Family Zip

Family Zip is a cool website. You can list your best family friendly places to go and there's also parenting topics posted. All the tips are posted by real moms & dads! You can search by region, by ages/stages, by topic or even by author. When you read through the tips, you can zip them to sorta "vote" for them or you can zap them if you think it's a bad tip. You can even share comments on the tips! Invite your friends and your account is linked so you can see what they post or zip too. A lot of the places listed are local Massachusetts links since the site used to be just this area. This website is definitely worth checking out, especially if you're looking for things to do with the kids and want some honest opinions about places/things to do!

Water Wizz

If you are tired of the heat and looking for something cool to do, you have to hit Water Wizz in Wareham. It is a water park that looks small from the street but once you get in there, it is packed with things to do. From the last river, small slides, big slides, pirate slide and the wave pool. You will find something to keep you cool!! Anyone under 48” has to have a life jacket on, so if you have one that your child likes bring it. They have free ones to use but they aren’t very stylish and sort of hard to maneuver when on the lazy river in a tube. We went with my sons cub scout pack so we had discounted tickets. It was really worth the trip.

Normally :Admission - $30.00; under 48" and seniors (65)- $15.00. All children under 48" must follow the 48" rule (life jackets). Children 2 and under are FREE. Group rates are less depending on the size of your group 25 is the minimum for a group.

You can find coupons at $2 off coupons when available at participating Burger King, Tedeschis/Lil'l Peach Stores.

They are located on Route 28 in Wareham and it is open from 10 -6 usually, verify at the website http://www.waterwizz.com/. If you plan to spend the day it is worth the $ as you will be able to ride anything you want all day long. There is an adventure island for little ones with pint size slides and for those who aren’t afraid of anything try the pirate plunge, it is a water slide partially in the dark and it is fast and scary. What a ride!!!

My children had a ball in the wave pool. The pool starts and stops on a schedule. The kids really loved going in deep and waiting for the waves to start, then they kept hopping the waves until it was done and wait to do it all over again.

I loved the lazy river as I could park my butt on a tube and float around for hours and enjoy the sounds of waterfalls and kids laughing and screaming with excitement!!!

Plus the best thing is you can bring in your own snacks/lunch (less glass bottles) and drinks. Or you can hop across the street to Burger King to grab lunch and then go back for more fun on the slides!

The only down fall for me was that my camera wasn't waterproof so I didn't get to take a lot of pictures.

Free & Discounted Passes available!

Did you know that your library has free and discounted passes available to places like the New England Aquarium, Roger Williams Zoo, Edaville Railroad and more? Most passes are first come, first reserved and some libraries have certain restrictions on their passes (for residents only for example). Quite a few libraries let you reserve your passes online too! Here's a list of local libraries and the passes they have:

Carver
Plymouth
Kingston
Halifax
Pembroke
Middleboro
Hanson
Norwell
Duxbury
Marshfield

Lobster Tales Cruises

Looking for something unique to do? Do you like boats? Do you love ice cream? How about an ice cream cruise!!! Lobster Tales in Plymouth Harbor has sunset Ice Cream Cruises on Wednesday nights from 7 til 8:30. The kids can make their own ice cream sundae while the boat cruises Plymouth Harbor. The kids had a blast doing this! They do a limbo and play lots of fun songs to dance to! The sunset was beautiful and it was a great summer outing! Prices are reasonable at $13/adult and $11/child under 12. You need to make reservations in advance.

Another fun thing that they do is a Pirate Cruise. We've done the pirate cruise the last 4 years with the kids' preschool. It's lots of fun attacking a pirate and stealing his treasure, corny pirate jokes and even a meet and greet with some lobsters and crabs! The kids also get their face painted, a pirate hat and their share of the treasure! The pirate cruise lasts about an hour and is $18 per person. Either cruise will definitely be something the kids will love!

Letterboxing is fun!

Looking for something fun and FREE for the kids to do this summer? Try Letterboxing! We're big letterboxing fans here although we don't do it nearly enough! What is letterboxing you ask? It's like a treasure hunt....there's boxes hidden all around you and you can see the clues to find them at websites like Atlas Quest and Letterboxing NA. The kids have a blast hunting for them and now that my oldest can read, he usually reads the clues to us. All you need to start is a stamp (can be store bought, carved yourself or custom made), a log book, an inkpad, a pen and it's usually a good idea to have bug spray and sunscreen. Print out the clues to some local boxes and off you go! We have a small backpack that we keep in the car with all our supplies and some local boxes we haven't found printed out and ready to go. You can also download all the clues in a spreadsheet for a certain region and save them to your laptop before you head on a trip if you won't have internet access. I just had custom stamps made for the kids through Happie Stamps' etsy store....check her out! We're going to go back to try and find some boxes in Plymouth we couldn't find the first time around and there's a box planted at an Alpaca farm in Middleboro we'll attempt this week! Happy hunting!

A Zooper Day Trip!

If you'd like to take a day trip to a zoo, I'd highly recommend Southwicks Zoo in Mendon! It's about 45 minutes/ 1 hour away from us here in Carver, right up Rt. 495. The great thing about this zoo for a summer trip is that it's 95% shaded! That's a big plus in my book! They've got all the usual animals...zebras, elephants, tigers, lemurs, chimps, tortoises etc. My kids favorite part about this zoo is the deer forest. You can actually feed the deer...they come right up and eat out of your hands (bring some cups to hold the food)! They think that is just so cool to see them up close. The food there is pretty good too should you choose to buy lunch and not *that* expensive. If you're planning on going with a big group, buy the "Family Fun Pack"...12 admissions for $120 which is only $10 per person! You can use all the admissions in one day and it's the best deal, better than the AAA discount or coupons they have online. We try and hit this zoo at least once a year!

Favorite Ice Cream Places

Summer's here and that means it's Ice Cream Time!! EJ's favorite is Cookie Dough, Maddie loves Mint Chocolate Chip, Lucas eats anything but we get him Chocolate Chip. I have a few favorites I go between...vanilla fudge, coffee fudge, strawberry. My husband like Moose Tracks or Strawberry Cheesecake. We've never met an ice cream place that we didn't like but here's our list of favorites:

• Erickson's, Carver. It's right on Rt. 58 and is very close. They have all the flavors that we like and is the place we go when we by default.
• Mea's Dairy, Halifax. They have soft serve so if we're in the mood for that, that's the place to go! My husband really likes their mocha frappes and visits often since he goes by there every day.
• Eastover Farm, Rochester. This little gem was found by mistake! We were driving around that area and stumbled across the ice cream sign. It's a little farm that serves ice cream, hot dogs as well as fruits and vegetables. They even do hayrides on the weekends!
• Kimballs, Jaffrey NH: We try and stop here at least once a year on our way to vacation in NH. We've been to the one in Westford too but the Jaffrey one is not as commercialized. Try the Kimball Special and see if you can finish it!
• Heidi's Hollow, Hanson: They have yummy ice crea and a great variety of things for sale inside too.
• There's a new place here in Carver that just opened...I can't remember the name of it. Portions seem small but we'll see how it goes....
  

It's Almost Blueberry Picking Time!

The kids love to go blueberry picking and have me make up some yummy treats with them. Our place of choice is a Blueberry picking farm on N. Carver Road in Wareham. It's just off Rt. 58, near Rt. 495. Parking is on the side of the road. I don't even know if this place has an actual name! Picking usually starts mid to late July. Hours are 8-5 daily!

Another local place is the Blueberry Farm in Hanson. They are on W. Washington St. off Rt. 14.

We've been to a place on the Plympton/Halifax line a few years ago but I think Sauchuk Farm purchased them and I don't know if they still do the PYO.

Here's a great site to find PYO farms locally: PickYourOwn.org

4th of July Events

Here's a few local happenings for the 4th of July. We usually go to the parade in Plymouth in the morning and the fireworks in Halifax. We never used to brave the crowds to go anywhere but why deprive the kids??

Plymouth: Parade starts at 9:30am at Cordage Park and continues to the waterfront. Fireworks around 9:15pm at the waterfront.

Halifax: All sorts of events all day long. Fireworks at the Elementary School at 9:15pm.

Middleboro: Parade at 10am. Events all day

Wareham: Fireworks, 9am Onset Bluffs on July 5

Free Movies all summer long!

The movie theater at the Independence Mall in Kingston is running the Free Family Film Festival for the summer. Each Tuesday and Wednesday at 10am they show 2 movies for FREE...one is rated G and the other PG. Good deal! I took the kids the past 2 weeks and they loved it. Even my 2 year old sat through the whole movie! I bought popcorn but brought in some juice boxes for the kids. For a theater filled with kids, it was pretty quiet throughout the whole movie too! Check it out!