Happy Fall, Y'all!

We had a very productive leadership meeting at the beginning of the month. We had a crazy pizza lunch with kids after. Monday chaos is always fun!
Thanks to Hurricane Matthew, we had to cancel a MOPS meeting this month. We hope everyone is recovering well from the storm and getting back into a routine. Evacuation and/or no power is not always fun when you have babies to care for! Tracy & Jessica will be in touch with a way to sneak in that missing meeting- marriage panel. Congratulations to co-coordinator, Jessica on baby Penelope! Such a smart baby to wait until after the Hurricane to bless us with her presence!
Play dates have still been happening, though! There was a last minute meet-up at the new Boone park and a trip to Conner's Amazing Acres. (I think I was the only one to attempt Sykes and Coopers corn maze in the rain, the day before the Hurricane.) Anna's group had a movie night girls night last week. Wine plus Hocus Pocus plus mom pals = A fabulous break!

Beautiful day at Conners Amazing Acres!

Kelly Paterno from the Riverside Children's Art Center was our speaker this morning. She emphasized open-ended art projects, where it's more about the experience than the end product. This goes along so well with our starry-eyed theme. Try to relax and enjoy the experience with your children. Kelly mentioned her daughter loving to see faces in every day things- making a smiley face out of fruit :-) She suggested the Artkive app to keep your child's precious artwork. ($4.99 in the app store). I loved the idea of donating art work to nursing homes and hospitals! Ask questions about your child's artwork. The most important thing is how the artwork makes them feel. Add Dawn to make paint more washable. I might actually do the taped bag of hair gel. That sounds like a fun thing for restaurants as we wait for our food to come. My Vossy boy would love that!

Kelly Paterno with her artsy words of wisdom

So many great ideas! Cloud dough is 8 cups flower & 1 cup baby or coconut oil. The gel packs are the pics in the middle.

The questions from moms were really good. Try not to draw for your kids. "Mom, can you draw Elsa's castle for me?" Let them make their own creations. I'm going to find a Boogie Board at Costco to keep my grafiti artist from re-decorating our walls! Violent drawings? That's a family decision on how to handle. Do they know the difference between fantasy and reality? Are they withdrawn in other areas or are they just expressing themselves? We even got a chance to try out art projects. Don't you just love a MOPS Monday?!

Tiffany and Vanessa using brushes to make monster stamps.

Tabitha, Jamie and Laurie making paper mache with contact paper

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month. Laurie gave an awesome prayer & care moment in honor of our angels. Tracy reminded the group that there is a lot of fun and laughter in MOPS, but we are also here to cry together and support each other. We are here for you! Mentor Mom, Ruth gave us some fantastic words of wisdom on caring for our marriages.

Happy Birthday to our October hot mammas!

Take a break while you can, Kim! Baby girl is coming!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

MomCon 2016

A terrific trio from our group flew to Milwaukee for MomCon this past weekend! This is what Amy Lupo had to say about it,

"MomCon was everything I expected it to be and more. I enjoyed companionship with two other Mops moms from our group, our coordinator, Tracy and one of our mentor moms, Jan. Our time together was fabulous and our relationship with each other grew as we attended workshops, worship and main sessions, and as we gathered for lunches and dinners while exploring the city restaurants.
The workshops were tuned in to our needs as mothers, wives and woman. Many workshops geared toward every aspect of life in which I wanted to grow- raising girls, grace in parenting, the big picture of kids, the way our children's brain functions, and the ripple effects of sex (plus much more! These are just five of the twenty workshops I was able to attend)- who wouldn't want to learn about these things...all the while having time to learn, grow and have restoration and fun with other women.
I was also very pleased with our worship band called I Am They. The main group sessions had phenomenal worship experiences and speakers- all geared toward us as women and our relationship with Jesus Christ. I can't wait to go again next year! ~ Amy Lupo"

Plan for September 2017 in Kansas City for the next one. It's an amazing experience. You deserve it!

Flying to MI and meeting the group, I Am They

Jan, Tracy and Amy had a ball!

Kicking off the Starry Eyed Year!

MOPS has begun! We had an Open House where new moms could come and see the lay of the land. It was nice to meet new moms, see where the nurseries will be and have our first leadership meeting! We had our kick-off party at Burrito Gallery on the rooftop. It's always nice getting the guys together, although some of them snuck away for a kick-off shot at the bar. Our first meeting was a success! It was a lot of 'nuts and bolts' and introductions. The room was packed! We've had some neat play dates, too! Vanessa has had a few back-yard pool parties in her awesome new house. We went to the zoo and Lauren had us over for a pool party in St. Simon Island!

Say "Popsicle"! Vanessa's pool party

Enjoying the tigers (and ac!) at the zoo

Our second meeting was on Conscious Discipline. Our speaker was Patti Moody from Melrose Avenue Preschool and Kindergarten. It was pretty interesting to hear her explain the method. Although, I'm not so sure about having the time to actually do this. My favorite take-away is choices. Give your child two good choices. "You can play with the car or the jeep, but you have to give back the truck." I also totally agree with the distraction technique. If you can spin your child's "mini crisis" into something positive, that's a guaranteed win. The example Patti gave was the child tantruming on the ground in the entry way to the school. She got him to come upstairs by asking him to come fish. We talked a lot about the "safe place" instead of time out. It's a spot to learn to breathe and get into a state of mind to make good choices. It has comfy pillows or blankets. Maybe a rug and photo album. I was rolling my eyes until Patti said, "It's a gift to learn to self-sooth, not a reward. You shouldn't reward negative behavior with negative attention." Good stuff! She mentioned the book, I Love Rituals and making connections with eye contact, touch and presence. "Your face is telling me you are angry". It's important for children as they get older to be able to stand up for themselves. "Stop! I don't like it when you throw sand at me." We've definitely had some great follow up conversations from this meeting!

Patti giving Jessica a sweet example of connecting and calming down using a hand game.