Author: kakakakaty

Things I Won’t Apologize For

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Is it me or does life feel a little upside down lately? Things are happening in life and online that have me shaking my head and wondering if I’ve gone beyond the looking glass. I’m feeling a bit ranty lately so I’m going to get it off my chest.

Here’s a list of things I won’t apologize for:

1. Using twitter any damn way I please. If you don’t like what I’m saying or what photos I’m posting or the hashtags I’m using you are free to unfollow. I don’t care, seriously. I won’t hurt my feelings and I likely won’t notice.

2. Attending events for local companies and using said twitter account to talk about it.

3. Buying an expensive product at full price from a locally owned company that happens to be large and tweeting about it. Supporting local does not mean you have to buy only from small mom-and-pop shops. If you think that large local companies don’t deserve our support you’re crazy.

4. Calling you out if you post the Ben Stein “Confessions for the Holiday” piece that is 2/3 false and has been proven to be lies year in and year out. Just stop it.

5. Wishing you  Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. (should note here, because I didn’t then, that I’m not Jewish. But in that moment I just wanted to shut that lady up. I’m not apologizing for that lie, either.)

6. Raising money. I AM a fundraiser, after all.

I think that’s it for right now, but I’m in full honey badger mode right now so watch out.

What’s getting on your nerves lately?

 

 

One Blow Out at Dinos (giveaways!)

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I have a confession. I don’t color my hair. I use only 3 items of make-up on a daily basis (L’oreal BB cream, Nars blush, BeneFit They’re Real mascara, if you must know). I only paint my nails occasionally. I’m far from a big spender when it comes to looking good…heck, I only get my hair cut like 3 times a year.  And yet, last April I got invited to an event for ONE Styling and I fell flat-out in love with their Legacy Pro hair dryer and Legacy flat iron. So when I got invited to another event just before Thanksgiving I eagerly replied “yes!”

ONE Styling tools – life changing!

This time the evening was to check out the new Legacy Lite blow dryer and celebrate the grand opening of the new Dino Palmieri Salon and Spa at Eton. There was a VIP blogger hour to show off their new blow dry bar before the salon had an open house. Dino Palmieri Salons feature ONE Styling’s blow dryers, flat irons, curing wands so I knew I was in good hands. After having some bubbly with Dino himself, I was escorted to the massaging shampoo chairs to relax.

The tools, the fabulous massaging shampoo chairs, Dino

Then my stylist turned my blah hair into stick-straight shiny locks using some Oribe Supershine Light Cream and the ONE Styling Legacy Pro dryer. That’s it. No other products were used to make my hair look like this:

 If you follow me on Twitter, you saw my excitement at getting a blow out. I’ve always said that if I won the lottery that one of the first things I’d do would be to set it up so I got blow-outs at least 2 times a week. I love my hair but it’s so thick that it takes forever to dry. My ONE hair dryer has helped with that but nothing beats having someone play with your hair! I will be back to Dino Palmieri at Eton before Christmas for some more pampering ($40 for the styling of your choice), because my blow out looked fantastic for three days.

When Amelia, Charlene and I headed to BSpot for some post-‘do drinks we were handed swag bags stuffed with all kinds of goodies including the new One Styling Legacy Lite blow dryer, and products from Zoya, Oribe, Kerastase, and Sebastian Professional. The Legacy Lite went to my sister as an early Christmas gift…she has equally thick hair and I received an excited text from her after Thanksgiving: “I just dried my hair in less than 5 minutes!” The gift of more time in the morning is priceless.

Now, I want to share my swag with you and I have TWO gifts this time:

First is the amazing ONE Styling Verge Bubble Wand. I got one in the spring and I love it. My hair actually holds on to the curls it makes and I like that it doesn’t give me a uniform curl. There were lots of beachy waves being created with this tool at the event last week.

Second are some ZOYA nail products. Even before this event, I was a Zoya fan and though I don’t polish my nails often, Zoya is what’s in my cupboard for when I do. The winner will get the Guilty Pleasures 18K Real Gold Trio gift box and the mini Color Lock system, which has travel-sized nail polish remover, base coat, and two top coats.

Here’s how to enter (leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry):

If you want to win the ONE Styling Verge Bubble Wand – follow @ONEStyling on Twitter and/or “like” them on Facebook then come back and tell me you did and that you want to win the Bubble Wand. (one entry)

If you want to win the Zoya products – follow @zoya_nailpolish on Twitter and/or “like” them on Facebook then come back and tell me you did and that you want to win the Zoya products. (one entry)

Extra entry: Tweet the following “I want some holiday style from @onestyling @zoya_nailpolish & @kakaty! http://www.kakakakaty.com/2012/11/29/one-blow-out-at-dinos-giveaways”  using the tweet button below.
(You can tweet once per day, just leave a separate comment letting me know you tweeted and which prize you want.)

The giveaway will end at 11:59pm eastern on Thursday, December 6 and the winners will be announced the next day. Good luck!

A HUGE thank you to ONE Styling, Dino Palmieri, Zoya and Jayne & Company for a fabulous night!

Disclosure: I was invited by ONE Styling to attend the blogger blow dry bar event at Dino Palmieri and received a complimentary blow out, as well as a swag bag. I was not asked to blog about the product or host a giveaway but I want to share the wealth. As always, my thoughts are 100% my own.

Photos provided by the event photographer

Treat yo’self (Treat Free Code)

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woot! woot! sponsored post alert!

Treat is a new card brand on the block – owned by Shutterfly and run by the former Tiny Prints Greetings. And while I adore and use Tiny Prints for things like holiday cards, thank you notes and invitations; Treat has become my go-to for one-off cards (but! you can order multiples of a single card, too!).

Here’s what I love about Treat:

– High quality cards that you pick from the comfort of your laptop (even at 1:00 AM when you remember that your aunt’s birthday is in 3 days).

– They have designs that use photos or not – it’s up to you. And there are over 300 Hallmark-designed cards to choose from.

– You can set up all your cards at once and then Treat will send them out at the right time making you look like a rockstar. I did this in May – I sat down for an hour and set up about 27 birthday cards to go out over the next year and it’s awesome. Remember “set it and forget it”?. Yep, it’s like that but instead of a perfectly roasted chicken you get the praise of being a good friend/daughter/coworker/etc. You can even add gifts to the card by including a gift card to places like Amazon and Target.

– Treat will send the card to your recipient or to you. If you want to add a handwritten note, they’ll send it right to you and you can deliver it yourself.

– You can set up a card then edit it for several different recipients. I just did this today and several Thanksgiving cards featuring my kids will be going to the family who isn’t joining us around the table. All I had to do was update the personalization and the address. Easy peasy.

– They have an App! You can send cards right from your phone. Talk about easy!

So here’s the deal. I’ve been using and loving Treat since May. And they are running a promo right now where you can give them a try for free, too. Use code TREATBLOGR for one free Treat card good only on Monday 11/19 & Tuesday 11/20. I know you’ve got someone in your life who would appreciate a card. What have you got to loose?

Disclosure: Treat is giving me a credit in exchange for this post. I only share products that my family  has used, so I can attest to their quality. 

No Sleep Till…

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Matilda was a horrible sleeper until around age 4 and I swore the universe owed me a good sleeper. And we (mostly) had that with Madman. That is until we moved him to a toddler bed last spring. I was determined to keep in his crib until age 3 but he figured out how to climb out shortly after he turned 2 so the crib came down and the toddler bed went in. We haven’t slept since.

He goes to bed just fine, but around 4 AM he decides it’s a great time to get up and play. He doesn’t cry or demand our attention which is a nice change from Matilda’s old, clingy habits. What he does, however, was worse. He quietly destroys his room.

(FYI: you can assume that most of these photos were taken between 2 and 6 AM)

Or he would gather every toy in the room and bring it into bed with him. Do you know how jarring it is to wake up at 3:27 AM to the sound of wooden blocks crashing together?

Sometimes we would actually sleep through the mayhem in the room next to ours and find him like this in the morning:

Or we’d find him asleep on the floor somewhere which I don’t mind. Except for when he falls asleep right behind his door and we can’t open it without hitting him.

It got to the point that even with naps, I would always go into his room with my camera ready because I’d never know where I would find him.

Most of these issues we’ve solved by putting his dresser, toys and books into his closet where he can’t get them. He still gets up daily around 4 AM, but Mark can usually get him to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours. But he’s always been an early riser and we know that we can’t just let him play alone or he’ll cause a major mess (he picks at his diaper through his PJs and will shred it, polymer balls everywhere! such fun!). So when Madman is up, one of us is up – no matter how early. That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped going into his room with my camera ready to go. You just never know when you’ll find a swashbuckling cowboy at 6:45 AM.

 

Strong Silent Type

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I feel like I don’t give the Madman his proper due here on the blog; poor, neglected second-born that he is. As the third child I always swore I wouldn’t let my kids experience different treatment…that they would have equal billing in baby books and beyond. I’ve told you about old boxes of slides with my name spelled wrong, right? Yep…one of my parents (I won’t out the guilty party) spelled my name wrong nearly a year after I was born. Pretty good reason for me to try harder, right?

But, I haven’t. I must say that I didn’t even make a baby book for Matilda until she was 3. But then I did her first three years in beautiful oversized photo albums and never even attempted to start another. Perhaps Madman will get a baby book for his 3rd birthday but the truth is I didn’t document his first year as well as I did Matilda’s and I’ll have to cobble together his 1st year via this blog and my twitter archive.

Bieber hair

But this boy of mine, oh he has my entire heart. He’s tall for his age with a strong, athletic build. I let his blond hair get shaggy because I can’t get enough of it, but once it gets too far into Beiber-territory we get it chopped. He refuses to stand still for even a second so getting a photo is nearly impossible. But beleive me when I tell you I could right volumnes about this kid’s smile, his laugh and don’t even get me started on his dimples.

Dimple!

At 2 years and almost 7 months he’s finally just starting to talk with some clarity, which, to be honest, if he were my first I would have had him in and out of specialist offices by now. But he communicates well without a full grasp of language and gets along just fine so I’m trusting myself (and our pediatrician) that he’ll figure it out sooner or later. It does get him frustrated sometimes but if you don’t understand him he’ll just grab your hand and drag you to what he wants and makes you understand.

His favorite thing in life is his big sister. The two of them are pretty great together, and Madman wants nothing more than to be doing whatever Matilda is doing. His fearless nature coupled with his desire to do exactly what she’s doing has led to some harrowing experiences.

Madman is the one who is teaching us all to slow down to look at the bugs and dig in the dirt. He’s showing us to just go with the flow (especially if that flow includes wearing costumes in public) and to just laugh because laughing is fun. I just love this kid so damn much.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (+ Tiny Prints Giveaway!)

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Whoop! Whoop! Sponsored post alert! 

UPDATE! Congratulations to commenter #10, Elisa! You should be getting an email with your prize code!

Yep! I’m talking holiday cards. I love picking them out every year. I love trying to get them in the mail on December 1 – it just feels like the start of the Christmas season to me. Sometimes I make my deadline, sometimes I don’t, but I always love the process of selecting our cards, the photos and the message. Of course, doing this in the year 2012 is much easier and WAY more fun than it was in 2000 when my designer husband was forced to make us unique cards every year. Now you have your choice of custom cards, but there is one company that I prefer because their quality stands out. So, over the past week I’ve been distracting myself from the election & post-election nonsense by browsing the holiday cards at Tiny Prints.

I love their range of styles and messages. They have clever ways to disguise a “holiday letter” as a pretty card which I adore. Yes, I’m one of those people who actually likes to get brag letters (as long as they don’t include your kid’s IQ score), so doing it in the card itself appeals to me. Here are a few of the designs I’m considering:

I love a good chevron [modern chevron]

I really like the simplicity of this one but it may be to Christmasy for me [blissful border]

I love how the try-fold cards make a “brag letter” more bearable! [woodland greetings]

the storyline is a good way to do a holiday update letter, too!

I’m sure I’ll do my typical thing and make up 3 or 4 designs then make my graphic designer husband pick the best.

Are you ready to get started on your cards yet? Tiny Prints is offering a giveaway for one of my readers: $50 off any Tiny Prints order (excludes shipping, cannot be combined with other promos, expires 12/14/12). To enter, leave a comment here by midnight EST Monday night, 11/12/12 and I’ll pick a winner at random.

Whether you win the giveaway or not Tiny Prints has some great special offers right now. When do you start on your cards? Are you for or against the holiday letter? Photos: just the kids or do you get in the picture too? Tell me your card strategy!

Disclosure: Tiny Prints is giving me a credit toward my holiday card order and providing a giveaway for my readers in exchange for this post. I only share products that my family  has used, so I can attest to their quality. 

Kindergarten

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This past August my oldest started Kindergarten and we were thrown into the realm of having a “school-aged child”. It’s no secret that due to her late birthday – 7 days before cut off in our district – that we struggled with the decision of when she would start. In the end, we elected to wait a year and, oh…that was so the right decision for our Matilda. She is far from the oldest in her class (there are several kids 3-4 months older) and she really needed last year to work out some of her anxiety.

Because of that anxiety we spent a lot of time with school staff over the summer (has an a IEP) working out the best environment for her. We visited her classroom a couple of times and she had some one on one time with her teacher in the weeks leading up to the first day.

First official 1st day of school photo 

She was “really excited and a little nervous” on her first day (well, half-day …they have a short 3-day week of half days when K starts. It’s a total PITA for parents).

A bit hesitant now that she’s at school with the other kids

She walked to school with her daddy and I met them there (I had to leave quickly for work). She walked in ready to conquer the world.

She’s got this!

I’m so incredibly grateful for our amazing school system. We actively picked a strong public school district with lots of support and resources when we moved to Cleveland and all those taxes are starting to pay off. I’m happy to say, after 2 months, that she is doing splendidly in school. She loves school days (recess and lunch are her favorites) and is growing in ways I never imagined. She picks up on new things quickly and is eager to share about her day. Thankfully, her anxiety is starting to lessen and, thanks to the support at school, she’s learning to cope with changes much better.

Bonus: another new kindergartner moved onto to street just a few days before school started. They’ve become fast friends.  

 

 

Halloween 2012

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So! OhMommy left and apparently she took my will to blog with her to Chicago. Back in July. Oof. It’s been awhile, eh? No real reason… I’ve got 59.7 blog posts formulated in my head but I never found the time to commit them to paper (screen?). I’ve lot’s to catch up on…little stuff like my oldest starting kindergarten, you know, NBD. But, let’s ease back into this with a photo heavy post, shall we? (if you follow me on twitter/instagram you’ve seen them all, sorry!)

Thanks to the frankenstorm that gave us hurricane-style 70mph winds and waves on a Great Lake of 20 feet, our neighborhood’s trick-or-treat was postponed until yesterday. Let’s not even talk about how fast a post-vacation high can be harshed by losing power for 3 days and having roof/chimney damage that leads to plaster/fireplace/mantel damage.

Tip: a waterproof crib topper under your leak buckets will help to protect your floors (something I wish I didn’t have to learn)

Huge shout out to Emily for opening her home to us while she traveled for work. We had warm beds, hot showers and homemade meals in her adorable house rather than suffering at our 45-degree house. Thanks, Em! (and to Emily’s mom!)

The story of how we got these pumpkins to come. This photo is pre-storm when they were freshly cut. Last night they were 75% moldy goo.

Back to the point… 2012: the year Halloween was in November. Matilda knew she wanted to be an equestrian since probably last Christmas. Since she’s been taking riding lessons anyway she had most of the gear. I did finally give in and bought her a (deeply discounted) real riding coat after I looked for a boys jacket at a few thrift stores with no luck. She also scored real leather riding gloves out of the deal which I justified with the fact that she actually uses them at her lessons. She looked pretty darn cute, even with 2 layers of long johns under her costume.

And lord help the person who called her a horse rider… she would correct you with a quick “I’m an equestrian!”

Madman, my sweet opinionated 2.5 year old, was a monkey. Stuffed into the same size 24 month costume his sister wore just a month after she turned 2. I want to make clear that I didn’t not force this costume on him. He had a choice between a bee (which would have fit him much better) and this monkey (which I didn’t realize was so small until after I showed it to him) and he picked the monkey. Luckily, the coat fit him fine, but the pants were about 5 inches too short so the little feet were just below his knees.

Of course, since I can’t help myself when it comes to making these comparisons, I dug up photos from Halloween 2008 to see my two monkeys side-by-side.

Much to Matilda’s delight, Mark decided to dress up at the last minute by donning his Army fatigues. Let’s pause for a moment  and consider that these were issued to him when he was 18 years old and he still fits into them.

And, even though these really have nothing to do with Halloween, I have to post these photos to show how delightfully weird my kids are right now. Matilda is so into horses that EVERYTHING is about horses. Everything. Her scooter is really a horse named Scarlet and yesterday she found a snow brush which she then used to groom her “horse” for about 20 minutes. She even picked over the horseshoes like a proper equestrian would.

As for Madman, he’s at the age that it’s just a heck of a lot easier to give into his demands to wear what he wants than to fight him. This is why he’s frequently seen out and about in costume:

A walk to the neighbor’s house requires his sister’s riding helmet.

The man of steel enjoys pancakes for breakfast.

Buzz prefers to shop Trader Joe’s in the early morning on Saturdays.

I think I may have my blog mojo back… hopefully there will be more updates soon!

 

 

Czesc OHMommy

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I got into blogging and reading blogs right around the time we moved to Cleveland a little over 4 years ago. I had read some before that, but moving to a new town prompted me to search out local blogs to see what other people were doing in the area. Somewhere in that timeframe is when I stumbled on Pauline’s blog. Her youngest was the same age as my oldest and she had two older kids. She knew the parenting ropes and I loved reading her stories. She was born in Poland and I’m 1/2 Polish so reading about some of her family traditions was both familiar and fascinating.

I think the first time we met was at the Blog It Forward event at the Greenhouse Tavern to raise money for a blogger in need. So it was fitting last night when a group of local bloggers and social media friends gathered at the Greenhouse to wish Pauline “powodzenia” (good luck) as her family moves back to her hometown of Chicago.

Michelle, me, Amelia, Pauline, Jess, Kelly & Amy (Allison joined us later)

Over the last 4 years, what I found on the screen has translated into a real-life friendship. Our kids have had playdates, we’ve attended her famous Halloween parties, my daughter had her first crush on Pauline’s sweet Jay, and we’ve enjoyed family dinners together. When Madman was born Pauline delivered an amazing dinner of homemade stuffed peppers; I baked a cake for her Lola’s 8th birthday party. Her family recipe for bigos has become a regular dish on our table; and we’ve been lucky enough to be the recipients of Lola’s baked goods. We’ve had girls nights out and in. Madman has all of Jay’s old Thomas train stuff. Our husbands have run road races together. Heck, her husband even became our dentist.

I can never thank her enough for sharing her family secrets with us. For me, Pauline is the expert voice when it comes to family activities in the area. She may not be a native Clevelander but she loves this place like no one else. She introduced us to our favorite river wading spot, complete with a waterfall. Because of her suggestions we enrolled Matilda in dance lessons at the Solon Center for the Arts – a quality program for little kids that doesn’t cost too much and has recitals that are only an hour long. This past summer Matilda enjoyed the heck out of a camp that had been stamped with the OhMommy seal of approval. Pauline introduced me to my trainer and several other local bloggers. She has a knack for finding hidden gems and we’ve never ever been disappointed with any of her suggestions. We have a running list of “OhMommy Approved Sites” and still haven’t gotten to all of them.

Her kids are an absolute delight. Jay is hands-down the sweetest boy I’ve ever met. I’ve witnessed him show kindness to everyone around him; from gently help my toddler climb a play structure to checking in with Matilda to make sure she’s having a good time at a party. If Madman has half of Jay’s compassion at age 10 I will consider myself lucky. Lola is a whirling dervish of ideas and action. She doesn’t mind my 5 year old tagging after her like a lost puppy and in fact seems to love to play with Matilda. I will always remember watching from across the room at a Halloween party when Lola noticed Matilda sitting on the sidelines: Lola walked over and pulled a tootsie roll out of her pocket, handed it to Matilda with a big smile and told her to join the dance floor. As a parent moment like that make your heart smile. Speaking of smiling, Feenie just makes you smile. I swear she’s a mini version of Pauline – her alter ego if you will. Sweet and funny and wise beyond her years. You will never forget and encounter with Feenie. I’m so grateful my kids have been able to play with and learn from the OhMommy kids.

Pauline and the entire OhMommy family: Cleveland will miss you. I can’t thank you enough for all the advice, food and, most of all, friendship you’ve shared with us.

Chicago: you are very lucky to get this lady back in your midst. If you ever have the chance, make sure you meet the entire crew. Your life will be better for it.

I’m not going to say good by, but good luck. Because you aren’t rid of us yet. We can’t wait to visit you in your new old house and read about the adventures you discover in this next chapter of your lives. And you know, our door is always open when you need to smell the sunshine on an Ohio meadow.

Powodzenia!

 

Weekend Recap: Family Fun in Put-In-Bay (giveaway)

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Back when I posted our summer bucket list I mentioned that I wanted to check out Put-In-Bay since I had never been there. One of the ferry operators to the island saw that post and invited us to visit. South Bass Island suffers from a bit of a party stigma – known as the Key West of the Great Lakes, it has more than it’s fair share of rowdy, drunken stories. So, could a family of 4 have an enjoyable island adventure? We were willing to try.

The Miller Boat Line gave us round-trip tickets for the ferry along with a golf cart on the island (care of Island Bike & Cart Rental) and tickets to some of the attractions at Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center. Armed with those, coupons from the web, and a couple of hours worth of internet searching we were off.

Miller Ferry bound, We’re on a boat!

After picking up the cart, which was equipped with a child seat for the squirmy Madman, we motored to town. After a quick loop around we parked and let the kids play in DeRivera Park which is a beautiful green space between the main street and the marina. The park has lots of playground equipment, tons of picnic tables and ample shade. There were even kids doing chalk drawings up and down the sidewalks. I was kicking myself for not bringing a picnic lunch because the park was a perfect spot. We decided instead to check out nearby Boardwalk and ended up in the Upper Deck because we wanted table service. The food was what you’d expect for a tourist place…I can’t complain about my perch sandwich, but it was standard sandwich and fries fare. The Lobster Bisque was indeed very good and Matilda ate most of our bowl. We were disappointed we couldn’t sit outside (highchairs don’t work with the patio tables) but they put us by the windows so the kids could watch the boats come and go, which kept them entertained throughout lunch. Pro tip: check your coupons before you eat. We forgot to use a coupon for a free kids meal here.

DeRivera Park fun

After lunch we headed over to The Aquatic Visitors Center where I might have freaked out a bit about the size of some of Lake Erie’s fish. The kids loved it there – it’s full of fish tanks and some hands-on displays about the fishery and ecosystem of the lake. They also offer free fishing off their pier (equipment provided) and Matilda was determined to catch a fish. After a few attempts she caught a round gobie, much to her excitement. The Center is staffed by Ohio State University Stone Lab students who were patient and very kind to the kids. The best part was when Matilda’s gobie was put into the trough to feed the bigger catfish and pike. She was pretty excited.

Pretty view from the Aquatic Visitor’s Center, Hands-on displays

Fishing off the pier and feeding her gobie to the bigger fish

It was time to head to the main attraction – Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center – which seems to be the hub of kid activity on the island. With our Combo passes we checked out the Butterfly Garden (tip: the nicest bathrooms of the trip were found here), Perry’s Cave and Fort aMAZE’n. As you can guess, Matilda loved it here. She thought the cave was really cool (so did I) and really enjoyed the maze. Madman was a bit of handful but he enjoyed the little antique car display and then just had fun hanging out on our parked golf cart while Matilda and Mark were navigating the maze. Best part – kids 5 and under free for most things here and the combo tickets save you 25% over individual ticket prices.

Fun at Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center

Since Matilda was dying to get in the water we drove over to South Bass Island State Park to check out their swimming beach. While it was nice enough we were totally unprepared since neither Mark or I brought our suits. Both kids got in the lake but the rocky bottom and waves got the best of us and we made them get out after just a few minutes. They were not happy but my shorts were soaked and I didn’t want to get wetter. If we had been better prepared, this would have been a nice way to spend an hour our two as it wasn’t crowded, the water was warm and the views of the bluffs were pretty.

After our traumatic exit from the beach we decided to drive past the memorial (which was closed for repairs but opens up again this week) and check out the east side of the island. We got to Scheef Nature Preserve but decided to not get out and walk around since the kids were starting to get tired. We buzzed back past the memorial and went back into town for a snack. After walking around a bit we ended up at the little ice cream parlor at The Candy Bar for an air conditioned break. We thought about riding Kimberly’s Carousel but the kids were’t having it. Around 5:00 the village started to get a bit too rowdy for us (admittedly, we are kind of prude when it comes to our kids who are only 5 and 2) with foul language and scant clothing. Although we had intended to check out the Goat Soup and Whiskey for dinner, which is mid-island and away from the main strip, the kids were D-O-N-E so after another quick romp on the DeRivera Park playground we headed back to the ferry dock.

Overall we enjoyed our trip. There was more to do in PIB than we had expected and I think we will return when the kids are a bit older so we can do things like kayaking and more hiking. Cost-wise, I think a day-trip is on par with a a day a Cedar Point, just make sure you look for coupons (and then remember to use them!). Put-In-Bay’s reputation for being a party place isn’t totally unfounded, but if you get there early enough and leave around dinner time a fun day is in store – there’s lots of history on the island and plenty to do. Plus if your little one is 5 or under almost everything is free. A golf cart is a must with younger kids but I think older kids could handle traversing the island on a bike. Either way, it’s a perfect day trip that’s just a bit out of the ordinary.

Much thanks to @MillerBoatLineand especially their Communications Manager, Katrina, who put up with a lot of indecisiveness as to when we were going to visit. Thanks for showing us another local spot for us to enjoy with the kids!

Here’s the fun part – When we arrived on PIB, the owner’s of Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center gave me 4 Combo tickets to give away to my readers. Just leave a comment below telling me your best PIB story or about your favorite Lake Erie getaway. Giveaway ends June 12, 2012 at midnight. One commenter will be chosen by random.org. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was given 2 ferry tickets, a one-day golf cart rental and 2 Combo tickets to Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center for our trip – a trip we were planning on taking on our own. As always, my thoughts are 100% my own. I only share things that my family plans to attend or has attended in the past, so I know they are worth the visit.