Fall Schedule and KaBOOM!

Hola!

"are you finished with the pictures, already?"

At the end of each August, I feel my blood pressure rise just a little.  Something inside gets nervous, and I'm not sure why...

At that point, summer may be winding down some, but it has been such a NICE season.  WE plan the activities, and fewer outside forces TELL us what the calendar events will be.

FALL BEGINS.  Now, I remember!  We are very decidedly back into the swing of fall.  School, soccer, volleyball, piano lessons, youth nights, seminary, church calendar.  Whew! :)

smallest soccer team member

SPORTS.  Teresa and Kara seem to like their teachers, and they definitely like the sports teams.  Teresa is on the varsity volleyball team at the high school, and they won their first 3 matches!  (Each time, they play until one team wins 3 of 5 games. That's a "match.")

Kara is on two soccer teams: the town team and the school team.  That means lots of games.

KaBOOM!  Here's a cool thing, we got to participate in.  There is an organization called KaBOOM! who builds playgrounds all over the nation.  They choose big cities, and research to find neighborhoods where there may not be any playgrounds, to help children stay healthy and happy by being able to PLAY.

green pieces of slide

So Waltham is just 2 towns over from us, and this time KaBOOM! joined with Brandeis University and Bentley University.  The New England Patriots, and United Health Care were also big sponsors.  Frank and I joined with other community or college student volunteers, to build this playground.  We had a Prep Day on Saturday. 

our missionaries helped too: center w/shovel

The big semi truck came with all of the supplies, which we inventoried and put into small groups, so on Build Day each group could puzzle-piece their section together.

On Build Day, it was this amazingly organized process.  Almost none of the volunteers had done this before.  But they put us into groups, and each group followed step-by-step instructions for their part of the playground.  Then all the pieces slowly came together.

our part: steps w/yellow railings

From a dirt field with holes, to a complete playground with planters, benches, a stage and a very cool play structure, in just 6 HOURS.  It was a really fun thing to be a part of.

here is the whole section of steps we "made"

VIDEO.  I came home today and got a link to this Playground Build video:


THE BEST PART: watch the video, and hit 'pause' at 1:02 minutes or 1:03 minutes.  I am in the lower left corner, back to the camera, sitting on the ground.  Trying to figure out the yellow railings for our part, the steps! Ha.

I have been too distracted lately to finish this post, but I really am going to send it.  Have a great week!

Kari