Have a Great Family Day at the Liberty Science Center! {Ticket Giveaway} #SpringBreakLSC

My family recently spent a fun-filled day at the Liberty Science Center as part of #SpringBreakLSC with Jersey Moms Media. The Liberty Science Center is one of our favorite places in New Jersey to spend a day. It's a great place for a family outing because there are exhibits and activities for kids of all ages, not to mention plenty of interest for adults, too. 

There were several new exhibits to check out at the Liberty Science Center since our last visit:

Sesame Street Presents: The Body -- open now through May 3, 2015, this is a wonderful exhibit for kids ages 2-8, filled and lots of Sesame Street fun and lots of hands-on opportunities for learning, with 17 different activities throughout the exhibit that has three areas that cover Your Outsides, Your Insides and Staying Healthy. 

Highlights for my kids included Oscar's Sneeze Machine (pull the lever to make a giant sneeze) and meeting the furry red monster:

You can find a full list of dates when you can Meet Elmo here.

Beyond Rubik's Cube - open just until Sunday, April 19, 2015, so catch it while you can! This exhibit is the first museum  exhibition about the Rubik's Cube, and is 7,000 square feet of games, puzzles and more devoted solely to the history, art and engineering of this amazing cube.

From the LSC.org site - I have no idea how they did the animation.

Infinity Climber - this relatively new addition to the museum described as "one structure, infinite possibilities" is an incredible play space high above the atrium floor. Made from curved steel pipes and individual platforms to step on, it is the first suspended climbing play space of its kind. Don't worry - the whole area is coverd with protective mesh wire so there's no fear of falling climbers. Please note if you are going with younger kids there is a 42 inch height requirement.

Other favorites from our day at the Liberty Science Center included the Touch Tunnel (the most popular exhibit there) and Our Hudson Home (don't miss seeing the Harbor Tank with live fish!).

** Experience a family day of fun and learning at the Liberty Science Center **

Enter to win a Family Four Pack of tickets to the Liberty Science Center!

Thanks to the generosity of Liberty Science Center, one lucky winner will win four passes to visit the Liberty Science Center. Enter here. Entries close Monday, March 30, 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I received admission for my family and me as well as promotional items and a travel stipend. All opinions are my own.

For more photos and coverage, look for #SpringBreakLSC on Twitter and Instagram!

My Five Best Travel Tips for Families

Taking a trip with the kids? While I have no tips on making them be perfectly behaved on the airplane flight, or adventurous diners in new locales, I do have a few travel tips from our family trips:

1. Pack Downey Wrinkle Releaser. This stuff actually works, and is great to de-wrinkle clothes after they've been packed in your suitcase. You can get Downey Wrinkle Releaser in three sizes, including one that's small and perfect for travel. It also helps eliminate odors which is a feature that can come in handy on a trip, too.

2. Bring something fun for the kids to play with that's new to them. Even if your kids usually pass the time while traveling with screens and books, it's always fun to bring along something unexpected to capture their amusement for awhile. A friend told me about surprise balls, and they are the perfect addition to a trip. Surprise balls are filled with trinkets and candy, and kids have to peel away the layers of streamers to reveal the treats. My kids, ages 5 to 11, loved unwrapping their surprise balls. We got our from Reveries & Fancies on Etsy, and they were perfect ($8 - $18 depending on size, lots of fun designs available).

Another great pick for a travel to is the Tegu Pocket Pouch Prism ($25), which is a set of six magnetic blocks with a carrying case that is just the right size for on-the-go fun and is good for all ages.

3. Make sure your kids carry a bag. Depending on their age, this may be more for their own amusement, but as they get older you'l find that even a small bag shouldered by a kid is one less bag being shouldered by you. There are so many cute options for kids from backpacks to tiny duffel bags, to rolling suitcases. One innovative option is Trunki ($40) which is a ride on suitcase made just for kids.

4. Make sure you can find your stuff. Tie a ribbon on the suitcase handle, add a stripe of colorful Duck Tape to the side of the bag, but nothing is worse than arriving at your destination and having to hunt for your luggage. I love these whimsical luggage tags from Miamica ($5).

5. Look for discounts on museums and other attractions ahead of time. I had no idea there were so many deals if you buy tickets before you go, not to mention that a ticket in hand often means you can avoid entrance lines. CityPASS is a great deal, offering significant discounts when you purchase a book with entrance to multiple places within a single city. You can buy CityPASS online for various cities including Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta and Philadelphia. The price and number of attractions varies in each city, but all offer big savings as well as the ability to bypass most lines.

I received a free sample of Downey Wrinkle Releaser and a Manhattan CityPASS. All other items our personal picks from years of traveling with my kids.

Disney Goes On the Road to Philadelphia - and so do I!

Last month I was invited to join in a truly magical day - the Philadelphia stop of the Disney On the Road Social Media Moms Celebration.

The buzz online prior to the event had my expectations pretty high, so I was thinking to myself how the event would never live up to the hype. But of course like all things Disney are amazing, so was this event.

It was my first Disney Social Media Moms event, and it was friendly, incredibly well-run, and full of surprises, too.

I also got to meet in real life many New Jersey bloggers I had only known from our online interactions, so that was one of the big highlights of the day. Here we are showing our Disney Side with a side of Jersey!

Another highlight was getting to meet Debra from The Harried Mom and Gary Buchanan, who does PR & Social Media for Walt Disney World & Disney Parks.

At the event there were several fantastic speakers, including a few from Disney who are experts in social media, blogging and online engagement in general. Here are just a few of the many tips I learned at the conference:
- Always, always, always take video horizontally. It's a simple rule, but it's an important one, too.
- When possible, write posts as a series on your blog. A series on a specific topic really pulls readers in and keeps them there.
- Provide the background and history behind things - people love getting the full story.
- Look for sneak peaks and insider information you can give your readers. Anything that is news about what's coming in the future, what goes on behind the scenes or that readers can't get anywhere else is very compelling content.

Speaking of which, here's some Disney insider information I got at the conference:
- There are lots of cool changes coming to Disney Parks, like the recently opened New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, which also includes a brand-new parade, The Festival of Fantasy, filled with music and dancing.
- Also recently opened is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, an adventurous family coaster (riders must be at least 39 inches).
- Disney always has ongoing re-imaginings (that's Disney-speak for remodeling) in its restaurants and other spaces.
- Disney has a commitment to creating interactive queues which themselves are part of the ride experience, and as a mother with 3 young children, I couldn't be in more support of that very important initiative.

Thank you Disney for a truly magical experience at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in Philadelphia, I even got to meet Mickey!

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this post or attend the event. I did receive a fabulous gift bag for attending.

Month In Review: It's July Already?!

How is it already July?! It seems like just yesterday the blank slate of June was in front of me, and all of my good intentions to scritch scratch my entire to do list off during my self-declared Being a Grown-Up Month.

Being a Grown-Up Month was an epic fail: I got nothing done. But in my defense, Being a Grown-Up Month's success was stymied by all the things I had to do because I am in fact already a grown-up, so I'm giving up on the idea - at least for now. July and August are no time for being a grown-up in general, let alone for tackling endless lists of things to do. (Unless your my husband, in which case you should feel free to get on all those home repair projects I like to nag you about right away.)

Last week, we took our annual family vacation to Delmarva which was great as it always is, photographic evidence here:

You may notice the absence of any photos of Magpie - she missed our trip because she is at sleep away camp, and while I want to think she is sad to have missed it the numerous photos from camp say otherwise, as does this letter in which she spends the entirety of it making her case to stay at camp longer.

 

In case you can't read it, the last line is "I miss you... sarcastic font."

In addition to taking a vacation, I also wrote some stuff, including:

Golf Courses About in the Westfield Area - public and private courses as well as where to mini-golf!

Music, Movies and More - Summertime Fun in and Around Westfield - so many fabulous events and things to do for families, most of them free!

Great Stationery for Sleepaway Camp - there are tons of awesome ideas for camp stationery, but not so many ideas on how to get your kids to actually use it.

And last, but not least, I won a VOTY! If you aren't a blogger, this will definitely mean nothing to you (and if you are a blogger, it probably still doesn't mean anything to you) but all the same, getting the email that my post I'd Like to Thank the Academy was one of twenty selected by BlogHer as a "Voice of the Year" in the humor category was better than another email from a Nigerian Prince about my riches that never seem to materialize. Way better.

Click here to read the full list of VOTY winners.

And Happy July!

Wordless Wednesday: Kids Chillin' in Florida

We spent Thanksgiving in Florida visiting my Dad.

We had a great time, we were all happy to see Grandpa (and he, us of course), the warm weather was delightful, and we got to introduce the kids a lot of cool stuff in Florida - a trip to Miami, a visit to famous beaches, and grits and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast.

But I think one of their favorite memories will be of just chillin' in the big hammock.

Ah, to be a kid...

Kay and Big Duckie

When we were on vacation at the beach we had one particularly long rainy day, so we spent part of the afternoon taking photos of Kay and Big Duckie (don't ask how that guy got to come along on our family vacation).

She's emulating a once (very) popular website, which I think goes back as far as the 1990s. I don't think we called it a blog back then, but that's what it was.

I just checked and the site is still alive, although the last two updates were once in 2008 and once in 2006. Let's hope he (or she) has gone on to bigger and better things.

Does anyone else remember this site, or am I the only one who was a fan?

Linking-up to Finding the Funny at Kelley's Breakroom and My Life and Kids. Check it out, you'll laugh (not cry).