Working Traveling Mom

Mixing Business with Pleasure

Meeting Hello Kitty Over Tea

My daughter’s six years of life are complete (at least to her) — she has met her idol. No, it’s not Barbie or any of the Disney princesses (thank goodness!), but rather a more, shall we say, furry feline?

Meeting Hello Kitty at Bavarian Inn Frankenmuth Michigan

Hello, Hello Kitty (who, oddly, was wearing her bow on the wrong side of her head).

It’s Kitty, Hello Kitty. My mom and I brought her on a secret trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan, to meet the cat at a Hello Kitty Tea organized by the Bavarian Inn. The event included lunch and dessert, as well as a keepsake tea cup and saucer with a viola plant inside, balloon animals, and glitter tattoos. My daughter would have been happy just with meeting Hello Kitty. In fact, I think she was too excited to do much of anything else — especially eat lunch. (Don’t worry, she made up for it by eating her dessert — and mine. Ice cream counts as dairy, right?)

Hello Kitty Tea Table at Bavarian Inn Frankenmuth Michigan

Hello Kitty coloring page, along with a keepsake teacup and saucer and a cute little plant.

After lunch, we waited in line for a few minutes for my daughter to get a glitter tattoo.

Glitter Hello Kitty Tattoo at Bavarian Inn Frankenmuth Michigan

Getting a glitter Hello Kitty tattoo.

The two-hour event was more than enough time to eat and take part in the activities — in fact, some of the little girls attending (and it was all little girls and their moms/grandmoms, except for four or five dads) were able to get some extra hugs from Hello Kitty. Plus, it appeared that the strolling balloon artists finished up early so they started taking requests, and my daughter was able to snag a blue balloon dog to bring home to her little brother.

Hello Kitty Tea at Bavarian Inn Frankenmuth Michigan

Bavarian Inn, Frankenmuth Michigan.

Note: The tea wasn’t heavily publicized — my husband reached out to the Bavarian Inn after seeing an outdated listing for the tea on their  Events page. If you want to go to the tea, I suggest watching the page or contacting the restaurant directly for dates and times.

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Test Driving the Chevy Malibu

What comes to mind when you think “Mom car”? A station wagon, perhaps, or a big old sedan with room for a whole litter of kids and maybe even a dog or two? Probably cracker crumbs on the floor and fingerprints on the windows (inside and out) as well.

Chevy Malibu Front Exterior

Exterior of the 2013 Chevy Malibu.

This is the Chevy Malibu. It isn’t really a mom car. I recently got to test drive it as part of a retreat I attended (Chevy was a sponsor) and found that it’s more of a comfortable-for-grown-ups car that has plenty of safety features and cool extras.

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Family Visit to the Michigan Science Center

Michigan Science Center ExteriorI’m all about mixing and combining and multi-tasking; what mom isn’t? The Michigan Science Center knows this — and knows that providing an interactive approach to science helps kids young and not-so-young to engage and participate.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Michigan Science Center, located on John R. Street in Midtown Detroit’s Cultural Center, as part of a social media campaign. My husband and two kids arrived as the science center opened and spent five hours wandering the museum, taking in the exhibits, live shows, and an IMAX movie. Read the rest of this entry »

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Epic Playdate Weekend

 

How often do we as parents schedule a playdate with our own kids? For my family, vacations sometimes serve as playdates – but with school and work schedules and other commitments and responsibilities to negotiate, sometimes it’s hard to schedule.

 

LIttle girl on the beach summertime

My daughter enjoying the beach on Lake Michigan.

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Thrift Store Shopping

Ann Arbor thrift store used baby clothes

You’ve got babies? They’ve got clothes.

Living in a college town has all sorts of benefits. A revolving-door population means quick turnaround on a number of things — including used goods. And with two young-ish kids, we frequently have a quick turnaround on things as well, especially clothes. A pair of pants or sweater that fits one day suddenly doesn’t — ends up getting donated.

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To Boldly Go Somewhere You Don’t Really Care to Go

Parenting is all about compromise. Like when my daughter wants to wear a summer dress when it’s 20 degrees outside. Or my son wants to eat nothing but crackers all day. And the latest compromise — going somewhere I really have no desire to go. But for my daughter, it’ll be the biggest surprise of her six years of life.

It involves Hello Kitty.

No, we’re not going to Japan. But my husband was tooling around the web and found a restaurant in our area that hosts a Hello Kitty tea a couple times a year. With a Hello Kitty character apparently walking around and greeting guests. The dates had passed for last year, but via Twitter he was able to get in touch and find out the dates the event is being offered this year. We’re going to buy tickets and surprise her.

We’ve done these character meetings before — we (she) met Dora and Diego and a few of the Wonder Pets when we stayed at the Nickelodeon Hotel in Florida. But this is going to blow her mind.

Character meeting with Dora and Diego at Nickelodeon Hotel

Note the Hello Kitty t-shirt.

Have you as a parent traveled somewhere with your kids merely for their sake? Leave your story in the comments!

 

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Constructing a Birthday Cake

It’s birthday season here at Chez Mom. From November through February we celebrate a batch of birthdays, with another series of births in the spring. While I’m constantly trying to find the balance between work and being a mom, one thing I’ve decided that’s important to me is to make my kids’ (and sometimes husband’s) birthday cakes.

I don’t go all-out crazy like some people on Pinterest, but I try to tailor the cake to what they love that year. For my daughter, it’ll be Hello Kitty — for the second consecutive year. For my son, the theme was Caterpillar construction equipment. Here’s how I did it.

Start with the construction toys:

Caterpillar Construction Equipment

The inspiration: Caterpillar construction equipment.

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Discovering Dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History

Dinosaur Discovery Day at the Museum of Natural History at University of Michigan

Dinosaur Discovery Day at the Museum of Natural History at University of Michigan.

Want to discover some dinosaurs? We recently checked out Dinosaur Discovery Day — a free event at the Museum of Natural History at University of Michigan. We’re always looking for fun and educational things to do with the kids, and this one was great. The museum is great for all ages, with detailed displays and hands-on activities for kids to enjoy while they learn.

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Being Working Traveling Mom

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not easy being a mom. Being a working mom is even harder, and working and traveling more difficult yet. A good support system (and the occasional glass or two of wine) definitely helps me get through it – my husband being at the forefront. He often travels with me and the kids, many times staying behind with them in the hotel room while I’m out on a zipline adventure tour or even staying at home when I’m on a media preview cruise to the Bahamas.

Work-only trips are a little easier in some ways now that the kids aren’t babies anymore; they’re not easier to leave, but they do understand what I do and that I have to go and do it – and that I will be back as soon as I can be.

Balancing working and traveling and being a mom is a job in itself, and is one that I sometimes don’t want to do. But it can all be worth it when I get to take my family on a trip we might not otherwise take, stay in a hotel that’s beyond our budget, or visit a sight or attraction through their eyes. It’s worth it to stay up late or get up super early to get that article in on deadline, or to plan out a trip that will be a combination business trip and vacation. Or to cook a few meals ahead of time so that the family doesn’t have to resort to takeout food while I’m traveling.

Do you combine business and vacation travel? How do you cope?

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Family Fun at Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Matthaei Botanical Gardens-EntranceCall it a “staycation.” While our daughter was Up North with grandparents, my husband and I made plans to do some fun things with our three-year-old son. As plans rarely go as, well, planned, we ended up cancelling a trip and staying home.

Wanting to take our son somewhere fun yet close by, we headed to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, operated by the University of Michigan. We parked and fed the newly installed parking meter ($1.20 per hour or $5 for all day), and headed inside to the conservatory — for which admission is now free with the paid parking.

There are all sorts of sights in the conservatory, from unusual plants not native to the Midwest (such as a banana tree, pineapple tree and bizarre sausage tree) to the succulents room with cacti larger than you’d probably ever see in Michigan.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens SeatingThen we headed outside. Our son made a beeline to the Gaffield Children’s Garden, a few-years-old installation on the grounds that has rotating exhibits and activities for kids, such as bells to ring, a slide and a sensory garden. One feature that seems to be permanent is the sandbox, which, today, was more of a dirt box with wet sand. But it didn’t stop our son, who happily dug and built sand castles with the tools and molds kept in the box.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens Childrens garden SandboxWe were hoping to get a glimpse — or tour — of the MiSo solar house near the children’s garden, but it wasn’t open. (Now we have an excuse to go back!)

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