Next Meeting - January 8th

Have a Merry Christmas Ladies....
and celebrate with Great Joy for the New Year....

My son learned a new meaning for the Holiday JOY this season...
To appreciate the best this season has to offer keep this in mind:
Real JOY comes from doing things for
J = Jesus
O = Others
Y = Yourself

See you all in 2008!

Next Meeting - December 18th


Christmas Party Time!


I know it's a crazy time of year moms.... and you have 1001 things to do, 999 of which are not even started yet (if you are like me). But in all of this craziness, you still need time to sit and relax for a while.... so make sure you take time to get to our Christmas Meeting next Tuesday.


We have lots of fun things planned - our *WAVI gift project*, a special edition of the Christmas Singing Bee.... I'm making some Christmas spiced apple cider, and of course we always have our coffee and creamer(s)... hot cocoa and tea, and yumm-o brunch treats!


*WAVI Gift project reminder: If you don't remember what you signed up for or haven't picked up your WAVI gift yet... just plan to bring whatever toiletry items (or towel and washcloth) you think would be good for a lady away from home to have. We'll put our new "bow making skills" to the test when we wrap up our gift packages... it should be a LOT of fun!

Next Meeting - November 20th



At our Nov. 20th meeting we will be working on our
Christmas Fundraiser:
All-Occasion note cards of your child's orginal artwork.
We will have your child's art on display, and order forms ready to go, with samples of what the finished product will look like.




If you would like to have your child create an alternate art page (instead of the one they created in MOPPETS class last meeting) - or if your child was not at the last meeting, you can bring artwork with you for THIS MEETING ONLY. Artwork can be on ANY white paper, size 8x11, using any medium (crayon, paint, markers, colored pencils, etc). Cards will be printed in full color. For younger children we are doing a print of thier hand or feet (one or the other, not both). You can also produce a hand/foot print of your child, if you would like.

We are hoping these All-Occasion cards would be useful to you as Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, or any occasion cards. Please help support our group and have fun with your child's art!





New MomSense Magazine...

Everyone in the group should have gotten the latest issue of MomSense in the last week or so. It is the November/December issue and has some great articles. I LOVE the show "Trading Spaces"... and was so please to see Laurie Smith interviewed this month.

I also loved the artice by Julie Barnhill called "One Tough Holiday Mother." I don't know how many of you have had issues during the Holidays with your extended families -- trying to decide where to spend the Holiday... how many relatives to "hop" between on the holiday.... this article definately gave me some good ideas. I just got Ms. Barnhills newest book, "One Tough Mother"... and I'm trying to speed read through it, so I can give you all a book report at our next meeting. It's been very inspiring!!


I have a fun challenge for all you moms who visit the website... I'll have a special treat for EVERY mom at the next meeting who can complete this challenge from this MomSense issue.

1. What is the game the Rogers family played at Christmas, from the article, The Tradition Junkie?

2. What is the name of the newest Boz Christmas video? (advertisement)

3. In the Just For Fun section, there is a suggestion to make holiday placemats with your kids and the author gives 4 different easy Christmas designs... a reindeer, a wreath, an angel and a ____.

Can anyone bring Snacks to the Next Meeting?



Our MOPPETs rooms are greatly in need of snacks. If you are able to help it would be appreciated! Please remember that we do have a rather "short" list of prefered snacks -- only because we are trying to be aware of the needs of kids with allergies and sensitivities.

Great snacks to bring: Please no artificial colors or extra sugar coatings.
- graham type - goldfish type crackers
- oyster crackers - animal crackers

THANKS for your help!!

Next Meeting!

October 2nd
Brunch and Clean Up: Dining Room Divas
Quick and Healthy Meals with Nancy
The survey from our meeting on Sept 18th showed that
you all would like to see these dishes demonstrated:
1. Sweet Potato Biscuts with Honey Butter
2. Italian Appetizer Tray - Antipasto
3. Wild Rice Soup
4. Chicken Pot Pie
5. Campfire Stew
6. Chinese Cashew Chicken
(tied with the campfire stew... so we'll do both)
Don't worry -- I'm bringing the recipes for ALL the dishes on the list, we just won't have time to demonstrate them all... you'll have to try them at home yourselves!!

Next Meeting!

September 18th
8:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Brunch provided by the Kitchen Cuties
Clean Up - Kitchen Cuties (also)

First Meeting - September 4th - 8:45 a.m!

New year of MOPS is beginning!

Westside Baptist Fellowship Hall
Tuesday, September 4th
Childcare Opens and Breakfast begins at 8:45 a.m.
Meeting begin promptly at 9:00 a.m.

If you haven't had a chance to register for the new year,
you can fill out the new forms that morning.
Any New Moms? Please remember to have them RSVP
with Anne or Celeste (phone numbers listed at the bottom of this blog)
so we are prepared in our MOPPETS rooms!

Summer's Not Over Yet!

Yes Girls! It seems this summer is flying by so quickly... don't lose a moment of these nice summer days with your children and families. As of today, August 3rd, there are 28 days left in August. For some of us, there are just 25 days left until school starts!

Here is some of the "news about town" that I've heard.... to give you some last ideas before the end of summer (and surviving the Rally!).
  • Old McDonald's Farm says that they are REALLY slow during the rally, the usual "family traffic" slows down -- and they are NOT a big "biker hangout" either! So if you are looking for somewhere to get out with your kids, away from the Rally craziness, check out the "Farm" -- perhaps some of the other "kids only" places in town are less busy too, like Storybook Island, or the pools?




  • Rally Week might be a great time to plan a back-yard playdate with some of your MOPS friends, friends from school, or neiborhood friends? Target has some fun back-yard items in the "dollar area" -- like water ballon kits (complete with garden hose attachment). My kids are into paper airplane races lately... simple stuff!


  • Older kids and babies too?? Is your house like mine this summer, a little crazy trying to balance time with/for the older kids... and still getting babies feedings and naptimes taken care of? I just heard of a great website for kids old enough to sit and have a story read to them... its: storytimeonline.com... kid-friendly celebreties read a favorite book, in movie format... so once you start the book, it goes on it's own until it's done. If your child is old enough to maneuver a mouse, they can choose another book right away. There are usually 4-5 stories available at a time.





  • Great Mom Tip (from More Organized Mom website): "When the ceral box, or chip bag, or crackers gets near the end, I take snack sized zip-lock bags, and fill them. When we have to pack a quick snack for the zoo, park, piano practice for my older kids... I just grab a baggie of cereal, or crackers... and I am out the door. We have a bowl on our counter that we keep these snacks in. I also love being able to toss the cereal box, before the cereal goes stale. I also pop microwave popcorn and add pretzels, cereal, goldfish crackers, raisins, etc. to make inexpensive snack packs for the kids or snacks for playdates. It definitely stretches the snack budget. "



Welcome to the NEW Westside Baptist MOPS website! (actually this is a blog...) We hope you will enjoy the colorful and easy access to our group's information. We will be closing our old website very soon... all information will be at this site from now on.



Please note the summer schedule of MOPS playdates... outlined here, on the right side. And below that, a fun summer recipe I found through Martha Stewart KIDS Magazine.

Hopefully most of you have been getting the email reminders I've been sending. We will continue to send you short reminders via email... detailed information will be posted on this site. There is also a list of all the Steering Team Leaders (at the bottom of this page), and phone numbers if you have questions or need to contact us for any reason.



We recently had our first planning meeting for the 2007-08 MOPs year and have set just a few dates for next fall.


  • Registration Day Drive-Thru Event: Thursday, August 23rd, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Quick and easy, treats for you and your kids... more details later.



  • First meeting: Tuesday, September 4th - Childcare Opens at 8:45 a.m. - Meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.

We're looking forward to seeing all of you soon!




It's SUMMER!!

Welcome to the newest Westside MOPS blog! I'm hoping in this new era of electronic newsletters, email and websites this blog is created to help our group stay connected. This summer we have a great line-up of events!

Send me any photos of any of our summer outings and I'll add them to the MOPS blog... as well as news about you and your families... anything that is going on and we'll put in a brief sentence on the blog... just so we can all keep up with each other over the summer.

My personal email is: godsthunder@rap.midco.net
Our MOPS email is: westsidebaptistmops@yahoo.com

MOPS Tea Party 2008

MOPS Tea Party 2008
Looking Good Girls!