A bit of background on the motivation behind the event: Our parents are always seeking fun, kid-friendly events while, unfortunately, living in a place with extremely limited options for family entertainment.
(There's the beach.)
Cowman, on the other side, is very interested in serving not just our students, but the whole family. Strong, healthy families are a priority for us. Thus, the Harvest Festival was born to be a win/win situation. (Not to mention, also a fundraiser for our continuing construction needs.)
Below are a few pictures from the evening. I'll insert some brief explanations where necessary.
Let's start with Mr. James and Caleb DuPree. Mr. James is dressed, apparently, as an adult - a role that is a stretch for him. Caleb is dressed as a 50s greaser. Not so much a stretch.
Caleb and his sister Julie are from North Carolina and have been staying with us and working at Cowman for the past two months. They have been a huge help and blessing to us and the school. They're with us until Thanksgiving. Here's Julie as Cinderella and Hannah as Ariel.
Mr. Love and Ms. Eve grilled hundreds of hotdogs in the course of the evening.
We had more parent involvement than ever with this event. They helped with set up, running games, and clean up.
Here's Dr. Rodney heading up bingo in the library.
I think that's one of our new math teachers, Mr. Jeffney, behind the mask.
We've been blessed to have our next door neighbor, Janeen, helping out in Cowman's administrative offices a few hours each week. Here she is doing "trunk-or-treat" as Belle from "Beauty and the Beast".
You can't tell from this photo, but even the teenagers had a good time...
Parts of the evening looked like this:
Melissa put a lot of work into organizing and emceeing the event. She should have dressed up as the Energizer Bunny. Here she is with Mrs. Z who is back in the country for a short visit. We sure do miss having her around on a regular basis.
Bradley and Ruysdael, a good team in the classroom.
Some of you know "Baby" Sammy's story. For Harvest Festival, he dressed up like a pastor!
An intense game of giant Kerplunk.
Sarah dressed as Mal, from the Disney Descendants movie. Here she is with her buddy Emarlie.
Close up of Hannah. What a beauty she has turned into!
A very special family. Mrs. Erika teaches health for us as she and her husband wait out the adoption process for their two cuties.
Hannah and Maxiane. This is our entire Junior class this year!
Brandon and Samuel
Mr. Love finally met his match on the basketball court.
Olivier is a freshman this year. Unbelievable.
Another shot of Sarah. Looking way too mature.
A father son shot. Matt has been a huge help in getting our house into shape - especially the kitchen. His oldest son, Silas, is in the 7th grade this year.
This young lady may have a future in modeling!
The mask isn't enough to hide the ketchup on Sam's face. ;-)
Which leaves me with one last photo, and I think I saved the best for last. Cowman is blessed this year to have a part-time music teacher. We have known Enoch for years through English Bible Fellowship and we are thrilled to have such a talented, godly man join our staff. His son came dressed as a Haitian tour guide. What a cutie!
Things are starting to settle down a bit - for me - so I plan to posting here again on a more regular basis. For Melissa ... things are far from settling. Tonight she is waist-deep in a five page research paper due at midnight for her Master's class. Tomorrow, she was going to have a "day off" while a visitor led an entire day of teacher training (no students tomorrow). BUT then our visitor emailed at 5:00 this morning to say a medical emergency was going to prevent her trip.
Stresses such as these tend to pile up and there's no real break coming for Melissa until Christmas (if then!). Please keep especially her in your prayers whenever Cowman or our family come to mind. Thank you and God bless you!
