Recently, we had so much fun playing Minute to Win It. Some of the challenges included moving skittles and ping-pong balls with only a spoon or straw in your mouth and moving a cookie from your eye to your mouth with only your facial muscles!

Every fall we enjoy carving pumpkins and every Christmas we love making the music of the season:

Every fall we celebrate the season with our “Harvest Party.” We vote on a theme such as “Western”, “Sci-Fi”, “All Things UK,” etc. This year we picked American history (just between 1900-1945) and broke up into teams to decorate our meeting hall accordingly. For a couple of weeks everyone was busy decorating, making costumes, and making up skits for the evenings entertainment. Take a look at the costumes and fun below!

This summer we had a lot of fun planning a surprise party celebrating the 20 years of Bret and Gretchen’s marriage. We secretly prepared decorations, bought gifts, and invited family from out of state, anxiously hoping Bret and Gretchen weren’t catching wind of our surreptitious operations! Our covert efforts paid off when they walked through the door, mouths agape. The evening went by quickly as we ate, played games and and shared how their friendship has been meaningful to each of us. Take a look at some of the highlights of the evening:

Come summer, the pool deck is our go-to hangout spot on Friday nights. We all look forward to the leisurely dinners (lots of grilling!), relaxing in the water and just having a couple of hours to chit-chat about how our week went. Some of us can spend all night in the water while others prefer to stay dry and simply watch the water antics. Just because you’re not in the water, however, doesn’t guarantee you won’t get wet!

One of our favorite past times is “construction nights”—those Celebration Nights we set aside to build something together for fun. Over the years, we’ve made miniature catapults, bridges, and vehicles. Recently we were inspired to make a model of our home out of cardboard, tubes, toothpicks, and an assortment of materials from the great outdoors. At first the task was daunting, but with team work and some creative thinking (like hair gel for the pool), we pulled it off! Take a look at the process below. 

This Valentine’s Day weekend we continued a tradition of making cards that expressed our love and appreciation for each other. We each picked a name from a bowl and dove in to an assortment of card stock, paper, markers and more. Each one came up with a fun and unique design for their Valentine. The next morning, we showed off our cards for everyone else to enjoy.

For one of our celebration nights this New Year we started off with a little friendly competition. We gathered up our game consoles, split into two teams, and pulled out Nintendo’s Smash Brothers. Some of us already had plenty of practice at this sport, while others were being introduced to the characters’ names for the first time. But the rules were simple enough for the amateurs amongst us: try to beat the other character on the screen before he beats you! Our two teams’ top two winners faced-off at the very end for a final round of smashing that kept the onlookers poised on their seats.

Every so many months, our fellowship enjoys the challenge and fun of building something new. This past month, we attempted balloon-powered vehicles! Each team designed and built their own vehicle with an array of cartons, lids, straws, tubes, and other odds and ends. Everyone had different ideas about getting the most mileage out of their balloons. After an hour or so of construction, we lined up our wheels and let them fly. The surprising results were not only fun but also instructive reminders on some of the basic principles of physics.

Earlier this summer we kicked up our heels to some fiddle tunes. Several of the young people volunteered their time  to organize and practice the music and dances as well as deck the back lawn with lights. We all enjoyed joining in on various folk dances, listening to a few solo performances and eating apple crisp. Even the cat seemed to be having a good time. The beautiful evening came to a close too soon for some die-hard dancers.