Author: jerseykids

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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”

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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””

Posted on

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”

Posted on

Day Trip: Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park

With history buff family in town, we took a day trip this summer to visit two Hudson River mansions in Hyde Park, the Roosevelt mansion and the Vanderbilt Mansion. I’ll post separately.

The Vanderbilt Mansion. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

Admittedly I knew little about the Vanderbilts before we went, so the history was quite interesting. I can confirm I already knew about clothing designer Gloria Vanderbilt (I coveted her jeans in high school) and her very cute son Anderson Cooper. As for the rest of the family, I get lost in the family tree, especially since half of them seemed to be named Cornelius.

Continue reading “Day Trip: Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park”

Posted on

Review: Bring it On – the Musical

When we had friends in town who wanted to see a Broadway show, I looked through the list that would be family-friendly (and shows we haven’t already seen). We settled on Bring it On the musical, a Broadway adaption of a movie. I was a little wary about the subject matter, having never been a cheerleader myself, nor having cheerleader aspirations. The show was a lot of fun, though, and taught some good lessons about being true to yourself and being nice to other people.

the countdown before the show was similar to what you’d find in a sports arena

Continue reading “Review: Bring it On – the Musical”

Posted on

Contest: Halloween at the New York Botanical Gardens

How do you like to spend Halloween? The New York Botanical Garden has a haunted pumpkin garden. You can win 4 tickets to go – info at the bottom.

I carved this myself! Ha ha, just kidding.

I haven’t been to the New York Botanical Garden (but the rest of my family went a few years ago when I was at a conference). They loved it. And this event looks like fun. Lots of carved pumpkin sculptures.

It runs from October 6-31, and has tons of different kid-friendly activities. The Haunted Pumpkin Garden is located in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, open daily with guided activities from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekends. That might include a parade, dissecting owl pellets, potting buckwheat seeds to take home or decorating science bags for fall collections.

On other days there are pumpkin carving demonstrations, a pumpkin party, a pumpkin carving weekend, carving workshops, and spooky nighttime adventures.

See the whole schedule here.

Pumpkins greeting you at the entrance to the gardens.

Tickets are $20-25/nonmember adults, $8-10/nonmember kids, and $15/members. Prices vary depending on the date (there’s no “one price” on the website – it’s a little confusing).

CONTEST

Want to win a 4-pack of tickets to use any day from October 6-31? You’ll have access to the rest of the gardens as well, including a narrated tram tour and other exhibitions. Post an entry below stating your favorite Halloween tradition. Also leave me your email address, so I can let you know if you won. If you don’t want to put your email address below, still leave an entry, but email me telling me which entry is yours, at blog (at) jerseykids (dot) net. Entries must be received by Saturday, September 29 at 6 p.m., and you must reply to my email within 24 hours or I’ll move on to the next person. Winner will be chosen using random.org.

Posted on

Treat of the Day: Dylan’s Candy BAR (the alcoholic type)

I’m sure you know about Dylan’s Candy Bar, and all the candy it contains. In fact, it was a Treat of the Day sometime back. However on our recent visit, my husband saw a sign outside for happy hour. What does that mean in a candy store? Well, it turns out they have an actual bar upstairs, in the same area that you can get ice cream treats. It’s slightly roped off and we had to show ID to get in (though  they let our kids in with us, stamping their hands).

This is what lured us into to Dylan’s Candy BAR.

They served drinks like a S’more shot, with marshmallow vodka, whipped vodka, creme de cacao, and garnished with a graham cracker rim. Or try a Sugar Rush Shooter with different vodkas (cake, coconut, whipped cream) and a sugar rim.

Drinks garnished with candy at Dylan’s Candy Bar.

Continue reading “Treat of the Day: Dylan’s Candy BAR (the alcoholic type)”

Proudly powered by WordPress