Today was a busy day for Nora and I. We had our monthly MOPS meeting this morning at my church. I am the chairperson so there is a lot of preparing to do each time. I kept telling Nora she was going to MOPS today and named over all the kids in her class trying to get her excited about going but when we got there she did NOT want to go in her classroom. I could hear her wailing for about the first 30 minutes of the meeting but then she settled down. It is her only time to be away from me - 2 hours, once a month and it about breaks her little heart. But she and I both need that separation time.
Our meeting theme was "Perspective" today and it was a great topic for the Christmas season. We had two new moms join us for the first time this month and I think they had a good time and will be back with us in January. This MOPS is a brand new outreach ministry at our church that just started this October and so far we are a very small group but little by little we grow. Every time I am at the park I try and invite any mom I see that has a child ages birth - 5 years old and so do the other members. So far we are up to 11 members and the 2 guests today. The MOPS group I came from in Georgia had 60-80 moms in that group but it was also a much larger city. I would be tickled pink to have 25-30 moms and eventually we will get there.
For our craft today, we made "I-Spy" bags for our children. Last week a few of us got together at my home with our sewing machines and made up the bags using fleece and clear vinyl to make them and sew along 3 sides. Today after everyone filled their bags with their items then we had two sewing machines to whip the 4th side shut.
The filler for the example was a mixture of rice and clear beads. One of our moms on the planning committee was very concerned about using rice b/c what if the "I-Spy" bag ever become wet then it would be ruined. However buying all the "I-spy" items wasn't cheap to do and since rice was on sale 5lb bag for $0.99 we thought that would be the best thing to use. But this mom thought of the idea of using bean bag filler pellets so she brought those today to use too.
I made two bags and used rice as my filler in one bag and the pellets as the filler in the other. I didn't sew either of mine shut yet b/c I goofed up!!! I will fix them in the next day or so and
close them up here at home.
In the "rice" bag - I added too much rice and you can't move the items around to find the "I-Spy" items. I need to take about 1/4 of the rice out and then it will be like it should be.
In the bean bag filler bag - I wasn't happy with how the static caused them to all stick to the plastic window so I didn't close it up either and here at home I will remove everything and then fill up with either rice or go buy my own clear beads using a 40% off coupon at JoAnn's.
There are all sorts of neat items in these bags....but you have to be holding them and wiggling them around to see them. There are slots on the back sides for index cards and I will type up a list of what I put in them so that later on you can pick an item to search for.
Some of the items include:
$1.00 bill - domino - dice - feather - army man - sea shell - fireman -dolphin - hair clip - bowling pin - snake - frog - school bus - crayons - eraser - marble -match - penny - ABC letters - star - fall leaf - even box top points from the food boxes! :) and lots more. I think I had over 50 items in each of my bags.
We had lots of extras left over and plan to make up more bags with what we have an possible buy more and then sell the "I-Spy" bags as a fundraiser to have some money for our MOPS group. I think people would pay $10-15 for these. Don't you? They make great "quiet toys" for children to have to look at during church or in the car. Of course we will have to find a way to buy filler beads in bluk so that we can make a profit. or use rice... and when we make more I would like the square window to be on point... ideas - ideas! :c)
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