add up the scores & figure out who won for design. This was fun actually. Because we had so many racing (over 60) we went to four places (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) in both Speed & Design. The only exception were the Cubbies. We only had four little ones total racing so we did two for speed & two for design.

That was what I found out this time by working behind the scenes & I think it's great. Speed trophies come first. If you win at speed, your car cannot win at design - it gets bumped to the next person. This ensures that there are eight people in each group winning a trophy & spreads it out a bit.

So that's a look at the AWANA Grand Prix for 2009. I know my boys had a great time, but there was some disappointment by some over not winning a trophy. That won't stop them though. I'm sure they are already looking forward to next year.

The Grand Prix in 2007

The Grand Prix in 2008

Start Your Engines!

My family is very invovled in the AWANA program at our church. This year J is in Cubbies (the 3-4 year old program), N is in Sparks (grades K-3) & B is in Truth & Training (grades 4-6). My hubby is a leader with T&T while I am the secretary for the Cubbies & Sparks groups. We all have a good time with it.

Today we had our Awana Grand Prix which is a pine wood derby race. All of my boys had a great time making their cars. In fact, I had such a good time helping J, that at the very last minute I bought myself a car kit & made one as well. I think you can probably tell just by looking which one is mine. ::wink::


Left to right: J's car, N's car (he made all by himself, B's car - actually it's a "Lego space shuttle", my hubby's car which he completely whittled in to a whale shape & named "Jonah's Folly" & then my "bling" car.

The whole day is very well run. I did take quite a few photos, but there are a lot of other church members & such in the photos so you'll have to content yourselves with just my guys.

The race track is set up off in the corner of the gym & blocked off with ribbon. One of my jobs today was to be sure the kids didn't go in when they weren't suppose to or walk over the track either. We didn't want them to fall and either hurt themselves or break the track. This kept me rather busy.

There were four racers each race & everyone raced four times. Then all their times were averaged out to find the winners of the speed category. Before the races started all the cars were also judged by impartial judges (i.e. they weren't related to anyone who was racing that day) for best design in each group as well.

There is an electronic gate at the end that records the track times. Last year the track record was broken three times. I'm not sure anyone managed to do that this year. Some of the leaders have been racing for a long time and have made some pretty fast cars!

Even though each group only competes against themselves in the end for the trophies, they do race against anyone during the course of the race. At one point my two oldest raced at the same time so I was able to get this photo of them together. My hubby & I raced at the same time as well (I won too!). However, at the end when the trophies are handed out for speed & design they do them by group (Cubbies, Sparks, T&T, Leaders & "Others" - an open category for anyone in the church).

Here is a shot of the cars all lined up in the pit crew. That is where my hubby worked this year. They are kept hopping during the whole race getting the cars ready to go - weighing, drilling out lead, etc. & putting up the cars that are on deck & retrieving those that have raced.

And the final results...everyone but myself won a trophy! Don't you feel a tad bit bad for me? ::wink:: N won 2nd for speed in Sparks, B won 3rd in speed for T&T, J won 3rd in design for Cubbies, & my hubby won 1st in design for the Leaders.

I know they all had a great time & I know we'll be racing again next year. Perhaps I'll just be the official photographer next year. ::grin:: Oh & if you'd like to see some more really creative car designs, click here to go to my Project 365 blog.

Apple Picking

Guess where we went???

What would fall be like in Maine, if we didn't go apple picking? Last year it seemed like I was at the orchard A LOT! I went once with friends where we picked a 1/2 bushel, we went once with the kids Awana group where each boy picked a 1/2 peck & again when my brother & his family were here from California when we picked yet another 1/2 bushel. This year I knew I didn't want to be making endless batches of applesauce, so I held out. Sure enough, the kids Awana group did another excursion.

N is in the Sparks group which is for grades K-2 at our club. One of the things they need to sign off on a section is to take a Nature Hike so every fall their Director plans to do this at the apple orchard outing. This year, they planned for everyone to go on the hike, then eat lunch, & then go pick apples - together - there were some issues with this last year - can you tell?

I took about 30+ photos - got to love digital - but I promise not to post ALL of them. Here are some of my favorites...

One of the leaders did a talk before we headed out. She gave each child an apple seed & talked about how you plant it & it grows. She then talked to them about how to plant a seed for Jesus. I'm not sure some of the younger ones made the connection, but they all promptly planted their apple seeds. :-)

Many of these little salamanders were found along the trail - well, underneath rocks along the trail. These were all caught by two of the GIRLS on the walk. :-) Got to love it. Although, my oldest son decidedly they weren't so bad after all & he'd like to find one & keep it for a pet. Um, this didn't happen - at least not yet.

While I love my digital camera, the flash on it is very weak. It does not do well in low light settings outside at all. This is a photo of the director pointing out this really cool tree with a big hollow in it. This was near the end of the walk. We were on the hike for about 1-1/2 hours I think. We went slow & stopped often. We had children ranging in age from 3 up to 13 (I think). There were about 20 kids & 10 adults.

We all rode the tractor up to the top of the orchard for our lunch & to pick the apples. This was, of course, the highlight of the boys afternoon.

And yes, I made ALL the kids pose for me!!!! :-)

No, he isn't sleeping. I caught him in the midst of a blink. However, my hubby doesn't allow me many photos of him so I didn't dare ask for a retake. He liked the apple though.

J loves his apples.

N showing off his bag of apples. He was a bit possessive of them which I found funny considering he won't EAT them. He will drink apple juice, but he won't eat apples. ::sigh:: I can't seem to convince that they are the same thing. Maybe some day!

We had a great time. Now my hubby is bugging me to make him an apple pie. ugh! LOL

Grand Prix Racing

My two oldest boys are involved in AWANA this year. The spring always brings the Grand Prix around. It's very similar to the Boy Scouts Pine Wood Derby. They make small wooden cars & then race them. This is the track they race on - an electronic finish line is at the end to measure it all to the hundredth of a second.

Even though he didn't race, J had a great time!

N had a fast car - he was consistently coming in 2nd or 3rd in his races (everyone races four times & the scores are added up). However, he had two little boys in his group who had REALLY fast cars. One of the leaders had the track record & had held that for quite a few years. This day it was broken three times! The one that left today with the fastest car was a little boy who raced against N -in the Sparkies group. He was sorely disappointed at the end that he did not get a trophy, but did come around by the time we went home.

B did not have a very fast car, but I had forgotten that they also give out trophies on design. The top three cars in each category get a trophy - both for design and speed. B ended up winning first place for design! Woo-Hoo!!!

The design of some of the cars was pretty cool. One little boy in the Cubbies group had a Percy (from Thomas the Tank Engine fame) & one boy in N's group had a Thomas! They were very well made, but unfortunately not very aerodynamic. LOL There was also a "Moses," a duck, a flower cart (one of the mom's did that - they had an open category this year & many people from the church raced), a pencil, and many others.

I didn't get great photos the day of the race, so here are some of the boys a few days later with their cars.

We were going for a corvette look here.

Is that a happy kid or what?
Daddy helped with the flames on the side. :-)