Game Café: that's a wrap!

Game Café 2017 was  a phenomenal success! Over 400 Five Oakers and your friends, family and neighbors joined us for a night of fantastic food and unplugged fun. Many of you played Bingo, your kids bounced their way through the inflatable obstacle course, and best of all - Pastor Henry got schooled in Catan, by my 15 year-old son no less! A huge thank you to Barry Schalkle for leading two competitive rounds of Team Trivia Challenge. I was able to slip into one of those, and it was such a blast. I knew a few answers, but was more impressed to see how much the "under 20" crowd knew!

It’s always encouraging to have so many new people walk through our doors, to see a little bit of what we’re all about. Seeing great conversations and laughter happening all around the building – that just warmed my heart.

I want to especially thank all of you who volunteered to make this event happen. There were 100 volunteer spots, and you came through!! We could never have pulled it off without those of you who baked treats, helped set up and clean up, served dinner (so yummy!), supervised inflatables, and much more.

Saving the best for last, I am so grateful to our FUN Team - - these are the people I get to work with who planned, recruited and made this whole event happen: Missy Smutny, Meleah Miller, Jenna Friedman, Kristin Sellers, Peg Benson, Marge Lindberg, Katie Viesselman, Shawn Grams, Jennifer Cretzmeyer … you all are the "muscle" behind this crazy fun event. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Until the next FUN Team event…

Your FUN Team Director,

Pam Hawley
Associate Director of Connections

Fall Fun Fest features Friday night fun, friends…fr-eats!

Remember how much fun you had at last year’s Fall Fun Fest?  It’s back this year — new and improved of course, brought to you by your Five Oaks FUN Team.  The Fall Fun Fest will be on November 4, 2016, 6:30-9 pm.  This carnival-style event (geared for kids pre-K-grade 5) will feature Minute-to-Win-it, Cake Walk, Ring Toss, face painting, and crazy hair,  plus NEW this year: Giant Jenga, donut on a rope, mountain dice, and prize wheel, to name a few. This is an easy invite for your kids (or moms and dads) to offer to friends and neighbors.  

Are your kids too “old” for Fall Fun Fest? Consider coming to volunteer at the event, or with set-up or clean-up. This is a great way to serve as a family.  Questions, please contact Pam Hawley, phawley@fiveoakscurch.org.  

FUN Team pulls off yet another, well, fun event

Food Trucks for Father's Day (say that five times real fast)!  That's right -- we honored Dad last weekend with some delicious food on wheels.  The wheels were provided in the form of two food trucks -- The Tot Boss and r.a.MacSammy's -- both of which set up right here in the Five Oaks parking lot.  It was a beautiful day and many folks (and their dads) sat outside and took a summer break.  While he is normally not a fan of mac-n-cheese, we think that even Pastor Henry has been converted to enjoy the Deep Fried Mac and Cheese Bites!

Food trucks are coming for Father's Day

Throw away your low-carb diet for Father's Day and come indulge your taste buds.  We will have two of the Twin Cities finest food trucks right here at Five Oaks on June 19 for both services.  The Five Oaks FUN Team will have the picnic tables setup outside so Dad (and the whole family) can enjoy some relaxing time with a delicious meal.  Check out the menus below for the Tot Boss and r.a.MacSammy's.  Make your plans and come hungry!

http://www.ramacsammys.com/menu.html

http://www.totboss.com/Menu.html

Five Oaks FUN Team celebrates moms

She's part chef, part cruise director, part doctor, part psychologist and ALL mom.  You've got to have a special day to honor someone like that, so the Five Oaks FUN Team got together to thank moms in a special way this past weekend.  The FUN Team worked with Children's and Youth Ministry leaders to have kids fill out "You Are Special Because..." cards prior to this weekend.  The team took the completed cards and posted them on a display for the weekend.  Many kids also just filled out a card on the spot to give to mom or a motherly figure in their life.   

Additionally, the FUN Team got together and baked 800 cupcakes for all Five Oakers.  We hope you had a chance to enjoy these delicious treats while you were here.  Thank you to the following FUN Team members and helpers:

Pam Hawley
Jenna Freidman
Peg Benson
Shawn Grams
Aimee Thornton
Meleah Miller
Liz Andretta
Kristen Bryant
Kristin Sellers
Jennifer Clemens
Deb Johnson

Five Oaks Puts the "F" in Fun

The Five Oaks FUN Team is off to a brilliant start with two special events to kick off the year.  We started with a special Valentine show of love in February, and just finished the night of FUN that is called Game Cafe in March.  Both of these were made possible by the Five Oaks FUN team and about 50 additional volunteers.  

Hopefully you had a taste of the delicious chocolate-dipped marshmallows or strawberries when you came to church on Valentine's Day.  If not, just check out the photo below and you might feel like running out to grab a chocolate dessert.

We also hope you stopped by for a night of games and hot dogs at our Game Café.  Over 460 people attended the event and it was great to see spontaneous fellowship happening that night.  A number of small groups met for a social outing and lots of kids and parents got to have an "unplugged" night of fun together.  We had BINGO, Mega-Twister, bounce houses, slides, Puzzlemania and tons of board games for all tastes.  

This was a night of FUN for all ages, and just to prove that we would like you to view this video of our Senior Pastor and Director of Outreach facing-off on the inflatable Bungee Run! 
 

The FUN Team is back at work planning our next surprise for Mother's Day.  Plan to bring your mom or someone who is like a mom to you to church the weekend of May 7/8 and let her be honored.

Special thanks to the members of the Five Oaks FUN Team below.  They made it all possible:
Dawn Beavers
Nate Benson
Peg Benson
Jenna Friedman
Kris Glewwe
Shawn Grams
Heather Hanafee
Marge Lindberg
Jessica Mata
Meleah Miller
Kristin Sellers
Rachel Westurn
Pam Hawley (our fearless leader)
Jennifer Clemens (our equally fearless leader)