20 Creative Writing Ideas for Kids of All Ages

20 Creative Writing Ideas for Kids of All Ages

Just because summer is here doesn’t mean the kids need to stop learning!  I wanted to make learning fun this summer so with the help of some friends I put together a list of 20 Creative Writing Ideas for Kids of All Ages.  My kids are all very creative, and...
Cincinnati Chili Spaghetti Pie

Cincinnati Chili Spaghetti Pie

Growing up in the Greater Cincinnati area makes it hard not to love “Cincinnati Style” Chili.  It’s not like your traditional hearty chili recipes, Cincinnati chili has a bit of sweetness to it and it’s perfect atop noodles and smothered with cheese.  We have our local preference on where to...
Sandusky:  Cedar Point and Hotel Breakers

Sandusky: Cedar Point and Hotel Breakers

Recently we made our first visit to Sandusky, Ohio for a long weekend spent at the Hotel Breakers.  While much of my time was spent learning great things at the Bloggy Conference, we also spent many hours exploring Cedar Point (known as the Roller Coaster Capitol of the World) getting...
Rowe Woods Cincinnati Nature Center

Rowe Woods Cincinnati Nature Center

The Rowe Woods Cincinnati Nature Center is one of my favorite places in the Greater Cincinnati area to spend a day in the woods exploring nature.  There are over sixteen miles of trails in Rowe Woods and they meander past a lake, over bridges, along boardwalks, over hills and through the...
Pesto Cream Cheese Dip

Pesto Cream Cheese Dip

You must know by now how much I love easy appetizer recipes.  Well here’s something you might not know about me, I cannot go to a party empty handed.  That’s where all of my easy appetizers come in…I have a collection of easy appetizers that I can throw together in no...
Spend a Day in Hamilton Ohio

Spend a Day in Hamilton Ohio

Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!  That being said, there’s still some good...
Our Chicago Vacation

Our Chicago Vacation

For Spring Break 2014 we took the kids on a mini-vacation to Chicago for three nights and four days. We crammed as much fun as we could into those four days and had adventures all over the Windy City. For our next trip, we may even take a trip to...
Five Easy Appetizers

Five Easy Appetizers

I have lots of favorite easy appetizer recipes, because I love making Hors d’oeuvres for any occasion.  Over the Thanksgiving weekend we had five different events going on!  So I had lots of easy appetizers to make.  I put together five of my favorite easy appetizers this weekend and thought...
Our Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes

Our Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes

My slow cooker is my best friend during a busy school week. I really don’t know what I’d do without it. If you don’t have one, I really recommend buying one! You can browse the best ones at somewhere like https://buyersimpact.co.uk/ to see if there are any that take your...
Cheap Date Nights in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky

Cheap Date Nights in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky

My husband and I value our date nights.  We have four children, we love said children, but we also cherish our alone time.  Sometimes we will jump at any chance to have a date night.  While we enjoy having nice dinners in swanky restaurants from time to time, we also...
Family Fun in Siesta Key & Sarasota

Family Fun in Siesta Key & Sarasota

Last year we took our family of six to Siesta Key for a long vacation.  We had so much fun exploring Siesta Key and the surrounding area, that I wanted to share my ideas for family fun in Siesta Key with you.  Our focus was mostly on beach lounging, so...
Getting Organized :: Children & Chores

Getting Organized :: Children & Chores

I am a stay at home mother of four children. I hate housework, but I also hate a messy house. It’s a frustrating way to live. And with five other people in this house with me, keeping up with the housework is a never ending task. My husband and I...
Walt Disney World with Kids :: Tips for a Fun Trip

Walt Disney World with Kids :: Tips for a Fun Trip

For Spring Break last year we took the family to Florida and spent three days at Walt Disney World. It was a blast! I was so thankful to have the tips & advice from friends and family before we went…I felt somewhat prepared for the special kind of chaos that...
Our Favorite Homemade Pizza Recipes

Our Favorite Homemade Pizza Recipes

Homemade Pizza with Salad is a favorite dinner around our house. I would venture to say we have homemade pizza on the menu almost every week. Homemade Pizza When Michael and I were first married he would make the dough and I would make the sauce, and we made some...
LEGO Birthday Party

LEGO Birthday Party

Last summer we had a big birthday celebration for all four kids at a local Civic Club. I wanted to find a common theme that they were all interested in, and settled upon a LEGO Birthday Party! They all love their LEGO blocks and especially their Minifigures. When I told...
Thirteen Ways to De-Stress

Thirteen Ways to De-Stress

I have days where I feel stressed & overwhelmed all day. There’s a huge amount of reasons, one is that I’ve just found out that I can get cheaper broadband deals with the help of someone like Usave, but there are many other things that are stressing me out. I’m...
Create Your Own Chihuly Sculpture

Create Your Own Chihuly Sculpture

Our family loves the arts, and we also love creating our own works of art. A few months back I read about a very cool art project for kids on the blog Mary Making and it inspired me to do a similar project with my children. The project was to...
Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs

Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs

Spaghetti and Meatballs is a quintessential comfort food, and a favorite at our house.  I found this recipe years and years ago and have tinkered with it over the years until I deemed it perfectly delicious.   This recipe is written for making mass amounts of sauce and meatballs…because I...
Latest entries
Star Wars at the Cincinnati Museum Center

Star Wars at the Cincinnati Museum Center

Did you know that Star Wars is at the Cincinnati Museum Center for a limited time only? If you are a fan of any sort of the Star Wars movies then I promise you that you will LOVE this exhibit! Star Wars and the Power of Costume is an exciting sneak peek behind the scenes...

Prosciutto Asparagus Appetizer

While planning an epic dinner party this summer I found a new favorite dish to make, a Prosciutto Asparagus appetizer.  The Prosciutto Asparagus appetizer was incredibly easy to put together.  The biggest downside is that they disappear in less time than it takes to cook them!  Everyone scarfed them up at every party I have...
Stingray Hideaway at the Newport Aquarium

Stingray Hideaway at the Newport Aquarium

Stingray Hideaway at the Newport Aquarium is now one of my favorite things about this aquarium!  It is such a cool space to hang out with stingrays!  You can stand over the pool and pet the sting rays, or go under the pool through a tunnel and up through a tube to watch the stingrays...
Chihuly at Maker's Mark

Chihuly at Maker’s Mark

If you are a fan of glass sculptures, Bourbon and Kentucky then you need to make a trip to see Chihuly at Maker’s Mark.  The renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly has brought a collection of his masterpieces to Loretto, Kentucky to be on display at the Maker’s Mark distillery for just a few short months....
Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

Recently we had the most amazing zoo visit ever.  We spent a day at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium with my cousin who is a vet extraordinaire.  We have had some crazy animal adventures with him in the past (read this post about The Wilds), but I had no idea what to expect when we...

The Stone Center of Kentucky

We visited The Stone Center of Kentucky this week and came home with 100 pounds of stones.  The reason for the visit to the Stone Center in Walton is an upcoming event at my preschool where we will be painting rocks with preschoolers from our community and their families.  We are going to create a...

Cincinnati Baby & Beyond Expo

The Cincinnati Baby & Beyond Expo is coming to town at the end of July and I have tickets to give away to THREE of my lucky readers! The Baby & Beyond Expo is a great place to find all things having to do with babies, toddlers, and young children. The Expo is a great...

Free Shakespeare in the Park presented by Cincy Shakes {2017}

We are huge fans of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company around here.  We have been to many, many shows over the years and we are looking forward to attending performances in their new theater that is opening this Fall!  But to bide our time until September we will have to amuse ourselves with some FREE performances...
A Birthday Party at the Happen Inc. Toy Lab in Northside

A Birthday Party at the Happen Inc. Toy Lab in Northside

Happen, Inc. is THE place to be if you want to create some crazy works of art and have an immense amount of fun.  Happen, Inc. is located in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati and offers really unique art experiences geared toward strengthening families and bringing the community together. Right next door to Happen, Inc....
Fibonacci Brewing Company

Fibonacci Brewing Company

For my fortieth birthday we spent some time celebrating at Fibonacci Brewing Company in Mount Healthy.  We arrived right as Fibonacci opened on a Sunday afternoon, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves for a little while until people started rolling in a  little later on.  The six of us played games that...

Wet Playgrounds of Hamilton County Open for Summer Fun

We belong to our local pool, but we also like to explore the community and find other places to play in water around town.  Our favorite sort of wet playgrounds are those that are FREE or CHEAP!  The Great Parks of Hamilton County have three wet playgrounds open to the public and the admission is...
10 Ideas for Preschool Fun with Water Beads

10 Ideas for Preschool Fun with Water Beads

Just before the school year ended I learned about the wonderful world of water beads.  My principal and our school’s Speech/Language Pathologists showed me their sensory bin full of these cool and soothing little beads of water.   I will not be able to properly describe to you how these water beads feel other than...