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Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!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
CUBA: Journey to the Heart of the Caribbean at the OMNIMAX

CUBA: Journey to the Heart of the Caribbean at the OMNIMAX

The OMNIMAX at the Cincinnati Museum Center has a new show opening this week and you are not going to want to miss it.  CUBA: Journey to the Heart of the Caribbean fits an amazing amount of information into just forty minutes of footage and stories that will captivate you from the opening scenes to...
The Cincinnati Preservation Association's One Great House Tour 2019

The Cincinnati Preservation Association’s One Great House Tour 2019

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the One Great House Tour sponsored by the Cincinnati Preservation Association.  Each spring this is one of my favorite traditions.  I love to witness the beauty and unique features of architecture of homes in our region.  Each year a different neighborhood is spotlighted for...
3rd Turn Oldham Gardens & Backside Grill

3rd Turn Oldham Gardens & Backside Grill

Recently we visited 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens just outside of Louisville, Kentucky and immediately loved the place and their brews!   We spent a few hours there tasting their craft brews, dining at the Backside Grill and playing board games with the kids. 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens How we arrived at this off the beaten path...
Broadway in Cincinnati Presents: Miss Saigon

Broadway in Cincinnati Presents: Miss Saigon

We had the pleasure of seeing Miss Saigon and all her glory at the Aronoff Center for the Arts presented by Broadway in Cincinnati.  This show was spectacular and made us feel all of our emotions from sadness to joy and everything in between in just a few hours.  The music, the set, the theatrics...
Baked Chicken Fajita Recipe

Baked Chicken Fajita Recipe

I have been working on this baked Chicken Fajita Recipe for a long time and has become a regular on our menu rotation.  This recipe is so easy to make and cooks quickly in the oven, or can be thrown into an aluminum pan and cooked on the grill or cooked over a campfire.  Any...

Broadway in Cincinnati Presents: On Your Feet

Was the Cincinnati on Broadway Show ‘On Your Feet‘ a Musical or was it a dance party?  It was hard to tell!  I will say one thing…On Your Feet the Broadway Musical left me with a deep feeling of regret.  And that was regret that I never saw Gloria Estefan live in concert.  But if...
A Day of Fun at the Cincinnati Museum Center

A Day of Fun at the Cincinnati Museum Center

The Cincinnati Museum Center is returning in full glory after a long hiatus!  For the past few years the Museum Center has been undergoing some extensive and impressive restorations.  The restorations are wrapping up in phases with everything poised to be open to the public throughout the year this year.  We had an opportunity to...
Libby's Southern Comfort Restaurant in Covington

Libby’s Southern Comfort Restaurant in Covington

Friends, I am here to tell you that Libby’s Southern Comfort in Covington is the bees knees and you need to get yourself there soon!  I broke one of my cardinal restaurant rules last week and went to Libby’s Southern Comfort restaurant just weeks after it opened.  I usually  like to give new restaurants a...
Bockfest Cincinnati Parade 2019

Bockfest Cincinnati Parade 2019

Tonight we attended the parade like no other….. the Bockfest Parade in Over the Rhine.  The Bockfest Parade kicked off the 27th  Bockfest weekend, a weekend of celebrating Bock Beer, Brewing and Goats.  Oh, and somehow Soft Pretzels fit into the equation as well.  There are so many things going on this weekend related to...
The City Goat in Covington

The City Goat in Covington

Lately one of our go to restaurants for dinner is the City Goat in Covington. Their menu has something for everyone, so no matter what you are in the mood for you can find something delicious to dine on. They have salads, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, wings and also some amazing appetizers. Since they opened last...
Hamilton in Cincinnati:  Digital Ticket Lottery

Hamilton in Cincinnati: Digital Ticket Lottery

If you have been unsuccessful in your quest to find Hamilton in Cincinnati seats you are in luck – there is going to be a digital ticket lottery!  And it starts this weekend!  Hamilton arrives in Cincinnati next week and Broadway in Cincinnati is giving you a chance to purchase tickets in their digital lottery...
Easy Baguette Appetizer Recipe

Easy Baguette Appetizer Recipe

For my work holiday party I came up with an easy baguette appetizer recipe that was not just simple to make but ever so flavorful!   “Easy” was the key word because our work party started immediately after school on the last day of school before winter break.  So I  did not have much time that...