Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do on January 27, 2012
Here is your weekend roundup! If you know of a family friendly activity we should add to the list, please leave us a comment. Have a good weekend!
Friday, January 27
Saturday, January 28
Posted in Daily Deals, Just for Fun on January 26, 2012
Report cards just came out recently and if your child made the A or A/B Honor roll you might have found some certificates in his or her report card. Or maybe not.
After getting an email from a reader about good grades rewards (I love getting ideas from you all! Thanks!), I posted on our Pensacola with Kids Facebook page and got some great feedback about different good grade rewards that can be found in Pensacola.
Unfortunately as I started to call around and confirm the rewards, I found that many of the participating businesses only honor the rewards if your child received a certificate from his or her school. Certificates included rewards from Fast Eddies, Baskin Robbins, Arby’s and more but if your child’s school does not participate, he or she won’t get the certificate or the reward.
In addition to the certificates, your children can bring their report cards to the following businesses to earn good grade rewards:
Krispy Kreme – For each A, your child will get a free doughnut up to six doughnuts. (We are headed here this afternoon so I will update the post to let you know how it goes!)
Chuck-E-Cheese – Bring in your report card and receive free tokens for good grades. Valid with a food purchase only and up to 15 tokens.
Cordova Lanes – Bring in your report card and receive a free game of bowling. When I called, I was told that certificates were handed out but when I mentioned my son didn’t receive a certificate they said that they would probably honor the report card. **Be sure to call ahead of time to confirm.
Sam’s Fun City – Bring in your report card and receive your choice of one complimentary Go-Kart ride, Lazer-Tag game or limited Arcade Tokens. They also passed out certificates to participating schools but when I mentioned my son didn’t receive a certificate they said that they would honor the report card. **Be sure to call ahead of time to double check.
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do on January 25, 2012
What: Special Olympics Mardi Gras Fun Run and Walk; Where: Osceola Golf Course; When: February 11, 2012; Cost: Donation proceeds will benefit athletes
The Special Olympics is hosting a Mardi Gras Fun Run and Walk on February 11, 2012 at the Osceola Golf Course. The purpose of the fun run is to raise awareness of the Special Olympics program and also to raise funds that will benefit athletes. You can participate individually, with family and friends, or as a team. Each participant will receive an event t-shirt and a finisher medal. There will also be a Finish Line Party after the event. Download the entry form, donation page, and rules here. For more information, please use the contact listed here.
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do on January 20, 2012
Here is your weekend roundup. It is a quiet weekend! If we missed a family friendly event that is happening this weekend, please leave us a comment with the details!
Saturday, January 21st
Mardi Gras Marching Band Parade
Sunday, January 22nd
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 on January 19, 2012
What: Marching Band Parade; Where: Downtown Pensacola; When: January 21 at 2pm; Cost: FREE
You and your family can be a part of the Guiness Book of World Records! On January 21, Pensacola Mardi Gras, Inc. will hold the first annual Pensacola Mardi Gras Marching Madness Parade. There will be high school marching bands competing for a grand prize and Mardi Gras Krewes in parade as well.
During the parade, everyone will participate in the Cupid Shuffle to attempt to break the world record for line dancing. For more information, visit the Pensacola Mardi Gras Marching Madness Parade FB page.
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 on January 12, 2012
What: Free admission to national parks: When: January 14th to the 16th; Where: all national parks (including Gulf Islands National Seashore); Cost: FREE
Several days a year, the National Park Service offers free entrance to all 397 national parks around the United States. We are so lucky to live near the Gulf Islands Seashore, one of only ten national seashores. Gulf Islands Seashore is not only home to beautful beaches but also to Ft. Picken’s where your family can explore the fort and all of its nooks and crannies. This weekend, entrance admission will be waived for January 14th, 15th, and 16th.
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do on January 11, 2012
The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade will be held on Monday, January 16th. The parade will begin at Spring & Garden Streets. From there, it will travel east to Palafox and turn north onto Palafox. Then it will travel from Palafox to Wright Street, and turns left; turns left onto Palafox; travels south on Palafox to Main Street.
I have looked all over for the start time of the parade but can’t find it. If you know when the parade begins, please leave us the time (and a link to the information if you have it). We appreciate it!
Here are some Martin Luther King activities that you and your children can do at home:
Printable Activities and Worksheets
Word Searches, Coloring Sheets, and Word Scrambles
Martin Luther King, Jr. Crafts
Posted in Recipes on January 10, 2012
Mardi Gras season is here! Pensacola kicked off the Mardi Gras celebration this week with Twelfth Night. I love that Pensacola has such a family friendly parade for Mardi Gras. We love to go to the parade but that isn’t until the end of February so we celebrated Mardi Gras this weekend with a homemade King Cake.
The “King’s Cake” represents the three Biblical kings that journeyed to Bethlehem. King cake season goes from the end of Twelfth Night through Mardi Gras Day. The cake is a ring of twisted cinnamon dough with a variety of fillings. The most common is cream cheese but you may also find a variety of fillings like cherry, peach, lemon, rasberry and more. The cake is covered with a sweet icing and then purple, gold and green sugar. Often, there is a baby or a small bean hidden inside the cake but seeing as this presents a choking hazard, we leave it out. Tradition states that whoever finds the hidden bean or baby is the person who brings the next king cake.
This is the first king cake I have ever made and I admit that I totally cheated! We used a can of cinnamon rolls! I might attempt a more difficult recipe.
Ingredients:
1 can of cinnamon rolls and the icing that comes with it
1 cup of sugar divided into 3 bowls
Directions:
Open the can of cinnamon rolls and fold each roll in half to resemble a hot dog bun. Lay the rolls in a circle so that they are barely overlapping.
If you want to add a cream cheese flavor to it you can put a dab of cream cheese frosting in the middle of each roll. In the picture, you will see the cinnamon rolls open facing out. I wish that I had faced the opening towards the inside of the ring.
Bake the rolls according to the directions on the container. My recipe called for 13-17 minutes and they were ready right at 13 minutes. Be sure to watch the oven.
While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make your colored sugars.
Put three to five food coloring drops into the sugar and mix thoroughly. I used this tutorial on how to dye your own sugar.
Take the metal lid off of the icing container, discard, and microwave icing for about 10-15 seconds so the icing is a little runny. Pour the icing over the top of the cinnamon rolls and coat with the colored sugars.
Posted in Places to Go & Things to Do on January 9, 2012
Although we are already a week into 2012, I didn’t want to end the year without sharing our top ten of 2011. This year was an interesting year for us. I started out the year with a broken foot (after just recently healing from breaking the other foot…seriously…I can’t make this stuff up) so we didn’t do too much exploring for the first few months. When the new school year started, Little S entered Pre-K and was gone most of the morning and that cut into our exploring as well. Even though we didn’t get out as often as we wanted to, we still found lots of great things to do in and around town.
There is no scientific data to this post…I just asked my kids and my husband what their favorite activities were throughout the year! Here is our 2011 top ten list of favorite activities in no particular order:
Distinctive Kitchens Kid’s Cooking Classes – This is the only activity that I haven’t written about yet. We were invited to attend (disclosure: our cost was covered) a DK Kid’s cooking class where we made rolled out gingerbread and put together a huge gingerbread house over a two day period. At first glance some of the classes seem a little pricey, but after attending the gingerbread house making class we think that they are worth it. The spring schedule is on the DK calendar where you will find kid’s classes, camps, and preschool mommy and me classes. I am hoping to enroll Big S in the Wintry Breakfast Foods because he loves to eat breakfast foods!
Parks, parks, and more parks – This year, my goal was to visit a new park each week. Well, that didn’t happen but we did visit a lot of new parks around town and found a few new favorites. Our favorite park of the year is Miralla Park. This little neighborhood park is set away from major streets, has a great playground equipment and a large grassy area to run around. Some of the other parks we enjoyed visiting this year were Bryan Park, Beulah Regional Park, Regency Park, and Lions Park.
Frozen Yogurt Shops – Pensacola saw a yogurt shop business boom this year. Frozen yogurt shops opened up all over town and if you read this site regularly it will come as no surprise that we visited every single one (TCBY’s Waffle Cone Wednesday made our 2010 top ten list last year!). TCBY opened up on 9 Mile Road and 32 degrees and Berry Yogurt opened up over by the mall.
Holiday Light Displays – We love to bundle up in blankets and drive around town looking at the lights. This year, my kids were old enough to really love the light displays all over town. We had lots favorites but this one off of Longleaf and Nathan Drive topped them all!
Condor Sailing Adventures – Recently, my children have a new-found love for all things boat. They love to watch the boats, count the boats and sail the boats after our sail with Condor Sailing Adventures (*disclosure: our cost was covered). It was so great to see Pensacola from the water. We got a great view of the Maritime Park construction and enjoyed learning how to sail the boat.
Downtown Trick or Treat – After posting for three years about the Downtown Trick or Treat, we finally made it to the event. We had so much fun! The kids loved collecting candy and I loved wandering in some of the little shops I hadn’t been able to visit yet.
Free Summer Movies - This summer we took advantage of the free summer movies to get out of the heat. Four different theaters participated in a summer movie program and the Silver Screen also had a weekly $1 show. We enjoyed catching up on movies that we missed through the school year and the best part was that it was free! We also took advantage of the Friday Family Flicks downtown. As it gets closer to summertime, check back for the schedules. We update the site as we receive the free summer movie schedule.
Chagall for Children Exhibit – This year, the Pensacola Museum of Art had the Chagall for Children exhibit on loan from the Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago. It was an awesome hands-on experience introducing children to Chagall’s artwork. They don’t currently have a hands-on exhibit for children but I hope that they will continue to welcome them in the future. The museum is free to visit on Tuesdays and they offer children’s art classes and camps.
Festivals of all kinds – This year was the year of the festival for us. We missed a lot of the festivals in 2010 because of my other broken foot (refer to first paragraph…ha!) so we made up for it in 2011. We attended the Gulf Coast Arts Festival, the Seafood Festival, the Festival on the Green, Gallery Night and Mardi Gras and that doesn’t even include half of the festivals Pensacola has to offer. The festivals are great family friendly events because there is usually a children’s arts and crafts area that is free and good for most ages.
Day Trips and Overnighters – Along with exploring Pensacola on the weekends, we also made some day trips and overnighters. We had some great adventures nearby! Our absolute favorite was our visit to LEGOLAND Florida’s opening weekend in Orlando with a visit to Callaway Gardens, Georgia (Did you know you can book a cabin on the grounds?! We didn’t!) and Seaside tying for a close second place.
These were our favorite activities for 2011 but this site wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for all of our great readers. We asked you on our Pensacola with Kids Facebook Page what your favorite activity of 2011 was and this is what you said (listed in no particular order):
Snow Cones at Da Girlz Place after Story Time at Big Lagoon State Park
Navarre Butterfly House and the John Duncan Children’s Park
Do you want to read more about some of our favorite spots and activities in Pensacola? See our Top Ten of 2010 and Top Five of 2009 lists!
Posted in Learning Time on January 8, 2012
Every Monday I am reaching back into the archives to share the learning activities that we did last year when Little S was home with me. Each week, we worked our way through the alphabet and we read stories, did crafts, and played games that helped reinforce the letter we were learning that week. This week we are sharing activities for the Letter K! If you have any activities to go with ours, let us know!
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Disclaimer: We do our best at Pensacola with Kids to provide accurate, useful information about events and activities. This information (such as times and locations) is gathered from press releases, local newspapers, signs around town and word of mouth. We do our best to confirm details before they are posted here. Sometimes details change or we are given inaccurate information. Whenever possible we link our write-ups to the source in which our information came from and strongly urge you to confirm details before you go. Pensacola with Kids is in no way responsible for any problems that occur while participating in activities recommended on this site.
