Day 1:  Up at 3:45am (kids slept in their clothes..how else?!) to take the 5:50am flight from NYC to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

We were at Half Moon Resort by 9am..on the beach by 9:45

Amazing!

Clue #1:  Early flight is so worth it

Day 2: Settling in at Half Moon Resort. The people are warm & friendly. Our room was perfect with a view of the sea and a pool of our own. We walked to breakfast, walked to the beach & floated in a sea that was like bathwater.

Greg and I had a couples massage in a beautiful little hut right on the water. It was mesmerizing.

We strolled back through the beautiful property, freshened up, walked with the girls over to the outdoor patio at the Seagrape Terrace and ate under the twinkling white lights. While dining on fresh, locally caught fish, we listened to a steel drum band play some reggae, old & new.

Clue#2: Sun + Sand + Sea = Paradise

Day 3:  Horseback riding!

We booked a family riding adventure. We each had a horse, rode to the beach and (wait for it…) we rode the horses into the crystal blue sea. Once deep enough, the horses swam & we were whisked away holding onto their tails! My horse, Skinny, was a gentleman. He actually slowed to allow me back on as I (needless to say am a novice) fell off of him when we were far out in the ocean. Shout out to Chase, who helped me and my girls feel comfortable the whole way.

Clue#3:  Get out of your comfort zone. Especially in front of your kids. It bonds you & shows resilience by example.

Come back for Part II the end of this week & if you missed our highlight Half Moon, Colbie Caillat video, see it HERE.

[Disclosure: This trip was funded by ourselves. All ideas are our own & we have not been paid for such content]

We recently returned from a family vacation at Half Moon resort in Rose Hall, Jamaica. It was nothing short of incredible!

Next week, I’ll be uploading a few posts about our trip.

Colbie Caillat’s “Brighter Than The Sun” was our vacation theme song (as it’s not a vacation without a theme song). Since we sang it all week, we used it to cut a sneakpeek of our journey to Half Moon.

Enjoy

~Angela

After reading the ABC News piece, Is Dad the New Mom? The Rise of Stay-At-Home Fathers, it gave me comfort to see that the number of “stay-at-home fathers in the US has tripled in the past 10 years”. While I enjoy taking the road less traveled, I do find comfort knowing that my kids live in an evolving world.

However, with such a positive piece on stay at home dads, the article’s title takes the reader back into the caves. I’m sorry, “Is Dad the New Mom”?!  I get the quick parallel but I can’t help but wonder if the authors, Sharyn Alfonsi and Claire Pedersen, were men, would they have gone there simply for high SEO numbers?

After all, most SAHDs will tell you, there are a few things that trump mere numbers.

This week, Super WHY Live’s Tony Award winning Costume Designer, Katie Irish, talks about how she brings the Super Why characters from the screen onto the live touring stage.

While Katie’s created costumes for opera’s LA TRAVIATA or a number of inspiring music videos, translating the signature Super Why! costumes for the live show is no easy task. In this video, Kate gives you some tips on how she does it in style, with the help of some NYC finds.

Find out when the show’s in your area HERE. With more Live show dates to come!

Fight the summer slide and keep your child reading and learning all summer long with iVillage’s free 6 week program.

Starting today, you’ll get daily emails with literacy-building tips and activities from me (PBS) and Jessica Wollman from Scholastic.

Here’s to a fun (& smart) summer!

[Get more info on this iVillage program]

Never mind your money management skills, how is your child’s financial literacy these days?

While I think it’s globally understood that there’s room for improvement, my good friend and colleague, Dr. Alice Wilder, rolled up her sleeves to address this issue half a world away.

Less than 2 months after receiving a 2012 EIFLE Award (US govt’s Excellence in Financial Literacy Education), Cha-Ching Money-Smart Kids just picked up a Cynopsis (Interstitial Series-Educational) Award for it’s multi-platform educational series focused on worldwide financial literacy for kids ages 7 to 12. The Earn, Save, Spend and Donate mantra is revisited throughout the animated program which presently reaches 4.5 million households throughout Asia (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand & Vietnam) via Cartoon Network.

Developed by Prudential Corporation Asia, through a partnership with the Philippines’ Department of Education Kids, Cha-Ching has been further extended to schools in the region to set the groundwork for such well needed & priceless financial literacy.

Puppy Love

My kids have been begging for a dog for the last 5 yrs and though my husband and I love dogs, when our 15-year old beloved pug died when my youngest was barely 2, I had had enough of dealing with kids and pets and all their collective messes, demands and needs.  I thought I came up with a great compromise; that we would dog-sit for other people’s dogs (and we do quite regularly) but they still campaign for their own pooch….daily.

But as the kids have gotten older, we began quietly wondering if we might be depriving them of on an important childhood experience and if getting a dog might actually make them more responsible by giving them some daily care responsibilities that will not be easily forgotten (or will at least have very real noisy/messy/smelly consequences to remind them for next time when they do).

We recently mentioned to the kids that we were “thinking about getting a puppy,” which for your own future reference directly translates into “we’re getting a puppy!!!!” in kid-speak.

And so it begins.  I am taking on the acquisition of this newest family member very seriously.  I am determined to do this right!

Bringing home a new puppy is a big deal, so I invite you to follow us on our journey; through research, acquisition, love and adorableness, training, mistakes and whatever else may come.

Stay tuned…