Parents of Tots

Fall is here!  The Fall always brings lots of fun things to do.  We wanted to first thank Jen DeCourcy and the events team for putting together a spectacular PoT Birthday Bash!  We had a great time with Defensive Edge, Wiggles & Giggles and the many fun activities at PoT’s Birthday.  Jen, Kara and the events team are already hard at work on our next spectacular party.  Coming up October 26^th is our infamous Halloween Party!  For more information see details on page 3.

 This month we will have our first outing to Sunrise Assisted Living.  PoT has been invited to come for a Halloween Parade. We are looking forward to showing off all our great costumes to the residents followed by cider and donuts.  

 Also this Fall, we have a new monthly fieldtrip series, Fun to Learn, hosted by Amanda Milner, a long time PoT mom and fieldtrip coordinator, who also home schools her children.  The goal of the Fun to Learn series is to provide children an opportunity to boost their interest in learning through activities that enrich their creativity, critical thinking, and knowledge of the world around them.  Don’t miss out on these great field trips.

 And we are excited to welcome Stephanie Bracher as one of our new field trip coordinators.  She is busy planning more fun fieldtrips after her recent trip to Smolak Farms where many families enjoyed a morning of apple picking. 

 Parents of Tots is a sponsor of Melrose Alliance Against Violence’s 15^th annual fundraising walk and candlelight vigil on Sunday, October 17^th.  If you would like to participate in this walk with other PoT members please contact eeamico22@aol.com for more information.

 Anyone feeling like they need some parenting advice? Parents of Tots is hosting a Parent Coach, Liz Warrick, for a workshop on just this topic, “Parenting Styles and the Message they Send”.  Participants will learn how to guide children to own and solve their own problems. See the We are Women page for all the details!

 A special thanks also goes out to Eirene Mathews who will be our new “Email Blaster”, sending out the latest and greatest PoT news to you in our weekly Sunday email.

 Have a safe & happy Halloween!

Emily & Holly

 Here we are at the beginning of another year at PoT.  It is hard to believe this summer is quickly coming to an end and the kids are heading back to school.  We enjoyed a HOT summer filled with great fieldtrips and events!  Thanks to all who were able to participate. 

The W.C.N.A.’s Festival by the Lake in June was a great success again this year even with the on and off rain showers through out the afternoon.  We were able to raise just over $1,000. With these proceeds we are working with North Suburban Child and Family Resource Network (formally North Suburban Family Network) to help sponsor an event in the near future, we’ll keep you posted.       

PoT’s Weekly Playground Playdate has been a popular destination for members throughout the summer.  We will continue to meet during the next few months while the weather is still warm at the Sullivan Park off Salem Street in Wakefield.  Check out the details in the PoT Playgroups section for September’s Weekly Playground Playdate.

 Wednesday, September 15^th come out and celebrate Parents of Tots 27^th year at our annual kickoff event.  Our Events planning team has been busy making this a great event open to both members and non members.  If you have a friend who’s thinking about joining Parents of Tots bring them along too.  Check out the details inside for the kickoff and all the other fun trips and activities planned for this month.  Hope to see many of you there!

 We also wanted to wish a warm welcome to our newest committee members: Robyn Griffin, Leigh Farber, Kara Burgess, Heather Kelley, and Helen Moore.  Thank you to all who help and participate on the PoT committee.  If you are interested in joining in the fun check out the available committee positions inside or just join us at the next meeting, September 14^th.

 Lastly, we wanted to apologize to anyone who may have tried to contact us through the automated membership forms on our website in July.  The website and automatic form submission process was experiencing a couple of glitches over the summer but is up and running now. 

 We are looking forward to another great year with Parents of Tots!

 Emily & Holly

Letter from the Committee

May greets us with sunny skies and plenty of parkdates. We'll be checking out the new Klubhouse playspace, visiting the nursing home, playing at North Suburban Family Network and enjoying fun field trips.

Many thanks to Heather Lane for her outstanding efforts at the Dockside Fundraiser in April. The raffle was incredible, with great prizes netting Parents of Tots over $600! That is an all time high for a raffle for us. Dockside also is sending a $200 check, 10% of the nights earnings to our group. Many, many thanks to everyone who participated.

We've decided to spend some of that money on printing our Places To Go summer booklet and could use your help. We welcome all suggestions of places to visit or things to do over the summer months. If you've visited a new park or have a suggestion please email us at potfieldtrips@yahoo.com by May 15th or fill out the form on the website so we can include your ideas.

I am sad to say BoPoT will be taking a break and not meeting for the rest of the year. There hasn't been much participation so we've decided to let it rest. If people let us know they are interested in book club continuing we can revisit in the fall. We'd like to thank Jenn Cabral for her tireless efforts this year with book club and for the great reading suggestions she made each month.

Please join me in welcoming Emily Amico as our new Member Representative. She is working with Keri Capobianco to transition the responsibilities. Keri has been a tremendous asset to PoT. Emily is adding a welcome committee to her role and is looking for volunteers. The idea is to welcome new members to our group by having a "veteran" PoT person call them and connect. We'll have 12 people on the welcome committee, each person taking a month to be the greeter. If you can help with this effort please contact Emily at eeamico22@aol.com.

Planning for the Festival by the Lake continues. We could really use your help! As this is the first year Parents of Tots is putting together the childrens' game area, we are in need of as many hands to help as possible. Please contact Holly Lannen at sailmarvel@yahoo.com if you or your spouse/friend/family member can volunteer to help that day.

The end of year dinner will be Thursday June 25th at Cafe Jags. Let us know if you can join us by rsvping to potfieldtrips@yahoo.com with "Jags" in the subject line. They have offered us a great deal- an all inclusive three course meal for $25 where each person who comes will be given a $10 gift card to the restaurant to use on their next visit. Dont miss out on this fun night!

Happy Mothers Day!
Jennifer DeCourcy

We can't wait to see you at our upcoming events!

It's spring! Yahoo!! I'm so happy we made it through winter and can be outdoors again. Parents of Tots has lots of fun ideas to help put spring into your step. Check out all the great activities inside.

Many thanks to Amy for hosting a fabulous night out with Avon. We appreciate her kind hospitality. Thanks to thoseof you who made donations for Room to Grow. Our charitable efforts this year are very commendable. Barb and Amy have found another great cause this month, donating gently used books to Children's Hospital. Please see inside for details.

Don't miss the fundraiser this month at the Dockside, it's just days away. You can go anytime on April 8th and enjoy food and drinks. All sales from the day will be credited to PoT. Better still there are FABULOUS raffle prizes available. If you can't make it to Dockside you can still send in your raffle tickets and be eligible to win. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, the one time we have a huge raffle including a 50/50 and a scratch ticket money tree, not to mention a Boston hotel package, Boston Red Sox tickets and so much more. We greatly appreciate your support. For our veteran PoTers we are not having an event at the Duck Walk this spring, so this is the raffle to get in on!

Our Spring Fling has a new twist this year. We're going to be outside on the Common by Lake Quannapowitt. Teresa from Kidzfun will lead us in fun activities, be sure to reserve your spot.

The Festival by the Lake is scheduled for June 13, 2009 and we need your help. This is the first year Parents of Tots has been invited to help sponsor this event and we're responsible for the Children's games. More specifics inside, please help us to make this a great event for all the New Englanders coming to this crafts fair.

I hope everyone has a chance to come by the Yard Sale this month at the Americal. If you haven't already be sure to reserve your table soon.

Happy Spring!
Jennifer DeCourcy

In an effort tohelp get through the winter months my family has movie nights. We recently saw Mary Poppins. I was surprised by how many questions my children had. How does she fly with her umbrella? How can they walk on smoke stairs? Is supercalifragilisticexpealadocious really a word? Maybe its an indication that my inquisitive children are restless from months indoors.

Fortunately Parents of Tots has plenty to do this month. There are great field trips, a playdate at North Suburban Family Network, We are Women Couples Night Out for a CHOCOLATE tasting and much more planned.

February was a fun month. Many thanks to the Event Coordinators and Co Crafters for a fabulous Winter Blues party. There was quite the crowd bouncing! Robin did a great job with her President Palooza Hoots and Howls event too. We had a blast with the Lincoln Top Hat Coin Toss, drinking George Washington Cherry Juice, coloring Presidential Pictures and reading stories. Hoots and Howls has an outdoor parkdate scheduled, hope to see you there.

Thanks to Amy Caggiano for volunteering to serve as Co-Charitables Coordinator with Barbara. The Gathering Change project in February was great and there's information inside about Room to Grow which is another well deserving charity.

Cheers to Kathleen Rose-Johnsen for volunteering to be our Assistant Web Manager. Be sure to check out our newonline poll, vote on whether Gymstreet should be a monthly field trip. We're also adding a Members Owned Business Page to the website,specifics inside the newsletter.

Our weekly email reminders are in a transition process where we are changinghow they are sent through Yahoo. This will help us be more efficient in our blasts and we applaud Betsy's efforts to streamline the process.

Heather Lane is collecting donations for the raffle baskets we'll have at our Fundraiser at the Dockside Restaurant in April.Please let her know if you can put together a basket, or donate items. Every contribution is appreciated, and tax deductible! Be sure to come to Amy's house March 12th for a special Avon fundraiser for Parents of Tots, details inside.

We'll have our annual Yard Sale at the Civic Center again this April. Start cleaning out those closets and reserve your table soon.

Spring will be here before we know it, or so the little leprechauns say. Until thenenjoy a spoonful of sugar to help the last weeks of winter melt in the most delightful way.

Jennifer DeCourcy