Moms get messy

Powder puff relay lets kids turn the tables

Friday, May 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL Kayleh Settie, 7, of Lusby gets chocolate chunks out of a bowl full of whipped cream off her mother Jean Settie’s head during a mother⁄daughter relay May 1 at the Southern Community Center in Lusby. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo ASharon Graves of Lusby and her daughters Bethany, 6, left, and Caroline, 3, make a heart out of cut paper. Click here to enlarge this photo Vickie Anderson of Prince Frederick licks the sugar off a doughnut held by her daughter Ashley, 7. Click here to enlarge this photo Sydney Neal, 6, of Owings gets her fingernails painted by her mother Jean Settie’s feet during a mother⁄daughter relay Thursday at the Southern Community Center in Lusby.

‘‘We are doing this event because of Mother’s Day,” said Sandy Abell, the assistant recreation coordinator for the center. ‘‘We thought it would be a great idea for mothers and daughters to spend a little quality time together and do some things that they might not ordinarily do.”

‘‘My husband and I do the different activities at the community center,” said Christi Lombardi of Lusby. ‘‘He does the Father-Daughter Dance on Valentine’s Day, so this [the relay race] is the special thing that we do together. It’s always fun to do something different and have a good time.”

For almost two hours, the moms and daughters got dirty and participated in some fun events. The relay was open to girls ages 3 to 11. According to Dianne Halloway, the recreation coordinator, some of the events included ‘‘Shape My Heart,” where the teams had to put hearts back together, ‘‘Paint My Nails” where moms painted the kids’ fingernails with their toes, ‘‘The Doughnut Game,” which involved licking the sugar off of a powdered doughnut that the girls held on a string, and ‘‘The Hershey Kiss Dip,” where the girls searched for chocolate under a mound of whipped cream, held in a bowl on top of mom’s head.

‘‘I just wanted to spend some time with Ashley and so far we are having a ball. Our favorite event was the fingernail painting,” Barbara Shawyer of Huntingtown said.

‘‘My favorite event was eating the whipped cream and getting out all the Hershey Kisses and putting them in the cup,” Ashley Anderson, 7, of Prince Frederick said. ‘‘I won the event and I like chocolate a lot.”

The moms knew that this was a great way to spend time with their daughters. It gave the young girls an opportunity to see mom in a new and fun light.

‘‘The best part was spending time with mommy and doing all of the fun games,” Bethany Graves, 6, of Lusby said.

‘‘We came to something that we can do together because we have a 1-year-old at home and this gives us something to do together,” Jean Settie of Lusby said. ‘‘All the events were interesting and my favorite event was the Hershey Kiss one because I didn’t get messy.”

Not all the games involved making a mess. There was a Mother’s Day match and memory game, a ‘‘Guess What’s In the Box” game and a game in which the moms had to remember what their daughter’s favorite things were, and only two moms got all the answers right. The participants also had to wear clothespins and keep a tally on when someone said ‘‘Mother,” and then take the clothespin. The one with the most clothespins at the end received the most points.

While the teams were participating in the relay, a tally for scores was being kept. At the end, the winning team received two seats on the May 17 Parks and Recreation Southern District shopping trip to New York City. The winners were Taylor, 11, and Christie Lombardi of Lusby.

‘‘I’m excited that we won first place because I was really looking to going to New York City for a shopping trip,” Taylor Lombardi said. ‘‘I want to try to go to FAO Schwarz [the biggest toy store in New York] and maybe get some jeans from Hollister.”