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Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!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
Chicago :: Museum of Science and Industry

Chicago :: Museum of Science and Industry

Chicago Vacation :: For Spring Break 2014 we took the kids 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.  I’m going to share our adventures with you in a series of installments so you can...
Menu Plan Monday {July 14}

Menu Plan Monday {July 14}

 Another Monday, another Menu Plan!  Check it out, do some pinning and then comment below and tell me what’s cooking at your house! Summer is full of pool dinners for us, because I just love going to the pool for dinner and wearing the kids out so they fall right to sleep when we get...
Disney Junior Live On Tour! Pirate &Princess Adventure  {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

Disney Junior Live On Tour! Pirate &Princess Adventure {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

Disney Junior Live will be rolling into Cincinnati in just a few weeks and they are bringing Pirates and Princesses along for the show!  If your little one is a fan of Jake from Neverland or Princess Sofia you are not going to want to miss this show!  I have a family four pack of...
Camp Wonderopolis at the Kenton County Public Library

Camp Wonderopolis at the Kenton County Public Library

The Kenton County Public Library just kicked off a brand new (FREE) program for families at the Covington location: Camp Wonderopolis.  Camp Wonderopolis is running for six weeks, from July 9th until August 13th 2014.  It is a great way for families to come together and learn about science.  The night that we attended we...
Kocanut Joe's Froyo Pops

Kocanut Joe’s Froyo Pops

Kocanut Joe’s Frozen Yogurt has a new product on the market, just in time for these hot summer days!  They now make frozen yogurt popsicles!  Since our family is a friend of KoJo’s and I’m always promoting them on social media we were given a few popsicles to take for a test drive.  We were...

Menu Plan Monday {July 7}

Did you enjoy that long holiday weekend?  We had a very busy and fun-filled weekend, we went on bike rides, visited the Loveland Castle, had a family game night, spent time at the pool with friends, went to the Northside Parade, had a cookout with family to celebrate the 4th and visited cousins on their...
The Loveland Castle

The Loveland Castle

Did you know that there is an actual castle in our area?  Just north of Cincinnati, in Loveland Ohio is the famous “Chateau Laroche” otherwise known as the Loveland Castle, which is the World Headquarters of the Knights of the Golden Trail which began in 1927.  The castle was built by hand by Harry Andrews,...
General Butler State Park

General Butler State Park

Every year our family explores at least one of Kentucky’s State Parks, and this year our mini-vacation was at General Butler State Resort Park in Carrollton, Kentucky.  The park is a little less than an hour away from our home in Northern Kentucky, which made for a nice and easy drive.  We spent three days...
The Northside 4th of July Parade

The Northside 4th of July Parade

The Northside 4th of July Parade is one of the most unique and eclectic parades in town.  It’s my favorite thing to do on the 4th of July!  The kids and I enjoyed the parade today and then spent the afternoon at the Rock N Roll Carnival frolicking on the playground, watching the skaters and...
Mini Egg Frittatas

Mini Egg Frittatas

Breakfast time can be a slap-dash mess at my house.  I feel like an under-paid waitress in a diner filled with grouchy customers in the mornings.  It’s all I can do to throw cereal bowls in front of them and get them out the door on time!  I’d rather be offering them a variety of...
Giles Conrad Park in Boone County

Giles Conrad Park in Boone County

We took a drive down the picturesque Route 8 last week to Giles Conrad Park in Boone County for a little bike riding.  Giles Conrad is a great little park that has bike trails that run alongside of the Ohio River, so the views are gorgeous.  There’s also a playground,fitness stations, soccer fields, and a creek...

Menu Plan Monday {June 30 2014}

For months I have fallen off the menu plan wagon, and our dinners have been haphazard at best.  I’ve decided to straighten things out, get organized and start planning our menu each week again.  Here’s to LESS eating out and MORE home-cooked meals!  Check out my recipe links below and for more inspiration visit my...