First, the warning: There is exactly one month left until Grandparents Day 2010. It falls on September 12 each year; have you made plans to celebrate that special grandparent in your life?

I ask because I don’t remember ever marking the arrival of Grandparents Day in all the years of my life. Not once. You?

It’s obviously not as big as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, but Grandparents Day has been around since 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the first presidential proclamation designating it. Its roots go back even further, though, to 1970, when Marian McQuade launched a campaign to have a special day named just for grandparents.

Why give grandparents special recognition? If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a special grandparent in your life or your kids’ lives, the Census Bureau provides some good reasons.

For one, at last count some 6.4 million grandparents were living with grandchildren younger than age 18. Sadly, 19 percent – or about 493,000 – grandparents listed incomes below the poverty level.

Surely these folks are worth a little national recognition. This year, don’t forget Grandparents Day! Be prepared! And don’t say you weren’t warned it was coming up!

- MM

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Families First!, the organization that runs the Children’s Museum in Missoula, has been hard at work planning a new exhibit for the museum: a kids’ grocery store! The new grocery play area will be located toward the front of the museum on West Front Street in downtown Missoula. It’s being sponsored by the Good Food Store, St. Patrick Hospital and the Gallagher Foundation.

To mark the opening of the new exhibit, the Children’s Museum will host a celebration on Sept. 16. More details about the upcoming event will be posted on Missoula Mom as they become available.

- MM

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Wow! What day is it? I’m still reeling from a long world-class kayak competition and Independence Day weekend, and already I can feel Missoula gearing up to hit me with another crazy too-much-t0-see-and-do weekend.

Friday is the third annual Kiddopalooza (or however you spell it) music festival, which doubles as a benefit event for Families First. Who’s playing? What’s happening? Well, there’s the Sweet Adeline’s Barbershop Octet, Tangled Tones, Wise River Mercantile, a Championship Training Taekwondo Demonstration, Julie and the Wolves, “The Mime” Christian Ackerman, Derailed, Vera, Parson’s Pony Rides (from 6:30-8:30pm), TWO – count ‘em – TWO bouncy houses, a water slide, face painting, a giant sandbox, mini-mobile races (huh?), a Western Montana Fairgrounds Rodeo Queens Rope Course (4-6 p.m.), a gymnastics course, the MCAT Space Taxi, free rides on the Missoula Carousel (7-9 p.m.) and – oh, just go check it out for yourself.

The festivities start at 2 p.m. and end at 8 p.m., unless you count the free carousel rides, which go on until 9 p.m. And since it’s summer, there will still be enough light to run around outside until the kids finally tucker out.

It costs $15 for an all-access wristband; $20 for a wristband with a T-shirt; $1 per ticket if you want to purchase activities individually.

And if the kids have any leftover energy the next day (ha ha – you know they will), there’s the Kids Marathon. Nearly 200 kids have registered.

- MM

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It’s true – in Missoula, the night before Mother’s Day is way more fun than the actual day of Mother’s Day, thanks to the annual Mother’s Day Eve Bash.

Thanks to Mamalode publisher Elke Govertsen, who is in the midst of organizing the sixth year of the free event (actually, it’s better than free because there are a ton of sponsors who give YOU stuff),  moms have a place to party the evening away surrounded by other moms. LOTS of other moms. Last year, more than 450 moms turned out.

And then, of course, you get to sleep in the next morning, which is really what Mother’s Day is all about.

This year’s event will be at Peak Health and Wellness again, on Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. See you there!

- MM

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I see that Missoula Editor is asking folks to send the Missoulian the best piece of advice they ever got from their mother for publication on Mother’s Day this Sunday.  E-mail it, along with your name and phone number, to  kwilson@missoulian.com.

With that, here’s Missoula Mom’s best piece of advice: Treat every day like it is Mother’s Day.

We mothers really don’t ask for much. Maybe a homemade breakfast or a nice dinner out. Perhaps a handmade card or an extra-big hug. Possibly some extra time spent together – or extra time apart.

In short, a little extra recognition for all the work it takes to be a good mom. Surely that’s not something we should confine to a single day once a year.

- MM

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March will begin in one week, and March is Women’s History Month, with International Women’s Day falling on March 8.

So here, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau, are some facts and figures about women and motherhood.

- There are 155.8 million females in the United States, compared to 151.8 million males.

- An estimated 82.8 million of these females are mothers.

- About 64.5 million women age 18 and older are married.

- Nearly 60 percent of females age 16 and older have a paying job. That’s some 72 million women.

- The number of stay-at-home mothers in the U.S. is about 5.3 million.

-MM

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Last night my family got dressed up, went out to a “fancy” dinner and then attended the musical “Annie,” all part of a Christmas present from my mom.

The play didn’t wrap up until after 10, so I’m dragging a little today. It’s one of those days when I wish I could wear pajamas to work.

And speaking of pajamas, you’re not going to believe this news article from the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail.

It reports that a school has taken the unprecedented step of “banning” mothers from wearing their sleepwear to drop their kids off at school. Apparently, up to 50 moms a day were coming in wearing slippers and bathrobes.

So what? It’s not like they are in nothing but negligees. So long as they’re not committing indecent exposure, give those tired moms a break.

For the record, I actually did come to work in my pajamas once. It was Halloween, and my costume was “Exhausted Mom.” I teased my hair all crazy and rubbed blue eyeshadow under my eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone noticed I was wearing a costume.

- MM

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Here’s wishing you and your family a safe and happy 2010!

- MM

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If you’re not a late-nighter (like me), you’ll be happy to know that the Children’s Museum is throwing an end-of-the-year party … and it starts at noon!

So go down to the Children’s Museum, located at 225 West Front Street in Missoula, at noon tomorrow, Dec. 31, to partake in “cosmic art” activities and crafts, including a constellation craft and an astronaut art activity and tiger finger puppet making (because, I’m assuming, 2010 is the Chinese year of the tiger).

And, of course, there are too many First Night Missoula activities to list here. The annual alcohol-free, family celebration kicks off at 1 p.m. and runs until midnight.

If anyone else knows of something fun happening on New Year’s Eve, let me know and I’ll add it to the blog.

- MM

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With Christmas only a few days away, I’ve noticed that the World Wide Web is again filling with admonishments to parents to “stop lying to your children” about Santa Claus as well as pleas to parents not to crush their belief in the jolly old elf too soon.

I don’t remember ever “teaching” my daughter about Santa Claus. She’s gotten a present from him every Christmas of her 5-year-old life, but always after a deluge of gifts from family and friends, so I doubt she registered anything about Santa from that.

This year, however, she somehow arrived at the conclusion that we must leave cookies for Santa to eat on Christmas Eve. I’m thinking she got that from one of her favorite Christmas books – along with all her other notions about Saint Nick.

Then, this past weekend Santa showed up at one of her best friend’s birthday parties, and my shy little girl mustered up the courage to approach him for a candy cane. The next day, another one of her little friends told her that wasn’t the “real” Santa, but “a dad dressed up like Santa.”

I never really planned on teaching my little girl about Santa. I’m not planning on telling her he isn’t real, either. I have a feeling that she won’t even ask – and my daughter asks questions about EVERYTHING.

Why? Because in our house, what with all the friends and neighbors and family, and the decorating and cookie-making and playing in the snow, and Christmas specials on TV and special books I refuse to read in July, and making cards and choosing presents and wrapping them up and dropping them off, Santa ends up just sort of receding into the background. The jolly red bringer of gifts ends up not being such a central part of Christmas – and that is a lesson I do want my daughter to learn.

- MM

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