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Edit:  June 2023 – I have come to realize that this post has some outdated information so I have deleted places that have since closed in Hamilton and will endeavor to make a day trip to Hamilton to make some updates this summer!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

Easy No Knead Bread

Are you  looking for a super easy way to bake bread at home?  You should try this easy No Knead Bread recipe! Easy No Knead Bread Recipe No Knead Bread…my neighbor calls it “Ned bread” because Ned bakes it on a regular basis and Sam calls it “earth bread” because it’s round like the earth. ...

Menu Planning Monday ~ In Reverse

A while back I tried to start blogging about our dinner menus for the week at the beginning of the week.  It failed.  I think that the one week I did it I did not make one thing that was on my menu for the week.  It’s not that I’m not organized…because I am.  It’s...
A Night With the Cincinnati Rollergirls

A Night With the Cincinnati Rollergirls

 Have you ever been to a Roller Derby?  It’s an experience you should add to your bucket list, and get there soon!  The Cincinnati Rollergirls are AWESOME and we always have a blast when we go to see them!  For more information about game schedules, tickets, etc. visit the CRG Website. Cincinnati Rollergirls ::

My Favorite Time of Year :: May!

May is my favorite month of the year…the weather is finally starting to warm up (maybe a bit too much today…87° !), the flowers are starting to blossom, my birthday is this month (34 years old! there’s me as a newborn on the right), Mother’s Day is this month, and summer vacation is just around...

Snazzy Spider Tie GIVEAWAY! ~ CONTEST CLOSED

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!  Thanks for entering!  And congrats to our winner, PumpkinLady, who said… I want Big D to wear this tie!!! email me your address (katiecards-by-katiecom) 🙂  and to the rest of the readers, stay tuned, more giveaways coming this summer! Most mothers have to argue with, cajole & needle their sons to dress up for...

Happy Mother’s Day!

I want to give a shout out to all of the wonderful mamas in my life. Happy Mother’s Day! Especially my mama, who raised me right and made me who I am today.  She is my dear friend and confidante.  My role model.  The woman who still worries over me and cares for me like...

{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...

First Communions :: Then and Now

I had several hours this morning in which to clean the basement.  See, I need to clean the basement in order to organize all my stuff for my yard sale, which is next weekend.  But instead of cleaning, I got distracted by a box of old pictures.  I started scanning in pictures and before I...
Making Books with Children :: All About Me

Making Books with Children :: All About Me

Recently I taught a course for children entitled “Beyond Books”.  Each week I selected several books in the same category/theme/area of interest and planned activities based upon these books.  I tried to come up with fun, engaging & hands-on learning activities for the children.  My hope in this class was to encourage a love of...

Ella’s First Communion

My darling Ella Bella made her First Communion today, she looked like a little princess, and she was so very excited about this sacred event.  We followed the ceremony with a lunch at Mom and Dad’s house, and I was ever so thankful that the rain stayed away all afternoon so we could spend some...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!  I hope you’ve had a marvelous day!  We spent the day with loved ones, sloshing through the mud looking for eggs, eating way too many sweets, giggling, chatting, playing in the rain, making music, and feeling blessed.

Easter Eve: Getting Ready for Holidays

Today is “Easter Eve”.  I’m spending the day doing what I do the day before almost any major holiday…cleaning, preparing, organizing, list-writing, cooking, etc.  Just readying our family for the chaos that can come with holidays.  I feel like everyone is much happier going from place to place and missing naps if we are ready...