Important details for the upcoming months

We are excited to announce that after our Spring Break we will be moving back to an every week KWAV's meeting time.

We will have our 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday, April 4th! The kids had so much fun last year scouring the green belt and then they got to share some of their eggs in a basket that was donated to The Shalimar Learning Center. Save the date for our hunt this year and be sure to invite friends to join in the fun. We will be at the Phase 2 Clubhouse on April 4th from 1:30-2:40.

We will not meet on April 11th due to Spring Break.

From April 18th on we will be meeting weekly! We look forward to many fun weeks with these amazing kids.

Lastly, we have had lots of email inquiries from people all over the country asking about KWAV's and whether they can follow our format and do their own group.

Our answer: HECK YES!

Go for it.

We will be cheering you on. Feel free to borrow anything we have done, and tweak it for your own community. We have learned so much from this experience of living missionally with the kids and families in our neighborhood.

We have seen that God works through daily conversations in line at pick up and drop off. He works as we stand at the park. He works at swim meets. He works as we watch kids razor in front of our yard. He uses our front porches as chapels. He allows our messy lives to somehow declare the glory of the Lord and we are convinced that He often does His best work outside of the walls of church.

December Happenings

Happy December!

We wanted to give an update on the happenings for this month for our KWAV's kids.

We were planning on launching our first KWAV's family picnic this month, but we have multiple conflicts for that day so we are going to launch that in January and have some other fun stuff planned for this month:

• This Sunday our very own Donna Phebus will be walking in the "WALK FOR AIDS ORPHANS/WALK FOR CLEAN WATER" event here in the Port Streets. This is sponsored by World Vision and Women of Vision, and it is a really great family service opportunity. Grab your family and walk with these gals through the Port Streets in solidarity with orphans and people in need of clean water.

WALK FOR AIDS ORPHANS

WALK for CLEAN WATER

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4^TH

2:00 P.M.

PORT STREETS CLUBHOUSE

1900 Port Carlow Place

Newport Beach

Hosted by World Vision/Orange County Women of Vision

• Next Wednesday, December 7th, will be our monthly KWAV's meeting at the Phase 2 Clubhouse from 1:30 - 2:40. We are going to have a great time with the kids, and plan on spending some time practicing some Christmas Carols with them so that we can do a little neighborhood caroling!!!

• Mark your calendars for our FIRST ANNUAL KWAV's FAMILIES NEIGHBORHOOD CHRISTMAS CAROLING! Come in your warm and cozy clothes and bring a flashlight as we head out together and bless our neighborhood with some Christmas cheer. December 21st @ 6 PM. We will email the meet up location closer to the date! Feel free to invite other families along - it's definitely the more the merrier.

We look forward to seeing your kiddos on Wednesday!

Today's Recap

We are rescheduling our November Blessings Bags service project to December. Stay tuned for updates!

Upcoming Serve Opportunity: walk to support AIDS/orphans

On Sunday, December 4th, Orange County Women of Vision/World Vision are hosting a walk to support AIDS Orphans as well as clean water development in our World Vision sponsored projects in KENYA.

We will gather at the Port Streets (Newport Hills) Clubhouse at 2:00. We will be walking 6000 Steps for the 6000 Children orphaned every day by the still prevalent AIDS pandemic. We will be provided water as a reminder of the great need for access to clean, sustainable water resources there.

It will be a fundraiser as well for these projects. More information will be forthcoming.

We hope you can join us!

Welcome Back!

We hope that your Fall is off to a fantastic start as we all are getting back into our Fall routines.

We wanted to send out an update regarding our Kids With A Vision endeavors this year. We are really excited to dive back into life with you all!

Here is our plan for the year:

• We have decided to hold our KWAV's meeting with the kiddos once a month on the first Wednesday of every month. We will kick this off on November 2nd at 1:30 PM at the Phase 2 Clubhouse. We will meet the first Wednesday of each month at the Phase 2 Clubhouse from 1:30-2:40.

• We will send out an email sign up for parent volunteers in the upcoming weeks. But, save the dates! Kids in kinder - 3rd grade are welcome to join us and 4th - 6th graders are welcome to attend as Jr. Counselors!

• We have also planned a couple of KWAV's field trips for families to participate in!
• Sunday, November 6th @ 2:30 PM :: Help us assemble Blessing Bags for the Homeless | Andersen elementary lunch tables

This is a great opportunity to serve alongside your kids in a practical way. We will have all the supplies needed to assemble the blessing bags - Come with your kids and lets put blessing bags together.

Here is the time frame:

-2:30-3:30 - assemble blessing bags at Andersen picnic tables

-3:30 - 4:30 - load up in cars and caravan to The Santa Ana Civic Center where we can deliver them to people in need

-5 PM - meet at St Pepperoni's for pizza dinner with our KWAV's peeps!!!

*** We will also be collecting blankets and used jackets (all sizes) to hand out to the homeless.

We ask that you RSVP to this event and also that each family participating would donate $20 towards the blessings bags. (You can RSVP via email or leave a comment here letting us know you are coming)

• Thursday, December 15th :: "A Night in Bethlehem" at Liberty Baptist Church | 6-8 PM

This is a great opportunity to experience the nativity scene in real life! Your kids will be stoked.

• Family Dinner/Picnic at Bonita Canyon Sports Park - the first Saturday of every month : 3 PM until its too dark to play. :)

We thought it would be fun to start a tradition of eating together and playing alongside our kids. Come join us as we hang and enjoy dinner together. We will be at the sports park by the tennis courts. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to join us. The more the merrier!

Please feel free to share KWAV's info with any new families you think may be interested in joining in.

As always, we will be updating this KWAV's blog with information, so continue to check it for updates and news.

We look forward to a great year of exploring how we can be a blessing in our community and beyond!

Parenting Tips from Justin Bieber

I recently stumbled on this blog post about Justin Bieber and I like it. A lot.

I like the call to be courageous parents.

I like the call to raise courageous kids.

I think one of the added blessings to putting together this after school group called KWAV's has been that we have seen a group of parents stand up to say, "I'm all in on this whole raising kids who are quality people."

Because it is easy to find a sea of people who want their kids to be brilliant, or a stellar athlete, or even "well-rounded" in the college application way.

But, to find a group of people who want their kids to be kind, and thoughtful, and humble, and who love God and try to put others before themselves - well, that may not be quite as easy.

Truly, we are grateful to have found parents with the same vision as us.

Thank you.

Weekly Recap and This Week

We will be collecting gently used sporting goods or dance & gymnastics items again this week. Feel free to drop off items at the Phase 2 Clubhouse anytime from noon to 3 PM.

We are looking forward to another fun week with our KWAV's kids.

Next week (the 15th) will be our last week. We plan on having a party!