About

Take a walk on the fun side with a Charlotte mom of 3.

  • Gingerbread Lane – Filled with Love

    I love my husband.  I mean, I really, really love him. This year, I (insert adverb – Foolishly? Stupidly? Naively? Your pick) decided to create and enter a gingerbread house into the annual Ballantyne Hotel Gingerbread Lane competition.  I can’t say that I wasn’t warned, because I was.  Despite this, in what turned into a classic case of “it sounded like a good idea at the time,” I spent the past six weeks planning, preparing and creating my maste...

    More...
    Dec. 13, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • Holidays at the Garden -- Picture Perfect

      Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE   What a difference a year can make.   We ...

    More...
    Nov. 26, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • Horsin’ Around at the Anne Springs Close Greenway

    This is a funny time of year for fun adventures.  Some weeks are flush with a dizzying array of seasonal activities, while others are sort of a no-man’s land.  The weather can turn on you in a minute – waking to overcast and chilly skies, only to have the day clear up and heat up to nearly 70 degrees like it did for us last Saturday. Browsing through the “CLT” section, the horse show at the Anne Springs Close Greenway caught our eye.  My daughter is as ...

    More...
    Nov. 18, 2012 | Permalink

  • Aw Shucks…not so bad

    Last week, I read a scathing Google review of the Aw Shucks corn maze and farm in Monroe.  The furious mom railed against the decrepit play area and downer hay ride.  Knowing that we were headed there this past weekend, I was concerned.  We’d been there before and I didn’t remember it being all that bad. Saturday was yet another gift of a Fall day.  After picking up a few provisions at Walmart, the kids and I were downright chipper as we struck out.  By ...

    More...
    Nov. 07, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • Cloudy, Cloudy Night

    We struck out last Saturday for an evening of adventure at the Shiele Museum’s Star Party.  By the time we arrived, the clouds had rolled in and the receptionist (quite possibly the nicest woman in Gaston County) sadly informed us that the party was off.  However, we could listen in on a telescope lecture and run around their Cowboy exhibit. My 2-year old lasted about five minutes in the graduate-level course on light refraction.  As the lecturer droned on, sweetie-pie d...

    More...
    Oct. 25, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • Hamming it Up

    Last week, I dragged my kids to an outing that sounded fun.  I saw a notice in our church bulletin about a special ham radio event honoring Saint Maximilian Kolbe, patron saint of ham radio operators. Who knew? I was intrigued. Ham radios have been around for more than a century and are an effective emergency communications back-up in our digital age.  The eternal optimist, I thought this might be a cool opportunity to learn about something you don’t see every day. When I to...

    More...
    Oct. 17, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • Hall Family Farm – no Tricks, all Treat

    We checked out the Hall Family Farm on a picture-perfect fall day this weekend – what a delight.  A spur-of-the-moment decision led me down the winding gravel driveway to see what the Halls had in store for us this year.  New was a gigantic hay bale spider and two real corn mazes.  Our almost-3-year old went crazy over the tractor/hay ride, so that was a “must do.” While we waited for the ride, our kids played in a hay fort and a smaller maze.  They als...

    More...
    Oct. 03, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • The Lost Duffer Mini Golf

    The “Lost Duffer” is a kooky little mini golf course up in the University City area of Charlotte.  In some ways it’s almost like they’re trying to remain “lost,” hidden in an unassuming strip mall.  Our family loves mini golf (aka “putt putt”), and have found that it’s a bit of a challenge finding them in these parts.  So, when we learned about the Lost Duffer, we had to check it out. With a golfer getting lost down an old ...

    More...
    Sep. 23, 2012 | Permalink | RNTCharlotte

  • A Shout Out to BSA

    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE This weekend, our family spent the day at Belk Scout Camp, near Mint ...

    More...
    Sep. 12, 2012 | Permalink

  • Matthews (Barely) Alive

    Am I the only person from around here who was over the DNC before it started? Is that super un-patriotic of me? I appreciate the effort behind the pull-out-all-the-stops CarolinaFest on Labor Day.  But I’d no sooner subject my family to the “Interactive Civics Lesson” than I would to the Hall of Presidents at Disney World.  I was happy that we opted to head over to “Matthews Alive,” the standing go-to for Charlotte when the DNC is NOT in town.  (Th...

    More...
    Sep. 05, 2012 | Permalink
Prev
Next