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Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!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

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama:  A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see....

My Dining Room

Our house was built in the early 1950’s by my husband’s grandfather. It is the home that my father-in-law grew up in. We lived here when we first got married (in the upstairs apartment), and then moved away for a couple years. In 2006 Michael’s grandmother moved to an apartment in an assited living home...

Menu Plan Monday ~ In Reverse ~ January 16

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com, but unlike most of the other participants who plan their menus and post them that week, I’m always a bit behind, and I post my menus a week later. I do this so that I can let you know if I try a new recipe and...

Sunday in a Nutshell

Here’s our Sunday…in a nutshell henry wandered around making this completely innocent face while looking for things to get into explore The older brothers worked together Henry got mad at his Mommy.  Repeatedly.  Toddlerhood is a tough run! Another puzzle…robots! Robots took over for a while… Mama made note cards: Ella worked on an essay for class...

Pinterest and other Random Ramblings…

I’ve become obsessed with Pinterest.  Are you obsessed?  If you hang out on Pinterest be sure to look for me: TheLittleThings Mama! Also, while I have your ear, I’d like to say thank you to all of my readers for checking in here and reading all of my ramblings.  I’m looking forward to a fabulous...

Henry’s Hats

When we are getting ready to leave the house on cold days I put Henry’s coat on him and then tell him to go get his hat.  He scampers off and grabs his hat and puts it on. This is one of his winter hats: Some days though he’s just not in the mood for...

Menu Plan Monday ~ January 9

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com, but unlike most of the other participants who plan their menus and post them that week, I’m always a bit behind, and I post my menus a week later. I do this so that I can let you know if I try a new recipe and...

The Greatest Show On Earth

I just wanted to give my readers a bit of a heads up…coming soon (in March) the Greatest Show on Earth will be coming to Cincinnati!   Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus presents Fully Charged, and yours truly has a discount for you to use on your tickets AND in the very near future I will...

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama: A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see....

Disney Live :: Three Fairy Tales :: Giveaway :: CLOSED

Giveaway Closed: It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for!  Here are the two lucky winners of the Disney Live tickets: haley oc said…I shared it with Frank’s sister, who has a 3 year old HUGE princess fan at home! and Anonymous said…My daughter’s fav is Snow White, I prefer Cinderella!  suz_ludeman@yahoo.com Congrats!  Send me...
The Games We Play...

The Games We Play…

We’ve been playing games of all sorts lately…card games, board games, lego games, made-up games and more. What are some of your family’s favorite games? Our Favorite Games :: The aMAZEing Labyrinth CandyLand The Enchanted Forest (we LOVE Ravensburger games!) Scrabble The Silly Faces Game (perfect for TODDLERS!) Ticket To Ride (such a great game!!!)...

Calling All Princesses….

Stay tuned Disney fans, I have a fabulous giveaway coming soon!  Here’s a little hint: That’s right, the Disney Princesses are coming to town!  Prepare to step into a world of wonder where wishing is only the beginning and dreams really do come true in Disney Live! presents Three Classic Fairy Tales. Join Mickey, Minnie,...