Pizza and Games night at Calvin

Hello again, 

So, after the Cadet-o-rama, it was home for a nap and then off to Calvin for our annual pizza and games night. 

We hold this once a year, and different people come out each time.  

This year we had about 37 ish, which is a nice number. 

Pics below. 

Enjoy : ) !! 

The event started at 6 p.m. 

I arrived JUST in time with the pizza's as there was a bit of a snafu with the pizza company, but all worked out.  

The group is waiting patiently for us to get the food out : ) 

Let the pizza devouring begin : ) 

We had 5 different types.  

Along with some veggies and dip and drinks.  

And then the games came out. 

So many different kinds.  This is a very different game of CLUE than I was used to.  

A game of Ticket to Ride also happened.  

Never heard of this one, nor do I remember what it's called.  

And then there was this group of four who decided that fellowshipping was as good as gaming.  

I'm all for it : ).  

Not sure what this one was either, but it was enjoyed.  

The game of life. 

I played Apples to Apples eventually and we all had a great time.  

Until next year. 

D.V. 

2025 Cadet o rama

Greetings again, one and all who follow this blog periodically.  

I was asked to attend this year's Cadet-o-rama with David, as, for some unknown reason, all the OTHER counsellors were unable to attend.  : ) 

It was a privilege to step in and help out. 

Below are some pics and comments.  

Enjoy !!  : ) 

This year's Cadet-o-rama was held in Brockville.  

We took 6 boys with us.   

At 9:30 a.m., the different cadres? Sp.  gathered in the gym for opening exercises.  

Then we were let loose to play different games. 

Like Gaga Ball

some sort of fish game : ) 

And dodgeball.  

A Bible verse game

You had to find the verse in the Bible that was mentioned

Then find it at that table waaaayyyy down there and bring it back.  

Rest time for the boys between games. : ) 

We played tic-tac-toe 

And a hammer and nail game.  First team to hammer the nail all the way into the wood wins.  

Then we had lunch. 

Pizza, hot dogs and juice.  

Enough to get the boys to the finish line :) 

There were two vending machines, and I tell you, they were THE most popular item at this cadet o rama.  : ) 

After lunch, the highlight of the day. 

Cub car races. 

Four tracks were set up.  

Some cadets helped out.  

Practice runs.   

And the races began. 

This is quite a sophisticated endeavour, let me tell you. 

Score keeping and yelling out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 

It all gave me a headache, but the boys loved it!  

We didn't end up winning, but they had fun.  

And Luke, well he didn't care about not winning the races.  He wanted to place in the top three for car design, and guess what! 

He got 2nd!!! 

Congrat's Luke!! 

Mission accomplished.

We were done at 2:30 p.m. and headed home. 

It was a fun day overall. : )   

 

Calvin's 2nd "Soup"erBowl Potluck

 

Greetings again 

We just finished our 2nd annual "SOUP'erBowl potluck.  We hoped to have it on March 30, but our wonderful weather put a stop to that.  So we held it on April 6th instead.   

Below are some pics and commentary. 

ENJOY!  : ) 

We start with the coveted GOLDEN LADEL!

Last year's winner was Phil.   

Did he win again this year??? 

We shall see. 

Here's a list of the soups made this year 

1. Pumpkin Sauage - Joycegina

2. Thai Soup - Cheryl T.

3. Tom  Kha Gai - Phil 

4. Chiken Pot Pie Chowder - Judy 

5. Hamburger Soup - Annet 

6. Tex Mex - Jaccinta

7. Tomato Basil - Bea

8. Snert (Pea Soup) - Ineke

9. Mulligetawny Soup - Mike 

10. Pea soup - Jack

11. Chicken/tomato - Diana

12. Chicken/veggie - Wilma M

13.  no name soup.  by ??

The group gathered and are ready to taste test.  

The group let loose : ) 

This year we tried something different. 

To allow people to taste test better we purchased trays and small cups, and people used the small cups to taste test. 

It worked very well : ) 

People went up several times to try to taste all the soups on offer.  

Some of the taste testers : ) 

So how are the soups James and Annette?  

Wow, Cheryl is taking this to a new level : ) 

Very methodical and scientific I heard. 

Fred, who is your top pick?  

This one went SUPER fast : ) 

In the end, here were the standings. 

3rd place (16 votes)- Ineke (far right)

2nd place (18 votes) - Phil

1st place (18 votes) - Cheryl!!  And Sandy (far left) apparently helped with the shrimp, so he gets an honourable mention : ).  

A great job all, and yes, your soups were VERY GOOD!  

As were the others.  

The Winner. 

Names will be placed on the trophy soon and displayed in the church (seeing that Cheryl didn't want to take it home : ) ) 

Until next year!!!! 

2025 David Kentucky "Learning Opportinity" - Day 7- Friday

Welcome back everyone.  : ) 

I hope you have been enjoying this trip with us. 

This will be the last entry for the trip.  

Tomorrow we head home at 5:30 a.m. and should be home home by 10:30 p.m. with hopefully no more dumb speeding tickets from yours truly. 

We slept in a bit this morning.  

Rise and shine time was 8 a.m.

but before that a few pictures left over from last night. 

As soon as my blog comes out, Cor is ready to read it : ) 

Others play games 

Or chill

Or do a puzzle to relax : ) 

Will there be enough time to finish it Jess before we leave?  

A great game of chess is going on between Nathan and Brett.  I forgot to ask who won.  

This was the group that went to see Reatha last night. They worked on her home last year.   

A nice visit was had.  She remembered them and they were able to exchange addresses to keep in contact. 

 Back to Friday morning.  

Hey, where's Tia!!!  

Oh, there she is. 

Getting some alone time. 

8 a.m. devotions.  

And then breakfast - and then get ready for the day. 

We had a thunderstorm last night. And some rain. 

We were greeted with a foggy morning.  

We lost Tia's group today.  They went to Jason and Jess' place. 

We were tasked with finishing pulling up the oak floor and kitchen floor and cleaning up. 

Thankfully, the kitchen floor was just tongue and groove laminate, and it came up easy.  

Rohan, Alex, Marika and Petra worked very hard all morning to get that floor off.  I helped as well, but no pics to prove it  : ) 

There is a lot of debris and nails that will eventually come out of the subfloor. 

Break time.  

It's hard work. 

The homeowner also came by today to work on his portable home.  He thanked us over and over again for saving him months of work.   

We were happy to oblige.  

More of the kitchen floor is coming up.  

And the oak floor is almost out.  

Petra started to take out all the nails from the floor. 

And there were A LOT of nails : ) But she just kept at it. 

We vacuumed the wall joints and swept so as not to leave a huge mess.  

And it's done.  !!  

The kitchen floor was done as well, and we took out the drywall screws and nails.  

While Petra just kept on pulling nails. 

After lunch we joined her. 

The two bedrooms were cleaned as best as possible and ready for a contractor to put back together.  

Finished de-nailing. 

It took about 3 hours.  

This crew worked really hard all week. 

I'm proud of them.  

The sad thing is that this home will probably be rebuilt with some mould still in the walls.  And the walls are made out of 2 x 2's.  As last year showed us, there are lots of homes that probably shouldn't be standing here because of flooding, or reflooding. 

Cor and Chris' group ended their day trying to help an older man literally living in a burnt out trailer home.  The did their best to help him clean up and restore some dignity to his home, but they found it very difficult.   

Hard to be there, but good to be there too, as Isaiah said.  

Alex has been hankering for KFC all week. 

Why?  Well it's in Kentucky that's why!! : ) 

Interesting pic. 

I drove to the KFC and he ordered a two piece : ) 

Off his bucket list now 

(no pun intended).  

The group also wanted to look for ??? book at the GoodWill store.  It's out of print and they were hoping it might be there.  It wasn't : (  

And then the final act of bravery for my group. 

Cleaing the bathrooms.  

They weren't really clean when we got here, and they sure weren't clean after 31 people used them for 6 days. 

I'm more proud of them. 

They don't complain; they just do a good job.  

Chris' group finished their work site today as well. 

I think they continued to clean up the home from yesterday. 

Isaiah is vacuuming? 

Leah is scrubbing off the floors ???

This is the way we mop the house, mop the house, mop the house... : ) 

Looks nice. 

Lunch time Isaiah?  

I'm pretty sure they left it spick and span.  

Cor's group finished off the flooring today 

Lewis, you looked shocked that a picture was taken of you.  : ) 

Cor found a new toy : ) 

Lewis was working too hard today to take more pictures : ) 

But he did get a couple of them finishing things up. 

Jason/Jess/Tia's group finished strong on their site too. 

Claudia is doing drywall. 

More dogs.  

Jason and Brett are measuring for the proper drywall cuts. 

Uhhhh what happened that was so funny Rachel?  What did Amy and Abby say to you?? 

More Drywall measuring and cutting 

Ethan found another skill.  

Eben and Nathan are measuring drywall. 

Ethan received a pork chop from the homeowner.  Maybe everyone did? Not sure, but he said it was delicious.!!! : )

Amy is doing a great job pressure washing all the muck off the driveway.

Rachel is mudding? I think.  

Lots and lots of drywalling in this place it looks like. 

Uhhh, maybe Eben is waiting for drywall?? : ) 

Jason, that's a cute shelter. 

Annika is measuring for a plug outlet I think? 

Lots of insulation to put in before the drywall.  

A nice fiew of the garage port and everyone working. 

Group shot. 

Fun and games.  Till someone falls off of course : ) 

More relax time after hard work. 

Jason.  Nice pic : ) 

Here are the groups that worked hard together this week.  

Tia's group with Sam, Gareth, Claudia and Annika. 

Ron's Group with Petra, Marika, Rohan and Alex. 

Cor's group with Holden, Theo, and Lewis. 

Chris' group with Leah, Kaley, Isaiah and Grayson

Jason's Group with Ethan, Eben, Abby and Rachel

Right after I took this picture a bunch in the group water bombed them with water balloons.  I was so taken aback I didn't even get pictures. 

Jess' group with Amy, Lucia Brett and Nathan. 

Supper was at 5 p.m. tonight.  

Well 5:10 actually because Tia got LOST again driving back to the mission. : ) 

I neglected to get more pics of those doing dishes this time around.  Here is Isaiah, Ethan and Markia.  

THANKS!!! 

After dishes, and everyone but me taking a shower : ), we took time to reflect again.  Rohan and Alex are getting comfortable.  

And our final event of the night, before we pack and sleep is to do what I call "Nice Commet Time".  Everyone gets a sheet and puts their name on it and passes it to their right and others then write nice comments about them.  Takes about 2 hours.  : ) 

Tia is having a hard time : ) 

She just takes toooo long : ) 

As I said, this will be my last post of the week. 

I hope you've enjoyed it. 

Besides the grammar that is : ) 

For parents, please take the time to process the week with your child(ren).  

My hope is your group or individual will also take some time to share in your churches how this trip changed them.