Month: July 2015

Win a Night Out at White Fence Farm!

White Fence Farm offers a full-service family dining restaurants that serving steaks, shrimp, fish, and their famous fried chicken and cornfritters. In addition to the beautiful landscaping and colonial-style building, kids will have fun on the playground or in the Mini Farm, or petting the animals in the “O.K. Corral.” If they’re a bit older, perhaps they’ll be flying down the “pig chute,” a two-story slide that whisks them from the second to the first floor of the barn, or playing some pinball or classic arcade games in “The Silo.” The Americana Barn could provide an evening of entertainment in itself. What’s New, Fun and Fabulous at White Fence Farm? White Fence Farm opens the newly renovated, Granny’s, an old-fashioned ice cre...

Dry Cleaning Goes Green for $1.99: Aurora Store Brings New Concept To Colorado In First Of Several Planned Locations

It’s no secret that parents are becoming increasingly sensitive to environmental concerns. In fact, in a 2014 National Environment Education Foundation study, 60 percent of adults said they keep up with environmental news and 53 percent now consider a cleaning product’s impact on the environment in their purchasing decisions.  However, while parents often pay close attention to the cleaning chemicals they bring into their homes, many don’t consider the environment when they take their family’s clothes to the dry cleaner—but they should.  Tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethylene or “perc”) is the predominant chemical solvent used in dry cleaning. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, perc is a toxic chemical with both human health and environmental con...

Great Wolf Lodge Announces its First Colorado Resort

 Families in Colorado will soon have something new to howl about. Great Wolf Resorts, Inc., North America’s largest family of indoor water park resorts, announced it is expanding its paw print to the Centennial State. Great Wolf Lodge Colorado Springs will be a first-class destination resort, providing families with more than 380,000 square feet of entertainment offerings and lodging amenities to enjoy, all under one roof. The centerpiece of the resort will be more than 65,000 square feet of indoor water park fun, the largest in the state. With signature Great Wolf Lodge water rides and attractions, including the thrilling five-story funnel slide, Howlin’ Tornado™; Slap Tail Pond® wave pool and Fort Mackenzie® – a multi-level interactive tree house with a massive tipping water bucket ...

Family travel: 10 of Colorado’s most scenic waterfall hikes

Sometimes the best satisfaction at the end of a tough hike, besides that “ah, I’ve made it!” moment, is being greeted with amazing views. And nothing quite adds to the views of stunning mountain valleys and peaks like a tall, cascading waterfall. Colorado is filled with beautiful mountain waterfalls that are not to be missed. From one of the state’s most visited waterfalls, Hanging Lake in Glenwood Springs, to the tallest free falling falls in Colorado, Bridal Veil Falls, here is a sampling of some local favorites that are well worth the trek.   Alberta Falls (Estes Park). The 1.7-mile (roundtrip) Alberta Falls hike, named for Alberta Sprague, wife of Abner Sprague who was one of the original settlers in the area, is an easy but beautiful hike for the summer and fall. The aspen g...

Wild Animal Sanctuary Responds to Backlash Over Huge Payment Increase

A carnivore rescue facility on Colorado’s Eastern Plains increased fees for daily visitors this weekend from $15 to $50. Operators of the Wild Animal Sanctuary, a 720-acre sanctuary 30 miles northeast of Denver, said the price increase is part of a necessary, cost-driven plan to encourage potential patrons to become long-term “supporters” of the facility. The sanctuary is a 501(c)3 public non-profit—much like a Humane Society for cats and dogs—and has to rely entirely on private contributions, fundraising events, and grants from foundations to stay in operation. The vast majority of the money they raise each year comes from small donations by everyday people who care about the welfare of these animals enough to make a donation as often as they can. Someone who donates $20...

The Widdahood: Moving and saying good-bye all over again

I don’t know how to start this blog post.  I guess I should just start by telling the truth. I am so happy. For months I wondered what this would feel like to a new home (yes, I finally sold my house!)  My stuff is in a new place.  My kids are still trying to figure out where everything is.  My cat looks at me, completely bewildered, wondering where in the hell she is. She’s home. I’ve gone back and forth on the whole moving thing for a long time.  Let’s see…my husband Brad died almost exactly eight years ago…so seven and a half years ago I thought about moving.  And I didn’t and I was right. Until I did.  And I was right then, too. This is just like everything else we’ve been through on this road; what̵...

Denver Deal: Free Days, Starbucks, Beauty Brands and Butterflies

Do your kids have a favorite shirt or outfit? You know, the one that they seem to get dressed in all.the.time. Like, every single time you tell them to change or get dressed they end up in that same shirt. I would nag them to go change that this was something like the 10 millionth time that I have seen them in this shirt (and  that I’m fairly certain it had not been washed that much). It was just brought to my attention (by my kids no less) that apparently I have a favorite shirt. Yes, the same “repeater infraction.” But…but…but. I love it! It is the Gobi Shirt from White Sierra. (I also think they meant to spell it as Gobi Desert shirt – but on the website it is listed as Dessert (which is does feel as awesome as sweets – so maybe it was an i...

Family Travel: 8 Ways Colorado Springs and Royal Gorge Rock

Colorado Springs, how many ways does my family love to explore you? More than 8! Here are our travel tips for 1, 2, and 3 day trips.

Tween Touchpoint Video: Acting like a moody teen at ten

Watch Joshua Sparrow, MD’s video on Tween Touchpoint: Acting like a moody teen at ten. He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on related topics and has consulted on media programming for children and parents, including PBS’s Frontlines and Discovery Kids. Co-author with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton of 8 books and the weekly New York Times Syndicated column, “Families Today,” Dr. Sparrow has also served as a contributing editor to Scholastic Services’ Parent and Child magazine. For more information on elementary education visit KidsInTheHouse.com Kids in the House is the world’s largest parenting video library with over 9,000 videos from 450 experts, including physicians, psychologists, researchers, educators, best-selling authors, and other celebrated voices in ou...

Foodie Friday: Grandma’s Peach Pie with Shortbread Crust

Colorado Palisade Peaches.  Hear me roar! One of my husband’s favorite desserts ever is his mom’s fresh peach pie What I like about this pie: I’m a crust snob and shudder at any recipe that says to use those cardboard-esque pre-made or frozen ones. But I’m also not the best crust maker so this one calls for what could be classified as shortbread and is so so so easy to put together. And there is nothing better than fresh peaches when they’re in season so why on earth do we bake them and suck all the glorious goodness out of them? The crust is baked but the peaches are not so the sweeter and better the peaches, the more delicious the pie. Trust me, try this recipe and you’ll never look back.  Grandma’s Peach Pie with Shortbread Crust Crust 1 cup butter 2 cups...

I Can’t Always Watch You

When my daughter CJ was young, I took her to the grocery store with me. As usual, she climbed up to hang onto the side of the cart, and as usual, I told her to get down. We made our way through the produce department without incident. Then I stopped the cart and turned my back on it – and her – as I looked through the specialty cheeses. Just as I picked up a ball of mozzarella, I heard a shriek and a crash. I turned to see her lying on the floor with the cart on top of her. Another shopper was already rushing to lift the cart off her. I sat on the floor and pulled her into my lap, where she sobbed, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” as I smoothed her hair. One employee went to get us another container of blackberries to replace the one that had bro...

Hiking Adventures at Maxwell Falls in Evergreen

As much as my family loves the outdoors, they enjoy their technology, too. So when I suggested we participate in Cabela’s Disconnect Day, there was a mixed response and surprisingly, the push-back was mostly from my husband who loves his TV time in the evenings.  This isn’t the first time we’ve been challenged to disconnect. Earlier this year, my daughter’s school encouraged families to go for one evening without technology and electricity. We failed. Ever since then I’ve realized just how dependent we are upon modern conveniences. We went camping at Brainard Lake in June so that was my family’s official Disconnect Day but my kids and I recently had another memorable day where we unplugged with friends in the most beautiful ...

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