Summer Calendar

We have many exciting activities planned this summer! Please take a look at the schedule and make plans to attend as you are able.

May 20 – Fieldtrip – Zoo Atlanta

June 3 – Fieldtrip – Lunch at Flying Machine

June 13 – MNO

June 17 – Fieldtrip –Playtown Suwanee & Big Splash Fountain at Suwanee Town Center

June 26 – Family Cookout (Jamie's house)

June 28 – 7:00 – Planning Meeting (Erin's house)

July 1 – Fieldtrip – Monkey Joe’s

July 7 – MNO

July 15 – Fieldtrip – Yellow River Game Ranch

July 18 – 7:00 – Planning Meeting

July 29 – Fieldtrip – Fire Station

August 12 – Fieldtrip – INK

August 14 – Sundae Sunday

August 21 – MNO

August 26 – Fieldtrip – TBA  (possibly rescheduling for Cleveland trip?)

September 7 – First TimeOut! Meeting for 2011-2012

We would also love to have in-home playdates and several pool days. If you are able to volunteer your home or pool for these, please let us know.

This Week's Announcements

Here are all of the announcements from last night's meeting and for HMUMC events coming up in the next few weeks.  Please note that we do not have a meeting next Wednesday due to the HMUMC Easter celebration.  Details on the egg hunt, fellowship dinner & puppet show are listed below.  If you haven't attended a Wednesday night dinner, please join us next week for lots of fun with the family!


April 28, Thursday at 7:00 at Heather’s house – planning mmeting for this Summer and start looking at next year. Please come if at all able. If you can’t make it but have any ideas, call or e-mail your thoughts to Heather.



We have 2 new leaders on our steering team. Karen Hay will be our communicator/ blog keeper, and Jenn Samonsky will be our Mom Care Team Lead. Jenn will be looking for other helpers when the needs arise.


 The 2011 HMUMC United Methodist Men's BBQ will be Saturday, April 16th, from 11am to 6pm. All proceeds will support the mission and ministries of the United Methodist Men.




Holy Week Events Including Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011

• Palm Sunday Service: Sunday, April 17 at 8:15am, 9:30am and 11:00am. Join us on this special day as we celebrate Christ's Triumphal Entry with music and praise!


• FX LIVE: Sunday, April 17 at 4:00pm. Join us in the Great Room for snacks, music and a fun, interactive, multi-media worship experience designed for kids and their families of all ages! Bring another family as your guest and get entered twice for our door prizes.


• Family Easter Celebration: Wednesday, April 20. Create memories for you and your children by attending our annual Easter Egg Hunt for children one year to 5th grade at 5:30pm through 5:45pm, grouped by age. Please donate one dozen pre-stuffed, taped eggs per child with appropriate trinkets or individually wrapped candies (no nuts please). You can donate even if you don't have children here! Drop off your eggs in the bin near the elevator on/before April 17, 2011.


Wednesday Night Supper will be served continuously from 5:30-7:00pm. Please register as usual. The Easter Celebration will feature the Empty Tomb and two identical presentations at 6:00pm and 6:30pm from our Youth Puppet Ministry Team led by Dr. Dave and His Kids!


• Maundy Thursday Service: Thursday, April 21at 7:00pm. Join us for worship at this traditional communion service.

• Good Friday Service: Friday, April 22 at 7:00pm. Join us for worship as we examine the Contemplation of the Cross.

• Easter Morning Services: Join us at one or more of four very special services offered on this glorious day!
7:00am Sunrise Service outside at the Cross
8:00am First Gathering Service in the Great Room
9:30am Celebration of the Resurrection in the Sanctuary
11:00am Celebration of the Resurrection in the Sanctuary


The Easter Flower Cross will be in front of the Portico/Great Room entrance on Easter morning. All members and guests are invited to help decorate this cross by bringing flowers.This is a beautiful way to express joy and thanksgiving. Children especially delight in adding their flowers to the cross.

 Digital Pictures for Mother's Day


The HMUMC Worship Ministry is collecting pictures of mothers and their children of all ages from birth to adulthood to be shown before and after our worship services on Mother's Day. Please email pictures by Monday, May 2 to Kathy Ralya .



FX LIVE

Sunday, April 17 at 4:00pm. Join us in the Great Room for snacks, music and a fun, interactive, multi-media worship experience designed for kids and their families of all ages! Bring another family as your guest and get entered twice for our door prizes.


Family Easter Celebration: Wednesday, April 20

Create memories for you and your children by attending our annual Easter Egg Hunt for children one year to 5th grade at 5:30pm through 5:45pm, grouped by age. Please donate one dozen pre-stuffed, taped eggs per child with appropriate trinkets or individually wrapped candies (no nuts please). You can donate even if you don't have children here! Drop off your eggs in the bin near the elevator on/before April 17, 2011. For more information go to www.hmumc.org.


Vacation Bible School

VBS is June 6-10 for children pre-K through rising 5th graders. Visit the church website to sign up as a Volunteer (rising 7th graders to adult), donate supplies, and/or to enroll your child.  If you would like to volunteer but your child/ren are not old enough to attend, child care is available through the nursery for kids ages two and up!

For more details and information, visit www.hmumc.org or contact Renee Dickhute.

This Week's Announcements

Don't forget, we do not have a meeting this week because of Spring Break! 


Fall TimeOut! Retreat/Conference – A group of us are planning to go to a conference in Birmingham September 23-24. Here’s the website http://www.lifeway.com/event/407/ Let Heather know if you are planning to go so we can figure out carpool and rooms.



We are nearing the end of the year and need to start planning for Summer and next year. A few months ago, we discussed the leadership roles we need help with to keep everything running smoothly. Below are the positions to consider. We hope to have the leadership team in place by April 15. So, please consider if/what you can contribute to the group.

Coordinator – church liaison, calendar, financial

Administrator – directory, attendance, evites, newsletter

Communicator – blog, weekly announcements, follow-up with moms mia

Mom Care Team Leader (+2) – baby showers, meals, hospitality (weekly set-up)

Also, consider choosing a topic and leading that meeting. Gather the supplies, speaker, discussion questions, etc. We have a couple meetings available this year, or start thinking toward next year.


Our next Pantry volunteer day is May 7, 9:00 – noonish. (or whatever part of the morning you are available) We would love to have a kid keeper again so that childcare is not an issue for anyone wanting to volunteer. Please let Heather or Erin know if you would like to be the kid keeper by April 13. If we do have a kid keeper, we will use one of the rooms in the modular, so everyone would need to bring a snack, drink, and a few toys for the kids to play.


Next Mom’s Night Out – April 12… any ideas?


Order Your BBQ Now! The 2011 HMUMC United Methodist Men's BBQ will be Saturday, April 16th, from 11am to 6pm. All proceeds will support the mission and ministries of the United Methodist Men. Tickets are on sale now, and you can pre-order online by clicking here.


HMUMC Preschool Openings - Some openings are still available in the four and five year old classes for the 2011-12 school year. There is a waiting list for the two and three year old classes. To enroll your child, or add them to the waiting list, call the Preschool at 770-271-2783 for details.


VBS – register yourself to volunteer and your kids to participate on the HMUMC website. Volunteer kids age 2 and up can be in the nursery during VBS. See Heather for more info.


Next FX Live is April 17 4:00


HMUMC is collecting Easter baskets for the Foster Children of Gwinnett. Monetary donations and items will be accepted before and after services on April 3. Last year we filled over 125 young children's baskets and over 50 teenage bags.  For more information, contact Cheri Loy at chiploy@comcast.net.


HMUMC Annual Easter Celebration Wednesday, April 20, 2011.

The Easter Egg hunts will be held by ages.

5:30 pm: Ages 1----3

5:35 pm: Ages 4 ----2nd grade

5:45 pm: 3rd----5th grade


Dinner will be served 5:30-7:00pm.

We ask that parents donate one dozen pre-stuffed & securely taped eggs per each participating child. Eggs may be stuffed with church appropriate trinkets or individually wrapped candies (no nuts please). Extra egg donations are always appreciated even if you do not have a child participating. Parents will be responsible for checking eggs for age-appropriateness & allergies. You may drop off eggs in the bin near the elevator on or before Monday, April 18, 2011. No eggs will be received after Monday.

This Week's Meeting Topic & Announcements

Just a reminder that we are back to our regular Wednesday night programming again this week at HMUMC!  Our meeting topic will be a discussion on the chapter about Elizabeth from Mothers of the Bible, so don't forget your books & reading guides!


Preschool Ladybug Bazaar - March 17, 9:00am - 2:00pm

Please plan to attend the first annual HMUMC Preschool Business Bazaar on Thursday, March 17 from 9:00am-2:00pm, in the Sanctuary and Great Room. Flyers are in the Narthex with the names of the businesses attending.

The event is open to the public, so come enjoy shopping for spring items and seeing the many businesses
in our community being represented here at HMUMC. Space is still available for any business that would like to participate and rent booth space. Call us at 770-271-2783.


Zaxby's and HMUMC Food Pantry Food Drive - March 26

Zaxby's at Hamilton Mill will be giving away free chicken fingerz on Saturday, March 26, open to close. They have partnered with Hamilton Mill United Methodist Church to do a food drive for the Food Pantry.
To receive your free chicken fingerz you will need to bring two non-perishable food items to Zaxby's.
Zaxby's will be running this promo all day.  Hope you enjoy your free chicken and thanks for helping to make this a great community event.


HMUMC Fun Run - May 14

This year's Fun Run is Saturday, May 14! We are continuing our support for CURE Childhood Cancer, as well as supporting The Pantry at HMUMC. We are expecting over 400 runners and walkers to participate this year! If you are interested in being a sponsor, contact Stewart Hackney.


Vacation Bible School 2011 - June 6-10

VBS is a highlight of the Children's Ministry calendar and will be here soon, so mark your calendars for June 6-10 as we celebrate "PandaMania, Where God is Wild About You!" Registration for students and volunteers opens today on the church website.

It takes the entire church to make it happen and we need YOU. For more details and information, visit www.hmumc.org or contact Renee Dickhute.

Thank You Pantry Volunteers

A GREAT BIG thank you to everyone (Erin/Jason Clary, Heather/Mike Korey, Jennifer Samonsky & godson Holden, Jennifer Skidmore, Michele Cancilla, Shea/Carson/Ashton Smith) who was able to help out our own Wendy Alexander who was managing The Pantry this morning.  We distributed over 60 boxes of food and we all truly enjoyed the experience.  Thanks to the guys for doing the heaving lifting for us!  They brought over 900 pounds of food from the collection bins near the preschool entrance (and then turned around and carried it all back out to the patron's cars for distribution...in the rain!).  We helped check in, weigh & sort the food collected this week, learned how to make boxes to be distributed and then re-stocked the shelves for next week.  Our next opportunity to work as a team at The Pantry will be Saturday, May 7th.

This Week's Meeting Topic

Wendy Alexander & Jennifer Skidmore will be leading our meeting this week, with the topic being their recent mission trip to Russia!

Just a reminder that there is not a meeting (or any other Wednesday activities) next week on account of Ash Wednesday.  Our next meeting will be on 3/16, and we will be discussing the book chapter on Elizabeth.

We have enough volunteers scheduled to help at The Pantry this weekend, but always welcome extra hands!  Please email Erin or Heather if you would like to come and help, but have not RSVPed on the evite.

Announcements for the 2/23 Meeting

"Enjoy Life With Your Wife" - Friday, March 11 - 7:00pm


Guest speaker - Ted Cunningham, Pastor, Speaker, Author, Woodland Hills Church, Branson, MO. For more information, go to our website or go to www.facebook.com/hamiltonmillumc and click on the Marriage Event Tab.


HMUMC presents DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

The staff members of the newly renovated Meadowbrook Health Spa are dropping like flies-by CHOCOLATE no less!!! This farce of a mystery theatre show will be performed at HMUMC!!! Please come and have a lot of laughs by enjoying the show, show and dinner, OR show and dessert.

Dates: Thursday, March 17, Show only at 7:00pm-Ticket price $5.00. Friday, March 18, Show AND dinner at 6:30pm-Ticket price $12.00. Saturday, March 19, Show AND dessert at 2:00pm-Ticket price $7.00. For tickets, email Lisa Huckleberry at or call 770-614-6673. Tickets will also be sold on Wednesdays and Sundays starting the end of February. Email Cheri Loy or Brenda McKay



Shrove Pancake Supper - Tuesday, March 8 from 5:30pm-6:30pm Pastor Dave and his faithful helpers will prepare a traditional Tuesday night Shrove pancake supper. The supper is free. Johnny Knapp and his jazz trio will provide entertainment for the evening and the Seekers Sunday School Class will be selling freshly baked cookies to raise money for The Pantry. If you are planning a 40-day fast for Lent, this may be your last and best chance to eat well before Easter!



Preschool Business Bazaar - The HMUMC Preschool will be hosting a spring business bazaar on Thursday, March 17 from 9:00am-2:00pm that is open to everyone who'd like to attend. We are looking for people interested in promoting their business. If you are interested, please call the preschool at 770-271-2783.



Ash Wednesday Service – March 9 at 7:00pm. No Wednesday Night Supper or regular programs in observance of the start of Lent.

This Week's Meeting Topic

We will be discussing the chapter on Hannah from Mothers Of The Bible at our meeting this week.  Don't forget your books or your discussion questions!

Don't forget that we are signed up to volunteer at The Pantry on Saturday, March 5th from 9-12:30.  We have only had three moms sign-up to help (Erin, Heather, Michele), so please check your schedules and let us know ASAP via evite if you can come.

For those of you who were at last week's meeting and volunteered to help with the apple juice coupon project for The Pantry, please send me (Erin) an email and let me know how many bottles you were able to donate.  We keep a running tally of the coupon purchases to compare actual amount spent to retail cost & we are trying to give our numbers a boost in the hopes that we can get a bit more attention at the church!  I will have more coupons, thanks to my wonderful neighbor, if you would like more or if other moms would like to help!

This Week's Meeting Topic

Our meeting this Wednesday will be a discussion on how we pamper ourselves. 

Don't forget Mom's Night Out on Thursday...I haven't checked the evite in the past day or two, but at last glance, Italian was in the lead for dinner.  If you are interested in attending, please RSVP ASAP!

Remember that the playdate originally planned for Monday morning has been cancelled due to the snow make-up day (can I get a WAHOO?!).

Also, we still need volunteers for helping at The Pantry on Saturday, March 5th from 9-1.  Check the evite for more information.

See everyone tomorrow night!

Revised Calendar

We've made a few changes to the calendar!


February 9 – Book Study (The Mothers of Moses)
February 16 – How Do You Pamper Yourself? – Group Discussion
February 17 – MNO – (at a restaurant)
February 23 – Book Study (Hannah)
March 2 – Wendy and Jennifer – Mission Trip to Russia
March 5 – Pantry (6 volunteers needed)
March 9 – Ash Wednesday – no meeting
March 16 – Book Study (Elizabeth)
March 23 – Discipline – Tips & Tricks That Work For You – Group Discussion
March 28 – MNO – Make-up Party at Heather’s
March 30 – Book Study (Mary, The Mother of Jesus)
April 5 – PLAYDATE at Courtni's House ***DATE CHANGE!***
April 6 – Spring Break – no meeting

April 12 – MNO
April 13 – Book Study (The Syrophoenician Woman)
April 20 – Easter Celebration / Egg Hunt (HMUMC) – no meeting
April 27 – Book Study (Salome, Mother of the Sons of Zebedee)
May 4 – Mother’s Day Celebration – Dessert and Gift Exchange
May 7 – Pantry (6 volunteers needed)
May 10 – MNO
July 2 – Pantry (6 volunteers needed)
September 3 – Pantry (6 volunteers needed)
November 5 – Pantry (6 volunteers needed)