This week is Spring Break for the kids so we've done lots of fun things. Here's a few pictures.

Some of the older girls were over one afternoon (after a day of playing croquet on the front lawn and then making homemade pizza) and we had strawberries dipped in melted chocolate chips and cut up rice krispie treats. Interesting that they are all wearing red...a predominant color (and yes, it can be gang related too) in the neighborhood. These are very sweet girls.


Jonathan, Betsy (both Kid Trek leaders) and I went bowling with the older guys...

One afternoon we walked with 29 kids and 1 mom to Terrell Elementary school. We flew kites, played Kajabi Can Can, played on the swings, and had KFC for lunch. What a fun day. The kids loved flying the kites.

One night 4 girl leaders (Pattie, Vicky, Cindy and I, Patty) from Kids Club at Canoas Elementary School took several of our 4th and 5th grade kids to a place called Sky High. It's basically a huge warehouse where you trampoline. Yes, I, Patty, trampolined and yes, I was sore the next day!

On Saturday we walked with a bunch of the neighborhood kids to Canoas Elementary to The Hunt, a huge Easter egg hunt where they hide thousands of eggs filled with fun stuff. The kids had a great time. It's a fun community event. Here's Stacy and I with some of the older neighborhood girls and after that, you'll see the kids on the line ready and eager to begin.

A fun-filled week of building relationships!

The Craziest Week So Far

Okay...so crazy might not be the word I want to use. Scary, wierd, out there, different.

Last week, the week of March 16-22 which is the week before Easter, several crazy and scary things happened.
* Saturday morning at 5 am I heard 3 gunshots. Turns out there were 6 but we never found out what happened only that they were indeed gunshots.
** Sunday night a neighbor was rushed to the hospital because he had a heart attack. I guess he and his wife were fighting. There were police, paramedics and fire engines all out on Farm Drive at 10 pm.
*** On Tuesday night both Pete and I heard yelling and cussing out on the street. We both went outside to find a bunch of neighbor kids in a yelling match. Half of them were in the street and 1/2 of them were in an apt. One girl said the other girl was in a gang and had sent her 3 friends to jump her. The other girl said no I am not in a gang and you are always trying to fight me...blah blah blah. They basically seem to want to fight. It's their way of ending a dispute.
Pete was downstairs in the street. I was upstairs in the apt. We were only going to call the police if it escalated and unfortunately it did. I called because the kids on the street started throwing rocks at the window. Funny thing is the police did show up (2 cars) but they weren't the ones that made the kids scatter; it was a grandma of several of the kids and boy, did they take off running!

When you call the cops you are a snitch. Kids hate snitches. A few days later one of the older and harder kids in the neighborhood came over and asked me why I snitched. I told him the truth. ..that I love these girls and will not watch them beat the crap out of each other. I also told him I waited as long as I could, hoping I wouldn't have to call but unfortunately I did and I'd do it all again. He didn't believe me when I said I loved the girls so I said it several times. I even told him I loved all the kids, even him and I won't sit by and watch fighting.

We realized this all happened the week of Easter....maybe Satan doesn't like what's going on in the neighborhood and he had his little demons doing double duty...I don't know. I do know it ramped up my prayer life and I also realized Stacy and Robbie Ernst and Pete and I all need lots of prayer. I am also really glad we live here in the neighborhood because I cannot imagine what would have happened if we were not here. By the way, the rest of the week was thankfully quiet.

Tenaya Snow Trip

Last weekend, we went with a bunch of other families from Hillside Church up to the Tenaya Lodge on Hiway 41 on the way up to Yosemite. It was a great weekend of fun in the snow and the mountains. Because of a finacial donation by members of the church, we were able to take 10 kids from the hood. It was great for them to stay in a nice hotel and also play in the snow.
Here are a few pictures from the trip

The view from our windows of the Lodge.

Putting on chains on the way in. This was for a few their first experince in the snow. I'll add more pictures and maybe some video later on.

Tanaya Snowtrip

This is what we did with some of the kids on the trip.