The village of Mont Tremblant is nestled in the Laurentian Mountains in Québec, Canada. It’s well known as a popular winter destination because of the fabulous Mont Tremblant Ski Resort. The village is lesser known as a summer destination, but it is a wonderful place to stay in the summer because of the numerous family activities available. The region is dotted with sparkling clean lakes, deep arboreal forests, and amazing mountain ranges.
Nearly everyone who comes to New York City makes a point of visiting Central Park. It is, quite literally, the heart of Manhattan, and any guide to NYC will direct you to explore this green oasis, which is so full of wonders, it can make you feel like a kid again.
But for those of us with actual children in tow, sometimes you just need the relative sanity of a fenced in playpark, where you can sip a coffee while the youngsters burn off some energy. For us, some of the greatest gems sprinkled throughout Central Park are the 21 different playgrounds—all 100% free, open from dawn to dusk, many of which have been renovated by the Central Park Conservancy over the last few years. As a resident of Manhattan since my children were two and three years-old, I’ve done some serious investigation of at least two-thirds of those parks and have whittled down my favourites to these five Central Park playgrounds.
Since my last trip to Disney World two years ago, the resort has introduced magic bands. Mailed to your home prior to your trip so you have them on arrival, each Disney World ‘Magic Band‘ is engraved with the names of the respective members in your party. The bands come in 8 solid colours—pink, green, red, purple, orange, yellow, blue, and grey. Basically, the My Disney Experience website emails to let you know when your bands are being sent to your home (Don’t worry, if you make a last minute reservation you can pick them up at the resort when you arrive.) They’re sleek and pretty cool actually, but if you want something a bit fancier (think: Star Wars or Frozen) you can grab those online at the Disney Store.
Though Disney has received criticism for some of their Disney princess characters of the past—exaggerated in dimension, with tiny waists and huge eyes, they didn’t represent “real women” in shape. Despite this talk, however, I never looked down on these characters or their stories. Then again, you can find me on any given day flipping through pages of numerous fashion magazines, feeling inspired and proud of my gender, not angered at the logistics of airbrushing.
What’s New at Walt Disney World? The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is an inspiring and exciting event and as I sit in the Yacht Club Resort’s conference room, I am live blogging about all that’s new and exciting here.
Check Out What’s New at Walt Disney World for 2016/2017
Conception Drawing: Disney Parks
Well, not only cold and frozen things have been good for Disney over the past couple of years. After the 4 billion dollar acquisition of rights to Star Wars from Lucas Films, both North American parks broke ground for soon to be 14 acres each of Star Wars Land. April 14th, 2016 was the groundbreaking ceremony both at Disneyland park in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida for the new Star Wars Land. According to the Disney Parks Blog, ” guests will be transported to a never-before-seen planet inhabited by humanoids, droids and many others. Star Wars-themed lands will be the largest-ever single-themed land expansions at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.”
I’ll never forget traveling from Rome to Toronto in executive class with a one year-old who didn’t sleep a wink. (I’m quite certain the airline had to appease many of our fellow travelers!) Every parent has a ‘bag of tricks’ and we’d love for you to add your own ideas to our 15 ways to entertain kids on an airplane. Having their full attention for so long is a great way to bond and can reveal amazing teaching moments. Even looking at the maps in the airline magazine is an opportunity!
Although I love saying, “Have toothbrush, will travel,” I need more in my suitcase than oral care tools and a passport! If you find packing for vacation scary enough to put you off leaving your house, check out how I pack with ease, then start planning your next vacay.
As far as traveling with young children goes during spring break, Fort Myers Beach, Florida is about as good (and easy) as it gets. After taking one of the many available non-stop flights to the Southwest Florida airport, you’ll find a small, narrow island off the gulf coast, with vast stretches of soft, pale pink sand, clear ocean water, and not a single high-rise hotel in sight.
With all of the fear-based news stories in the media about the Zika virus and spring break coming up, we wanted to get a clear picture on what Zika is and how to prevent it so we at Urban Mommies reached out to Dr. Dina Kulik to get some facts and calm some fears.