Alphabet Poster Week: Animals A-to-Z

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Published 07.22.2008 | Permanent Link

So, we've been collecting some Alphabet Posters here and decided that this should in fact be the week that it all goes up. Why not?

This find is from Tara Hogan's Etsy shop. Looks like there is only one for sale. But as with all Etsy vendors, upon selling out you should contact them and see if they'll make you one.

Related Article:

- Best Alphabet Toys & Decor

Tampa Bay: 50 Things to Do with Your Kids Before They Grow Up

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Published 07.16.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Izzy Dean of Izzy Mom and Green Mom Finds

I've lived in Tampa Bay for over 20 years and I have to admit, I do take a lot of what's good about my city for granted and had honestly forgotten just how much there is to do here, especially when you have kids. Sooo, to prevent other parents from forgetting or overlooking the awesomeness that can be found right here under our proverbial noses, I did some research and compiled this tidy list of "50 Things to do in Tampa Bay with Your Kids Before They Grow Up."

1. Beat the heat at Adventure Island, Tampa's premier 30 acre water park.

2. Take a pirate-themed day cruise or sunset cruise on Captain Memo's Original Pirate Cruise.

3. Travel back in time with jugglers, jesters and jousters at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival.

4. Better than a zoo, take the kids to Big Cat Rescue, the largest big cat sanctuary in the world.

5. Kids love riding the miniature trains at the Largo Central Railroad. The first weekend of the month they are open and offer free public run days.

6. Take a hot-air balloon ride in the Big Red Balloon

7. The Bits-n-Pieces Puppet Theatre puts on fantastic puppet shows with professional puppeteers

8. See all of Tampa from CK's at the Marriott, a revolving rooftop restaurant with extraordinary views, particularly at sunset.

9. The David L. Mason Children's Museum is a great museum where touching, manipulating and handling the kid-centric exhibits is permitted and encouraged!

10. Life-sized dinosaurs (and lots of fossils!) still exist at the campy Dinosaur World attraction off I-4.

11. Take a 90 minute cruise on the Dolphin Queen and see friendly dolphin swim alongside the boat and possible spray you with water! Dolphin sightings are guaranteed or you'll receive a voucher for another cruise at no cost.

12. Visit The Florida Aquarium, regarded as one of the best in the nation.

13. Go hunting for prehistoric fossils with Paleo Discoveries Fossil Hunting

14. Celebrate Tampa's heritage with beads, coins and lots of pirates at The Gasparilla Extravanganza and Children's Parade, followed by a fireworks and music display.

15. Guavaween is a Tampa's very own unique, wild and crazy Halloween celebration but it's not really kid-friendly. There is, however, the Guavaween Family Funfest, which happens on the Saturday afternoon right before Halloween every year and it's 100% kid and family-oriented.

16. Help your kids appreciate all of our modern conveniences at Heritage Village, a fascinating and historically accurate village from the 1800's.

17. Spend the day in Africa at Busch Gardens theme park.

18. Children can pretend to be firefighters at the fire station or run the local post office, library, supermarket and more at Kid City. Inside each of the kid-sized 16 buildings are interactive exhibits that let their imaginations run wild while they run the show.

19. Kids will love all the different things they can do at Lowry Park Zoo, a family friendly zoo that has been named the number one zoo in the America.

20. MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry, is endlessly fascinating, with numerous permanent exhibits just for kids, as well as an Imax theater and an enclosed butterfly garden outside.

21. Check out a New York Yankees Spring Training game! They have their own state-of-the-art stadium where kids can see the players in action while they train for baseball season.

22. Spend an afternoon at the Salvador Dali Museum, which boasts the world's most comprehensive collection of surrealist painter Dali's work. Also, Every Saturday is Dali Family Fun Day and they feature a craft relating to some part of his work.

23. Let your kids be junior marine biologists for a day aboard the Sea Safari.

24. Ride glass bottom boats and see tons of underwater wildlife at Silver Springs, a park built around crystal clear natural springs.

25. Got a budding car enthusiast on your hands? Then you have to visit the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum.

26. Go to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game.

27. Go to a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game.

28. Go to a Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball game.

29. Ride one of the TECO Streetcar trolleys from Hyde Park to the Florida Aquarium at Channelside or Historic Ybor City.

30. Kids love eating at The Melting Pot, a fondue-themed where everything is eaten off a stick!

31. Safely climb ancient oak trees with the kids at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve with Pathfinder Outdoor Education's harness and rope system.

32. Take the kids to the Big Bend Power Station Manatee Viewing Center where they can see the gentle manatees playing and feeding in the warm water discharged by the power plant.

33. See the real Florida of days gone by on a Wild Bill Airboat Tour. Don't be surprised to see giant wild alligators, wild boar, otters, eagles, osprey, deer and other exotic wildlife!

34. See over 600 wild birds of all varieties at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, the largest wild bird hospital and rehabilitation center in the United States.

35. Take a canoe trip down the Hillsborough River.

36. Join your kids in learning through play at Great Explorations: the Hands-On Museum.

37. Visit the numerous Gulf Coast beaches.

38. Let Tampa Bay Ghost Tours take you and the kids on an early evening tour of the area's ghostliest legends and haunted locales.

39. Go-karts, arcades, bungee-jumping, batting cages and mini-golf are al kid-faves and can all be found at the newly-renovated Grand Prix Tampa amusement park.

40. Every day is Christmas at the five Victorian houses of Roger's Christmas House. Be sure to check out the upside down Christmas tree and the Story Book House!

41. Go rock climbing at Vertical Ventures

42. Take a self-guided tour of the American Victory Ship, a sixty-year old, 455 ft marine vessel used in the Vietnam and Korean wars.

43. Take the kids to see a classic film at or go on a tour of Tampa Theatre, one of America's best-preserved examples of grand movie palace architecture and a community treasure since 1926.

44. Treasure hunts, water gun battles, face-painting and a swashbuckling dance party await your family on the Pirate Ship at John's Pass day cruise!

45. For three days in the spring, The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg renders downtown St. Pete a 1.8 mile professional raceway that will thrill the kids as the cars zoom by and take hairpin turns at top speed.

46. Check out the underwater mermaid Show at Weeki Wachi, a place reminiscent the days when campy road side attractions prevailed, and then take the kids on a boat ride down the river or to the Buccaneer Bay water park.

47. Boys (and maybe girls, too) will get kick out of the Army-Navy Surplus Center. It's crammed floor to ceiling with all manner of military, camping, hunting and survivalist gear, both modern and vintage.

48. Spend an afternoon at Cypress Gardens. A park that used to be best known for it's waterskiing shows and botanical gardens, Cypress gardens was recently listed as one of the Top 50 theme parks in North America.

49. Skilled chefs cook right at your table while putting on a show that will amaze the kids at Arigato Japanese Steak House.

50. Legend and locals say your car will roll uphill by istelf at Spook Hill. Pile the kids in the car and find out for yourself!

More "50 Things to Do with Your Kids Before They Grow Up" Guides:

- Activities with Kids in Boston

- Activities with Kids in Chicago

- Activities with Kids in Detroit

- Activities with Kids in Kansas City

- Activities with Kids in Nashville

- Activities with kids in Portland, Maine

- Activities with Kids in St. Louis

- Activities with Kids in the Twin Cities

Kirtsy: it's Digg for Chicks

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Published 07.15.2008 | Permanent Link

Alpha Mom HEARTS Kirtsy. If you haven't visited yet, get there today. It's one of my personal go-to sites and I am beyond honored to be this week's Guest Editor.

I love it because not only do I find out about what women think is important in technology, but also in parenting, travel, fashion, design, politics and more.

- Isabel

The Twin Cities: 50 Things to Do With Your Kids Before They Grow Up

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Published 07.13.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Tricia Cornell Of Minnesota Parent & Hungry Beans

I'm seven years into an all-out campaign to convince my coastal relatives and in-laws of the wonders of life in Minnesota. We've got lakes! And year-round recreation! And more theater than any city other than New York! Alas, I've had to give up on them, so I'm turning my attention to the rest of the nation. Here's why this is one of the best places in the world to raise kids, and what you need to do when you move here:

1. Walk on the Quaking Bog, then wander through the Wildflower Garden, which will lull even the most boisterous kids into silence.

2. Bike the Grand Rounds.

3. Make something--jam, cake, cookies, embroidery, seed art, a pumpkin sculpture, anything !--to enter into a competition at the State Fair.

4. Watch the milk-carton boat races during the Aquatennial. The next year, build one yourselves and enter!

5. Do an ice cream taste test. Hit Izzy's, Sebastian Joe's, and Pumphouse Creamery all in one afternoon.

6. Watch the dragon boat races on Lake Phalen.

7. Become a regular at your local farmer's market.

8. Become minigolf afficionados: start at the the Walker Arts Center Sculpture Garden, then move to the Science Museum of Minnesota.

9. Eat yourselves silly at the Taste of Minnesota on Harriet Island.

10. Go to a St. Paul Saints game. Volunteer for one of the goofy mid-inning activities.

11. Hand out water to the runners in the Twin Cities Marathon. Get inspired to sign up for the family fitness program.

12. See the 4th of July fireworks over the Stone Arch Bridge or Harriet Island.

13. Kayak or canoe on an urban lake.

14. Watch the shows at the Festival of Nations. Learn to dance and participate.

15. Dance around the maypole at the Swedish Midsommar celebration.

16. Go skiing in Wirth Park.

17. Catch a walleye. Through a hole in the ice.

18. See the ice palace at the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

19. Skate on a pond, hockey stick in hand.

20. Join the hunt for the Winter Carnival medallion.

21. See the Macy's holiday show, all dressed up in your best sugarplum-fairy dresses.

22. Get Hot Seats at the Holidazzle Parade.

23. Ski through thousands of ice luminaries in the moonlight in the noncompetitive Luminary Loppet.

24. Build a winning snow sculpture.

25. See a Kids Fringe show. Glut yourselves on theater: see a bunch.

26. Attend a concert in the ruins of a flour mill.

27. Go snowshoeing. In the moonlight.

28. Go downhill skiing, right in your own backyard. No, really.

29. Take a backstage tour of the Guthrie Theater.

30. Make puppets with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. Then march with them in the May Day Parade.

31. Go back to the 1820s at Historic Fort Snelling.

32. Spend a night at the Minnesota Zoo.

33. Tour the Wabasha Street Caves.

34. Watch a bird release at the Raptor Center.

35. See a drive-in movie at Vali Hi.

36. Count the Peanuts characters in Rice Park.

37. Learn to be an urban archaeologist at Mill Ruins Park.

38. Make a radio show at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.

39. Attend a pow-wow.

40. Make a bundt cake. (Minnesota is the home of the bundt pan. And Betty Crocker.)

41. Rollerblade in the Metrodome.

42. Make art together at Franconia Sculpture Park.

43. Fly on the trapeze at a Circus Juventas class.

44. Be film buffs: See all the films in the Childish Film Festival.

45. Spend the whole morning browsing at Wild Rumpus or the Red Balloon.

46. Hear children's literature come alive at the Jungle Theater.

47. Get thiiis close to St. Anthony Falls at Water Power Park.

48. Slide and splash all day at the Water Park of America. Get all tuckered out. Stay the night.

49. Find the elf at Lake Harriet. Leave a present.

50. Get dirty, sweaty, and happy on a farm day at your CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm.

Tricia Cornell lives in Minnesota, where she edits Minnesota Parent, blogs at HungryBeans.blogspot.com , and is hard at work on Moon Handbooks Minneapolis-St. Paul. Phew.

More "50 Things to Do with Your Kids Before They Grow Up" Guides:

- Activities with Kids in Boston

- Activities with Kids in Chicago

- Activities with Kids in Detroit

- Activities with Kids in Kansas City

- Activities with Kids in Nashville

- Activities with kids in Portland, Maine

- Activities with Kids in St. Louis

SpongeBob SquarePants Sno Cone Maker

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Published 07.11.2008 | Permanent Link

We hate to say it but this SpongeBob SquarePants Sno Cone Maker might turn out to be a collector’s item sometime down the road.

We know, we know…enough SpongeBob already. But, at least the only thing spewing out of his mouth is a delicious treats for your kids (or you).

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- Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker

- Mickey Snow-Cone Maker & Ice Shaver

- The Very Best Popsicle Molds

- Two-Flavored Ice Popsicle Mold