I Can't Believe I Didn't Get Pictures!

I think it was the weather and how windy it was.  It made me completely spacey!!  I totally forgot to take a picture of the houses we did on Sunday night and they were pretty EPIC.  So it made me sad that I failed to take a photo.  The house that we did in Kirkland I think was never home.  I left them several different messages and never received a phone call back.  I need to call the family that requested them to be flocked and let them know that I don't think the people saw them.

The other house we did was a pretty awesome adventure.  The main thing that stuck out to me was the vehicle that for some reason kept his headlights on us the whole time.  I think he was just trying to say, "Hey, we see you!"  But I felt like running to their car and asking them to turn off the lights so our shadows wouldn't cast.  But that little obstacle made us feel more accomplished when the task was completed!

What was gross though was when I went to pick up the flamingos the next morning, I realize there was a lot of dog poop around.  Haha.  I was like, "That would have been AWFUL if we had been rolling around in that!"

Dead End

So I got lost getting to this place.  The "Dead End" sign was somewhat deceiving.  Yet, getting lost worked to our advantage.  If we were any earlier, they would have just been coming home and we would have been caught with flamingos in hand.  Such a pretty, pretty house.

Where's That Laughing Coming From? RUN!!!!

We were doing so good on this flocking.  Then we heard laughing and it sounded like they were right there.  It freaked us out.  We literally all jumped in the car.  I think my car was almost already moving before I thought, "Hey, did I get everyone?"  Hahaha.

Are You Sure It's The Right House?

So, we honestly staked out this house for seven minutes.  We were just sitting there, watching the house.  Haha.  The main reason was because I didn't want to accidentally flock the wrong house.  After we confirmed that it was the right house, we sprung to action.  Actually the two girls did the staking, I just handed them the flamingos.

I called the owner of this house the next day to see if they enjoyed the flamingos.  He shared the story about how his daughter woke him up at 5:30 a.m. and told him that there were flamingos and he didn't believe her.  Haha.  They wrote us a nice note that said, "Thank you!  What a wonderful surprise!  It made our day.  Have fun spreading the flock!"

So Stealth!

I didn't have my cell phone with me so I missed the phone call from the leader that was heading the flocking of this house.  I received her message where she expressed concern that all the lights were on and they would be found out.  However, it turned out that they were extremely stealth.  The next morning they were so surprised to find the flamingos.  The student that lived in the house wondered how they did it since he was awake until 3 a.m. that night.

A nice note ...

One of the homes we flocked earlier on had written us a nice note that stated:

"Thanks for the smile!  Last night there was a gathering of around 16 teenagers at our house playing games when the flock arrived.  We all had a good laugh when the flock was discovered and I thought - what a great witness to the fun of Young Life to these kids, most of whom are not believers."

Flamingo Facebook Updates

I figured one of the ways to know if we made people smile is to see what they write on their Facebook updates.  I'm not FB friends with all of them and some people don't have FB, that's why I don't have examples from every person.

House #1 stated on her status: SO, check out my profile page, and you'll see pictures of what happened at OUR house last night! We got FLAMINGO-ED!!!! SURE is pretty.....thanks to all our dear Young Life Friends! Happy Day to all....gotta love this SUN!!! ♥  

House #1 provided pictures and wrote this: So, we wake up this morning,l to find this delightful group of beautiful birds in our yard, just WAITING for us to be up and around! Our Young Life friends must have been BUSY last night!!!!

House #3 stated on his status (BTW, he made the flocking his default pic):  Good day: Got Flamingo Flocked by YL

House #24 provided pictures and wrote this: We woke up to a yard filled with Pink Flamingo courtesy of Cooper's Young Life friends! It was so funny when the little girl I watch saw them this morning, she had to name them all! :)

A Flamingo Parade

I went to pick up these flamingos today and as I drove up, I saw the cutest sight EVER ... a flamingo parade!!!  The kids were so appreciative that we flocked their house that they even made us the most adorable thank you cards.  It was just a reminder of why we flock.  Aside from raising funds to take kids to camp, it really does bring joy to people.

Flocking this home was pretty intimidating because it is in a rich neighborhood and all the neighbors have HUGE windows.  When we were flocking it, the neighbors looked outside the window at us.  I was a little nervous.  But later on, I found out that it was the owner's brother's house.  When the girls finished putting down all the flamingos, a car was backing out of a home.  The girls were screaming, "GO, GO, GO!"  I was like, "They don't know any better.  We're just a parked car.  A parked car."  I had my lights off and we just let the neighbor leave, then we drove off.  The best part was hearing from the owners about how much they loved it!! :)

Is That a German Shepherd?

Apparently, there was a German Shepherd chasing Gabe when they attempted to flock this home.  It was a good thing that he made it back into the vehicle in one piece.

When they tried to flock this house, all the lights were on.  

They See Us, Run! Run!

Right after the Camp Concert Fundraiser, with the help of Kyle and Hector, they took three students: Matt, Alethia and Danielle to flock this home.  There was a party going on next door and they were trying to be discreet, but when they thought that the owners had seen them, they bolted out -- taking some flamingo legs with them.  It's a good thing that flamingos like to stand on one leg. :)

Motion Sensored Lights ...

I had heard from my Area Director that one of the residents at this home had wished that his house would get flocked.  We made his dreams come true. :)  It was great because when we arrived at their home, all the lights were off which meant no one was home.  It was much easier to get the flocking done because usually they would have a good view of us with their big window facing us!

This house was really tricky.  We had attempted to flock this house earlier in the week, but we chickened out when we would walk and the neighbor's lights kept going on and off because they were motion sensored.  So that morning, I decided to talk to the neighbors to let them know what we were doing so they wouldn't be alarmed if they constantly saw their motion sensors going on and off.  It was mission accomplished!!! :)

The Flocking Continues ...

Well, the first house was easy enough to do.  The previous house that we flocked just wanted to flock the neighbor that was directly behind them.  So we went over and just walked over the flamingos. :) 

The other house was a little bit more tricky.  When we arrived, we noticed that the lights were on in one of the bedrooms and we were worried that we would be caught.  So we left in hopes that we would flock a different house that might not be so hard.  But after that failed, we went back to the house.

I sent one of the girls, Danielle, to check out whether or not she felt like we would be safe.  She gave us the go-ahead sign.  One of the other girls, Larissa and I hid ourselves behind a car and handed off the flamingos to the remaining girls to stake down.  As we were doing this, the neighbors watched it all take place.  It was one of the first most exciting flamingo flocking experiences that we had. 

Update ...

Well, I was hoping to update this more frequently than I have. I didn't have my Mac for a week which hampered trying to get pictures up. I will try to put up pictures today. We have split up the responsibility of flamingo flocking, so different leaders from LHS and MTHS are taking ownership of each night. Tonight, it's Tony. Tomorrow, Alex. Tuesday, Sarah. Wednesday, Rozelle. Thursday, Titi. Friday, Phoebe. Saturday, Hector.

It has been such an incredible bonding experience. I hope to put up pictures soon and share stories about each adventure as much as I can - though I won't be able to do it for each one.

2nd Flamingo Flocking

So the picture above is after we completed the first flamingo flocking of the night.  Both houses were actually pretty close to each other and to my home.  This one was just walking distance.

So when we got to the second house, the homes were so close together that we were confused which one was actually the lawn of the people that we needed to flamingo.  So we just created a straight row of flamingos.  Haha.

1st Flamingo Flocking Adventure

Well, it was definitely a learning curve in regards to knowing how to be most efficient in flamingo flocking.  But at the end of the day, it was still completed in less than an hour because the two houses were decently in close vicinity from each other.  Right when we got into the van, I realize that my battery was dead.  Oy vey!  

Anywho, below is the first house that we flocked.  Frankly, I was a little nervous that they would have been caught, so even though I really wanted a group photo, I just had them put down the flamingos and run back to the van.

At the second house, we managed to actually get a good group shot in.  That picture is below.

Prep Work for Flamingo Flocking

I have placed all 50 flamingos in the back of my parent's van.  At first I was going to attach all the legs together, then I realized that wasn't a very smart move.  It would take far too much space.  It's much easier for each student to attach 10 legs than it is for me to attach all 100 legs myself.  Also, I had originally failed to put the netting.  Bad idea cause when you open up the door... all those legless flamingos come flying out! 

So I tried to see how well the flamingos would stand on grass.  Looks pretty nifty, I think. :)

Yup ... if you want to get some flamingos for your own fundraiser, this is where you go.

This is the sign that we will be putting up to explain what we're doing.  If we bought "cylinders" from our sign company, it would have cost $20.  Since we're watching our pennies, I just bought two water bottles with a carabiner, both of them together just cost $8.76.  Yup, that's a savings of $11.24. 

Flamingo Flocking Officially Starts Friday, April 9, 2010

Hi ya'll ...

Well, Flamingo Flocking season will officially begin tomorrow. We will try to put pictures up and possibly video of our Flamingo Flocking escapades. We will be flocking two houses per night every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday until the end of May. We may continue to do it until June, if need be.

We're really excited to do something this fun. I hope it really bonds people. So hopefully by tomorrow night, we will have pictures up. The first group of flockers this Friday night will be: Lizbeth G, Brisa H, Collin K, Ian D, Rachel M, Kendra S, Samantha W and Matt Y.