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Gingerbread Houses – a Unique Take

Though I’m terrible at making and decorating gingerbread houses, they’re awesome. While in Tucson last week, this western town at display at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. If you like theses, you’ll want to check out these offerings on Red Tricycle and the gothic Notre Dame reconstruction, via the Star Ledger.
Tracks of candy and pulverized cookies. Fondant and candy decorations.
The black and red in the background is the holiday Oreos, twisted apart. That’s a lot of food coloring. In the foreground, a lot of gingerbread people. Continue reading “Gingerbread Houses – a Unique Take”
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Review: Glassworks in Morristown

Our recent trip to Glassworks in Morristown was a resounding success, and now we can’t wait to go back. We went as a Girl Scout activity, and saw lots of families making crafts together. They have a party room set up as well.

The party room! You can see one of the tables holding holding glass pieces in the middle, by the cupcake. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

The space was quite large, with several tables seating 10 set up. We had a choice of three projects (set up with our troop leader ahead of time), so we all chose which item we wanted to make, and the staff person explained how to do it.

The table is set up for customers. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

Continue reading “Review: Glassworks in Morristown”

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Fun New Toys This Season

The kids and I visited a toy show recently and got to test out some new products. I wanted to share our favorites with you.

YUMMY DOUGH
I thought my kids were too old for play dough, but it turns out they’re not. This Yummy Dough was a surprise hit. Combine the ideas of play dough with cookies, and you get an edible play dough (you can eat it raw or baked). It has no butter in it, and almost all natural coloring (the only color that isn’t 100% natural is the blue, which has a few drops of dye). The other color comes from things like tumeric and beets. It’s a German product being introduced in the U.S. by two parents. The dough is $12.95/container, and you mix it yourself to make it fresh. Each container carries 4 colors in separate packs – just add water. It’s pricey enough you may want to give it as a gift or use for special play dates, though I have a buy one, get one free code good through January 7, 2013 if you buy from their Smarty Parents website. Use code BOGODOUGH at checkout. I’ve purchased color cookie dough before, and it tasted terrible. The Yummy Dough, while not something I’d choose to serve guests, tasted okay and the kids liked it. A neighbor sampled the leftovers that we brought home, and he thought it was great.  Continue reading “Fun New Toys This Season”

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Passports with Purpose – Win a Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT from Buydig.com

For the third year, our sister site Frisco Kids is participating in Passports with Purpose, a fundraiser run by travel bloggers to give back to other communities. Each year the organization chooses on project and raises funds for it. In the past, the group built a school in Cambodia, built a village in India, and libraries in Zambia. It’s very much of a grass roots fundraising effort, and minimum contributions are $10.

This year, the recipient organization is Water.org, which will build wells in two Haiti communities with the funds. The goal is to raise $100,000 this year, which is easily doable even in $10 increments! Clean water is so important and it’s something we take for granted here in the U.S. In fact, I just wrote about the importance of clean water for A Garden Life profiling another fabulous clean water charitable organization, Water for People. 

To encourage you to donate, bloggers solicit amazing prizes like hotel stays in Sonoma, Maui, Vancouver, Mexico, Helsinki, Nicaragua, Mumbai, a trip to Rome, a week in a Provence, an Amazon river cruise, white water rafting in the Colorado river, travel gear, digital cameras, Kindle keyboards, and gift certificates for all kinds of things. 

The fundraising ends on December 11th at midnight, with prize winners announced on December 18th. How to enter? You get one entry for every $10 donation. In the “# of entries” spot on the right, put in how many entries you want for each prize you’re interested in, and then give them your email address at the bottom. Easy!

Frisco Kids is hosting this prize:

 

a Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT 5-inch bluetooth portable GPS with lifetime map and traffic updates. List price is $350. This Nuvi has an ultra-thin design and offers Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling. No need to pay for map and traffic upgrades – they’re free for life. The device even has an ecoRoute feature which will calculate the most fuel-efficient route.  Shipping for U.S. winners only.

Why am I excited about this prize? I have a Garmin Nuvi and use it ALL THE TIME in New Jersey. I would not make it down the street without my GPS. Mine is not this fancy, and I would love one with traffic updates and the Bluetooth calling technology. Plus, mine doesn’t have the ecoRoute feature, which I’d also love to have. So I’ll be bidding to win this, along with the other great prizes offered.

Thank you to buydig.com for sponsoring this prize. Please visit their site and check out the great deals they offer on technology.

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Union Square Holiday Market

If you’re looking for a unique holiday market with high quality vendors, check out the Union Square Holiday Market which runs through December 24th, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. More than 100 booths have a variety of items, from gourmet foods to soaps, from hats to dog clothing, from toys to jewelry. My daughter and I spent a leisurely 2+ hours strolling from shop to shop, buying a few gifts and nibbles. Here’s what we saw:

The Union Square Holiday Market. Yes, it’s crowded.
Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan 2012
Copa Soaps smell so good and are a good deal at $5/each. Nice gift box assortments too.
Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan 2012

Continue reading “Union Square Holiday Market”

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Hurricane Sandy

I hope you’re all doing okay in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Until things calm down and life gets back to normal for most of us (I realize that won’t happen for all shore residents or those in Staten Island/Long Island for longer), I’ll wait to post more.

My personal blog includes reflections on what’s happening as well as some updates for those in Union County. Please post how you’re doing.

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Review: Ninety Acres – “Bring Me Food”

We’ve long wanted to try Ninety Acres, a culinary center located in a restored carriage house. My in-laws came to visit, and offered to take us for our birthdays. Ninety Acres is part of the Natirar (Raritan spelled backwards) resort in Somerset County. They have a private club, event/meeting spaces, celebration spaces, a farm, a park…quite beautiful and refined.

The Ninety Acres building, a restored carriage house

Ninety Acres offers locally grown and sourced foods when possible, When you eat at Ninety Acres, you choose between a regular menu and the “Bring Me Food” (BMF) menu, which was the source of much confusion for our family. With BMF you will not get a menu at all (well I got one, but that’s because I was taking notes, and they felt bad for me. So they brought one but made me promise not to look at it until the end). Continue reading “Review: Ninety Acres – “Bring Me Food””

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Review: New York Aquarium with Kids

We’ve been the New York Aquarium a couple of times now, and we really like it. It’s on the Coney Island boardwalk, so you can go from the aquarium to the beach to the rides with no effort. They have the usual exhibits, like jellyfish, seahorses, sharks, fur seals, sea lions, walruses, sea otters, penguins, turtles, sting rays, a reef and shore area.  They have 4-D movies (extra) and a sea lion show, plus special exhibits.

 

Fun facts: 

President Theodore Roosevelt was the person who demonized the piranha, whose sharp teeth are legendary. He wrote about a school of piranhas attacking a bleeding cow while visiting the Amazon. In reality, the tour guide threw the cow in the water to make the trip seem more exciting, and the fish were starving and trapped. Continue reading “Review: New York Aquarium with Kids”

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