Last month, Michael, Sean and I were guests at a PBS KIDS Webonauts Internet Academy that was being held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in NYC. Since he likes most events that are related to computers, I wasn’t altogether shocked that he had fun. I was pleasantly surprised that he was interested in the theme (online safety) though. I guess that is the great thing about technology…it can make mundane topics more engaging and entertaining. Although my kids are still pretty young/don’t really go away from any page on the computer that I put them on, I still think that it’s important to give them the tools to stay safe online.

PBS KIDS GO! launched the new Webonauts Internet Academy online game in order to teach kids “how to be safe and respectful online”. (It is free online at PBSKIDSGO.org/webonauts.) Basically, kids encounter 12 missions that test whether or not the kids will stick to the Webonauts’ motto: “Observe, Respect, Contribute.” The correct responses are pretty straightforward, but Michael was still excited every time that he had the right answer. Once all of the missions are completed, the kids become full-fledged Webonauts and earn their Webonauts Internet Academy Certificate. We received a certificate at the event, but parents can also print them out at home.

After the event, my kids decided to close down the Intrepid. We have to go back to the museum when we have more time because there is a lot more for the boys (and me!) to explore. (You can see more photos from the event and the Intrepid over on my Webonauts Flickr set.)

In any event, have you already started to teach your child about online safety? If so, how are you doing so?

My sons and I attended the Disney Store Times Square pre-grand opening tour last night as the guests of Disney. Even though the store did not officially open until today, it was already packed! It’s no small wonder though, because the two-leveled store is quite dreamy.

Besides the variety of exclusive merchandise, the interactive nature of the store is what made the experience stand out. My sons insisted on waiting their turn in order to put together their own Disney-Pixar CARS-branded Ridemakerz car which had a variety of optional pieces.

The girls on the tour especially loved the two-story Disney Princess Castle. The Magic Mirror in that section had them clamoring to see which princess they would get to be. The highlight of the evening for Michael occured in the Disney Store Theatre. That area is not especially large, but it gives guests a chance to pick various Disney movies and videos to watch onscreen.

It wasn’t the movie, but the celebrity – Gregg Sulkin from Wizards of Waverly Place – who caused my son to scream! I was wondering what in the world had happened until I saw Gregg. (I never knew that Michael liked that show so much. He definitely does not have the “jaded to celebrity” New Yorker thing going on yet. His excitement was quite sweet.) More kids will get the chance to yell from excitement in the future, because several other kid celebrity appearances are planned for the future.

There are a couple of kinks that the store owners will need to work out for the parents of young kids. The most glaring thing is that the store is not especially stroller friendly. There isn’t a lot of space to maneuver around the various displays…a common NYC challenge. Also, you are asked to fold your strollers if you want to get on the escalator. As such, I think that a stroller parking area and/or more visible directions to the elevators would be a welcome addition. Despite the space challenge, I think that this new Disney store will be a popular attraction for both tourists and locals. There really was something for all of the kids to enjoy.

After the brief tour, several of the bloggers had dinner at Carmine’s. There was so much good food, that I waddled home! The best part of dinner was spending time with several other bloggers and their families. It’s really neat how our kids get to know each other over time because they consistently meet up at events. Michael was beyond thrilled to meet another Michael with the exact same birthday (down to the year). Both Michaels had moms named Kimberly too! They kept trying to see what other things that they had in common. At the end of the evening, they were ready to set up a playdate for this weekend. Kids are just too cute.

In any event, I think that parents will enjoy spending time with their little princes and princesses at this magical new store.

Disney Store Times Square
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
http://www.disneystore.com/

Last Thursday I had a fun day being the co-host of an Imagination Playground event with my wonderful friend Beth of Role Mommy. It was such a great day… and I’m not just saying that because I was paid to co-host the event! We ate, the kids played at the new playground and we took a tour of the Peking ship. I will let my (100+) photos show you the experience:

You can also read some of the first event recaps from my old and new blogging friends that attended. (It’s always so interesting to read various perceptions of the same event.)

-Macaroni Out and About: Imagination Playground

-A day at Imagination Playground (This post is especially great for parents of kids with special needs.)

-A Day Out- The South Street Seaport With Kids

-Imagination Playground-getting out during Staycation

-The Imagination Playground & the Seaport Museum

-I Want One of My Own

-Imagination Playground in a Slip or a Box

-Imagination Playground at South Street Seaport

(And here’s a post from a friend who was on her way, but….”Classic Case of Complicated Mama # 5627- Imagination Playground“.)

Lastly, you can watch the video that Beth put together:

In any event, Imagination Playground is an innovative space. I want to take my boys there for them to experience it, since I didn’t take them with me this time. (Did I mention that the playground is free?) The playground has received a lot of press and praise. Do you have any thoughts?

In September of 2006, Reggie, Michael and I went on a trip to Sesame Place. (I was pregnant with Sean at the time.) It was a lot of fun for the most part. Michael’s favorite attractions were Elmo’s World: Peek-A-Bug, Cookie Mountain, Grover’s World Twirl, Monster Maze and The Slide. His least favorites were Elmo’s World: Blast-off (it made his – and my – stomach drop!); Rock Around the Block Parade (he loved the characters from afar, but was overwhelmed when they touched him!) and Breakfast with Elmo (same reason as above).

Fast forward to 2010. This time, my family was invited to attend a Media Day sponsored by Sesame Place on site in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Due to scheduling conflicts I couldn’t make it. I was a bit bummed about that because I think that Sean would have loved being there outside of my stomach. That is fine though. We can always go there another time. The great thing is that one of my newer blogging friends Jessica of Momma’s Gone City (she’s a California transplant with a sweet, sunny disposition) was able to attend with her family on behalf of Mom in the City. You can read her thoughts below:

This was our first trip actually driving a car through the city and into Pennsylvania, so we ordered a Zip Car and made a day of it. Being that the park is only about 90 minutes outside of New York City, it made for the perfect day-long getaway with the kids.

The park, which is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary, is designed after the very popular children’s show Sesame Street. While there are many preschool-age focused attractions spread over the 14 acres, it also provides lots of fun for older children and even adults. My husband loved the Count’s Castle water attraction, and all of us were sufficiently cooled off after spending time in the sprinkler areas.

We were able to enjoy a really lively (yet intimate) show with some of the characters. Afterwards, we had lunch with none other than the Count who had the kids rolling with laughter while pretending to eat their food. The kids had a blast playing in the pretend fire trucks, on the carousel, and especially in the bounce house. The park is large enough to encompass a lot of fun, yet small enough for the size to not be overwhelming.

The park is vibrant, clean, and the staff was always very attentive and helpful. I was happy to be able to take the kids out of the city to visit a fun place with games and activities geared toward their ages. The best part? We were home within a couple of hours…in time for dinner and to pack for another big road trip the next day. Sesame Place was a great way to spend a hot summer day, and I would definitely do it again.

After reading Jessica’s post, I want to go back…now! If you have ever been to Sesame Place, what was your favorite part?

Earlier this month, I attended an event that was sponsored by Marcal Small Steps. The main focus was to tour their manufacturing facility in New Jersey to see how 100% recycled paper products are made. Since it is Earth Day month and I had written about Marcal in the past (Everyone Can Take “Small Steps” Towards Being Green), I decided to attend.

The time was fun and informative. It was fun, because many of my blogging friends (including my car mate Suzanne) were there to wear goggles and ear plugs with me. It was informative because we learned how Marcal created paper products by using recycled paper (no trees). It was kind of like a grown-up school field trip.

The process was pretty interesting. The pulper machine was the highlight for me. (That’s where they get the pulp out of the used paper in order to make their paper goods.) The other thing that stood out to me was how many things I should be recycling! I recycle paper, newspapers and such. However, I didn’t know that I should be recycling those paper party bags and clothing tags. There were a whole bunch of things in their paper pile that made me aware of how much more I could be recycling. Like I have always said, I am “light green”. I use Marcal, but I also use Kleenex and other brands. I simply try to use the “easier on the environment” things the most. If we all make little, simple changes that will equal something huge.

The Pulper

In any event, I liked what I saw. Marcal recently launched a new site with all sorts of helpful information. You can find it at http://www.marcalpaper.com/index.php?url=. My favorite section is “Green Tips”. The last time that I checked, it had 21 tips and 5 video tips (featuring cute kids!). Take a look. You may very well learn a new, easy way to go a bit greener.

At Mom’s Nite Out back in May, I won a two night stay at CoCo Key Indoor Water Park Hotel & Water Resort in Waterbury, CT. Last week, my family went for our stay. We had a blast!

My entire family enjoyed our stay at Coco Key. The kids were not ready to come back home. To my surprise, Sean ended up enjoying the trip the most. He still has not let us take off his wristband that allowed us to access the water park. I guess that he has not given up hope that we are going back right away. We came back on Saturday and the whole ride home (it’s only two hours from NYC), Sean kept saying, “I don’t want to go home. I want to go to CoCo Keys.” The next day as we prepared for church, Sean continued his vigil. “I don’t want to go to church. I want to go to CoCo Keys!” he declared. Oh well – we don’t always get what we want. He will be alright.

We liked CoCo Key so much that we’re going to see if the families in our church want to do a retreat there. It’s close to the city/near a Metro North for those who don’t drive. It’s very reasonably priced. You get the hotel room and passes to the water park for around $130/night for a family of four. The food is also affordable. In fact, if you eat in the restaurant, kids can eat a free buffet that’s prepared just for them. Also, since it’s an indoor water park, we can go any time of the year and it will still be 84 degrees inside. (In fact, the day that we went inside the water park, it was raining outside. It didn’t event matter.) I wouldn’t recommend this place for a long vacation getaway, because you can literally do everything in the water park in three hours or less. I would recommend this spot for a two night stay though. It’s a great family experience at a very affordable price!

Wow, how time flies! This is my 1,000th blog post. It just so happens that I’m sharing pictures from Pottery Barn, one of my favorite places to visit, in it. (After the Dapple event last Friday, I went to Pottery Barn with my two sons. It turns out that they love the store too. They made themselves a little too much at home. I was waiting for a store clerk to ask us to leave!) All of my moving challenges would be over if my family could just move inside of a Pottery Barn store…

I was in “foodie heaven” last night while attending an Outback SteakhouseTasting Event. While there, Outback’s Co-Founder and Head Chef Tim Gannon and Dave Ellis, Vice President of Research & Development shared about the company’s chef-inspired food at reasonable casual dining prices. It was obvious that both men love / are passionate about what he does.

They emphasized that “great food comes from great ingredients”. As such, everything in their restaurants is made from scratch. Since Outback was voted “#1 Best Steak” in a 2009 Zagat survey of National Full Service Restaurant chains, they must be doing something right! What impressed me the most (after eating various menu offerings) was that Outback has managed to serve such a variety of quality foods at such reasonable prices. (I’ve mentioned Outback’s new menu that offers 15 meals under $15, starting at $9.95 – with a steak meal for only $9.95 – on this site before.) I found out that the way that they are able to do so is because commodity prices are going down in this economy, so they can buy food at better rates. In addition, they have re-designed their menus to combine foods in order to be able to offer such competitive prices.

It was interesting to learn the “behind the scenes” information about this family-friendly company of restaurants. However, smelling and tasting the food made the event extra wonderful. For instance…in the past, I was not a fan of lobster. It tasted like “wet chicken” to me. After tasting Outback’s lobster, my mind has been changed. I LOVE lobster. (I leaned that the smaller the lobster tail, the better the taste. Maybe that was the problem in the past…) Anyway, take a glimpse of what I ate (click to enlarge):

And Dessert…

The room was dimly lit, so my photos are a little dark, but you get the overall picture. All I have left to say is that after chatting with my friends Beth and Issa and meeting fellow diners Aly and Jonathan, I “waddled” out after the tasting event! Oh yes, I do have one more thing to let you know. At the end of the event, Outback gave me a gift card for $100. My husband is not too happy with me about this, but I’m going to give it to one of you later this month. Stay tuned…

Last Saturday, I went to take an Ariel Dance class at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center (MMAC). Let’s just say that I left with a heightened appreciation of the strength that it takes to be an aerial performer!

The majority of the people in the class are dancers and performers. It’s a mixed level class though, so there are people from a variety of fitness levels. Beginners (like me) are taught basic skills (like handstands, cartwheels, etc.). More advanced students learn to climb fabric, perform on the circle ring and more.

The person who teaches the class, Ivo Gueorguiev, has performed with Cirque du Soleil for several years. In addition to the Ariel Dance class, he also teaches a Circus Fitness Class at MMC that is more of a conditioning class where students learn the fundamentals of ground and aerial acrobatics. He is also working on creating/developing a series of Circus Fitness DVDs that will be on the market soon. Ivo’s assistant in the class, Jill Hansen, is amazing! She’s also a Pilates instructor.

In any event the class was a lot of fun. I did cartwheels and backbends like I haven’t done in a LONG while. I also was pulling up on the circle ring. Ivo warned that I would be sore later. He was right! I still recommend the class as a break in your normal fitness routine. It will help you to see/feel areas of your body that need to be better conditioned.

Here’s a visual of the wide variety of students in the class. There I am (with my backbend) representing the beginner and (the amazing) Jill representing the performer…

The Beginner:

The Performer:

Next week, will be the last (for now anyway) entry about my Disney Parks trip. I’ll be sharing some “Insider Tips” that I learned. Today, I’ll be sharing about some of the other miscellaneous things that I enjoyed during my stay.

-For the weekend, we stayed at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn. It was beautiful. This is definitely the place to go when you’re going all out for a deluxe family trip (currently, rooms range from $325 – $620/night). Here are some of the pictures that I took. I especially liked the Disney touches sprinkled throughout the room.

Did you see how big my bed was? One of the things that I was looking forward to (in regards to traveling alone) was having a bed to myself to stretch out on. Guess what? I didn’t stretch out at all. Rather, I stayed huddled up on “my” side of the bed. Oh well, I’m a creature of habit sometimes.

-Several of the mom bloggers went out to various clubs each night. I’m not a “clubber” – never have been and probably never will be – but I did go to one of the local (not Disney-owned) clubs on Saturday night. I don’t remember the name (which is probably good). It reminded me of why clubbing isn’t my thing. For one thing, you can’t control the music and the club’s dj wasn’t very good. The most notable “song” that he played all night was the theme to The Jeffersons and Good Times (?!) Our group started cracking up, because we were the only Black people in the club. It was one of those, “Did I just hear what I thought I heard?” moments. Secondly, I don’t like people whom I don’t know touching me. There was this one woman who just kept coming over to our group dancing with us (which was fine), but then she just kept touching us – not in a weird way, but in an overly familiar way. Coupled with the fact that she had obviously been drinking, I wasn’t too pleased.

On the positive side, it was fun hanging out with the other moms and some of the Disney marketing people – they could dance! It was also nice to have a “grown-up” drink. I don’t really like the taste of alcohol, so Midori Sour was my drink of choice. (It tastes fruity, so I have to remind myself not to drink more than two because it does contain alcohol!)

And

-On Sunday, we went to the Gospel Brunch at House of Blues in Downtown Disney. The all –you-can-eat feast was great. (I made certain to not eat anything that morning so that I would have “room” to sample everything!) I especially enjoyed the Macaroni & Cheese, Honey Baked Ham, and Cheesecake.

The music was even more amazing than the food. They sang one of my favorite songs, “I Surrender All”. (It was my “church service” for the weekend.) What I found especially interesting was that people from all faith backgrounds enjoyed the gospel performance. After the concert, we were able to meet the performers. They were so sweet, humble and talented. If you’re ever in the Orlando area, don’t miss this – it’s a special treat!