For those of you that are unaware, "MOPS" stands for "Mothers of Pre-Schoolers." I am in my 4th year of being a part of this group. My first year I just attended the meetings like a "normal" person...my 2nd year I served on the leadership team as the Creative Activities Coordinator...and in my 3rd (and now 4th) year, I am the Coordinator of the entire group.
The weeks before the retreat is crazy-stress-crunch-time. Not only am I planning a full day of meals and "retreat" for 12 ladies, but I am also planning our entire MOPS year, that way, when we are at the retreat, we can discuss everything I have planned, and every speaker I have scheduled. In the heat of the moment, I told my family that I am NOT serving in this position next year! But apparently I had told them that last year at this time as well. I completely don't remember saying that...but I am not surprised.
I am not surprised becuase after the retreat had started, I was having an AMAZING time! The food I had prepared was incredible, all of the games and recreation stuff we did in our free time was such great fun, and all of our meaty discussion of our upcoming MOPS year was highly productive! I am so blessed to have this amazing (partly new) leadership team serving with me! It had made all of the work and preparation completely worth it!
I am not sure if it's becuase this was the 2nd retreat I had put on (so I am a bit more seasoned), or if it was the energy in this new group, but I had a fabulous time! Last year I felt like I was stuck (or had stuck myself) in the kitchen for most of the retreat cooking for the ladies. But this year, I was doing everything I could to stay out of the kitchen for as long as possible so I could play just one more round of ping-pong, or one more game of badminton.
I didn't take any pictures, but luckily one of the other gals had her camera out for the first part of the day.
We started out the morning with heart-shaped Belgium Waffles with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. We also had bacon, eggs, and fresh fruit.
Here are most of the ladies enjoying their breakfast...
For lunch I had made California Burgers complete with Swiss Cheese, and an Avocado Relish. We also had french fries, vegetables, fruit, and Vanilla Coconut Milkshakes...
For dinner I had made chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, and a delicious salad complete with olives, corn, black beans, and a jalapeno ranch dressing. To drink I had blended us up some virgin margaritas to go with our Fiesta! :0) Unfortunately there are no pictures of our dinner.
For dessert one of our Mentor Moms provided some incredible "lemon bites" from Costco, and then I brought my Strawberry Cupcakes, my Chocolate Mint Cupcakes, and in the days prior to the retreat, I had been working on something really fun for the ladies...Ice Cream Cone Sugar cookies!
After dessert was finished, the ladies were free to go home (not that they were ever chained to the house to begin with, lol), and so a couple of gals did go home to their families, but much to my surprise, most of the ladies gathered in the living room and asked, "What game shall we play next!?"
I can't say it enough...it was such a fun day...and night! :0)
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