Homecoming 08

No, not a football game. Homecoming Montgomery style ! This past weekend was one of the biggest events ever at CCC-Montgomery! Over 300 people gathered together to have a giant party, called Homecoming 2008! It was a tremendous success. There was an actual pig roast, a DJ, a face painting and tattoo station, 2 bounce houses, a clothes pin drop, pick a lollipop, a dunk tank, and a family competition.

Jim and I spent a few hours painting faces and giving tattoos (temporary) to almost all of the kids. Butterflies were a huge hit with the girls and Darth Maul was a favorite for the boys. The kids ran around and played all of the games with their friends. They spent a considerable amount of time in the bounce houses(Keiran was too funny, she would only go in the princess house - because the sports one "was for stinky boys") There was a giant pot luck picnic, complete with shredded pig, which tasted incredible, but I must admit I had a hard time eating.

The dunk tank was a huge hit. Several of the church leaders took turns being dunked by almost everyone there. Our good friend Carter spent some time in the tank - and talked a little trash to all of the kids in line - his trash talking did no good though - he went in on the first throw from a little 5 year old girl !!! Another good friend of ours, and StuCo director Tim Raad also spent a considerable amount of time in the tank - mostly under water. I have seen dunk tanks before, but I have never seen one draw the kind of crowd Tim drew. There was a considerable line, mostly full of students, waiting to dunk Tim ! Only a few seconds passed before the conspiring started - regardless of whether or not Tim got knocked in, the students were going to get him in one way or another. It started with one student throwing at the target while another student stood behind the tank ready to pull the arm if the student missed their mark. That approach lasted a few minutes before they decided that they would just run up and punch the target, knocking Tim in almost as soon as he sat back down! I have never seen anyone spend that much time under water! It was pretty hilarious. Several other people were subjected to the torture of the dunk tank, including lead pastor, Dave Ferguson. Eventually it turned in to an all out water fight between students and leaders, if you were within 10 feet of the tank you were getting soaked!

There was also a little friendly family competition. The family competition consisted of a twinkie and ho ho eating contest, a balloon popping relay, a blindfolded fill the empty gallon relay, and a paper airplane making and flying contest. We upped the stakes a little for bragging rights, 3 of the families in our small group competed to see who would score the most points. The first event consisted of one team member holding an empty gallon about 30 feet from the other team members, while the other members (blindfolded) filled a cup with water and raced to the other end to fill the empty gallon. The next event was a twinkie and ho ho eating contest in which you were unable to use your hands, 2 team members competed in this one, one person had to eat a twinkie as fast as they could followed by another team member eating a ho ho. This was much tougher than it sounds for all but one student, Mitch was able to swallow a ho ho whole !!! Next came the balloon pop - each team had to relay to pop 4 balloons. The first team member had to tie a balloon to their waist, run to the empty chair and pop the balloon by sitting on it. The next team member could not start tying their balloon to their waist until the previous player made it back! The final event of the competition was a paper airplane making and flying contest in which each team had 2 minutes to make and fly a paper airplane as far as possible - Team Bard decided that since it was never specifically stated that your entry had to resemble a plane we would test the rules. Jim and Trevor (an honorary Bard) balled up our paper and threw it - we were disqualified from that portion of the contest!!!! Team StuCo (yes they are a family) won the competition. They were rewarded with a PIG TROPHY ! And as for that small group competition, none of our families scored ANY points - I guess we are just all so awesome there couldn't be one winner.

It was an incredible afternoon. The Montgomery team did a phenomenal job ! I think everyone there had a great time, I know we did !!!!