Mehendi Fun at Wedding

Applying Mehendi on your hands is a symbol of happiness and celebration. What more fun can it be to see it on cute little hands.

Please Touch Museum

Wow! Please Touch Museum is a dream come true for any young child. My 3 year old was in heaven ! “Museum”, I thought when I heard the name, what would that have to hold a child’s interest.  But it turned out that it this place completely targeted towards kids is one of the best children’s Museum. Their mission is – “to enrich the lives of children by creating learning opportunities through play, enables us to lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning and cultural awareness.”

We were there for almost 4 hours but still were unable to cover the entire place. It is huge, and there are so many areas to explore. The best part is that everything here is kid-sized, kid-sized markets, river, cars, train, ice-cream stand and McDonald’s too. Among the various attractions in the museum, the ones that we loved the most were :

v  Alice in Wonderland 
v  River Adventures play areas
v  Space Station, which features a series of display cases with over three decades of Star Wars toys.
v  Roadside Attractions, a new locale with a SEPTA bus and actual car.
v  The Walking Piano
v  The Woodside Park Carousel
v  The McDonald’s Restaurant

The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, mostly aimed at children seven years old and younger.

Gia's favorite part of the Please Touch Museum and mine as well, was the ShopRite store, where kids can grab a cart and stroll the aisles for all grocery items, including fresh fruits, oatmeal, honey, fresh bread, deli meats, produce and even frozen Philly cheesesteaks!  There's a checkout area at the front of the store, where kids can delight on hearing the beeping as they scan their items and ring them up at a cash register. It was an absolute fun to see Gia move around busily around the store, filling up her cart with as much stuff as she could get her tiny little hands on!

The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, mostly aimed at children seven years old and younger.

Gia's favorite part of the Please Touch Museum and mine as well, was the ShopRite store, where kids can grab a cart and stroll the aisles for all grocery items, including fresh fruits, oatmeal, honey, fresh bread, deli meats, produce and even frozen Philly cheesesteaks!  There's a checkout area at the front of the store, where kids can delight on hearing the beeping as they scan their items and ring them up at a cash register. It was an absolute fun to see Gia move around busily around the store, filling up her cart with as much stuff as she could get her tiny little hands on!

Fun trip to the Philadelphia Zoo

We visited America’s first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo last Tuesday. I have fond memories of visiting our city Zoo every year with my cousins and parents as a kid. I loved exploring the zoo as kid and couldn’t believe that after so many years I still enjoy it to the core.

It was a pleasant summer day (thankfully not very hot) and we were beyond thrilled to experience the magical animal kingdom.

Big Cats exhibits was wonderful. We were charmed by the beautiful creatures – the magnificent lion taking a catnap, tigers playing in the water, cheetahs sprinting across their enclosure and pumas racing around the steep walls of their exhibit. It was also fun to watch the giant tortoise, the giraffe family including a baby giraffe , zebras and rhinos.

Gia’s favorite part was the primates section!  She loved the swinging monkeys and the orangutans. Oh, what fun! My daughter got so excited to see them that she started jumping like a little monkey herself. We could help but laugh our bellies out.

As an amusement park, the Philadelphia Zoo is pretty good.  There are lots of activities and play areas for kids. They have lots of great things like a petting zoo with adorable sheep, goats, and miniature horses. There is a lake as well with lovely Swan boats. 

Along with Gia, I also enjoyed the  the Zoo’s enchanting Amazon Rainforest Carousel. It is an all-wooden, hand-carved and hand-painted carousel was the first of its kind in the United States featuring endangered species found within the Amazon Rainforest. The Carousel includes 30 bird, reptile, mammal and amphibian "seats,” as well as two spinning snake chariots. 

The Lorikeet experience was one of its kinds.  There is a fair-sized aviary with many different lorikeets happily playing and flying back and forth.  It was fun to see the zoo staff feed the birds with a plastic syringe. Sometimes,  you can also expect a naughty lorikeet to land on your arm and or sit on your head.  We walked through the aviary silently  .

We missed the Balloon ride this time, but hopefully we will be able to actually ride that Zoo Balloon on a good weather day.

Although, we had planned to spend half a day at the zoo but wound up staying for the whole day. And even after that the little one did not want to leave and was gladly ready for a sleepover party with the monkeys.

Sesame Place Visit

This week we visited Sesame Place with Gia. It was beautiful Sunday morning and Sesame place turned out to be the best place in the world for our two and half year old. Considering it was first opened in 1980, it still looks pretty new, clean and organized.

Sesame Place is a theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania based on the Sesame Street television program. It includes a variety of rides, shows, and water attractions suited to very young children. The park is open from late April through Halloween. We bought the tickets online since they offer few discounts if you buy them online. It was good to get a discount since the tickets are not cheap.

There are two kinds of rides – the water rides and the dry rides. For some reason Gia is not so fond of water rides so although Nitin and I love them, we did not spend a lot of time in the water park. But even after skipping that, we had so much to explore that our entire day was gone in no time.

Our first ride upon entering the park was the Cloud Chaser - riders fly around in swings. We loved this one as much as the Flyin' Fish although the wait was very long.

As mentioned, since Gia resisted the water rides we kind of stayed away from them yet the one that we couldn’t resist passing by twice was The Count’s Splash Castle which is their multi-level splash park complete with water slides, hose jets, water wheels, 1,000-gallon 8-ft. tipping bucket, and so much more. It was so much fun!

The best part of the trip for Gia was when she got to meet and pose with one of her favorite characters, the Cookie Monster

We also spent some time watching the wonderful shows that Sesame Place offers. Elmo's World Live! and Elmo Rocks! Each time Gia saw Elmo, her eyes completely lit up. Sesame does a wonderful job of making each of their shows interactive and fun! The energy that all the characters put into the show is amazing!

Neighborhood Street Party, is a really cute choreographed musical parade where you can see all the characters of the Sesame Street at one time and who doesn’t love a parade.

One thing for sure it was too crowded and people had been waiting in the sun for long to get the best view. I’m glad that our timing was just right. We did not arrive too early but still got a good spot.

The last ride was the most exhilarating one - Grover's Vapor Trail. I thought it was a little too much for Gia, basically is meant for ages 3 and up but since she was tall enough we squeezed her in (Oh, you should have seen the look on her face. All boggled ! I was expecting her to start wailing in the middle of the ride but here is was all smiles and most happy) I wish we could have done that before I would have gone more than 3 times for sure.

Time’s Up and we have to return L At this time no one wants to but we promised ourselves we’ll return soon. We were glad we had booked our hotel very close to the park since the day was exhausting, we were soaked out of energy and driving back home might have been really hard.

Packing for Vacation when travelling with Kids

Last Sunday we drove to PA with Gia for a visit to the Sesame Place, Please Touch Museum and the PA zoo. Although Sesame Place is around 2 hours from our home but we decided that instead of coming back to Toms River, we will book a hotel near the Sesame place for 3 days and cover all 3 places.

Packing list while on a vacation with kids :

Ø  Food on the go like

a.      Bottled milk, Pediasure, water / juice/ soda

b.      Uncut/ unpeeled fruits like banana (make sure they are not too ripe)

c.       Packed food like apple sauce, crackers, cookies or muffins (we love little bites)

d.      Fruit snacks (they are good for time pass when kids are getting bored)

e.      Rice or wheat cereal if your kids need it

f.        Few plastic spoons/ forks

Ø  Milk and water bottles ( I also carry some detergent and bottle cleaning brush)

Ø  Diapers

Ø  Wipes

Ø  Diaper rash cream

Ø  Some empty garbage bags for dirty diapers, laundry, wet swim clothes

Ø  Diaper changing pad

Ø  Children’s story books (we packed an Elmo book since we were visiting Sesame Place)

Ø  Lots of bank paper, pens and colors for kids to draw

Ø  Few toys

Ø  Clothes (make sure to pack the most comfortable set of clothes for yourself and your kids along with long sleeved sleeping gowns/ pjs, avoid white and light colors)

Ø  Bibs

Ø  Sweater or Jackets if required (it is even during summer)

Ø  Tooth brushes, toothpaste (Many hotels provide these as complimentary but we decided to keep them after we had to pay $20 for a travel size toothpaste in Hotel Hershey)

Ø  Any special soap or shampoo that you or your kids use (travel size is recommended to keep the luggage light)

Ø  Hats/ Caps/ sun-glasses

Ø  Bathing suit / Beach towels / Beach blanket

Ø  Sunscreen lotion

Ø  Flip flops

Ø  Cellphone charger

Ø  Music on the go

Ø  Most importantly bring your medicines (cold/ fever and any other you think necessary)

Little Tikes Endless Adventures Spiralin' Seas Waterpark

This table is hours of entertainment for kids. We went to our friend's house and realized how this table attracts kids, needless to say they have plenty of fun under the sun.

Initially Gia was a little apprehensive about it, but once she got involved with the other kids she was delighted and played for a long time. The interesting thing about this toy is that kids can spend an entire summer day playing with it and not get bored. Kids around the neighbourhood join in too and enjoy the water game. There is no stopping....

There are so many different things that keep kid entertained - the squirt balls and the spiral tube. Kids loves to splash around in the water. It's a lot of fun not only for kids but for adults as well. I believe this water table is something that can be used for many years. Our plan is to buy this for Gia this summer :)

Little Tikes Endless Adventures Spiralin' Seas Waterpark

Visit to Dorbrook park

We went to Dorbrook park for the first time with Gia last weekend. One of our family friends Judette had recommended it and we planned to go there with her. She brought along her kids Kai and Milo.

The Dorbrook Recreation Area in Colts Neck definitely ranks near the top as one of New Jersey’s best county parks. This place was designed with fun in mind. It features a barrier-free playground, tennis & horseshoe courts, inline skate rink, Basketball courts, open fields, paved trails for biking, walking, skating, swimming pools used for lessons and a spray ground. There is also an area for model airplane flying and rocket launches. For those who love walking or if you are a nature lover you can enjoy walking paved trails.

The playground is split into several main areas.  There is the 5-12 set which features activities that will work the minds and muscles of any child.  One of the neat features in this playground is the rolling slide which the children roll down a slide made completely of warehouse style rollers.   There is a huge sitting seesaw, swings and a very large toddler play area. To most kids, the main attraction is the huge sandbox that was very clean.

Gia spent most of her time filling her bucket with sand and building castles. She did enjoy her time on the slides where the most entertaining part was when she climbed to the top rather than sliding down. We spent a little over 2 hours and headed for the cheesecake factory for dinner. All in all Dorbrook park is well worth a stop in with or without kids.