For the 2nd year in a row, our MOPS group hosted a diaper/feeding tent at a carnival in our town. It ran Thursday-Sunday. Although our tent wasn't open the entire time, we were still open for many hours. My steering team and a few church members helped out, but Miss M and I win the award for being there the most hours! (Of course, I am the coordinator so it kinda comes with the job - 7.5 hours total, if you are interested!) We gave out 60 goodie bags to preschool moms, had about 50 families enter our free raffle for a family fun basket, and I didn't even count how many people used our diaper changing area. If even half those ladies join our MOPS groups, we will need to start a 3rd group at our church! The coolest thing that happened was when one mom stopped by - looking much less conservative than me - and mentioned attending our church as a teenager. As she took the goodie bag, she smiled and said "God bless what you are doing this weekend - this is great for families." Miss M and I talked about how God loves everyone, even the ones who look and seem very different from us. That really encouraged us to reach out and engage families who were just passing by our tent.
My former teaching buddy (Mrs. T) came out to help this afternoon, so Miss M was able to sneak away for a few carnival rides. She LOVED the kiddie roller coaster (her first coaster experience) and also enjoyed a pony ride, among other fun rides. We decided against the ferris wheel - the line was WAY long and it took 5 tickets per person. At $1/ticket, that is a lot of cash! We also watched lots of dance groups and Mrs. T and I decided that lots of the costumes looked too much like lingerie and the dance moves didn't leave much to the imagination.
After packing up the tent at 5, we headed to meet the boys at the church picnic. Miss M played in the beach volley ball pit with some friends but realized on the way home she had lost her little gold ring. It was mine when I was little, so we were both disappointed. She told me that Agent Oso on TV used a metal detector so maybe we could borrow one from a friend. "Mama, post that on facebook, OK?" Whew...too much interest in technology from my almost in kindergarten girl!
No pictures tonight as I am too tired to even get the camera out of the car. Miss M has a dentist appointment tomorrow AM - expecting a pretty good report from that.
Wow!! Sounds like you guys had fun, and were really busy! I'm sure many of your visitors were thankful to have a place like yours to go to. Sorry about the ring...would be wonderful if it were to show up!
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