PVN Stuff

So much of our lives centers on our church and our involvement in some of its many ministries.
The picture above is of the group of women from our church who went to a Beth Moore conference recently.

Awana has started up again this fall, and we had a name tag night for the kids.

Some of the kids went simple on the name tags..

...while some went for the stand-out name tag.

The Awana program has seen a lot of growth these past couple of years.
We're beginning to run out of room for them.

Some of our fearless leaders got involved.

It's always good to have leaders get involved.

And, of course, Miss Sylvia!

PVN Awana 2008-2009 Slideshow

Jon again prepared an Awana slideshow video for the closing ceremony at Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church, this time for the 2008-2009 year. This will give you a peek at what we enjoy each week throughout the school year!

Awana Bible Quizzing 2009

This past weekend, Syndi traveled to Marietta, GA for the
Awana Bible Quizzing competition. Her team competed against 8 other churches from the North Georgia region.
She and her 4 teammates were quizzed on Bible facts and verses from their T&T books. It was the first year a group from Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church went to the competition, and they did well for being newbies.
Syndi had her own practice sheet, which she reviewed on the trip to the event. Sylvia and Junior went along to cheer her on! Great job Syndi!

Awana Grand Prix 2008

We had our Awana Grand Prix this past Sunday at our church, Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church.

Each of our three oldest kids made a car.

Syndi had a grand idea of making a horse race car. She drew it up, and Daddy shot it down. But, being an engineer, Daddy couldn't go without thinking about how he might actually make it work, and had it worked out about 10 minutes later.

So Syndi had a cool horse for a car, which took the prize for best design in the T&T group.

Junior wanted a Batman race car, so we made one, even with the rear wing design. Junior was a bit disappointed that he didn't win a design prize, but he's very happy to have a car to race around the house with last year's Lightning McQueen car we made.
For Stephen's first Awana Grand Prix car, we made a little red racer with green stripes. He was so excited, he wanted to play with it as soon as we finished gluing the wheels on! We had to keep it from him so it survived until the race. As it was, as soon as he'd lost his two races, he started playing with it and chipped off part of the rear fin before we even left the church.

The race went well. Especially for everyone else. It was double elimination, so two losses and you're out. With three Caruvana cars in the race, we had a total of six races. Yes, each of our kids lost his or her first two races. Six attempts, six losses. Not a good record, especially for the children of an engineer. Daddy just hasn't figured out the tricks the other dads must know. Oh well. They'll get another shot next year!

The kids had fun, and enjoyed pizza afterwards.

It was another fun Awana night!

Crazy Hat Nite at Awana

We had Crazy Hat Nite at Awana recently.

Our kids made their own crazy hats.
Some of the leaders wore crazt hats, too.
It's a fun night the kids enjoy.
(And the leaders, too...)

PVN Awana 2007-2008 Slideshow

This is the Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church Awana 2007-2008 slideshow prepared by Jon for this past Sunday night's closing ceremony. Enjoy!

It is a large file, so may take some time to load. (A lot of time on dial-up.) So you might set it going, pause it so it can load, and come back to it a few minutes later to see if it's partly loaded so you can start viewing it. Let me know if it won't work.

Time's A-Flyin!

The Caruvana family has been so busy lately, we just haven't had the time to update the blog. After Mom's death, we've had the end of the school year, bringing Aunt Lorrie home, arranging Aunt Lorrie's move to Texas, moving Lorrie's things from the house, packing Lorrie's storage unit on a truck to ship to Texas, the close of Awana (complete with hours [days] to create a slideshow video), and preparation for VBS (which starts next week).

Syl is teaching for VBS, so has been working to decorate her room, prepare her lessons, etc. And of course, when we came back from Michigan after the funeral, spring was in full blossom here in Georgia, so the lawn and garden have gone wild with growth, requiring lots of time. Syndi is having school testing done this week, so that takes more time. Jon was on deacon patrol in May, so he had to lock the building up after services.

Yes, it's been a busy month-and-a-half. Syl and the kids will be leaving for Michigan in only a week-and-a-half (right after VBS finishes), so we'll be crazy preparing for that. Jon will have time to post after they leave, but no family members of which to post any pictures. So we'll be back in full swing sometime around mid-summer. Hopefully we'll have the Awana slideshow posted for all to see in the next day or so. It may be large, though, so it may give people difficulty in loading.

Probably, y'all are just as busy as we are, so won't even have time to read this. That's OK. 'Cause I really didn't have time to post it.

Crazy Hair Night 2008!

We had our annual Crazy Hair Night at Awana the other night.

Our family participated whole-heartedly!

Unfortunately, no other leaders participated, but we got lots of comments on our hair. As you can see, Junior and Stephen were done up with some wild 'dos!

It was a family affair, as we all crowded into our bathroom, making ourselves...ahem, uh, "pretty." Syl had her hair in numerous pony tails all around her head. Stephen's hair was gelled up and spiked out. Junior's spiked hair was sprayed purple, gold and blue. Jon had the same, but Junior's was more vivid on that blond hair.
And every crazy hairdo goes well with a crazy face, right?

(Must start training them early! :-) )

Syndi went with three braids, two purple on the sides, and one black at the rear.
Junior really got into the "crazy" part of the night.
We had a lot of crazy hairdos at Awana Sunday night.
It was a fun night for our family.

Awana Grand Prix 2007

We skipped the Awana Grand Prix last spring and moved the event to the fall of this year. Boy, was it successful! We had a great turnout, with lots of participants, but it started long before the day of the race. Sylvia and Jon sponsored two work days at the church. We had several stations where kids could work on their cars. One station was at the band saw, where the parents or Jon could cut out the shape of the car.
Here you see Jon cutting out Junior's car. He wanted a Lightning McQueen race car. Jon had fun cutting out the cars, and figured that he cut out cars for 10 different kids for the race.
Sylvia helped Junior sand his car at the sanding station.
Rachel McCurry weighed her future Hershey Bar car at the weigh station. You can see the drilling station beyond. Weights could be added to bring the weight of the car up to the maximum.
This is Junior's finished car, a Lightning McQueen style vehicle. We gave it and Syndi's car whitewall tires. Junior helped cut out pictures from online and glue them to the car. Junior had fun spray-painting the car, too. When Daddy ran in to check on something that was cooking, Junior and Stephen wandered off into the garage and started spraying things, including boxes and the driveway. Fun!

Then came Race Day! We had probably 75 to 100 people there to watch. You can count over 50 alone in the picture above.
Here you see some of the cars entered in the race. Junior's is in the forefront. Syndi's is in the upper left. These cars were from the Cubbies (6 closer cars) and Sparks (11 far cars) groups.
A full view of the cars and trophies. T and T cars are the farthest group. Vicky (l) and Trudy (r) were some of the workers running the race.
The kids anticipated each race...
...and were excited at each finish!

Syndi's car was an Awana Airlines airplane design (forefront). Here it prepares to race against a colorful and wavy car.
Syndi and Carson watch at the finish line to see who wins their race.
The Caruvana family was out in full force supporting Syndi and Junior! Junior wasn't too thrilled about getting his picture taken.
The winners showed off their trophies. Neither Syndi nor Junior won any trophies for speed, but Junior won a trophy for design. Syndi won a design trophy last year. Both kids did a great job!

Awana Shower

Some friends in Awana and our church had a little "baby shower" for Syl. We were so impressed with the three-tier diaper cake, we had to put it on the blog. (Isn't that neat? We had never seen anything like that before this.) What kindness they have shown!

Crazy Hair Night!

It was crazy hair night at Awana, and - as you can see - the Caruvana family really got into it.
Syndi had her pig tails painted blue and pointing skyward. The rest of the hair was painted red. Junior had alternating red and blue stripes, with a blue outline of all the hair. Sylvia wore her pony tail flopping forward over her face. And Jon...

Well, Jon had his hair blonded (golden blond), and had it all combed up in a tizzy. Eight weeks since his last haircut helped with the effect. Jon got a lot of looks and laughs at church Sunday night. Poor Pastor Mac had to cover his face and turn the other way when he saw Jon. I think he was more surprised by this than when Jon wore his jeans backwards on Backwards Night at Awana.

It was a fun night, and the kids (ours as well as all the others) just loved it!

Sparks-A-Rama 2007

This year again, Sylvia and Jon had the pleasure of coaching a Sparks-A-Rama team from our church, Pleasant Valley North Baptist Church. We traveled north to Rossville, GA, and competed with seven other churches. Our kids did well, having a great attitude and having lots of fun. As you’ll see in the pictures, there was a lot of activity and a lot of smiles.
We heard a tremendous testimony from a 26-year-old woman diagnosed with breast cancer, and of her trust in Jesus Christ. She has finished chemotherapy and will soon begin radiation therapy. She stood before us, bandana over her bald head, Bible in her hand and tears in her eyes as she told the story of her life and followed it with the Romans Road, clearly presenting the gospel and laying out the way to salvation…Jesus Christ. Wow! What a way to start the day. I don’t know if there was a dry eye among the adults in the gymnasium when she finished.

The kids weren’t the only ones having fun. Even the coaches had to do an event! In fact, they had the referees and line judges come out and do the chicken dance for entertainment. We all had a lot of fun, and followed it with a trip to McDonald’s. Sparks-A-Rama 2007 was a great success!
Photos from top to bottom:
(1) PVNBC Sparks Team
(2) Sparky saying hi to PVN kids
(3) Brian in the Sparky Safari
(4) Jon doing the coaches' Sparky Safari (for entertainment only)
(5) Laura tossing the bean bag to Eli in the Sparky Bean bag In-and-Out
(6) Around the circle on the Sparky Train
(7) Through the legs on the Spaky Balloon Pop