On Saturday, September 1st, the Guam Homeschool Association had their yearly "Homeschool Kick-off" Picnic. Below is a summary of the event, by Liz Perez, GHSA's coordinator.
Thanks to Mrs. Dungca for coordinating the food and to everyone who coordinated, set up canopies and tables, put away canopies and tables, barbecued, and brought food, drinks, paper products and other stuff and cleaned up. Thanks to the Tardzer family for bringing the canopy from MWR. Thanks to Mr. Oyers for taking care of the games. For the second year in a row, Christ's Bible Fellowship loaned us two canopies. Thanks to Piti Fire Station for cooling everyone off and also to Steven Lujan for the caricature drawing.
Our family was praying that the Lord would bless us with good weather and a good day of family fellowship. The day begin with lots of stormy weather - heavy rain, lightning, the whole works... The Binders, Gregsons, Oyers, Lewises and Perez family were under two of the tents enjoying each other's company as we waited for the weather to clear. It was so wonderful when at least an hour later the weather started to clear.
Mr. Oyer began the games with our teens. The kids had so much fun and Moms and Dads were laughing pretty hard with Cheeto-Head. Jeff also played kickball, Enders which is sort of like dodgeball and musical spoons with baby food. Some of our kids also played soccer and we had a bit of wrestling.
As the day progressed, the weather improved. First it was overcast and by early afternoon, the sun was out. The fun and games continued and the table started to be filled with lots of good food and drinks. There was a small tent full of teens playing guitar, talking and laughing with one another. What a wonderful picture this would make for those who question the social skills of our junior and senior high school kids! Some of the other kids enjoyed swimming in the beach area.
We had a yummy lunch (barbecued chicken and ribs was good!!!!), talked some more, played more games and then the Piti Fire Station brought their fire truck. One of the firefighters walked the children and parents around the fire truck while explaining the use of the different types of hoses for spraying water and foam. Four of the six firefighters were dressed in uniform, ready to take off at any time. The children were then allowed to climb into the HUGE truck and honk the horn and turn on the siren. We invited the men to eat, along with two of our park rangers. After the firefighters finished eating, they asked that all of our children head out to the field. The firemen sprayed the kids with the waterhose on top of the firetruck. It was a bit humid at that point and rather tempting for ME to run under the spray of water.
Shortly thereafter, some families started to clear up. Local artist Steven Lujan drew caricatures for some of our children for monetary donations. Our kids sat around and laughed at one another. As the day came to an end, we all agreed -- it was a great day!
Ladies and Gents, please share recipes. Tami will be sharing her "extremely difficult" recipe for almond tofu and mandarin oranges. Elena, I really want more of that pumpkin stuff.
There were approximately 128 people at our picnic that day. Good turnout, I would say! |
