Easter Crafty fun

I put together a simple Easter party for our MOPS group today. I forgot my camera at home so I only have pictures of some of the finished projects we did.


Easter card station- we have used this a few times over the years at our Easter parties. Kiddos use their finger tip to make prints with ink or finger paint to be the eggs then decorate the rest of the basket.


Tissue paper carrots with paper grass tops


Marbled paper Easter eggs using the shaving cream technique. This was not one of the prettiest ones, but the only one we made it home with. So many people were impressed with this and thought it was so cool- it is SO simple and easy to do and the results are always beautiful! You can click here to see the ones we made for Valentine's Day. I also found some felt crosses to marker color. These had a magnet on the back already and looked like pretty stained glass.

This picture is not nearly as cute as these carrots are. I love this idea from The Moody Fashionista ( a new blog I just subscribed to- check it out!). Kids get so much candy, it is nice to hand out a half-way healthy snack. I plan on making these for the daycare tots for Easter. Her pictures are better and I tried to find green rick rack at our hobby store, but they didn't have any in green so I had to go with a few green and white ribbons. I love how bright her rick rack is on the top of the carrots.

MOPS activities

My MOPS group had some fun times in December. We participated in the Festival of Trees at our local museum. This was our second year to participate and we had a great looking tree once again. We went with the theme of MOPS international- Adventures in Mothering. The name of our tree was: Mothering- The Ultimate Adventure. One Saturday morning a few of us met at the museum to tour all of the trees and enjoy some cookies, cider, and visiting with each other.

Our MOPS tree

Our cool tree topper

"Adventures" theme decorations and ticket garland

MOPS logo inside glass balls

A few other trees from the Tour:

B and his friend taking a closer look at a tree

During the month of December we do not meet for our regular MOPS meeting, but have a Christmas party instead. This is always a favorite of our members. This year it was hosted at our Creative Activities leader's house, which was just beautiful. She did such a great job preparing for the evening.

I had SUCH a great time with all of the other moms. The Christmas party is always a fun night to just get to relax, eat, and talk with the moms. As I was driving home that night after the party, I had such a big smile on my face from the great time I had.

The Steering Team compiled some of our favorite recipes into a little cookbook for a Christmas gift for our members.
Tara's beautiful tree with all of the little bags and boxes that everyone brought for our ornament exchange.

The girls hard at work on our craft for the night- no sew fleece pillows. The moms loved making these!

Pillow making!

So much fun!

The counter top was filled with food and prizes. Tara had taken the time to find several door prizes for the moms to win. Each mom got a 2 tickets for attending the party and they could choose what door prize they wanted to win. There were lotions, hair products, restaurant gift certificates, and MORE! I was even a lucky winner of a Berry-licious dessert cookbook and some berry body lotion from Bath and Body Works.

We always collect cans of food to donate to the local Store House pantry at our Christmas party.

My cute little ornament that I won in our exchange. I love it becuase it is a mommy, daddy, and little snowman! Just like my family!

Mutt Strut 2008

My MOPS group participated in the Mutt Strut held at the Glenwood Lake Park. The Mutt Strut was to help raise money for the new Humane Shelter that is going to be built next year. We were able to donate some money to have a table to sell some home made dog treats for the pups and puppy chow for their owners and make a little money for our group as well. This event was very well attended by members of the community and surrounding areas, as well as their 4 legged friends. There were many events for the family to enjoy such as dog demos, blessing of the animals, costume contests for the dogs, silent auction area, food, treat, and general merchandise vendors. There were also several rescue groups being represented from all over. One of our favorites was Cisco and his rescue group. He had the hearts of several of our moms working at our booth, as well as my hubby. There were a few MOPS moms who called home to see if they could bring him home I believe. I don't know why none of their husbands would go for it. He was so sweet! I was even able to take him for 2 walks around the beautiful lake!




B and I enjoyed making the home made dogbiscuits for this event together. Everything looks good in these pics of us cooking together but notice how there is not photos of the after pics of the biscuits. They were a little dark on bottom. One thing I am going to change for next time is that I will remember to bake them on the TOP shelf only. This was the 3 time I have made them and it has always happened. I did write it on my recipie this time though!






Doggy Treats from the Eureka Emporium in Eureka Springs, AR

1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. quick oats
1/4 c. honey crunch wheat germ
1/4 c. chunky or smooth Peanut Butter
1/4 c. salad oil
1/4 c. honey
1 t. baking powder

1. In large bowl, mix 1 c. flour with remaining ingredients and 1/2 c. water until well blended. With spoon, stir in remaining 1/2 c. flour.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. With floured hands, on well floured surface, kneed dough until dough holds together. Roll dough 1/4 " thick. Cut out as many bones as possible. Reroll scraps and cut as above. Repeat with remaining dough.
3. Bake on large ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes; turn oven off. Let cookie sheet remain in oven 1 hour.
4. Remove bones from cookie sheet to wire rack. When cool, store in airtight container or freeze if not using right away.
**If you don't have a bone shaped cookie cutter, you can also just cut into circles with the top of a glass, or any other desired cookie cutter.

1 month from today...

I will be headed to the Lone Star State! Me and 3 friends from my MOPS group will be South bound to Dallas for the Mothers of Preschoolers National Convention. Can I tell you how excited we are? All 4 of us are on the steering team of our MOPS group and I am really looking forward to the experience of attending and bringing back new ideas and inspiration.

We will be driving to Dallas in my van, and it will be packed with snacks and goodies for the trip! Our hotel is absolutly beautiful and I can't wait to see it in itself! Our days will be packed with workshops we have each registered for and speakers, recording artists, and general sessions.

I'm sure we will also be having some fun along the way! Here is a photo of 3 of us at one of our Bake sales to rase some money to help pay for expenses. The other gal was still at work .