‘Kid-friendly’ Articles at Sweetnicks, Page 2

Visit: Bird Kingdom {Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada}

July 20, 2017 · Narrative

A sweet little place to stop when you’re visiting Niagara Falls in Canada … let’s pop into Bird Kingdom.

Any time we’re traveling, I always keep my eyes open for places where we can visit animals. Whether it be a zoo, aquarium, sanctuary, or something completely different, it’s something both my kids like (especially the nine-year-old who is still aspiring to be a vet when she grows up!), so when I spotted references to the Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls, I added it to our Spring Break list.

Bird Kingdom was located just a few miles from where we were staying, slightly on the outskirts of the major touristy area, and boasts the world’s largest free-flying indoor aviary. It was easy to find, and they have their own parking garage (albeit small), and will validate. The fact that it was a covered and attached parking garage was a bonus because it was pouring when we visited.

We checked in at the front desk, got our hands stamped, and started our self-guided tour. As much as I love the information a tour guide can impart, I equally love the go-at-your-own-pace of a self-guided tour, especially since we were a group of 8.

The name “Bird Kingdom” is a bit of a misnomer because while the majority of the animals ARE birds, there are other animals there as well (including turtles, bearded dragons, pythons, and more). We toured all the different areas, reading information on the different species as we went, but there were two areas that I was most looking forward to … one spot was where we could hold a parrot, and another was when we could enter a large enclosure, and feed birds as they swarmed around you and landed on you. I love these types of activities because it’s what sets this place apart from other places, and it’s something completely different for the kids.

Because, really … how often do you get to hold a small cup of sugar water and have birds swarm all over you??? I swear it was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, but in a completely fun and OMG way. And totally worth the extra $2 per person charge (you can go in the room for free; the extra $2 was if you want to hold the sugar water and feed the birds). Maddie was a little reticent to do it at first (I don’t blame her!), but usually after I say I’ll do something, she’ll do it … because I’m the biggest scaredy cat of them all! (And it’s totally why I was the one petting the tarantula when we visited this place, and this past week, I was the first to pet a chinchilla because YOLO!).

Outside of these two special and different experiences, Bird Kingdom reminded me a little of RainForest Adventures, a similar place we visited when we were in Tennessee a few years ago. Similar set up and vibe, but different animals.

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Visit: Seneca Park Zoo {Rochester, New York}

April 25, 2017 · Narrative

A quiet zoo in upstate New York, it’s the perfect place to visit for a bit of family fun.

So, last week we were in Canada for a few days (more on that coming soon), and we decided to overnight in Rochester, New York on the way home. When we were eating breakfast in the hotel the next morning, I checked out what was in the area, as we wanted to poke around a bit before heading home. I saw that we were less than ten miles away from the Seneca Park Zoo, a zoo that we haven’t been to, and with my kids, a zoo is usually a sure thing.

Well, it turns out Nick wasn’t in the mood for a zoo, but he also wasn’t keen on my follow-up suggestions of the Jell-O or brewery museums, so with a little gentle coaxing, we were off to the zoo, which pretty much put my 9-year-old in seventh heaven. Because if it involves any kind of animals, she’s all in (and once we got there, Nick admitted that it was a good stop, so win/win).

It was really easy to find and parking is free (hurrah for small wins!), and we were lucky enough to find a space near the entrance. I didn’t want to spend the entire day there, because we still had a 4+ hour drive home, but when I saw people leaving at 11:30 am, when the zoo only opened at 10, I figured it was the perfect size for the time we had, and I was right.

It’s bigger than Turtleback Zoo, but smaller than the Bronx Zoo, which made it exactly what we wanted. The zoo was also laid out in a very simple and straight-forward manner. No traipsing all over to find animals you missed, it was actually one of the most cleanly laid out zoos we’ve visited.

They had a good assortment of animals, both big and small, and they had a good mix of animals that you would typically see in a zoo, like elephants and lions, along with animals that you don’t see quite as often, like hyenas and Golden Lion Tamarin. And to be honest, the breadth of animals there didn’t matter because we seriously could have stayed and watched the baboons and otters for hours. HOURS.

The otter was so adorable and obsessed in doing laps. He looked so zen swimming back and forth in his area, he would swim towards us with his face up, and turn around at the end and flip over and swim back the other way on his back. It was the cutest thing ever.

And the baboons? Well, they were so hysterical to watch. So interactive with each other. Whether they were cleaning their nails, looking for bugs in each other’s fur, or chasing their friends around their enclosure, they were just funny, and it was hard to tear ourselves away.

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Visit: Desert of Maine {Freeport, Maine}

March 9, 2017 · Narrative

A forty acre desert in the middle of a pine forest in Maine? Yep, it actually exists. Let’s check it out.

Last year, my kids and I trekked up to Maine to visit Sarah and her kids. Although she moved to Maine a few years ago, we try and make an effort to see each other, and are actually fairly successful with 2-3 visits a year in various states. Because, have car, will travel.

My daughter, Madeline, had Maine in her sights and desperately wanted to visit, so it was the perfect opportunity to combine it with a social call on Sarah and her crew. Despite my sister going to college and getting married in Maine (and her and her family, and our parents making several annual visits to Maine), Maddie has never been. A wrong that surely must be righted.

And despite all my own visits to Maine while my sister was in college, I had actually never heard of the Desert of Maine, which is surprising because it’s actually a pretty popular attraction.

In the late 1700’s, the Tuttle family lived on a 300 acre farm. They were quite the farming family, and produced potatoes and hay for many years. Unfortunately they neglected to rotate crops, and with so much acreage, massive soil erosion became a problem, and ultimately exposed this hidden desert underneath. They tired, without success, to control the land and bring their farm back to its glory, but the spreading sand was out of control, and the Tuttle family eventually surrendered to nature … and the overwhelming amount of sand … and let the desert take over the property. One of their original buildings, the barn, still sits on the property to this day, and, over the years, the Desert of Maine has become a popular tourist attraction.

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Visit: The Raptor Trust {Long Hill Township, New Jersey}

December 5, 2016 · Narrative

A quaint and quiet animal sanctuary tucked into Long Hill Township, let’s pay a visit to Raptor Trust.

For as long as I can remember, at least the last twenty years, I have been recommending the Raptor Trust to anyone that needs a place to take an injured bird. Particularly wild birds.

A request that comes up more frequently than you’d think.

Having grown up in the vicinity, the Raptor Trust was a place I knew about and trusted, and they do amazing things to help injured birds heal, and give them a quiet place to live safely.

And despite the fact that you can also visit and see the birds that live there … I have never taken my kids there!

A wrong that definitely needed to be righted.

And so when I promised Madeline and her friends a fun outing recently, I went through my list of “fun things to do with the kids,” looked up the Raptor Trust’s hours, and away we went.

Nestled in the rural area of Long Hill Township, the sanctuary is very easy to find and parking is plentiful. It is free admission, though donations to continue their important work is very much appreciated, and they are solely funded by these donations.

As the girls ran from cage to cage, they were so excited to see all the different birds living there.

I mean, BALD EAGLES!

The most majestic birds ever. I could have sat there and watched them for hours. Just so amazing to see so up close.

But so sobering to know they were there because they had been found injured. Many of them had been shot. One was missing a wing. It’s awful that they were hurt like that, but thank goodness a place like Raptor Trust exists. It’s just sad that it HAS to exist.

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Recipe: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

September 26, 2016 · Narrative

Dainty morsels of goodness, these Cinnamon Roll Muffins are a delicious way to start the day.

Over the summer, I taught several week-long cooking camps. We started out each week getting to know each other, talking about basic kitchen rules and hygiene, the importance of measuring ingredients properly and following recipes, and then each day, we would make a few recipes together. Towards the middle of the week, once the kids had a handle on measuring and following directions, I would give them copies of the recipes and they were on their own.

Giving kids a recipe and letting them do it all by themselves from start to finish is a big thing, both for me AND for them. Yet it really was amazing to watch them … figuring things out as they went along … but most importantly, seeing their confidence shine when they realized that they made something amazing ALL BY THEMSELVES. The pride when they told their parents what they had made, and shared the finished product at the end of the day was awesome to watch.

I mean, look at those faces above! That says it all right there.

I’m a big fan of making a batch of muffins over the weekend so the kids have a great grab-and-go breakfast for our busy mornings during the week, and these Cinnamon Roll Muffins were perfect, and one of the recipes my campers made over the summer. Nick loves cinnamon rolls, so he got a little of that flavor with these muffins, and Madeline doesn’t love cinnamon rolls, but does like muffins. Which means I managed to satisfy both of them with one easy recipe.

Twenty minutes from start to finish, using basic ingredients that you likely have in your kitchen, these muffins are light, slightly sweet, and perfect for a quick breakfast or afterschool snack.

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Recipe: Pizza Frittata

August 31, 2016 · Narrative

A delicious way to get a whole lotta veggies into your meal … whether it’s your plate or your kid’s.

I’m teaching kids’ cooking camp this week, and one of the things I look for when I’m choosing the menus is to get kids to eat more vegetables without complaining about it.

I don’t want to hide the vegetables. I’ve never been a fan of that movement.

I just want to see them in a different light. As in the kind of light that makes them want to eat more vegetables.

This Pizza Frittata is that.

Because it is seriously PACKED with vegetables.

Copious amounts of broccoli and spinach.

And then rounded out with onions, tomato sauce, and cheese.

Always cheese.

This recipe, as with most frittata recipes, is also easy enough that the kids can do most, if not all, of it themselves.

From the chopping of the broccoli and the onions, to the grating of the cheese to the hand-ripping of the spinach. Mixing the eggs. Dolloping with tomato sauce. Topping with pepperoni.

Totally kid-friendly both in terms of making and eating.

But, full disclosure, two kids wanted no part of eating it. Which is absolutely fine because they at least tried it. Camp rule.

The best victory? One of my campers looked at it and said, “Pizza Frittata? That doesn’t look anything like pizza!”

I explained that we’re calling it that because of the tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, and it was an adaptation of pizza as he knows it.

He promised to take one bite.

And then he proceeded to eat his entire slice.

**cue the victory dance here**

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Visit: Dog Days of Summer {Things to Do in New Jersey}

July 21, 2016 · Narrative

Looking for a fun afternoon activity with your kids? We love visiting the annual Dog Days of Summer in Boonton.

When I’m looking for things to do with the kids, whether it’s summer or not, it’s usually a mix of free or inexpensive adventures.

Because the more adventures, the better.

Visiting the Dog Days of Summer in neighboring Boonton is one of our free (and fun) adventures. This is the fourth year of the Dog Days of Summer, and it makes for a fun afternoon outing.

Main Street in Boonton is lined with over 100 life size dog statues; each one is completely different and they are decorated by both professional and amateur artists. Some community groups and even school students get in on the action.

A large share of the sculptures are outside in front of the stores and businesses, but there are many that are inside the store windows as well, which makes for a fun challenge to try and peek inside each store to see if we find one.

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Visit: Strawberry Picking at Ort Farms {Long Valley, New Jersey}

June 14, 2016 · Narrative

June is the perfect time for strawberry picking, so we headed out in search of the perfect place this past weekend.

There are a few farms that are reasonably close to us that offer strawberry picking for customers. A few of them I avoid because they have turned into a three-ring-circus and have the penchant for charging for everything under the sun and shuttle buses for parking.

No thank you.

Ort Farms came up in my search, and while I have heard of them before, we haven’t visited them before, so we set our sights on checking it out this past weekend. Easy to find, especially with the Waze app, it’s a scenic, windy drive through the “country,” and plenty of parking awaited us.

The farm sits on 400 acres of land and has been there for 100 years, with six generations of family participating (their founding member has lived on the farm for 85 years!). Despite their long history, this is actually their first year to offer u-pick for strawberries.

We stopped into the little store in front to get instructions, and they gave us boxes to collect our strawberries, a small sheet of directions, and away we went.

The weather was perfect. Clear skies, a slight breeze, and nothing but patches after patches of strawberries waiting for us to pick. I instructed the kids on what we were looking for … uniformly red, nice size, not mushy. And the farther we walked, the more paydirt we hit. There were other families there picking strawberries as well, but it wasn’t super crowded, and we had plenty of space to ourselves.

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Visit: National Guard Militia Museum {Sea Girt, New Jersey}

April 11, 2016 · Narrative, Travel

A unique, little well-kept secret of a museum that you should visit … because the Jersey Shore is more than just beaches.

Last week, the kids were on Spring Break, and this time, we kept our adventures a little closer to home. We spent a few days down the Jersey Shore, and spent the day in Boston with Sarah and her kids. When we were down the shore, I used the Roadside America app (one of my favorite apps) to see what new and interesting things were in the area for us to discover. Our time last week was equal parts fun, history, and downtime, and our visit to the National Guard Militia Museum falls neatly in the “history” column.

The museum is a little undiscovered treasure trove of history and has been there forever. It, unfortunately, fell victim to the ravages of Hurricane Sandy, taking in over five feet of water and sadly destroying a lot of their historical artifacts, but they have since rebuilt and welcome visitors with open arms. It was such a cool slice of historical awesomeness, I’m hoping more people read this and go check it out.

As soon as we walked in, we were immediately greeted by a friendly host, and he pointed out the different rooms we could explore on our own, in a self-guided manner, and told us to come get him when we’re done (and if we had any questions mid-tour).

The large room when you enter starts with the story of the early settlers, and you can follow the timeline around the room, reading about the events of historical significance and see their accompanying artifacts. The story continues on through World War II in a room in the back, and the third room is more “present day” events, including 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, and how New Jersey responded to those disasters. There are some wonderful videos to watch and placards to read, and it was the perfect amount of information to digest, especially if you have kids in tow.

Once we were done with the three rooms, we went to go track down the guide because we were ready to check out their main attraction, and the original reason this museum popped up in the Roadside America app.

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Recipe: Pizza Dip

July 16, 2015 · Narrative

Warm, gooey, melted cheese heading straight for your mouth by way of a toasted baguette? YES. YES, PLEASE.

After a couple of nights of the kids panning dinners I have made (“Can I just have a plain salami sandwich? With bread, no mayo. Just salami and bread?”), I vowed to turn the tides.

And how better to do it than a warm cheesy dip?

Cheese is totally my love language, so don’t let me fool you, this dish was just as much for me as it was for my kids.

Because really.

Pizza Dip?

I knew it was an instant homerun.

I had spied the recipe on BuzzFeed Food a few days earlier and saved a screen shot so I could remember to make it (iPhones are pretty handy, aren’t they?). It was so simple to make, and it’s quite possible you might even have all the ingredients on hand.

It kind of tastes like the warm insides of a calzone with a little bit of tomato sauce thrown in for good measure.

Or like the squishy insides of a lasagna without the noodles.

However you choose to describe it, it really doesn’t matter.

As long as it gets made.

A side dish for dinner.

An offering for a tailgating party.

Perfect for one of those nights when you just want “picky” food.

Or when you’re determined to break your kids from that “I don’t want dinner” rut.

I used toasted slices of baguette as dippers, and the next night I slathered some of the leftover dip onto grilled chicken.

Oh baby.

And BuzzFeed said, “cheese on cheese on cheese.” What’s not to love?

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Make: Molded Crayons for Any Occasion

July 13, 2015 · Narrative

Whether you want to make special crayons for a party or as a fun summer activity, it’s a fun and inexpensive way to get creative.

Over the past six months or so, I have probably made six different varieties of molded crayons to cover some fun occasions.

Hearts with a pink, purple, and white color theme for Valentine’s Day treats for Madeline’s classmates.

Woodland animals to go in goody bags for Madeline’s birthday party.

Woodland animals for a teacher friend’s kindergarten class.

Hearts with bright colors for Easter treats for my nieces and Madeline.

The possibilities are endless, and it’s super cheap to do.

Here’s how.

You need silicone molds first. You can buy all sorts of shapes on Amazon, and I’ve gotten a few there, and during a holiday season, you can usually find them really inexpensively at The Christmas Tree Shop as well (the heart and egg molds came from there, and the woodland animals came from Amazon).

Crayons.

You’ll need lots and lots of crayons.

This is the perfect use for all those broken crayons that are impossible to color with. I usually have an empty tub, and every time I go through our crayon collection to purge all the broken bits, I pop them into the tub. That way I have enough when I need them for a project. I don’t recommend using off-brands for this project (or for coloring). No dollar store stock-ups for this project. Crayola is the best.

Decide your color theme. If you just use all the random colors together, your finished product may look a little muddy. I try to stick within the same color section — pink/purple/white, blue/green/white, etc — so you have complementary colors.

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Visit: Knoebel’s Amusement Park {Elysburg, Pennsylvania}

April 1, 2015 · Narrative

Looking for a Spring Break adventure or a day trip to take with the kids? Consider Knoebel’s Amusement Park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, a homespun park with something for everyone.

For Nick’s birthday for the past few years, he has opted to go away for an overnight with a friend (and his Mom and sister, of course, as well). A few years ago, it was to the Philadelphia area and we visited the zoo and CoCo Key. Two years ago, it was a trip to Dorney Park and the Lost River Caverns, and last year, it was to Knoebel’s.

Knoebel’s can best be described as a family-style amusement park, and this was our first time visiting. Like many theme parks, it has rides for every age level, something for little kids, and the scaredy cats, and many large coasters and thrill rides.

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