Last Friday, I boarded a plane with Charles in tow and headed for Orlando. A few weeks ago, I was invited (along with 15 other mom bloggers) to attend an expense paid trip to Disney World. Disney’s goal in hosting this event was to bring together “popular mom bloggers” and begin a dialogue that allows them to understand and support what mom bloggers do. Read the rest »

This weekend, baby Charles and I are headed to Disney! A small group of mom bloggers from around the country have been invited to an all expense paid trip sponsored by BSM Media and Disney World for the first ever Disney World Mom Blog Mixer. The itinerary is a surprise, but a little birdy tells me they’re pulling out all the stops.

I’ll share pictures and video and tell you more about it next week. In the meantime, here are the great websites and blogs of the women who are making the trek to Orlando on Friday. Take a look and enjoy! Read the rest »

Packing. And unpacking. That’s how it felt anyway.

In the past few weeks of our post-Kindergarten, first ever school-free summer (since you need to have started school to be out of school), my daughter Clare, my wife and I spent a week vacationing at the beach and took a few other day trips to places like parks, museums and zoos. For the whole summer, it seemed, we were either getting ready to go somewhere or just getting back.

It may sound like I’m exaggerating, but you parents know that packing and preparing to go out—even for a day—can just about fill another day. You know you do.

When I was single, I’d leave the house for a day with no more than the clothes I was wearing and my wallet. What guy needed anything else? For an overnight trip, I’d drop a change of clothes and a toothbrush into a backpack. Going away for a week didn’t take much more than a bigger backpack. It made getting away a lot easier and more spontaneous. Now, with only one kid, I take more going out for a few hours than I used to take for a weekend away. Going somewhere overnight with my daughter is the equivalent of packing for a week as a single guy. And a week’s vacation with kids—that’s the equivalent of moving. I’m serious. I used to move apartments with less than we take on vacation now. I could fit all of it into the back of a van—and I didn’t need one of those cartop Big Mac-type carriers for extra stuff. Read the rest »

Maybe I watched JAWS once too many times and as a result I have a curious love/hate relationship with these animals. At the beach, I incessantly scan the horizon for fins and constantly try to get my kids closer to shore, yet every time a shark/human encounter makes headlines, I obsessively tune in!

The good news is shark attacks are rare and infrequent. Sharks are generally not bloodthirsty maniacal killers. Considering that tens of thousands of people come in close contact with sharks each year while swimming, surfing, or boating, numbers of shark attacks are negligible. Still, if you are concerned about your kids in the ocean, here are some simple tips to avoid a ‘close encounter’ with a shark: Read the rest »

With summer in full swing, it’s time for road trips and that means trying to keep the kids entertained in the car for long chunks of time. When you’ve had all you can take of the Wheels on the Bus and Nemo, be the hero when you pull out a cool activity pack from Four Peas.

Parentrepreneur and owner of Four Peas, Casey Basa, is a former teacher and the mother of four girls. The idea for the activity packs came to her because she needed something to keep her children busy when they were out and about. Read the rest »

Trips and excursions with the kids can be a ton of fun and the basis for great family memories. They are also potentially stressful times for mom and dad. Nobody wants to be the parents of the kid who screams the whole flight or throws food at the restaurant; you also don’t want to waste your time with a vacation or day trip to someplace that isn’t going to be fun the whole family. While we can’t help with the in-flight tantrum or food fight, we can suggest a great website for making sure your excursions are kid friendly. Read the rest »

One of America’s top outdoor destinations and the country’s fifth largest city, it is not an accident that Phoenix is home to several of the best destination resorts located in the United States. Explore desert parks and lakes, tour archaeology ruins and historic gold mining towns, or visit one of the many the museums and state-of-the-art sporting facilities.

From Surprise to Apache Junction, the twenty distinct communities that make up the greater Phoenix area offer visitors everything from the slow-paced rural southwest to a bustling college atmosphere. Whether your interest is sports or archaeology, history or hiking, biking, horseback riding, or bird watching Phoenix offers something for everyone not wanting to venture beyond the Valley of the Sun. Read the rest »