summer

With two teachers for grandmas, the girls are frequent recipients of books.  The grandmas often think alike too, and this Spring, both gave Big M mermaid-themed books.  MerMer, our Texas grandma, gave her Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet when she came to visit for Spring Break.  Today, we are…

Happy Friday, y’all!  Welcome to Playground Parkbench, and this week’s installment of We Love Weekends.  If you’ve never been here before, I’m Meghan, the Playground Parkbench Guru – SAHM to two girls, Big M and Lil’ M, almost 4 and almost 2, and 7 months pregnant with M3, our first…

Still looking to plan your family’s great adventure this summer?  I’ve got you covered!  This month, I teamed up with 17 of my fellow bloggers to bring you the Best Road Trips Around the Globe.  From Maine to California, and Australia to Scotland, we have the perfect trip option for…

A summer road trip to Bar Harbor used to be the hubby and my annual summer tradition.  It is one of the few places I have been more times than I can count on one hand.  And we keep going back because there is so much to enjoy – from…

I am super excited to join in Study at Home Mama’s 31 Days of Kids Kitchen Activities this month.  The girls LOVE to help in the kitchen and run to pull in chairs as soon as I start putting ingredients on the counter.  I love to encourage them given all…

The girls had so much fun a few weeks back with our patriotic colored-ice sensory play, this week we decided to do it again.  Only this time, we traded in the red, yellow and blue stars for neon-colored ocean animals!  Ocean-Themed Sensory Play Sensory play with ice is rapidly becoming…

Last week, the Ms and I upheld one of our favorite summer traditions: strawberry picking!  We went with a group of Big M’s friends from preschool.  If you are local to Connecticut, Jones Family Farms has a great, family-friendly set-up, and if you go this week, you’ll just catch the…

Last week, we went strawberry picking with a group of Big M’s preschool friends.  It was a productive outing, and we came home with over 8 pounds of freshly picked strawberries!  Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing over 50 different ways to put all those strawberries to use, but one looked so…

Most of our ‘projects’, as Big M likes to call them, are targeted toward the preschool aged child, and I modify them so that Lil’ M, at almost 2, can participate as well.  This week, however, I set up a fun, July 4th Sensory Play activity just for Lil’ M……

Happy Friday, y’all!  If you’re new around here, I’m Meghan, the founder of Playground Parkbench.  I write about parenting, household tips, and at-home activities for kids.  Every Friday, I partner with four of my fellow bloggers to bring you We Love Weekends, an open forum for our favorite family-friendly bloggers…

You know the aisle at the grocery store that always has all the seasonal specials?  Like pumpkin puree in the Fall, baking supplies at Christmas, and marshmallows and Hershey bars in the summer?  I am a sucker for that aisle.  And as much as I love S’mores, when marshmallows are…

How many of you love Instagram as much as I do?  I will admit to being late to the Instagram game… until I started Playground Parkbench last Fall, I never used it.  And now I am hooked.  Scroll through beautiful images, no ads, easily scan and search by fun hashtags,…

Nothing says summer like July 4th and red, white & blue! The girls and I have been in the patriotic spirit this week, first making festive stained glass decor, and then, at Big M’s request, tiaras, or as I prefer to call them, Liberty Crowns!  We made some jeweled tiaras…

One of my favorite crafting mediums is contact paper – it’s the great age equalizer for craft activities, that allows Lil’ M, my 22 month old, to participate as easily as Big M, my 3.5 year old.  This is a huge sanity saver since Lil’ M wants to do everything…

Nothing provides more entertainment at our house during warm weather than bubbles.  And after three summers of blowing bubbles until I was breathless, Big M has hit an awesome milestone: she can now blow her OWN bubbles!  However, this leads to Lil’ M wanting to as well, and mostly she…

Happy Friday!  And welcome to another We Love Weekends link-up, featuring content from family-friendly bloggers around the web to inspire you and your family to love the weekend too!  Be sure to check out our favorite picks from last week, a Summer School Ideas for Preschoolers round-up. Last Weekend Summer…

Last week we had beautiful, perfect pre-summer weather: blue clear skies, sun for days, and that temperature that is warm enough for water play, but not so hot you are melting.  I promised the girls a pool day in the backyard, and of course, that morning, Lil’ M woke up…

Last week, I got rear-ended enroute to preschool drop-off at a red light.  It’s been a fun-filled two weeks since of replacing car seats, getting the damage appraised and now repaired.  But what do they say – when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?  The car seat replacement left us…

Happy Friday!  It’s that time of the week again – where I share all about my weekend and bloggers from around the web link up their best family-friendly content to make you and your family love the weekends too! Last Weekend Here in the US, last weekend was a long,…