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.

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! 

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.

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!

Join MOPS. We have Cookies.

December is here which means cookies, merriment, and other holiday cheer. Unfortunately it also means stomach bugs and colds. When the scheduled speaker's children come down with a bug, you call in a replacement. When the replacement's children also become ill, you panic I guess. But you'd never know there was a snafu thanks to our wonderful steering team and their quick thinking.

We played a variety of Christmas-themed games, the most memorable (and photo-worthy) being Holiday charades.

Danielle smiling the smile of a winner. Go team Santa Babies!

What's a Christmas celebration without cookies? The whole family is enjoying the sampling we received. Since we also exchanged recipes, I'll be able to recreate their favorites.

Rhett and Gus decided to crash the end of the party so they could have some milk with their cookies. ;)

Let's not forget our amazing child care workers who make it possible for us to enjoy a break, worry-free! Trudy gets excited each morning that I tell her we're going to MOPS thanks to the care and enthusiasm of these ladies. She's proud of the ornament they helped her make today.

A Merry MOPS Christmas to everyone! Looking forward to what 2013 has in store for our group. It sounds like the steering team has some amazing speakers, crafts, playdates, and mom's nights planned for us. We'll kick off the new year on January 11th at FBC.

Happy Chrithankmas!

Today's meeting was a celebration of the season. Being greeting by a vegetarian turkey on the treat table put a smile on my face.

Paula introduced use to a fun icebreaker game using M&Ms. We were told to choose 1-5 M&Ms in our choice of color combinations. Each color represented a personal fun fact we were to share with our table. Somehow our table just wound up discussing trips to Hawaii since that was the consensus on "favorite place on earth." Now I want to hop on a plane!

Michie shared an encouraging devotion from Proverbs 3:5-6 about paths. Up for a hike, Michie?
The key for the icebreaker game is pictured below also in case you'd like to use it at a party or other gathering.

On to craft time! We split in to two groups: one to make the turkey pictured below and one to create an initial Christmas ornament.

Crystal did a brilliant job getting together supplies and explaining the process. 

Lisa, Mandi, and Jess were listening intently. Good thing since I was busy snapping photos instead of paying attention to directions. *grin*

What are you thankful for? 

Ashley and Elena had wobbly turkeys which they solved in a creative way

Legs! 

We spent the majority of our time with our first craft project so some of us brought turkey materials home and some brought ornament materials home to finish up.

There were some beautiful creations in the ornament group!

A big shout out to our nursery workers who made sure our kids were having fun while we were.

Mom's Night Out: Casa Santiago

It was Mexican night for Mom's Night Out tonight. Olé! The ten of us enjoyed a nice break from the kiddos and shared a lot of laughs. Christy, we hope your little one feels better soon!

There was a little rooster in the hen house tonight. ;)