Renaissance Fair Family Fun

Good Day my Lords and Ladies! We just returned from the Colorado Renaissance Fair. These festivals are held all over the country. I urge you to take the kids and go to one. They are great fun, and are even a little educational. You will see people dressed in period costume – knights, lords, ladies, fairies, pirates, and even dragons. The workers even talk in accents. None of it is perfectly historically accurate. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have “Ye Olde Cash Machine” in medieval times. But all of that can raise a lot of questions about history. Why did … Continue reading →

Travel Fun With New Technologies

Some of the latest technologies have added a fun edge to family travel. Last summer, as we drove across the country for a reunion, family members were able to email us on the blackberry or call us on the cell phone to find out where we were, where we were stopping, and when we were due to arrive. It added some excitement to the long journey, knowing that other families had made driving progress and were also approaching the site of the reunion. On our trip this summer, we used a GPS navigation system for the first time. We had … Continue reading →

Layover Fun

Last week our family had a three hour layover in the Atlanta airport. We went in search of something substantial for dinner because I’ve decided we all are better travelers with real food in our stomachs. We just happened to find a country cooking restaurant and were thrilled to order macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn bread, okra, and iced tea. Even though we weren’t staying in Atlanta, it was nice to share this taste of the south with my kids. For me, occupying children on layovers is one of the hardest challenges of traveling. After one flight, everyone is … Continue reading →

Picnics- A Summertime Tradition

It is Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. This means the consistently warm weather will be here before long and nothing screams SUMMER louder than a Picnic! We love to dine alfresco, whether it is outside on a restaurant ‘s patio or deck, in our backyard or at a local park. To be outside, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of nature while enjoying a meal with family and friends can be one of the most cherished memories of summertime. The best part of this simple, fun idea is that you don’t need too much in the … Continue reading →

Ideas for Waiting

The last few weeks of school are a crazy time of year. We seem to be doing a lot of waiting too, as all these extra activities are taking place. We are waiting for extra meetings to be over, waiting for practices to end, waiting for our family members turn at the talent show. Waiting doesn’t have to be boring though. If you are outside, you can go exploring. If you are in the car, you can play I Spy, or twenty questions. I also like to ask the kids questions. Things like – “If you had a million dollars … Continue reading →

Unplanned Fun

Last night, I got re-educated in how fun unplanned exploring can be. These end of the school year nights have been so busy that we haven’t had time or energy to plan much in the way fun. My middle school age son had a meeting at school. My younger sons and I didn’t want to hang out in the meeting, and by the time we drove home it would almost be time to drive back again. So we stayed. We walked around the school. We picked dandelions and blew the seeds. We waded through a huge patch of dandelions and … Continue reading →

Baby Loves Disco!

Oh what a night, er, afternoon. On a recent Sunday, we hung out at Club Shampoo in Philadelphia and danced ourselves into a tizzy at the monthly Baby Loves Disco event. Baby Loves Disco is akin to a social movement; a grassroots effort, promoting and facilitating a unique variety of parent/child bonding that is popping up in what seems like more cities every month. Currently held in seventeen cities, from Seattle to Denver to Brooklyn, Baby Loves Disco throws mid-afternoon dance parties once a month for kids age seven and younger, and their adult companions. Now, I was never a … Continue reading →

Looking for Signs of Spring

Spring is actually a couple of months off in Colorado. Yes, I know it’s March. But although we can expect some warm sunny days between now and then, the middle of May is actually our average last frost. And April is our typically our biggest snow month. That doesn’t stop us from anxiously looking for signs of spring though. We’ve had a long, hard, cold and snowy winter. We are all ready for spring! Besides, it’s fun (and educational) to look for the signs. So we look for where the snow is not as deep, or has melted away. We … Continue reading →

A Spring Ice Cream Tradition

We are lucky to have a tiny independent ice cream stand in our town. It’s one of those you name it they have places – everything from burgers, hot dogs, onion rings and fries, to every kind of ice cream and slushes. We all have our favorites. My husband is partial to the sickeningly sweet suicide slush (all flavors in one cup so you get a lot of syrup). Until last year, they’ve always closed “for the season” in the winter months. Every year we kept an eye out for when they re-opened. We joked that along with Girl Scout … Continue reading →

How to Hike with Small Children

Since I got several messages about hiking with the family, I thought I’d offer some easy guidelines for hiking with small children. People wanted to know how I managed. When I say “hiking” I’m not talking doing the Appalachian Trail or anything. I admire people who backpack with their small children. Before kids, I thought I’d be one of those people. But like a lot of things, once I had the children I realized the before-kids-me didn’t have a clue. The reality of diapers and being hours away from medical help stopped those idealistic dreams. I had enough trouble getting … Continue reading →