This year we started a new Community tradition: Celebrating the seven days of Creation. A small group, of about five of us, took the day of Creation that coincided with the week that we were in of the Easter season (which is from Easter until Pentecost). This celebration night was the Fifth day of Creation: the fish and the fowls.
In March we held our 8th Annual Bake Off. This year it was an International Themed Bake Off. Each family picked a country to represent in their skit and desert. Some of the countries that were chosen were: Poland, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Nigeria, and Brazil. The night was filled with fun, laughter and tasty deserts.
For Academy Night we had the students share what they had learned in their first half of the school year. The nursery children recited several poems and Bible verses. Andrew, who is in preschool, showed us how he is learning to read. Leah, who is in first grade, read to us from her reading book. The third through sixth graders played several songs for us on their recorders, and the sixth grade science class gave reports on outer space.
We had a medieval theme for this year’s harvest party with some creative decorations including a large brick wall made out of sheets of paper and paint, two towers, and two cardboard knights. For each harvest party, we are formed into several groups ahead of time and collaborate to come up with skits. This year we had all the skits center on the theme of what our community might look like in medieval times. The various groups came up with some very funny results. The costumes this year were also very creative. Two of the children dressed up as Peter and Mr. Tumnus the faun from the Chronicles of Narnia. Certain ones also dressed up as a black knight made out of cardboard, a flying purple people eater, and various clothed persons from the middle ages.
This celebration night was our annual pumpkin carving event! We were all assigned teams of people to work with and planned our designs ahead of time. Then, we grouped together, put our designs on our pumpkins, and started carving.
For those too young to wield a knife or carving utensil, we set up a place to paint pumpkins instead. With glitter and lots of paint, they came up with some rather colorful pumpkins.
After painstakingly drawing and carving our pumpkin patterns into our pumpkins, we lathered the insides with vaseline to keep them from drying out. We placed them all in a row, lit the candles, and turned out the lights. The themes were very diverse and creative this year, ranging from Star Trek aliens to cannibal pumpkins. There was also a gecko, an owl, Snoopy, Scooby Doo, and the Nintendo characters Samus Aran and Link.
This celebration night we cleared the floor, grabbed a partner, and tried to learn how to do swing dancing! With lots of laughs and stumbling footsteps we followed the basic moves and attempted some variations. After an hour and a half, everyone had throughly enjoyed themselves but were too tired to dance the rest of the night away.
Once again the golden whisk, the highly sought after prize of the Bake Off, was pursued by our familes with their delectable deserts and comical commercials. The night was filled with unparalleled creativity and unrivaled tastiness as we all watched each other’s presentations and ate each other’s deserts.
We thought this night would be a normal presentation from the Academy kids about what they’re learning this year. But instead a special guest came to teach us many interesting things…
This Celebration Night was indeed a celebration. After many years of walking with us, Sam and Kelcy became residential members. We are blessed to welcome them to our family. Countless hours of study, prayer, and tears paved the way to this wonderful day. We love you, Sam and Kelcy!
