Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Skate Castle Play Date

Today was Pre-School Play & Skate at Skate Castle and our September MOPS playdate. There was much Hokey Pokeying, Chicken Dancing, and Wipeouts as well as some fledgling skaters.

 Kendra even laced up with Leah and showed us some of her sweet moves.

It was good to see one of our newest moms Jessie out with Emma and Aaron.

The sun on Tiffany's shirt must have been too bright for Emma.

Gus enjoyed dancing and people-watching.

Thanks for coming out today, Ladies! I hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

Friday, August 23, 2013

A Beautiful Mess: Embracing Your Story

Another year has come and gone and a new school year is here. That means a brand new season of MOPS! This year's theme is "A Beautiful Mess" and I can't think of a better description for life with little ones, can you?

What a blessing to see so many familiar friends as well as new faces today! A big thank you to our coordinator, Amber and the rest of the steering team for making MOPS possible

And a big shout-out to our local sponsors who provide us with all the mess-making tools we needed today!
Party Central
The School of Fine Arts 
New Life Family Chiropractic 
Your Story Captured Photography 
Bricks 4 Kidz
River City Performing Arts
Play Place USA

Ladies please take the time to visit each sponsor's site, click their Facebook link, and connect with them. All it takes is just a simple "Thanks for your support of Decatur MOPS" on their wall to let them know we're grateful.

Thank You Sponsors!

The steering team has us doing things a little differently this year. In an effort to make deeper connections with each other during this beautiful, messy season in life, we're dividing into small groups for each meeting. Each group is assigned a table and while we all mix and mingle as a whole over the 2 hour period, the idea is to have the opportunity to make close friendships and for each table to have a mentor.

As Michie pointed out during our devotion, there's not a single one of us who can say they have enough friends and don't need any more support. I'm looking forward to getting to know table #2 (scroll down for our name announcement) as well as the rest of our MOPS group as a whole.

 Today each table created matching name badges as well as personalized tumblers to use at each MOPS meeting. This as well as future blog posts will be a little "table #2 heavy" since that's where I'm at. Just warning ya! We have a new mentor joining us this year who happens to be a calligrapher! Table #2's name tags are beautiful minus the mess thanks to Hope.
I totally wrangled her into doing my tumbler too. If you need a calligrapher for invitations or cards call Hope Cheshier.
Since our theme this year is "A Beautiful Mess" each table was challenged to take these materials...

and create a beautiful mess of a centerpiece.
We also got to name our groups accordingly. This year we have:
The Perfect Imperfections (Table #1)

Bedazzled Mayhem (Table #2)

Frayed Ends (Table #3)

The Devastating Divas (Table #4)

Pretty Chaotic (Table #5)

Our kick-off meeting got off to a great start! It was good to see my friend Jessie there. Thanks for making her feel welcome. I'm pretty sure she's hooked on MOPS after just one meeting.

What else...oh yes. Patricia's shoes. They get cuter with every meeting. She needs to start a shoe blog.

A huge hug and a thank you goes to our childcare workers! I have such peace of mind knowing my children are being cared for by professionals who spend time enriching their lives with activities, crafts, and lessons while I'm spending a couple of hours trying to regain my sanity. Looks like they made a beautiful mess today too.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bunco Night

Some of us discovered a favorite new game tonight: Bunco! We had a great time of fellowship and even a few snacks. Sometimes Moms need to play too.



Friday, March 22, 2013

Hoppy MOPpy Easter!

Between Michie's Easter devotion and Crystal's egg craft we were practically willing spring to show up and stay!

What do you get when you mix embroidery floss, fabric stiffener/Modge Podge, and balloons? Besides a big mess...

These beauties! At least Arlene's turned out like this. How about ya'll's? 


We all had a blast making a giant mess together. 

A blend of 3 parts fabric stiffener to one part Modge Podge seems to be the magic formula for the eggs in case you're thinking of recreating at home.

Simply dip an unraveled strand of embroidery floss in the mixture and wrap around a BARELY inflated balloon

Viola!

Let dry about 24 hours and you'll have lovely string eggs. Tie ribbon on them if you want to hang them or just present them in a bowl.

On a side note, isn't Crystal's headband pretty?

Special thanks as always goes to our childcare workers. Trudy was hearing the Easter story through resurrection eggs when I picked her up. It's never to young to start our kids off with Bible truth! 

Friday, February 22, 2013

Footprints on our Hearts

Today's meeting was a mix of laughter, tears, silliness, and seriousness. We started off with a noisy game of Pictionary that got so loud and fun we're actually not sure if "Team Awesome" or "Team More Awesome" won.

Afterward, Michie blessed us with a devotion about encouraging our husbands. Let's all remember to thank our husbands for those paychecks, ladies!

Anna shared her heart with us about Footprints Ministry. Tears were shed at some of our own remembrances and experiences. I was especially blessed by Anna's testimony of grace and peace during her delivery. 


Time to give back! We all decorated bibs to place into Footprints care bags.

We actually made time to do small groups this meeting and even switched things up a bit. As always, thank you for the spiritual and emotional encouragement, MOPS girls! Special thanks to our steering team and amazing child care workers who make it all possible.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Crazy Coupon MOPS

Pictures from today's meeting are few and poor quality. Why? I was too busy laughing and learning to focus (pun intended.) Kristan from The MoneyWise Shopper was kind enough to school us on the finer points of couponing.

If she ever decides to give up being a crazy coupon mom, I'm pretty sure she could pay the bills as a stand up comic. Southern, sassy, and seven months pregnant, Kristan kept us entertained and educated about saving money at the grocery store.
Sorry about the quick snapshots, ladies. I'll make it up to you next meeting with full-on glamour shots. BYO lipstick and false eyelashes. ;)


Five copies of The Huntsville Times will be showing up on our doorstep next Sunday for the bargain price of $1 per copy. Are you excited to get your coupon on?

Next meeting we'll be learning about financial peace through Dave Ramsey's money management principles. What a way to start off 2013!