Family

Make time for your family this summer

June 29, 2011 by Jennifer 1 Comment

Is it me or is summer one of the fastest seasons? It seems we blink our eyes twice and poof summer is gone. Don’t let summer get away from you without creating special family memories. The evenings in the summer are perfect times to create those special memories. The sun goes down which means the temperatures usually go down as well.

In my family, we take nightly walks and have the best conversations. I am giving my kids my undivided attention without any technology around, and the girls just smile ear to ear with this mommy/daddy and daughter time.

Tonight, we took a walk through where we are staying at in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cool crisp air was so divine tonight. The girls were scoping out different areas and would yell “mommy, mommy, you have to take a picture of this.” The scenery in the mountains is breathtaking. See for yourselves:

We saw deer along our walk which were too fast for my camera, and even a swan on her nest.

Taking the nature walks really gets the girls into some fun conversations. It warms my heart to see how excited they get when seeing certain things. Make sure to take time this summer and do things as a family. Need help with ideas? I have 6 other ideas over on BabyCenter’s blog Momformation this week.

Enjoy your summer and create lots of fun memories!

Shepherd Hills of Branson MO gives thrill ride 170 feet in air

June 27, 2011 by Jennifer 6 Comments

We are back from one amazing trip to the midwest. Over the next few days, I will be writing about our journey to Branson, MO. Whoever said that Branson, MO was only for senior folks has definitely planted a myth. As a family of four, we had a blast.

Shepherd of the Hills was one of our stops in which it reminded me of a place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. The Shepherd of the Hills is an old homestead in which they have an outdoor drama that has been in existence since 1960. We were not able to see the show, but we sure were able to do other fun activities that can be found in and around the homestead.

First up, L being the huge animal lover she is, jumped right onto a pony. The smile did not leave her face the entire time.

The ponies are available for kids under age 7, since they are not able to ride the big horses. The big horses were tapping their feet (literally) waiting for M and I to take on a great adventure through the woods.

Once we were all saddled up, we headed into the hills. M took to the trails like she had been riding horses for years. Our guide asked how many times she had rode before and when he found out only once before, he was amazed. He said you are doing so good leading that horse, I will hire you if you come back when you get older. Of course, this made M’s day.

After the 45 minutes of going uphill and downhill through the trails, it was time to take the thrilling, get your blood pumping Ziprider. M and I had already two days earlier went on our first ziplining tour and did a free fall of 102 feet (more to come on that this week), so we were confident that the ziprider would be a piece of cake.

Harnesses were placed and all of a sudden, my nerves start. Am I crazy to be going 170 feet in the air? No way, let’s do it.

It literally felt like you were flying through the air. The smiles, the adrenaline rush, it was so worth it. It definitely gets your blood pumping. M just amazes me as she is such a big thrill seeker in the outdoors at even her age. We make a good team.

These fun outdoor activities can have you work up quite the appetite for sure. Shepherd of the Hills offers different meals on certain days. I was delighted to be a taste tester. One thing we noticed though, Branson sure does love chicken. It was a common denominator in most of the meals!

One thing for sure though, the chicken is always baked and not fried. They definitely were speaking my language with all the baked foods. Very delicious!

As we brought our day to an end, we went on a homestead tour to take a look back in time. A jeep serves as our ride and will take you through the old log cabin that was the original home of the character in Shepherd of the Hills book. The tour continues onto the second highest peak of Missouri which is Inspiration point. You will never know when a donkey will decide to up and cross your tour either so keep your eyes peeled.

So much fun all wrapped up in a half day. I was impressed of how family oriented and the employees taking their time to tell you all about the history. Definitely recommended stop when you are in Branson. I am told that Shepherd of the Hills is what started the tourist industry in Branson, MO. I can see why people would flock.

Verizon’s Cell Phone App Helps You Keep Track of Your Kids

June 23, 2011 by Jennifer 3 Comments

Most families now have several cell phones in their family. When is the right age for a child to get their first cell phone is a decision only your family can make. It will take lots of family talks and discussions to come up with the right age, but just make sure to make it a joint decision instead of the children making the decision for you. After having several discussions with my husband and I, we are going to give our oldest daughter a regular flip phone. She will only get the phone though when she is at a friends house, school event, or an event where my husband and I are not present. With today’s society, you can just never be safe enough, and we want to know she has a outlet to call us if anything ever happened. We are hoping nothing ever will happen though, but you can never be too safe.

Since, we are on Verizon, I was on the look-out for apps that will help keep her cell phone safe and secure. There are many apps that can be installed on your child’s cell phone, but one app I recommend is developed by Verizon. It is call the Family Locator. Listen up moms and dads at what all this app will allow you to do with your child’s cell phone.

You will always know where your child is either by using your cell phone or the web. The family locator app provides very detailed information, right down to the specific address where your child is. Also, it will allow you to follow them using turn by turn directions of where they are going. A parent is able to get a notification once they arrive at a specific location such as soccer practice and then another notification once they leave that specific location. The parent is able to set-up times throughout the day where the Family Locator will automatically update you where your child is at that specific time alert you set-up. If your child is not where they are suppose to be or you just need to message them, this app allows you to send a SMS message to their phone or to multiple phones.

This app really helps put parent’s minds at ease. This app will allow me to have much less anxiety attacks. There is a charge for this app, which is $9.99 for each phone that you install this app on. Honestly though, $9.99 is so cheap for all the features the app allows the parents to do. Technology is changing everyday, so I am sure we will be seeing even more apps like this launched across all cell phone companies.

What are your thoughts? Would you use this app on your child’s phone?

Let The Kids Use Imagination for Summer Fun

June 20, 2011 by Jennifer 2 Comments

Remember the yesteryears when the only technology we had in the house was a black and white television and an old typewriter. Those were the days right? How would our kids survive with so little technology? That is the question of the day parents, but in all seriousness, we are the ones creating technology monsters. Listen, I love technology, I mean… I really love technology, but there comes a point and time that we need to back track a little bit. Especially in these summer months, I will declare, it is no technology time during different parts of the day. The girls will either play a board game, jump rope outside, throw a ball and hopefully not bust a window, or sneak in their room and use their imagination by creating their own play or dance party.

Today was the creation of a dance party. The girls gave hubby and I our invites and told us the time to be there. Hubby and I showed up and were greeted at the girls play room door with the beautiful M. She had our tickets to all the activities at the dance party.

As we took our seats, the food bar was awaiting for us. All we had to do was turn our tickets in and we could have unlimited food the girls had set-up for us.

It was time to get this dance party started.

Of course, they had to pull an audience member, so they decided on mommy.

After so many laughs, smiles and dance moves the show had to come to an end but not before we went on a tour of the room to check out the beautiful dance party decor.

Hubby and I enjoy their little parties so much. We all will treasure these memories forever. Encourage your child’s imagination. It will bring a smile to everyone’s face!

Sid The Science Backyard Campout Fun

June 19, 2011 by Jennifer 3 Comments

Summer is a time to get outdoors with the family. We love the outdoors and are usually outside in the winter and summer. At least though in the summer, you don’t have to throw on layers. We were so excited this past weekend to host a Sid The Science Backyard Campout Fun. We did have a snafu though as with summer, you do get the unexpected storms. No problem, as we had a plan B. Look how much fun we had and you can join in on the fun as well.

M and L had created movie tickets for all the guests to give them as they arrived.

We started out with a game of softball. My M loves softball and she asked so sweet with those precious eyes if she could pretty please hold a game with all her friends. How can I say no?

The heat was on though so after a few hits at bat, all the kids were ready to dive into the pool to cool off.

This is where we received a call that the severe storms were heading our way, and we needed to seek shelter. No big deal as we just brought the campout fun indoors!

The kids worked up an appetite outdoors, so hot dogs were being served. No campout would be complete without hot dogs right? Since, we had to do them indoors, we were limited BUT look at this cute idea that Sid The Science has for roasting hot dogs outside.

Spider Dogs

Hot dogs
A knife
Ketchup
Mustard

Directions:

1. Take a hot dog and a knife and make slices from one end to the middle. Make about six slices.

2. Take a clean stick or long fork and insert into the middle of the opening made from the slicing.

3. Cook over the campfire until the hot dog is slightly brown. The different sections made should curl up to resemble a spider.

4. Remove from fire and dip into condiments if desired.

Such a cute idea. Our kids were happy though with our indoor cook-out.

After hot dog fun, the girls were all set to sing some campfire songs to get them in the spirit of almost show time for the big debut of “Sid’s Backyard Campout.”

We roasted the marshmallows in the oven under broil and it was s’mores time!

All the kids gathered their s’mores and moved to our indoor screening area. It was show time folks for the “Sid’s Backyard Campout“. We were so thankful, we were able to do the projector inside since the weather outside was down right frightful. Thanks to the cool i-Go Projector. Everyone was amazed how this little pocket projector was putting out such a clear picture.

The kids loved it and had so many laughs throughout the whole movie. You can watch the whole movie today on PBS Kids in your local viewing area.

Have fun this summer and create your own Sid The Science Backyard family fun as well. Let the backyard fun begin 🙂

Disclosure: Thank you to PBS for sending me the blankets and iGo in order to host this fun campout party. I was not compensated and all thoughts and opinions are of my own.

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