Top Five Things to Know About MOPS...

Only one more week until the first MOPS Meeting of 2012-2013!  If you are new to MOPS, we are so glad to have you join us this year!  And to help you get acquainted with our group, her are the "top five things" to know about MOPS!

1. We meet at First Baptist Church in Charlottesville, at 735 Park Street. First Baptist is a wonderful, large facility. It can be a bit tricky finding your way around if you haven't been there before. Arriving at the church, you will notice there are two entrances. The easiest one to use for a MOPS meeting is the one to the left if you are facing the front of the church from Park Street (pictured below).  It is the entrance closer to downtown.

Once you turn into FBC, you will drive around the building to your left, and make your way to the rear of the church.

In the above picture you can see the playground on your right. You can park in any available space here, however, if you have babies or small kiddos you may want to continue on towards the other end of the buildings so you won't have to walk as far. Our MOPS meeting takes place in the Fellowship Hall (pictured below).  This will be the last building as you drive around the rear of the church campus. You will enter the meeting through the right set of double doors.  There will be balloons outside of the doors to help you identify the correct one. If this is your first MOPS meeting at FBC, please come to the meeting room first with your children, and we will be happy to direct you to the correct room(s) for their childcare. 

2. We know it can be crazy getting out the door with little ones, so don't worry about breakfast, it's on us!  After a few announcements, we start our meetings off with a delicious breakfast for our moms.  Our first breakfast will be provided by our Steering Committee; then we will rotate by table for each meeting.

3. Our childcare workers are wonderful and take great care of our little ones!  We are so blessed to have many wonderful women take care of our kids so that we can get a break twice a month. If you have any questions regarding childcare, please contact our Childcare Coordinator, Cynthia Pistulka (cynthia_pistulka@embarqmail.com).  If you have questions the morning of our first meeting, there will be MOPS Leadership as well as childcare workers stationed around the buildings to assist you in finding the correct room, the bathrooms, etc.

4. MOPS meetings are awesome, but sometimes you need a Mom's Night Out! Each month we will have a fun activity planned in addition to our regular meetings. Our first one is a Bunco Night on Friday, October 5th at 7pm, at First Baptist Church. Look for more details in the MOPS newsletter.

5. It pays to be on time! If you arrive on time to the MOPS meeting, be sure to find your name at the front table and place it in the bucket for a chance to win a gift card to a local restaurant! 

So there are my "top 5". If you have been to MOPS before, what would be in yours? If you have any advice/encouragement for our new moms regarding MOPS please tell us by leaving a comment on this post.  We look forward to seeing you all next Thursday!