Coolest Mom on the Planet!

Yesterday the local radio station was having people call in and say what made them the coolest moms around. Not wanting to be passed over, but also not having a voice to speak (see yesterday's post!) I have decided to give my secrets away for what makes me the coolest mom...in the house, on the block...on the planet! Keep in mind, this is only me voting for myself, but I have it on good report (i.e. my own kids and all of their friends) that I rank right up there near the top.

1. Food, Glorious Food! "Feed them often, feed them always!" A motto worth adopting if you anticipate wanting the teenagers to return again and again. Our frequent visitors love anything and everything, so that makes it easy. My only restriction...don't eat our cold cereal on Sunday night if it means there will be no milk left on Monday!

2. Learn their lyrics! Growing up as the 'Fab Four', (now the 'Fab Five' with the addition of Eli) I find that singing along in the car makes you VERY COOL! You never know when it will come in handy. Case Study #1: No one will ever forget the day I walked out of my tent at girls camp and started singing at the top of my lungs, "Don'cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" The young women in our ward still call it one of their fondest memories of Sister Sorensen. Case Study #2: A tent of boys on a trek, begging to be sung to in order to get them up and moving. They didn't think I would do it. They were wrong. At 6:05 a.m. their 'ma' is outside singing, "Stop, collaberate and listen, Ma's in the camp and you'd better go on missions!" (A bit of creative re-writing to ICE, ICE BABY!)

3. Make movies! Lately I have been trying my hand at making dvd's and mixing music to fit the photos. This year our kids got two snow days within two weeks. Cassidy's friends were hanging out at the house and started an impromptu snowball fight. I took about 120 pictures, rearranged them on my movie program, added HOLIDAY IN MY HEAD by Smashmouth and made them each a copy of the dvd. THEY LOVED IT! So much, in fact, that the following week I did it again when the opportunity arose. More photos, HERE IT GOES AGAIN by OK Go, and more dvd's for the friends. It was a TON of fun and I plan on doing it again!

4. Show a little gratitude! I had a prompting not so long ago to write letters and give cookies to all the parents of the boys who spend a lot of time at our house. I wanted the parents to know that their sons were respectful, and kind, helpful and funny, able to have conversations with us, and even willing to spend time with Eli playing Pokemon or Teen Titans or Star Wars. We are lucky that she has such a good group of friends. They are all stalwart in the gospel and good examples of youth who are raising the bar. Several parents have called to say how much they appreciated knowing what goes on when they are away from their own homes. I plan on doing it soon for the girls also. It's always nice to hear what good kids you have!

5. Watch what you wear! This goes without saying. I hope to remain a cool mom by NOT wearing my new swimsuit around the house when friends are over! Thank goodness the snow is gone today, or I may have had to follow through with yesterday's threat!

For anyone who's reading, I KNOW you are also all the coolest mom's around, so if you get a chance, make a post on your blog of what makes you as cool as me. With all these ideas floating around out in cyber-space, we can't help but raise the coolest kids ever!