Spring Festival 2012
This past weekend was the 2012 Spring Festival sponsored and conducted by the Beach Community Church in Brasilito Costa Rica. Last year the event was held in Tamarindo at the skate park, this year the venue was moved to the Village in Brasilito. What is a spring festival you ask? Great question. The spring festival is an event geared towards younger kids; There are jumping castles, there are games, there is candy, there are free snacks, there is a message about the real meaning of Easter, and the grand finale is an Easter egg hunt. The best part, the whole event is free!
Livy helping to hide the eggs.
Wolfy, sneaking a peek at the eggs pre-event.
Jake taking notes for later.
Raffle for missions.
Dave bringing the pre-open pep talk and prayer.
This was the events sophomore year, and although I was unable to attends last years event, it would be hard to imagine it going much better. There were approximately 100 kids, and most of them brought at least one of their adults with them. There were great games like the Sponge Bob sponge toss, the Spiderman Castle, soccer kick, frisbee toss, Jonah and the whale fishing and on and on. There were fantastic arts and crafts, face painting, balloon animal creation, and magical egg designs. It was slightly chaotic at times, hot all the time, and fun, fun,fun.
The main event, the obstacle course bouncy castle.
Mike the balloon man getting ready for business.
Bud and Brock taking a moment from their labor to pose.
Soccer kick in action.
Dorian working the frisbee toss
Daniel and Dave making the rounds.
Jake in the obstacle course
Events like this don’t just make themselves, it takes months of planning, many volunteers, 50 to be exact, and commitment. But most of all it takes blood, sweat and tears. In Costa Rica it takes mostly sweat. It takes sweat to set up bouncing castles and obstacles that weigh 500 pounds, it takes sweat to pop a dozen raw bags of popcorn, it takes sweat to transfer a dozen wooden games to the venue, and it takes sweat to hide 1200 Easter eggs, lots of sweat. In fact enough sweat that most men came prepared with several shirts for the day, and we didn’t even sweat the small stuff!
GOOAAAALLLLL!
Tracy had one of the most popular games, which led to a lot of work.
Pastor Lyle leading a group game before bringing a short Easter message.
Tired baby.
But every single drop was worth it. Every swipe of the brow, sponged off bald head and wadded up soaking wet t-shirt was all worth it. Kids that have very few activities, kids that do not attend a church, kids that perhaps do not know the true meaning of Easter, each and every one of them heard a message of love from Pastor Lyle, and received some great story books. The best part, they brought their adults with them and they heard the message as well. It was easy to gauge the event by the flashes of smiles, the screams of joy and the sweaty painted faces running through the venue, and that was just the volunteers!
Gathering around for the Easter egg hunt, or gather as is more aptly described.
I think there's one right there.
Gatherer.
Seems like a lot of big kids in the 2 year old group.
We found one!
Look Mommy a pink one!
This guy is in full concentration mode.
little princess.
It was a taxing, tiring, tremendous day. The grand finale, the 1200 egg hunt was a bit of slightly organized chaos. Due to the amount of children, we instituted a 10 egg limit. The limit, much like the local speed limit, seemed to be more of a suggestion than the law that we had intended, as we saw great liberty taken as mounds of eggs departed in mother’s purses and bags. However, we were confident that everyone left with eggs, candy, and memories, some with a little more than others.
Lauren squatting for a better scan.
I think this makes number 10!
Hey daddy, is this an egg?
Daddy doing the final count.
Booty time!
At the end of the day a seed was planted and it was watered with the sweat of our brow. We can only pray that they take hold and grow a little until next year when we can water them once again, and perhaps plant a new field.
She’s just playing
We knew early on she belonged on a stage. In fact, by the time she was two she was known as our little drama queen. She was unbelievably cute, she knew how to bat her eyelashes , smile, and even say things like ” oh daddy” in a patronizing voice. Oh yes, early on we knew this one would be trouble. Tracy figured that dance class may be a place for her use up her charm. She was right. Alli took to it like me to cheesecake, she devoured it. And as good as she was in class, she was even better on stage. She had the smile, the charm, the confidence, she had it all and she knew how to bring it all together to stand out on the stage. Things were going great, dance four days a week, performances 4-5 times a year, and a lot of driving and costume money from dad. But the important thing is that she had to have somewhere to put her creative energy. That all came to a crippling halt last year when her meniscus said ” I need a break“, or perhaps even more proper, I need a tear, as documented in this very blog.
- I really should be out there “acting”
looking beautiful
The three banditos.....
.... and the three princes
So she sat around the house for months with nothing to do, no way to release her creative energy except on her parents. It was politely suggested to her that perhaps the stage was calling her once again, alas not in dance but in drama. Her eyes lit up a little and it seemed as if something so obvious should not have been such a surprise to any of us. Of course she took to it like a rainbow trout to roe.
After a semester of drama she tried out for the school play and actually got two roles. Neither was a lead, but both were scattered throughout the play, and she was critical to the start of the plot and the closing scene. The whole family got to enjoy the play, and the consensus was: She must love sword fighting because she smiled the whole time, Jeremy loved the sword fights but was disappointed she didn’t die on stage, she looked beautiful and did a fantastic job. We are so proud and maybe its time for her one woman show, just as long as she leaves the drama on the stage.
Short video clip of a couple of scenes from the play
The Cast
Location, Location, Location
Did you ever have a lemonade stand? I did, and I think I made about $ 0.75. But I will never forget it. One of my 2-3 paying customers grilled me, as he was drinking his lemonade, regarding my profits. He insisted, with a straight face, that I must report my profits to the IRS. I giggled assuming he was joking, and he never cracked a smile. I was mortified that they would find out, and promptly closed the stand. When I told my dad that I had to report my profits, hey obviously looked at me puzzled, eyebrows furrowed down and said “what the heck are you talking about?” I told him about the guy. It turns out he worked with my dad, and he and my dad had a great laugh over the encounter. At that time, I thought that was cruel and unfairly affected the purchasing power of my Hot Wheels Racing Set. Now, I can’t wait till I get to return the favor.
The world famous Club K.O. Make your reservations now! (note duct tape for atmosphere)
customers pulling in for some "special blend" java.
obviously jacked up on some hi octane joe!
Well times have changed. I came home last month to find a fully operating coffee stand in my driveway. NIRVANA! If you know me, you know I love my coffee. The problem with the stand, it was being operated by my children, with my coffee, and it was being sold. No freebies. But that wasn’t the main problem, the main problem was that is was up our 100 foot, away from any other traffic, other than Tracy and I. So their customer base was limited, very limited. Further, once they figured out their customer base was zero, they began serving each other. Taking turns as imaginary customers with imaginary profits. But I applaud their ingenuity, creativeness, and stealing of my coffee goods. So if you are ever driving by Sterling and have a hankering for a hot, luke warm cup of coffee, dark water, then stop on by club K.O. It is only a few hundred yards out of the way, and for only a few dollars, I promise that you will get service with smile,if they aren’t doing school work, or sleeping, or eating, or playing……… Just keep in mind, much like Applebee’s, you are paying more for atmosphere than the actual product.
full house on opening day
Employee of the month, Olivia
all hail Club K.O., the only place to go for a great cup of joe.
Piano Performance and Recital 2009
For the regular readers of this blog, you know that I did a post on piano recitals not too long ago. If you need a refresher, you can read it here http://akgodfreys.com/2008/10/25/piano-recital2/
All smiles pre-recital
However, last night we had the real recital, the once of year gathering of proud paying parents from the peninsula, and we were the proudest. Okay, maybe not the proudest, there were a couple of parents there that brought the camera crew from NBC Nightly News, must be their first recital. Sad part is, when it is your first recital, it lasts about as long as it takes to take one picture.
Concentrating Kassie
Bee-bopping Ben
As I have mentioned before, recitals would be great if it were just your kids doing the reciting. But even for a family our size, we were only 10% of the act. To say it was torturous to sit through everyone else playing would definitely be an exaggeration, to say it was like being waterboarded, that would be more accurate. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great moments, like the little girl singing a solo and messing up and grunting in frustration; classic. Or the very mature lady, very mature, taking 6 minutes to play a one minute song. Now you may think I am being a little harsh, but let me ask you this, who was she playing for? Her parents? Remember, she is very very mature, much more so than me. ” That is not hard” I know I can hear you all screaming at the computer right now.
Jamming Jeremy
Octave Olivia
None-the-less, I enjoyed seeing my kids perform, nary a smile between the four of them. They have performed before, but not in front of a crowd of this magnitude. I estimate 3,000 to 4,000 people, oops added a couple zeros there, maybe 40 (including the performers) in attendance. Our kids were concentrating so hard, that they forgot to smile. But immediately, once they were done and their nerves relaxed, they could not help but smile. So at the request of our friends and relatives unable to attend (those poor souls) I have posted a video of all four kids. They were awesome, the best, and the video is only a few minutes long. Please enjoy.
