Thursday, June 30, 2016

Summer Fun - Summer Splash, #DDT, and Memorial Park Pool

So vacation ended over two weeks ago. It seems like just yesterday that these #PoolDads and our families were wrapping up our time in North Carolina with a trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial, an awesome North Carolina Aquarium, and a trip to Jennette's Pier where we saw a fisherman reel in a shark! Nonetheless,  week full of fun, sun, and Duck Donuts went by in a blur and these #PoolDads are back to summer life in Grove City.

Bible School

One of the best parts of summer is Vacation Bible School. Grove City is blessed to offer a number of different VBS's throughout the summer. One such offering took place at East Main Presbyterian Church from June 20 - 24. Jaxon had a great time in the traditional VBS program, while Savanna and Joella were excited to participate in the alternative VBS program, which provided them the opportunity to participate in a number of different community service projects. Whether it was cleaning horse stalls, clearing unwanted plants from a nature trail, or delivering cookie plates to homes and businesses in Grove City, these girls loved to serve. Thanks, East Main, for such an amazing opportunity.

The Grove City Alliance Church does things a bit differently. Julien and Jenna had the opportunity to participate in Summer Splash Junior from June 20 - 23. This awesome program gave these kids a chance to learn some great worship songs and learn how God can bring peace to our lives. What a great message to teach these youngsters!

The week of June 26 kicked off with the Summer Splash Carnival at GCAC followed by an awesome night of praise and worship led by the GCAC Youth Worship Band. In addition to the awesome worship, prizes were given. The Bandi's were blessed to walk away with certificates for free Blizzards from DQ and free ice cream cones from Sweet Jeanie's (a Grove City treasure)!

Summer Splash ran from Monday - Wednesday and provided some great opportunities for the older kids. Jaxon and Isaac participated in a more traditional program where they learned about the peace that God brings to our lives. Joella and Savanna had the chance to participate in breakout groups, which is a unique feature of Summer Splash for kids finishing grades 4 - 6. These groups included many interesting topics - karate, guitar, sports, cake decorating, and praise symbols to name a few. The week wrapped up on Wednesday with a family picnic and a service in which the younger students sang songs they'd learned during Summer Splash, while the breakout groups gave demonstrations of skills they'd learned over the two days.

The #PoolDads are so thankful for VBS and the role these programs have in the lives of our children!

#DDT - Dunkin Donuts Tuesday (or Thursday)

One of the summertime highlights is a tradition started last summer: the DDT. As our readers know, these #PoolDads LOVE donuts. We love them so much that we've set aside a day each week to take the kids to Hermitage, PA, for a visit to Dunkin Donuts. It's a little wild and a little crazy, but always fun when we make these trips. Traditionally, these trips take place on Tuesdays, but due to scheduling conflicts this week, the first #DDT of the summer took place today, Thursday, June 30.  For those that watched live, or watched in syndication, our Facebook Live show, you know that we're looking for new things to try at Dunkin Donuts on our next #DDT. If you have any suggestions, leave them in a comment below!

Memorial Park Pool

Obviously, the Memorial Park Pool holds a special place for us. This is where our we take our kids each day for fun and sun, usually spending several hours daily. The last couple of weeks have been tremendous with the perfect combination of air temperature, water temperature, and crowd. If you haven't been to the pool recently, come on out and support this AWESOME community resource! When you arrive, look for the #PoolDads and stop by to say "Hello"! We want nothing more than to see the people of Grove City show strong support for this pool and to show the Borough and the YMCA that the Memorial Park Pool is a treasured resource and more than worth the investment in maintaining and improving on the existing structure.

The #PoolDads have had a thought that may be fun for getting people out to the pool. Who out there would be interested in a Splash-Off??? We have some regulars at the pool who have the ability to make some pretty enormous splashes off the diving board, but the #PoolDads believe it is time to crown a Splash Champion! If you would have any interest in participating, comment below and we'll see if we can set up an official time!

Thanks for reading!

The #PoolDads

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