THANK YOU!

Thanks to all who helped with the Fall Festival today! Thank you for the baked goods, styrofoam bowls, spoons, and decorations that were generously donated. Most especially, THANK YOU to those of you who gave up part of your Saturday to help out in some capacity whether setting up, hawking baked goods, or cleaning up. You are a wonderful group of parents and/or teachers!

We managed to raise $715 between the baked goods and chili cook-off. Not quite what we wanted; however, we did have a gentleman from our church offer his excavation services for free when plans are finalized for the playground. Wow! I think it was a pretty great day all in all!

Oh, and kudos to whoever made the pumpkin cookies with the caramel icing - I grabbed some on my way out this afternoon, and they were awesome!

Accounting

I am so sorry, but we are just having too many problems with checks being sent to the church. We are in the process of changing the way the church does our accounting, and I have been meeting with our elders. Until we can get everything straightened out, I would like to request that you DO NOT have your tuition check mailed to the church. Please use the envelope provided in your child's folder. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but it will save confusion on both our parts. Thank you!

Fall Party

Don't forget fall parties tomorrow! Come in costume; you may pack an extra set of clothes if you need to. We will still have Chapel, Treating (no tricking!), Party, and Movie Time for the older ones. Kely and I will be on our best (angelic) behavior!

H1N1

We have had one confirmed case of H1N1 Flu at MDO. Exposure was minimal to students; however, we do want to make you aware. Click on the title of this post to go to a link which lists specific symptoms to look for. I also found an interesting link at http://www.kcrg.com/ that did an article on the difference between a cold and H1N1. I will have copies of the article available on the foyer desk on Thursday.

FALL FESTIVAL

A note will be sent home on Tuesday, 27th about the Fall Festival at FCC (Oct. 31st from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM) and how you can help with the Chili-Cookoff and Baked Goods that MDO sponsors. This is our largest fundraiser of the year, and in fact, one of only two that we do.

All proceeds will go into our playground fund.

You can help by:
1. Attending the festival and helping out for a brief period of time.
2. Bringing in (by Thursday) a package of styrofoam bowls and/or package of plastic spoons.
3. Providing baked goods - either individually wrapped (cookies/brownies) or a pie, cake, bread item, etc.

If you miss MDO tomorrow and need more information, please e-mail me at mdo@fcctn.org. Thank you!

Ms. Joyce

We are so sad to announce that Ms. Joyce needs to step out of the Pre-K 2 class as a regular teacher. It is completely a health need and not due to anything else. However, Ms. Joyce will be taking over all the chapel times on Thursday, and she has even filled in for us in music twice now when Ms. Maria was out. So we are definitely not losing her completely! The teachers have commented that Ms. Joyce does a stellar job leading the children during chapel time, so I am very thankful that she is doing this. For those of you who do not know Ms. Joyce, she has served in the past as one of our children's ministry directors at FCC and currently leads several Bible studies and other church outreaches. She is a wonderful asset to MDO!

Another asset that we have had this year is a great group of substitutes. One of them, Stephanie Haynesworth, has subbed in just about every class and already knows many of the children. She has previous teaching experience in various areas and is a member of FCC. She is also a mom herself! She will now join Ms. Amy as a team teacher in the Pre-K 2 class. We are definitely happy that she is coming on board!

Picture Schedule

Pictures have been rescheduled for the following dates:

Tuesday, November 3rd - Nursery, Toddler 1 & 2, Siblings
Thursday, November 5th - Preschool and Pre-K
Thursday, November 12 - Make-up for those absent

We are going to attempt, weather willing, to take the pictures outside at our old historic home that FCC uses for administrative offices.

To see some of Andrea's work, please go to her website at www.andreadavisphotography.com

Fall Parties

Fall Parties will take place Thursday, October 29th. Children may come in costume (no scary ones please!) and we will have our regular chapel times. At 10:30 children will have a costume parade through the halls and candy will be given out in the various classrooms (MDO will provide the treats for this). At 11:00 classroom parties will begin. Little ones will go down for a nap while the older classes will meet in the chapel room for a viewing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!". Please bring your child in the costume rather than asking teachers to put it on for him/her. Thanks!

Caution!

While we are not sure some recent theft incidents occurred in our parking lot, we would still like to encourage everyone to hide valuables and lock car when coming in to the building. Easy access to Hwy. 96 and Clovercroft can potentially make us a vulnerable spot.

UPDATES

• Pictures will be rescheduled for early November. Specific dates will be sent out next Thursday, 22nd.
• Remember Fall Break is next week; no MDO on Tuesday; we will return on Thursday, 22nd.
• Scholastic orders for the month of October will be due 10/22.
• M.O.M. outing for tomorrow (Pinkerton Park) will NOT take place IF it is rainy! Will reschedule for...you guessed it...Thursday, 22nd!
• Tuition is now due for November. Thank you so much for your prompt attention to this!
• We have a few openings in the Preschool (3-4 years) classes if you know anyone who is interested.

A big thank you to some of our moms who also substitute for us! We appreciate your help in the classroom so much!

I will be out of town October 15th through the 18th. Melody Brooke and I will be visiting her big sister at Arizona State University. We are very excited since we haven't seen her since August! If you should e-mail me, I will get back to you on Monday, the 19th. Thank you!

Car Lane

There were a few glitches with the afternoon car lane on Tuesday and Thursday. The pouring rain hampered us on Tuesday and my ineptness with the walkie-talkies contributed to it on Thursday. The good news is that our teachers keep our little ones busy until right before you arrive, so we were a little delayed in having them ready! We will begin loading a little earlier next week (and test the walkie-talkies!).

We appreciate your patience!

PICTURES

Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, we will not be taking individual pictures next week. They have been postponed, and we will let you know when we reschedule. Thank you.

FYI

Tomorrow 10/8 - class pictures in the morning
Tuesday 10/13 - Nursery, Toddler and Sibling individual pictures taken (outside weather permitting)
Thursday 10/15 - Preschool and Pre-K individuals (outside weather permitting)
No school 10/20 - Wms. Co. Fall Break
Make-up pictures 10/22

Blog correction: Fall Parties (with costumes) Thursday, October 29

SCHOLASTIC

One thing I love about this blog is that when something comes up and it's not a Tuesday or Thursday, I can still get the word out without innundating parents and teachers with e-mails!

If you tried to order Scholastic in the past couple of days, you will see a notice that says the teacher disabled it. What I found out after calling them is that I have to set up parent online ordering every single month. I assumed that I could do it for the year. Nope...

I have to specify each catalogue, each month. They were sending me copies of SEESAW which I liked for the older classes, but they didn't this month. I have requested it, but you can find it online now as of five minutes ago when I set it up again. HONEYBEE and FIREFLY are also on there.

So my apologies if you tried recently to order and couldn't. You should be good to go now, and I will know better next month!

Upcoming Events for October

• October 6 - car lane begins
• October 8 - class pictures
• October 13 - individual pictures
• October 15 - individual pictures
• October 20 - no school/Williamson Co. Fall Break
• October 22 - make-up pictures
• October 29 - Fall Parties with costumes
• October 31 - Fall Festival and Chili Cook-off at FCC

Andrea Davis will be doing photographs of the children. She will have different packages available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds will go to the playground fund. She is going to try and take all pictures outside weather permitting. More information will be sent next week about the schedule of individual pictures or you can check out her website now at http://www.andreadavisphotography.com/ and click on the Critters logo.

CAR LANE

CAR LANE begins this coming Tuesday, October 6th. When you come into the parking lot, you will see a row of orange cones. Please form two lines with the orange cones in between. Please have your permit in the windshield of your car. This will help our teachers know which classroom your child is in. In the afternoon this permit is imperative for safety and for those of us who are calling children outside!

The map on the back of the permit shows how you should enter the parking lot. It does not show that if the line becomes long, you are to use the upper turn around to help the flow of traffic. Ms. Maria will be outside directing you up the hill if necessary, so please follow her instructions.

Please help us by:
1. Staying in your car while we unbuckle your child. Please have tote bag ready.
2. Staying off your cell phone so we have your complete attention.
3. Pulling into the other parking area if you would like to talk with another parent in a car.
4. Paying attention as Ms. Kely or Ms. Maria intruct cars to move forward.

If you are bringing your child inside:
1. Do not park in the car lane parking lot. Park in the lot adjacent to Clovercroft.
2. Cross the pedestrian bridge in front of the church - not the main bridge that car lane cars will use to exit.

Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation! The car lane involves much more planning and preparation that you would imagine to make sure that it is safe, effective and quick!