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Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!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

Menu Plan Monday ~ November 4

Here’s what we dined on last week at our house…several tasty recipe links for you to use to find menu planning inspiration!  Also check out my Recipe Archives and OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday Roundup!Here’s Last Week’s Menu ::BBQ Chicken with Mashed Potatoes & BeansPhilly Cheesesteak Pizza with SaladHotdogs & Fruit (Disney on Ice Night!)Baked Rigatoni...

The Cake Boss is Coming to Cincinnati! {CLOSED}

This giveaway is now CLOSED – congrats to Linda S. who said “I LOVE Cake Boss and would love to win tickets to the show.”.  You have 24 hours to contact me Linda to claim your prize!  Katie(at)Cards-by-Katie.com If you are a fan of the Cake Boss (aka: Buddy Valastro) then you are going to...

Day of the Dead :: Sugar Skull Skirt & Fun Activities

Today is what is known as Dia de  Muertos, or “Day of the Dead” in Mexico.  This is the time that families come together to pray for friends and family members who have died.  It is, in my opinion, a beautiful way to celebrate and remember those who are no longer with us.  Sugar skulls...

Our Evening at Disney on Ice :: 100 Years of Magic & Meeting our Favorite Mice!

We attended the opening night of Disney on Ice’s 100 Years of Magic Show on Wednesday.  Our friend Adam, with Feld Entertainment set up a fabulous event for local bloggers, and we were lucky enough to meet Mickey and Minnie in person!!!  The kids were so tickled by that!  And by the swag bags…they loved...
Easy Food Processor Salsa

Easy Food Processor Salsa

Tis the season for tomatoes! And fresh tomatoes in my kitchen means SALSA! I thought I made the perfect salsa recipe last summer, but no…this one beats it! And it’s super easy to make. You can pretty much chuck everything in your Best Food Processor and you’ve created a delicious work of art. I took...

Minecraft Unplugged at The Carnegie

There’s an art class for every interest out there…as evidenced by the class Max and Sam just finished up at The Carnegie in Covington: Minecraft Unplugged. It was as if this class had been tailored for my boys. They were given wooden blocks, other assorted odds and ends, paint, glue guns, etc and encouraged to...

KCPL’s Renovations at the Covington Library

Last week I was invited to a special event for bloggers at the Kenton County Public Library’s Covington Branch. We got a sneak peek at all of the changes that have been happening at the library since they started remodeling and expanding two years ago. After all the hard work, and now that the dumpsters...
McGlasson's Farm in Boone County

McGlasson’s Farm in Boone County

McGlasson’s Farm in Boone County is a favorite of mine, as I’ve been visiting them since I was a child to find the perfect pumpkin each year.  I loved taking a drive in the country along Route 8 (River Road) with my family when I was young, and then in a pickup truck with Michael...

Camping Menu Plan Monday ~ October 14

It was a wild week for us!  But yet we had lots of great meals!  Our week last week included lots of running now that after school extracurricular activities are in full swing, and we also went camping at the Natural Bridge State Park since the kids had a few days off of school for...

Disney On Ice: 100 Years of Magic {GIVEAWAY – CLOSED}

Congrats to Michelle Meiners who said…Monsters Inc Scully and Mike 🙂 for her favorite characters.  Michelle, email me within 24 hours to claim your prize! Remember when I told you that Disney on Ice is skating back in to town this month?  Well here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…I have a...
Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I have found a great brussels sprouts recipe to make at home that takes no time to prepare and tastes delicious. Roasted Brussels Sprouts I really should have entitled this post…”How I came to love Brussels Sprouts”.  I was at Wunderbar in Covington years ago and my friend Nicole gave me a taste of her...

The Children’s Theatre presents Annie Jr. {GIVEAWAY – CLOSED}

This giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to Vickie J. who said…Being different and a having a lot of energy. Vickie, I need to hear from you within 24 hours to claim your prize!!! Annie was one of my favorite movies growing up.  I wanted to BE Annie!  I didn’t necessarily want to be an orphan,...