Over the weekend we were invited to visit the Central Park Zoo to enjoy the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur 4-D Experience and an exclusive to...

Over the weekend we were invited to visit the Central Park Zoo to enjoy the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur 4-D Experience and an exclusive tour of the zoo’s Polar Zone! We had so much fun!

Can you believe we haven't been to the Central Park Zoo 4-D theater?! We've been to that zoo so many times and have really been missing out.

The new Central Park Zoo 4-D Theater combines the visual drama of a 3-D film with a variety of sensory effects that are built into the seats and theater environment, such as water mist, blustery wind, snow, bubbles, scents, seat vibrations, and more.

We received our 3D glasses and then settled into comfy seats to enjoy a mini version of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The movie was edited in a way to still tell the story and be short enough for young kids. The interactive feature was a great plus. Our seats vibrated when the dinosaurs walked. We saw snow and felt water mist when something similar happened on screen. So fun!


After seeing the movie, we snuck in a photo with Sid, one of the movie characters, during the meet and greet. Since we had a Total Experience ticket, we joined the groups outside the theater to go on a Polar Zone Tour.

The guides took us to different animal habits and explained about the animals lifestyle in the wild and at the zoo. We were encouraged to ask questions and join in the discussion. Kids (and adults) will enjoy learning about how some of the animals from the Ice Age movie are related to modern animals in the zoo and wild.


We saw the lots of animals including birds, polar bear and a snow leopard! Each animal habitat had information section where you can learn more. My son really enjoyed seeing and learn about the snow leopard.

The tour was great and again not to long for families with young children. If your visiting the zoo soon then get the Total Experience Ticket so you can enjoyed both the 4-D theater and the polar zone tour.



The rest of our time at the zoo was spent visiting and enjoying the other sections and animals including bugs, birds, seals and penguins!

Going to the zoo is always a great way to spend some time. There's lots to do at the Central Park Zoo.

To learn more, visit www.centralparkzoo.com

Summer is almost here, which means planning for little league, vacation, play dates and camps. With so much to plan for, many of us use tech...

Summer is almost here, which means planning for little league, vacation, play dates and camps. With so much to plan for, many of us use technology to help keep everything organized and clutter free. But are we also organizing and decluttering our technology and digital lives ?!

To help you (and me!) keep our digital lives decluttered, Microsoft is sharing "5 tips for ways to keep our schedules and emails organized":

1. Cleanup that schedule. When you write something down in a paper calendar, you don't have much choice about how it's done. You take your pencil — or your pen, if you're brave — and you write it down. Simple. In Outlook you have choices: between meetings and appointments, for example, or between once and repeatedly. You can mark scheduled time as busy, free, or tentative. And if you choose, when it's time to pick the kids up, Outlook will remind you.
2. Manage inbox clutter with conversation view. With Outlook, you can condense several conversations into one view for easy-to-follow dialogue with friends and family. You can also arrange email by date or individual. This will allow you to create a system of organization that rescues email you want from the clutter and reduces the likelihood of missing important conversations.
3. Don’t procrastinate. Many people get overwhelmed by too many incoming emails. So, rather than deal with them, they ignore them instead. Procrastination can hinder your inbox organization. Take time to respond, file or delete email as it arrives. The longer you wait, the more it piles up and the bigger the clutter problem becomes.
4. Schedule and commit to uninterrupted organization time. With so many distractions, it’s important to establish a time each day to process mail and ensure a clean and organized inbox. Commit to a regular schedule that is free of distractions (such as Facebook and Twitter) so you can deal with messages that need your immediate attention and purge those that don’t.
5. Make a clean sweep. Outlook’s “Sweep” feature allows you to manage email clutter. With one click you can get rid of all chosen mail in your inbox. You can also sweep future mails. For instance, incoming newsletters can be directed to an assigned folder, while email you know is junk can be sent directly to the deleted folder. The feature also lets you block emails from unwanted senders.

Hopefully by using these tips digital families like mine can enjoy a clutter free summer!

I'm a firm believer in families being active together, so I attended the SheSpeaks event with Elisabeth Hasselbeck to learn about Merck ...

I'm a firm believer in families being active together, so I attended the SheSpeaks event with Elisabeth Hasselbeck to learn about Merck Consumer Care (MCC) Active Family Project, a new health and wellness initiative in the U.S.

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Merck Consumer Care, however any opinions expressed by me are honest and reflect my actual experience.

During the event Elisabeth Hasselbeck share how important it is to schedule in active family play time and why she partnered with Merck.

To hear what she had to say, listen to the below video.

The Active Family Project helps inspire families to live life more fully by spotlighting healthy habits, providing tips and information, and sharing fun family activities, while building a national community of moms dedicated to adopting and promoting an active and healthy lifestyle, for the people they care about most.

The Active Family Project and celebrity mom Elisabeth Hasselbeck, are encouraging families to live a more active lifestyle and to celebrate the first annual National Family Playdate by scheduling family playtime on May 11. By scheduling a family playdate, moms can ensure quality time for their loved ones.

During the event I also learned about the Active Family Project Activity Finder, a mobile app that helps families plan their own family play date.

Just enter a city and state and then choose an activity category to search for in your living area or for your upcoming family travel plans. I LOVE this app and plan on using it heavily.

To learn more, visit - www.activefamilyproject.com and www.facebook.com/activefamilyproject