President's Letter
News & Notes
Happy Birthday
Comings & Goings
Tips for Tots
Recipe of the Month

President's Letter

If what’s going on in my house is any indication of the month to come, we are in for some big transitions. Cecilia has moved to a big girl bed!!! I never thought this day would come because she adored her crib: I don’t use that word lightly, every time we asked her if she wanted a big girl bed, she said, “Noooooo, I loooove my crib”. So, you can see that this was a big change. Knock on wood, but so far she is extremely proud to have her new bed and she’s sleeping pretty well at night. Nap times are, of course, another story.

In the MOMS Club we are about to see some changes as well. All of our coordinators are moving up and out of their child’s age group category, so we are now looking for an infant and 2s coordinator. While this job doesn’t take up much time, it is invaluable to me when putting together the calendar. If you think you might be interested, I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. 

And, although we’re 2 months away from elections, it’s time to start getting prepared. A big thank you goes out to those who volunteered to be a part of the nominating committee—Julie W., Carrie D., Wendy F., Gail M. and Julie H. They will be responsible for presenting the slate of officers at our meeting in April and running the elections in May. If you are interested in running for a board position, please contact one of the members of the nominating committee listed above. More information about positions and duties is included in the News & Notes section.

In response to your suggestions, we are also happy to announce the introduction of family events to our calendar. These will generally take place once a month (or once every few months) and will be open to Moms, Dads and kids. We hope we can all get together and have some fun!

In the spirit of all that is Irish, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Irish blessings:

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

In like a Lion, out like a Lamb--Happy March!

Chrissie A.

News & Notes

Family Volunteer Activity
Was one of your New Year’s Resolutions to volunteer more? Are you looking for a way for your family to help the community? Are you in need of some fresh air and exercise? To thank Kirkwood Presbyterian Church for allowing us to use their Fellowship Hall for our monthly MOMS Club General Meetings and all our parties, we will be helping them with their annual spring clean-up which will be held on Saturday, March 15th. If your family isn’t able to help or your children are too young to help, we’d welcome any moms coming solo for a nice morning of camaraderie! There are two ways you can help:

1. Spring Clean-Up – Volunteers will meet at 8:30a.m.and finish by noon. Lunch will be provided. If you can’t volunteer the entire time, any amount of time you are able to help would be appreciated. Volunteers will be concentrating their efforts on the front outside area, the flowerbeds, the grassy yard areas, and the tree groves. The projects include raking up the winter’s accumulation of leaves, doing basic flowerbed care and preparation for any new plantings, and putting down a layer of mulch where needed. Kirkwood has rakes and gardening tools, but please bring your own work gloves. If you have any gardening tools you feel more comfortable using please bring those.
2. Food – Kirkwood gives all volunteers a lunch as a way to thank them for their hard work. If you would like to contribute to that lunch (cookies, chips, drinks), this would be another way you could help with the clean-up. 

Please RSVP to Liz A. by phone or email by March 10th. She will let Kirkwood know how many people/food items to expect.  

Infant & 2s Coordinators Needed
The coordinator guard is changing! As of April, we will be looking to fill the Infant and 2s Coordinator positions. Playgroup coordinators collect events for their age group to submit to the President each month for the calendar. If you are interested, please contact Chrissie A.. Thanks to all the coordinators for their work!

Consignment Sale
Thank you to Michele O., who has kindly volunteered to coordinate our Spring Consignment Sale held jointly with Grace Weekday Preschool. The sale will be held April 19th with setup and volunteer/consignor early shopping on Friday, April 18th.  This is just a heads up to those of you interested in consigning and/or volunteering. More information will be sent shortly!

Nominating Committee
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to serve on the nominating committee—Wendy F., Julie H., Carrie D., Gail M. and Julie W. The committee will present the slate of officers at the April general meeting and will be running the elections at the May general meeting. 

Elections
Do you want to run for a board position? If you do, please contact Julie W. or any member of the Nominating Committee listed above BEFORE April’s general meeting. You may run for any position (President, Administrative Vice President, Membership Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer). The Membership Vice President and Secretary will not be returning next year, so if possible, we’d like to fill these positions first.

Family Fun Events
MOMS Club has a welcome addition to the calendar: Family Fun Events! Although we have a couple events a year that incorporate the entire family, we would like to add more. Our Special Events Coordinator, Paige has come up with a few ideas (with help from your suggestions) to bring all of our families together for some excitement! We hope you will all help make these family events a great success!

Happy Birthday to You!

Children

Matthew W. turns 4 on the 7th
Olivia S. turns 1 on the 7th
Maggie O. turns 5 on the 12th
Brandon W. turns 5 on the 15th
Luke S. turns 3 on the 17th
Megan and Sara L. will turn 2 on the 20th
Zoe B. turns 4 on the 28th
Naomi A. turns 6 on the 29th

Moms

Velora A. and Amy J. share a birthday on the 21st

Stork Report
Liz A. and family will welcome a new baby girl to their family on February 28th!!

Kelly L. and family will welcome a new baby to their family this month as well!

We look forward to meeting their new little ones!

Comings and Goings

We’d like to welcome the following new members:

Christine C. and her son Everett
Lori S. and her sons Garrett and Ethan
Courtney V. and her daughter Jade

We’d like to bid a fond farewell and send best wishes to the following members:

Amy E. and her daughter Abigail
Karen B. and her son Kody
Kim M. and her son Patrick
Wendy B. and children Madeline, Tuesday and Tess
Allyson K. and her daughter Audrey
Lynda C. and her children Hunter and Sarah

Tips for Tots
Practical advice from MOMS Club members.

Question of the Month:  What summer camp has your child enjoyed? What are some things you look for when choosing a summer camp for your child? 

Advice: We did the British Soccer camp through Parktakes last summer and my daughter enjoyed it. It was a week long. They even got their own soccer ball!

Advice: The boys (ages 5 and 3 ½ ) have done the week long British Soccer Camp. It is wonderful, however I think they were too young last year and they rarely participated. It was only an hour each morning and I stayed with them. It is nice if you have a younger baby and your older child can participate without too much interaction with mom. My guys just did not want to leave my side. This year they are doing the Nature Camp for 3-5 year olds at Burke Lake Park. I went through the Parktakes catalog with the boys and they specifically chose this one and are excited about it. A lot of their friends from school have been to this camp and they loved it so we are going on their recommendation

Advice: Two of my daughter’s favorite camps from last year were the Burke Lake Park Nature Secrets Camp and Kiddie Camp at Providence Rec Center. At Burke Lake, they did lots of crafty things and nature walks and she loved it even though the week she went was blazing hot. They were outside at one of the shelters for each day from 9am-12noon.

At Providence Kiddie Camp, she had two great counselors and the camp was so varied that it kept her interest. They did a lot of active things, not just sitting around for stories or quiet activities, but they did sports oriented games and they swam every day which was crucial and is not always the case with other camps. If you want a swim-every-day-camp, double check with the rec center for that particular week!

Recipe of the Month

I have been using my crock pot a lot this winter and found a great an easy recipe for lasagna!  Everyone in the family loved it and it was a lot easier to make it in the morning and clean up and not have to worrying about making dinner that night.  Enjoy!
Julie W.

Slow Cooker Lasagna

1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 18 oz can spaghetti sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
6-8 lasagna noodles, divided
1 12 oz carton cottage cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 12 oz package shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Brown ground beef and onion in a large skillet. Add garlic powder, spaghetti sauce and oregano. Cook just until thoroughly hot.

Spoon layer of meat sauce in sprayed, oval slow cooker. Add layer of lasagna noodles (break to fit slow cooker).

Top with layer of half remaining meat sauce, half cottage cheese, half Parmesan cheese and half mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers and start with more lasagna noodles.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.

Serves 4 to 6

Past Newsletters:
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007