High Maintenance Mom

I thought it would be fun to start a list of fun places to visit with kids. tld mentioned a few in her reply "Happy New Year" and I thought we could put them all in one place so when we travel, we can check them out. We love to visit children's museums, natural history museums, zoos, and science museums. Below are a few favorites from recent trips.

• Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art - Amherst, MA. The exhibits are kid-friendly and provide an excellent introduction to art museums. There is a studio for participating in projects and a library with more than 2500 picture books. The store is one of my favorites and includes books, cards, posters, and other exciting picture book-related toys, games and apparel (we love the logo and bought tshirts for the kids in addition to cards, books, etc.).

I am out-of-town all week and have been preparing the house for my departure. I think I went to the grocery store three times this weekend, did four loads of laundry, and four loads in the dishwasher. In the past, I've left lots of notes about what to eat for dinner or pack for lunches and when I return, I find moldy food in the same containers I had left them in. This week is a test of the Lunch Cheat Sheets. I'm filling them out along with where to find the food and hoping the food I bought this weekend is eaten...

For many, the beginning of the school year includes packing a lunch for the first time. Below is a helpful list of lunch items for different ages and a pdf of a "cheat sheet" for letting someone else pack a lunch for you. If you are packing for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, you will want to cut the food into small pieces and avoid choking hazard shapes such as a circular piece of hotdog (cut hotdogs into spears)...

We have a few weekend or longer trips coming up and I'm making lists of everything we need. In the past I have diligently packed for everyone the night before only to get somewhere and realize I have too many clothes for the kids and forgot a few essentials for myself. This is one of several lists on the website. Please let me know what works for you and I will update the list with your suggestions...

The boys had their first swim lessons this morning where we continued to refine how we handle two kids at the pool...

I wanted to carry a bag that didn't scream diaper bag and also try to reduce the huge number of items I was dragging around. Here's a basic bag that will handle most issues...