Christmas for our Troops

MOPS mommas love to get crafty, specially when it's going to someone special.  This week we made Christmas ornaments and cards which will be included in Christmas care packages that Blue Star Mothers will mail out to their sons and daughters deployed overseas.  Our kiddos got in on the action and made adorable snowflakes.  

Before craft time, we were blessed by a sweet devotional on Thanksgiving from our mentor Kris and fine ice breaker with Paula.  

Handmade ornaments.  Thanks to Tiffany for organizing and prepping everything for us.  

Getting busy with the ribbon

Having some laughs while working

Our pre-k kids have some craft talent also, look at these cute snow flakes and cards!!!! 

Our 2& 3 year olds made crafts of their own.  Thanks to all our child care workers ! 

Craft Time

Moms enjoyed the chit chat time while the kids made turkeys. 

Our kids got creative at Somerville Playhouse today.   

The little ones enjoyed Ms Jessica's bucket of fun! 

The little ladies were extra creative... You can never add enough feathers

September Fun

 September has been a fun time for the MOPS Moms.  Our family BBQ was a blast! Thanks to all that came out.  It was such a nice relaxing time, we may have to schedule another one.
  Our first meeting this month included a mentor panel where the mentors faced tough questions and gave out valuable advice.  This month we also added a new group, "The Explorers" thanks to our growth in members!




Food Line was yummy

Getting some girl talk in

Kids had the most fun because they had the run of the place

Small Group Time at the American Heroes Table

Added a brand new table "The Explorers" due to our growth of members this year!

Mentor Panel

Brave Moms

"Be You Bravely" is our theme of the year and our kick-off meeting was all about facing our fears and putting on our capes, badges, boots, and parachutes.  

We had a wonderful turn-out with lots of new moms and many veteran MOPS mommas.  This year also brought us new mentors, Brenda thanks for the great conversation and your sugar cookies! Kris was involved w MOPS as a mom and is now providing us with valuable advice.  Sweet Arlene is with us again this year and led off our year with a devotion meant to encourage us to get out of our shells. Dana and Deanna welcome aboard! 

To recognize Brave moms everywhere our small groups were divided into four small groups, Super Heroes,  Military, Adrenaline Junkies, and American Heroes.  

It wouldn't be a complete MOPS meeting without a game ....and food of course! Paula tuned in to our competitive sides and set us off on a relay race.   The American Heroes won the race by feeding, changing a diaper, drinking water and rocking the baby to sleep - they are quite the pros at this stuff. 

A big shout out to our Sponsors for the year! Thank you for supporting Decatur MOPS.   Our moms are out and about daily and the services you provide are a blessing to our kids! 

Thank you:

La Petite Academy for the Goody Bags!

The School of Fine Arts

Somerville Playhouse

Morgan County 911

K-May Donuts

Turquoise Turtle 

Kid Venture - Madison

The Enrichment Center

Kids Paradise Inflatables

Your Story Captured Photography

Keep an eye out on our MOPS Facebook page for events and specials they have going. 

Hope to see all our moms with their families at our first family BBQ on Sep 5th at 6:30 at the pavilion at First Bible.  Bring your outdoor games, it will be fun. 

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.

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.

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.