Author Archives: Knoxville Multiples Club

Downtown Fire Station Visit & Stuffed Animal Drive!

Thank you to everyone that came to the Downtown Headquarters, and joined KMC for a tour of all the trucks, boats and emergency vehicles.

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We hope you enjoyed seeing behind the scenes where our firefighters work! We appreciate all the stuffed animals you brought to donate to children involved in a car accident or house fire. Such a little thing may end up meaning the world to a little person.

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Fall / Winter 2012 Consignment Sale!

The Fall sale date is set! Our sale will be Saturday, 8/11/12, at Deane Hill Recreation Center at West Hills. Early Bird shopping is from 7 AM – 8 AM for $3 entry per person, and Half Price shopping is from Noon – 2 PM! Please stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates, pictures and more sale info!

If you are interested in advertising at the KMC Sale, please read the details here. If you are a Member of KMC, you can sign up to consign this Tuesday night at our meeting. If you are not a member, we will have a few spaces open at a later date. Please read over our Consignor Info page, and let us know if you have any questions.

July 2012 Monthly Meeting – Dead End BBQ

Please plan to join us on Tuesday, July 10th, at 6:30 PM as we kick off a new year with KMC! We will be meeting at Dead End BBQ on Sutherland Avenue. If you are a current member, past member or you are expecting multiples we would love to see you there.

July is the start of our new membership year and dues will remain $40 this year. Included in this fee is Friday night shopping at our twice yearly consignment sales, the opportunity to consign and earn 90% of your sales, twice yearly fun family events for free or a nominal charge, our February fondue and massage Sparty, monthly meetings with guest speakers and activities, Moms’ Night Out events, access to our Facebook Members’ Only group and more. KMC is a great source of support and friendship, and membership offers a chance to connect with other families that “get” your chaotic, joyous, full life! KMC is a diverse group of families from all walks of life, we welcome any guardians of twins, triplets or more the opportunity to join.

We will announce our August consignment sale date and you can sign up to consign with us if you are a KMC member. Non-Members that wish to consign will be notified here and on our Facebook Consignment Sale page when we open up additional spaces.

We will also honor our 2011-12 Officers that are not returning to positions within the club: Lara Mowery has served as our Treasurer for several years, and we want to wish her a smashing success in her new business endeavors. Thank you to Mary Ellen Nichols and Marti Bailey for stepping into the Vice President and Member Care roles; we appreciate all of your help this year! A big thank you to due everyone that has helped KMC on the consignment sale committee, selling candles, sponsoring an Angel Tree recipient or bringing a snack to a meeting. Our organization wouldn’t be nearly as wonderful without every single member!

June 2012 Monthly Meeting – Date Change!

Please note that we are meeting on the FIRST Tuesday of June! Join us at 6:30 pm at First Baptist Concord – Westlake on June 5th at 6:30 pm for a combo night of crafts and club business.

We will elect our officers for the coming year, and discuss the next 6 months of activities. We would love your input! We will also make cute flower topped ink pens. These are a great small thank you for summer camp teachers, swim instructors, babysitters and more!

Please bring a small snack to share with everyone. We encourage expecting families of multiples to attend and get to know us! As always, nursing infants are welcome. Hope to see you soon.

Image from Funky Junky Vintage on Etsy!

Spring Event = FUN!

KMC would like to say a great big thank you to all the families that came out to our Spring Event at RiverView Family Farm! Thanks to Judi at Endless Impressions Painted Faces and also to Lisa at Royal Magic Events for some amazing balloon creations. Ally Todd Portrayals captured some great shots of the day, and we will share these on our Facebook page later this week.

We hope you and your little people had a great time, and we are excited to see you all again this Fall at the pumpkin patch!

Making Whole Foods Happen

Chef Ellie Maben talked to us at last night’s meeting about incorporating healthier food choices in your family’s diet. I wanted to share a few tips and tricks for those of you that couldn’t make it to the meeting! My notes are in italics.

* Plan your weekly meals in advance and use coupons to cut costs. Personally, I use eMeals because it matches up store sales to a weekly menu plan, and sends it all to me each Wednesday. Our family receives the Natural and Organic Meal Plan, and it does rely almost entirely on whole foods made from scratch. They have vegetarian, gluten-free menus, low-carb and low-fat menus, and you choose the store you want to shop at locally. I used a Dave Ramsey code, and three months of weekly menus was approximately $15.

* Stick to your shopping list! You can’t make unhealthy food choices if unhealthy food doesn’t live in your pantry. Keep good snack choices on hand for your family. Cut up fresh fruit and veggies in advance to store in the fridge, and offer cheese, yogurt and whole grain crackers before treats.

* To satisfy a sweet tooth, make smoothies or smoothie pops with ripe bananas, milk or yogurt, fresh or frozen berries, a little honey and a dash of vanilla (my kids don’t realize a difference when I sneak a handful of spinach in their smoothies, so long as there are blueberries to mask the green color). Ellie brought Tovolo Ice Pop Molds to show us. They come in fun shapes, like ice cream cones, and they are available on Amazon for $10-12. Ellie suggested the book, Pops!: Icy Treats for Everyone for recipes.

* Shop the outside perimeter of the store where most whole foods can be found; think produce, meat, grains and dairy. Become a label reader, and make conscious choices regarding the ingredients in your food. Look for excess sodium, added sugar or high fructose corn syrup, MSG in all it’s names, etc.

* If your children are too distracting while you are shopping, try to leave them at home. I prefer to bring my iPod and shop alone for a little “me” time!

* Buy whole grains in bulk at places like Kroger, Earthfare, Three Rivers Market, etc. and store them in your freezer in air tight containers. You will save a wad of cash, and everything will store for about a year. Add whole grains to foods your family already eats instead of going full-force; for example, oatmeal pancakes or chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat pastry flour and oatmeal. Use one piece of white bread and one piece of wheat when making a sandwich. Mix whole wheat pasta half and half with white pasta. Try tri-colored spiral pasta as a fun kid-friendly choice. Pick a new grain to try, like quinoa, and cook it one night per week for several months.

* Shop farmer’s markets if possible or plant a small family garden. If that isn’t feasible for your budget, ask your local grocery store produce manager to include more locally grown veggies and fruit to their store. Earthfare, Food City and Butler and Bailey are known to do this in our area already. Awhile back, I wrote two articles pertaining to organic and local produce; check them out for more information: Community Supported Agriculture in East Tennessee and Organic or Not.

* Pack your kids lunches a few times a week, or more if possible! Ellie brought the Laptop Lunch set to show us. It’s approximately $35 and comes with a lunchbox, carrier, drink container and recipe book. You can get just the lunchbox and recipe book for around $25.

* Make food fun! There were great ideas in the book Ellie brought: First Meals by Annabel Karmel. Add silly faces to open face sandwiches or pizzas. Use small vegetable cutters for cheese, fruit and veggies.

* Try to avoid cooking different meals for various members of the family. We have a long-standing rule that if you aren’t going to eat the dinner that was prepared, you may have a slice of bread with almond or peanut butter. I always prepare one vegetable side that I know the whole family will eat. Remember, that kids need to try a food at minimum TEN times before they will readily eat it and like it. Don’t give up after one attempt!

* Sneak veggies and fruit into breads, deserts, pasta sauce and smoothies! Check out The Sneaky Chef for ideas! After awhile, you will find your kids don’t even care that you add squash to muffins and spinach to smoothies. Mine know all my “secrets” now, and they are happy to gobble up the hidden veggies.

* Simplify your meals and try not to be a control freak. It is much easier to change your diet gradually, and you don’t want mealtime to seem like a punishment for the whole family. Although I use eMeals, I always keep a couple Newmans Own pizzas in the freezer and I always have things on hand to make Breakfast for Dinner or Grilled Cheese and Soup. The kids love asking for a “fun” night, and it stretches the planned meals out longer.

* Ellie suggested making a huge pot of brown rice, and storing it in the fridge for weekly dinners. I find that it’s easier to eat whole foods when I bake a big batch of muffins or pancakes once per week and freeze them. The same goes for chopping onions, carrots, etc. The less work I have each night, the more likely we are to stay on track, and not run out to Panera!

Good Books:

* King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

* Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

* The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals

These are two of my favorites, that I use quite often in our kitchen.

* Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers

* Simple Food for Busy Families

Recipes

* Brainy Brownies from The Sneaky Chef

* Morning Glory Muffins (Gluten Free Option, too) from Whole Foods Market^

* Buttermilk Quinoa Pancakes from Pen & Fork^

^These aren’t the exact recipes Ellie shared, I found links to very similar versions, so I wouldn’t have to type more!

April 2012 Monthly Meeting – Healthy Cooking!

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Please plan to join us  on April 10th at 6:30 PM for a super meeting: our very own Chef, Ellie Maben, will guide us through making meals and treats that are both healthy and tasty!

Ellie will discuss shopping tricks, incorporating whole foods in your family’s diet, and she will have samples and recipes for us.

Please bring your favorite healthy snack to share with everyone!

We will be back at First Baptist Concord, Westlake Campus, for this meeting. Adults only, please… nursing infants welcome!

March 2012 Monthly Meeting – Wasabi!

To celebrate a successful sale, we decided to detour from our normal meeting location at First Baptist Concord, and dine out at Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse!

Plan to join us at the 226 Lovell Road location at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, March 13th. If you don’t want to have a full dinner, feel free to have a drink and pick up your tags. Wasabi offers both Japanese grill-style dinner and a full sushi menu. We have a couple of awesome door prizes to hand out from our sale sponsors: Scentsy and Petros.

We hope to see you there!

Thank You!

We would like to thank each and every person that shopped, consigned, volunteered and worked with us to make this sale one of our best ever! If you would like to sign up for KMC updates, there is a Subscribe link to the right. Please enter your E-mail address and be the first to know the dates of our Fall / Winter Sale!

We appreciate the links from both Family Friendly Knoxville and Knox To Do – if you haven’t checked out these sites, please do for a wealth of information for families!

The Knoxville Multiples Club would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the local businesses who contributed to the sponsorship of our Spring 2012 Consignment Sale. Please join us in supporting the following sponsors with your business:

SmartBank
www.smartbank.net

State Farm – Cindy Doyle
www.CindyDoyle.com

Chick-Fil-A West Double Drive-Thru
www.chickfila.com

Humana – Wilson Valenzuela
WValenzuela@Humana.com

Kids at Play, Inc.
kidsatplayinc@comcast.net

Knoxville Academy of Martial Arts
www.rbkama.com

Mary Kay – Claire Edwards
www.marykay.com/cedwards22

Moe’s at Northshore
www.moes.com

Concord Christian School
www.concordchristianschool.org

The Fireside and Patio Shop
www.thefiresideandpatioshop.com

31 Gifts – Tiffany Roy
www.my31.com/tiffanyroy

Riverview Farms
www.RiverViewFamilyFarm.com

Usborne Books – Karen Hardin
www.myubam.com/K3325

Friendship Church
www.myfriendshipchurch.com

Papa John’s
www.papajohns.com

Kelly Chiropractic and Wellness Center
www.chirokell.com

Lia Sophia – Tammy West
tammywest@live.com

Bunny Nose Boutique
bunnynoseboutique@gmail.com

RainWater Farm
www.RainWaterFarm.com

Scentsy – Dawn Davis
www.DawnsScents.Scentsy.com

Target at Ray Mears Boulevard
www.target.com

MK Russell & Abbott Heating and Air
www.CleanAirComfort.com

Privett Insurance Group
www.privettinsurancegroup.com

Task Performance
www.Task-Performance.com

Cedar Springs Christian Store
www.cschristian.com

Nothing But Bounce
www.NothingButBounce.com

Petro’s
www.petros.com

Pei Wei Asian Diner in Turkey Creek
www.peiwei.com

Cosignment Sale Information!

To view the full size flyer, share on Facebook or with your friends via E-mail; please use the following link: http://i.imgur.com/WIsS3.png

Member sign-up is happening now, please contact Amy at Sale@knoxmultiplesclub.com. Non-Members may sign-up after February 1st, depending on space remaining.

Members in good standing ($40 annual dues paid) register for $10 and sign up to work one 4-hour shift; members receive 90% of their sales. Non-Members pay registration of $15 and sign up to work one 4-hour shift; non-members receive 80% of their sales. For more specific details, please contact Amy at the address above.

Items accepted for this sale include strollers, pack and plays, maternity clothing, baby and child furniture (disassembled), working toys with batteries included, outdoor toys, swimming items, swimsuits and Spring / Summer clothing (Preemie – Preteen), diapers, unopened formula, DVDs / VHS tapes / Electronic games and any miscellaneous child-friendly items. We do not accept car seats. All items must be in good usable condition.

This year, we will ONLY accept 3.5″x5″ index card tags, white or colored. If you are using old tags or paper slips, we will pull the clothing items. Please view the images below for a correct tagging example.


Upper Left = Seller Number (37)
Upper Right = Size
Middle = Detailed Description
Bottom Right = Price in $0.50 increments.
A Red Line means you do NOT want your item sold at half price.


Hang the tag on the right side of your clothing, hanging down so it won’t stick out of the items on the rack.

For help with pricing, check out Little Red Hen! She offers a free pricing guide download for the Knoxville area.

Members and Non-Member Consignors will get an E-mail approximately one week before the sale with early shopping details!