If you are still not on Pinterest, what are you waiting for? And if you ARE on Pinterest, are you using it to your advantage?  As a girl, I cut out magazine pictures of things I wanted or just something that caught my eye. Did you do that too?  But magazines were pretty limited in my house. Pinterest, however, is like having the world at your hands. And while it’s fun to look at and pin things that catch your eye, it’s a whole lot more than that! Women around the world are getting creative and using this “virtual pin board” for many reasons and with much success.

Here are 6  top reasons to use Pinterest to your advantage.

• Plan a wedding- This is HUGE! Remember you, or a girlfriend, carrying around a notebook filled with magazine cut outs of place settings, and bouquets? and Bridal magazines with pages folded? Now it’s easy to collect ALL the images you want in one place. Pin the dresses you love, the flower arrangements, the lyrics to songs, whatever…and be able to access them from your smartphone or ipad makes it EXTRA convenient. Use the “delete pin” button to your advantage too, by deleting what you no longer like and narrow down to your best ideas. You can also share your board with relatives and friends across the country and even allow them to pin on your board! How awesome is that?

• Vision Board/Motivation- Not everyone does this but it is powerful! Seeing our vision boards daily and reaffirming our image of our future is the law of attraction in action. Some people just like to put positive quotes and uplifting words. Others images of places they would like to visit. But however you use it, it’s a great reminder of what’s important in life and can motivate you to strive for these things and to appreciate them more.

• Sell your crafts or home biz items- HUGE HUGE HUGE market out there for crafters and direct sales. Huge. No longer do you just have an Etsy store or sell on e-bay (how primitive is that?) but now you can pin images of your items for your followers to see. The more followers you have, the bigger the audience. But then it’s even better-since THEY can repin your images to THEIR followers and so on. So theoretically, thousands of people can see your images and crafts now…is that exciting or what? Same goes for those in direct sales, as long as it is allowed by the company. And really-what company DOESn’T want people to see their items and have potential sales and new consultants? It’s THE way to grow a home business!

• Virtual cookbook- Self explanatory! I mean, how many of us still have volumes of cookbooks and reach for them when we want a new meal for the fam? No show of hands? I know mine went right in the donation box. Pinterest is AMAZING for recipes…you can make boards into categories- main dishes, desserts, vegetables, etc. and then display the recipe as you are cooking right on your computer, laptop, kindle , ipad,whatever. And there’s never any recipes you DON’T want-unlike cookbooks. You choose which ones you want to make. If you make it and it sucks, delete! Easy peesy! My kids and I have so much fun pinning -and trying- new recipes. And that’s another point- you can get the kids involved by letting them choose what they’d like to try.

• Expand your blog. Every time I post a blog post, I make sure I have a picture with it and then I hit that great “pin it” button. And this really helps expand traffic to blogs. I’ve heard of blogs getting hundreds of hits a day from 1 pin alone! Crazy . but true. So never blog without pinning. And you can pin the post to various boards too, if you choose, since some people don’t follow all your boards, but rather only the themed ones they like.

• Create an idea board. No more forgetting crafts you want to try with the kids, or having ripped scraps of magazines crumbled in drawers. No more forgetting what site it was that you saw a great idea on. Pinterest makes it easy to collect your future DIY projects in one spot. You don’t even need to use your bookmarks anymore…it’s better because it’s all in one spot and very visual. From painted rocks, to home made headboards, ideas for flower gardens, kindergarten projects and Christmas table settings to anything you can think of, you can pin away and have a treasure of ideas to come back to. I just LOVE doing this and have found it so helpful and time-saving in my life!

Happy Pinning. But be warned- it’s a bit addicting.

*Want to learn more about social media marketing? Visit  successformom

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Each week the apps list items and when you buy them, you earn cash back, kind of like a rebate. One app even offers up to 100% back if you share on your Facebook wall. Today , in a mini $65 shopping trip, I only bought 2 Sobe waters, 1 baking soda and 2 frozen meals that were on the list, but managed to get back over $4.00. Cash. In my account. Then I can transfer to paypal and they pay immediately. You can earn up to $40 each shopping trip with Ibotta and quite a bit with Endorse too.  If you want to earn more, refer some friends.

What I like is that they also have more and more organic brands like Annie s and Amy’s and they have basic items like baking soda, toothpaste, yogurts, eggs, and Advil too. Who doesn’t buy stuff like that?

All you need is a smartphone for Ibotta and a FB account and smartphone for Endorse. As far as I know, ipads work fine too. If they are giving away money, why not take your share? Let the earnings add up and then cash out for a pedicure or a new shirt or something fun. We all can use all the (financial) help we can nowadays right?

Join Ibotta

Join Endorse

Happy Shopping

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1- The Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center in Riverhead. Personally I like the feel of it much better than the one in Coney Island, but then again, anywhere there are fish and fun is fine with me. As a member of the Aquarium, we’ve been there more times than we can count and enjoy each time.  Kids can pet the stingrays, watch the sea lions swim in circles( for some reason, this is hypnotic for us), learn about Long Island’s fish and fauna and see a sea lion show , weather permitting. Another fascinating creature to check out is the octopus- kinda creepy fascinating if you ask me. The outside areas of the aquarium are as nice or nicer than the inside so try to visit on a nice day.  Sea otters, monkeys, koi, turtles and penguins are just some of the animals you will encounter, along with an Indiana Jones styles mini cave to “excavate” and even a rock climbing wall. There’s great views of the river…you can grab lunch at the cafeteria then head over the the butterfly exhibit in the attached hotel.( extra fee). All in all, it’s a very fun day for families with kids of all ages, and even the Grandparents love to come along , as there’s not too much walking. And last but not least,I can’t leave out my kids’ favorite areas- the shark tunnel and the game room!  Learn more here

2-Farms along Sound Avenue. Set your GPS for Sound Avenue where it starts in the Wading River area, and then allow the day for a meandering drive with frequent stops at Long Island farms and even vineyards that have animals like bulls and sheep. Two favorites of ours are Harbes Family Farms and Garden of Eve Organic Farm. Both have kids play areas, tables to grab lunch or a snack and to sit and relax. The local pies and muffins and fresh in season foods make it oh-so-worth it! Bring along a big cooler with ice in the trunk and you’ll be able to bring home a nice assortment of fresh Long Island grown goodies. Continue all the way until Greenport if you’d like, a super fun town to spend an hour or two in and the kids can take a whirl on the antique carousel.

3- Montauk , the End. I’ve posted before about Montauk as one of my favorite towns and for a good reason! There’s so much to do, yet one of the best costs virtually nothing- it’s simply walking the town,  then walking the dock over at Gosman’s, watching the boats come in with the catch of the day!  Parking in town and walking to the beach gives me a real vacation-y feel…kinda like the Jersey coast or Maryland. Then head back and play a game of mini-golf right on the water. Just can’t beat a day at Montauk for fresh air and lots of wild untamed dunes to explore.

4-Botanical Gardens- The east end boasts 3 beautiful gardens to revel in. Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton is 5 acres with a ton of roses and a water garden. Madoo Conservancy was written up in a magazine for it’s literacy and artistic history. And Longhouse Reserve in East Hampton is a museum , garden and sculpture garden  that has over 60 sculptures in the sculpture garden. Visit each site to see hours since they are often limited to a few days a week.

5- Splish Splash in Riverhead. Our personal favorite summer away-from -home home. With our season pass, we can go endlessly and enjoy a whole day or just a few rides. But be warned, this place gets jammed! So maybe I shouldn’t even tell you about it. But my devotion to the East End insists on it. So let’s just say, this Travel Channel top ten park offers a whole day of soaking sopping wet fun with slides and family rides and 2 wave pools. There’s something for everyone, plenty of snack and lunch options or pack your own and eat at the picnic area.

6- Cupsogue Beach in Westhampton. The ULTIMATE beach. I love this place- for the sand, for the waves, for the sun ( it just feels different there I swear) and for the Beach Hut. Just the drive down Dune Road never fails to have someone on my tail urging me to hit the gas, but I love to browse each house and imagine ME owning it as MY vacation home. Then I plant myself in the sand, dig my toes in, grab a cool lemonade and I am officially IN VACATION MODE.

7-Long Island Live Steamers. A hidden GEM on Long Island for train lovers of all ages ( with a particular fondness for little boys in overalls who worship Thomas the tang engine). This event takes place the first and third Sunday of the month from about May through October. It’s in the  Southhaven park in Brookhaven ( see site for more details) and works on donations. You can stay for as little or as long as you’d like and ride the mini trains around the track. We’ve been going once a year for about 8 years now and the kids STILL love it! We try to ride 3 or 4 times , on a different train each time. Wear bug spray, sneakers and bring lunch or snacks or buy at the small concession stand. Official train conductor caps optional

Enjoy your day trips! Learn more about  some other Long Island towns to visit here

The post 7 Great Family Day-cations on Long Island’s East End appeared first on NYC Mama .

• Hard boiled eggs. In a pinch, this may be the easiest way to get some protein in. Sunday night make a dozen or so eggs and have them peeled and ready in a covered bowl in the fridge for AM’s.
• Pancakes. Sure some people buy frozen for convenience, but I make mine a little healthier, with whole wheat flour and flax seed. Make up a very large bunch, maybe even 2 boxes worth, on a rainy day then freeze perfect portion sizes in individual baggies for a quick grab and microwave breakfast. Same goes for french toast. Using your own healthy bread and freezing ahead ensures they eat something you feel good about.
• Smoothies and shakes. Make a large blender of a shake everyone loves so as the troops arrive in the kitchen, all they have to do is pour a glass for themselves.
• Peanut butter balls. A quick nutritious breakfast or part of breakfast. Mix peanut butter with whole oats (not instant) and some honey and cinnamon.Ground flax seed is optional. Form  bite sized balls and keep in the fridge for another quick grab n go snack. My kids LOVE these!
• Fruit salad. Keep the fruit bowl handy or make a cut up fruit salad!  When I put the bowl in the middle of the island, my kids are more tempted to grab a banana or apple in the morning or sco0p themselves a bowl. Nothing can be easier.  Keep some granola nearby in a bowl so they can dip their fruit.
• Instant Oatmeal. Put a pot of water simmering on the back burner on when you wake up. Then as the kids pile in, pour into bowls filled with instant oatmeal. Takes 5 seconds to mix and it’s pretty filling. We buy non flavored and add our own cinnamon , sugar or syrup to it so they are much less sweet and sugary than store versions.It’s a better buy that way too.
• Cereal. Of course, you say! What’s breakfast without cereal? My kids like to mix cereals so I pre-mix them in  large covered plastic containers.  It makes it easier for kids to pour in the AM without all the scrunching and mess of the dreaded cereal bags.
• Yogurt- While I love most of the benefits and convenience of yogurt, they can be high is sugar ( especially if they are eaten with a glass of juice for breakfast)  so be sure to buy a lower sugar one or only offer small bowls along with something heartier. Some kids will even go for a scoop of cottage cheese with some fruit in it. Usually it’s quite a bit lower in sugar than yogurt.
• Cottage cheese and fruit- My daughter loves this one( and so do I!). Nuke a chopped apple with cinnamon and sugar for a few minutes then serve with plain cottage cheese. Peaches, blueberries and strawberries go great too.
• Granola bars- yeah, you can make your own if you’re feeling crunchy, but try the organic store bought ones when they are on sale. Cut in 2 and layer on a plate for kids to grab with a banana or something fast and easy.
• Muffins and breads- So easy and one of our favorites. I try to make homemade healthy versions( see Pinterest for the best ideas!) or at least if i use a store bought box, I use applesauce or greek yogurt instead of oils and cut the eggs in half , using flax seed and water for the other half. Adding in berries ups the nutrient value. Or try a nice pumpkin bread or zucchini bread. The kids feel like they are having cake and may even give you an extra kiss when they leave! hey, it’s worth a shot! Make a few loaves and freeze for a later date.

No one should ever skip breakfast even if they are rushed, so having easy , quick foods to choose from and grab make for a better start to the day for everyone-Moms and kids.

The post Fast and Healthy Breakfast Ideas appeared first on NYC Mama .

Far be it from me to base my opinions purely on taste — or on junk science. I set out to do a little research: Do artificial sweeteners do more harm than good?

The site PopSugar has a great break-down on the pros and cons of different artificial sweeteners. The most disturbing fact I learned was that Stevia, the new darling of sugar substitutes, is sold as a dietary supplement and is therefore not regulated by the FDA.

For the rest, the Mayo Clinic says sugar substitutes like aspartame (Nutrasweet), saccharine (Sweet n Low) and sucralose (Splenda) are safe:

“There’s no sound scientific evidence that any of the artificial sweeteners approved for use in the U.S. cause cancer or other serious health problems. And numerous research studies confirm that artificial sweeteners are generally safe in limited quantities, even for pregnant women.”

So far so good.

The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners

I dug a little deeper, however, and found a post from the Harvard Health Blog (published by Harvard Medical School)  entitled “Artificial sweeteners: sugar free but at what cost?” that began to confirm my suspicions. It claims, in short, that sugar substitutes have three detrimental effects:

1. Since artificial sweeteners are stronger than naturally occurring sugar, they might change the way you taste food, leaving fruits and vegetables tasteless by comparison. As a result, you’ll be less likely to reach for healthy produce and more likely to stick with nutritionless junk food.

2. Artificial sweeteners may prevent you from associating sweetness with calories and thus lead you to ingest more. In fact, “Participants in the San Antonio Heart Study who drank more than 21 diet drinks per week were twice as likely to become overweight or obese as people who didn’t drink diet soda.”

3. Artificial sweeteners may be addictive. “In studies of rats who were exposed to cocaine, then given a choice between intravenous cocaine or oral saccharine, most chose saccharin.” Yikes.

Taking the Long View on Aspartame

The New York Times Well blog also tackled the issue of artificial sweeteners last year in a piece called “Choosing a Sugar Substitute.” In it, Dr. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, concludes that diet sodas are less bad than sugar sodas based on available evidence. But he cautions that harmful effects sometimes take a while to show up:

“[I]f you smoke cigarettes, the lung cancer risk doesn’t go up for 30 years. And that’s a really powerful carcinogen. A lot of things don’t show up for several decades…. It took us about 90 years to discover [trans fat] was a big problem. It’s a bit sobering how long that took.”

Dr. Willett likens diet soda to a “nicotine patch” that should be used to help wean you off full-sugar soda, rather than an acceptable alternative.

I think I’ll stick with water.

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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My children are now 12, 10 and 6 and quite used to being in the car since they were babies. We’re a great traveling team and it’s because we go into it with a great attitude of exploring a new place and being excited about the whole trip, start to finish.

Here are a few tips we find very helpful.
1) Drink water only in the car and not too  much of it. Stopping every 2 hours at a rest stop is great for a stretch , but you don’t want to do it more often than that…. which leads to number 2 :

2)  An empty plastic coffee can, Snapple bottle  or small beach bucket can serve many purposes in an emergency (think being stuck in Brooklyn roadwork or at a toll booth)… a mini potty, a barf can, a garbage can…..

3) Media!  Have plenty of  DVD’s …better than just the ones you  already own, go to the library and rent a whole bunch of shows the kids have never seen before.  I find it keeps my kids quieter  much longer. Put some new games on the ipad. Have everything charged and ready to go.

4) If you are stopping on the road at a hotel for 1 night before you reach your final destination, pack clothes  and toiletries for everyone for just that one day ,  in a community bag. Then save the big luggage or individual suitcases for when you arrive and are settling in for an extended stay.

5) Snacks are good…too many are bad. Endless munching leads to tummy trouble, more potty stops, more crumbs in the car and less real food. Plan a healthy sandwich and fruit for your rest area stops if you aren’t going to buy. Oh, and lollipops are such a lifesaver, I just cant believe that they can calm a fussy 2 year old, or excite a 6  or 8 year old so much, but they do and they are not  usually messy. I’ll worry about the cavities later.  However, snacks are a necessity because gnawing hunger can take its toll, so  packing some nutritious ones like nuts, granola bars, bananas and apples will take the edge off until mealtime.

6) Designate quiet time.  Song time. Movie time. Game time.  Often I will I designate the next, say, 30 minutes or until we reach the next stop,  to be quiet time. Or we play a license plate or I-spy game . Then a movie, then quiet time again. Then we blast out some tunes and have a singalong. It really helps break up the trip. And it’s fun. Also, don’t be afraid to stop and enjoy the sites you come across. There’s no time scehdule so important as to miss a great site seeing stop, is there?

7) Travel clothes…my kids all travel in sweat pants (who wants tight jeans when you are sitting for so long?) and no shoes.They have small lap blankets too in case they get cold, or the blanket can be rolled and used as a pillow.   I also wear sweats (but with my most comfy driving shoes). I can’t drive in shorts because my legs stick to the seat. and my hair is in a bun so its not hanging in my face. Just a personal  preference , but whatever works for you. Be comfy. Be happy.

8) Sunscreen! What? In the car? Yes. Imagine the poor child whose arm (or cheek)  will be in the sun for the next 5 hours as you are on one road for the entire afternoon. Another great idea are  those child window shades you can get at baby stores. Helps with naps too.

9) A little surprise never hurt!  I pack my kids 1  or 2 surprise bags….a  new activity book, a  small candy, maybe a toy car or doll (small),  a new DS game, a small handheld game, a letter from Grandma, pen and notepads,  anything they will like ….. this is fun  to break out  when they  get  bored.

10)  Thoughtful packing helps.  Large plastic bags packed in the suitcases are great for throwing dirty clothes in at the end of the trip. Disposable sample size skin care and toothpastes are great (less to bring  home). Books for bedtime and favorite stuffed animals. A small extra pillow or 2.  A battery charger for the camera. All medicines, vitamins, and extra bandaids. Kids seem to fall more on vacation for some reason. A nail file, hair brush, razors. A book light helps me read when the kids have gone to sleep already.

And lastly,  a great sense of humor will make your trip a happy one to remember! Life’s really about having fun, so don’t stress. Just enjoy the sights and scenery and the precious time with your family.

If you’re looking to stay more local, check out these great towns in  Suffolk County,Long Island for a day trip or few day stay!

The post Useful tips for road trips with kids. appeared first on NYC Mama .

Now is a great time to rediscover passions you may have put aside or to take up new hobbies you have been dreaming of.  Now is the time to get rid of what is not working in your life and adopt new attitudes and new ways of doing things so everything starts flowing easily and going your way.

No more days  falling into bed exhausted yet feeling like nothing major was accomplished. When you carve out some “me time”, and experience things that give you joy and make time fly, then you WILL go to bed satisfied and already planning what the next day will hold.

It’s time to get a bit more  INQUISITIVE with yourself and ask : what makes me happy? what do I really want to do in my free time? what do I want to do for work? what am I not doing that I used to love? what do I think of all the time?

And then once you have  clear answers, commit to a change. Sweep away the old ways of thinking, the OLD YOU, and start doing fun and creative new things. That could be changing your wardrobe head to toe. It could be going to school, getting a new job or just taking acting lessons. Could be starting on the book you always wanted to write. Or maybe taking a gourmet cooking class. Maybe it’s committing to a daily 1 hour walk in the park , or starting a home business.

But whatever it is, there is never a better time than  now to get started, get focused and reclaim the things that make your spirit soar!

Want to read more positive posts for women and Moms to be their best? Visit HeartnSoulLiving.com

The post Spring cleaning for your soul appeared first on NYC Mama .

Sag Harbor
I Love this seaside village and the quaint feel.  You can marvel at  the yachts you’ll see anchored there and wonder who owns them, as I do each time.  You can visit a great little educational toy store where the kids will want to stay for hours. Maybe take a nice walk through the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge and see how many birds and animals you can find, while enjoying a nice family walk in nature (put away the phones folks!)- this is  LI wilderness complete with salt water marshes and lovely views !  In the village,  there’s the Sag Harbor whaling museum to learn about our whaling history in the U.S. For good eats,there’s plenty of choices in this great village or grab a bite at the local grocery and have a picnic on the beach, watching the boats and birds. LOVE Sag Harbor!

Westhampton
Cupsogue beach, need I say more? Well, I guess I do, since I also love the town of Westhampton and my kids and I often stop there for some Mexican Food and a poke into a few stores. Then it’s on our way over to the beach for the afternoon and a Beach Hut dinner . Nothing like this beach for a great VIBE, the soft sand, the blue waves, and feel of being away from it all on the gorgeous Atlantic! I can’t get enough of this beach! Just driving down Dune Road and marveling at tha beach houses is half the fun!

Bridgehampton
A nice town to wander but a bit less ” touristy” than some others. The big attractions here for families are the 2 museums right within walking distance from each other. For the 10( or maybe 8) and under crowd, there’s the  cute hands-on Children’s Museum of the East End, known as CMEE. Lots of little sections to explore and pretend play for the young ones. My kids always loved cranking the handle on the the ( fake) potato chip maker and the art room in the back. Across the way is the South Shore Natural History and Nature Center where a guide will take you along this small museum and kids get to explore hidden  drawers with facts about Long Island diversity , wildlife and nature. There’s a cool touch tank with some marine creatures and a nice deck outback for nature viewing. You only need about an hour there total. If your kids are  a bit older, the family may enjoy Bridge Gardens in the warmer months.

Northport
Not out east, but located on the North Shore of Suffolk, we enjoy taking a ride into Northport here and there. The kids love the playground right on the water and I love watching the boats come and go while they play.
There’s plenty of food choices and a fab little toy store there as well. It’s a great village, with a  shipping  and whaling theme of years gone by. Try Skipper’s Pub- it’s been there for years and years and is quite popular, but there are at least 10 other choices right in walking distance too. Northport is known for it’s annual Cow harbor Day and also hold several other events throughout the year.

More…

Suffold County Towns for Families

The post More Fantastic Towns to Visit in Suffolk County appeared first on NYC Mama .

Here are just a few of my faves in Suffolk County:

Port Jefferson Village

Port Jeff is one of my favorite towns. Since I live 15 minutes away, we are there quite a lot. The kids enjoy it as much as I do and when we don’t have money for a vacation, often a day and night in Port Jeff makes us feel like we spent time away from it all. It does attract a lot of tourists from the North via ferry and is a hustling bustling town especially in the summer months.  Quaint and artsy and chock full of hidden gems around every corner.

There are  delightful little breakfast eateries,  many sit-down speciality restaurants, a great healthy bohemian cafe, new age gift shops that even offer reiki and other classes, funky educational  toy stores, gift shops, antique shops and much more, Port Jeff is loaded with enough to explore that  you can take a full day there and then some. On top of that, there’s a great children’s hands-on museum called the Maritime Explorium that kids just love to explore. Right on the water there’s a  lovely park to stroll or play frisbee at, a playground for kids, a village center with rotating artwork, an ice rink in the winter, and a theatre offering live shows.  Then there’s the water, the center of it all.  The docks, the boats, the ferries , the view and the sunsets. Magnificent sunsets. We go often to enjoy them with a short stroll and an ice cream. Plenty of choices to grab an ice cream or frozen yogurt there.  Port Jeff also offers many year round events like a Dickens festival , a Halloween festival and doggie parade, a 4th of July parade, movies on the harbor and farmer’s market to name a view.Learn more about the town and see a full listing of events here.

Greenport

Take the train or a wonderful meandering car ride toward the end of the North Fork and make Greenport a final stop. I can’t say how many times I have taken the kids there, both by car and by train. We all just love it! There’s a great antique merry-go-round that they can ride over and over again ( $2 a ticket or grab the brass ring and get a free ride). There’s the water and grassy areas and mini beach to play on. The stores to peek into and browse. Tons of great restaurants like the famous Claudio’s. And just a great feeling that you’ve gotten away from it all, that you are on vacation and able to relax and enjoy. The village has a site to learn more and keep up on events.

Riverhead

This shopping mecca before the forks split has become a popular day-trip destination. Because I live less than 20 minutes away, I’m in Riverhead often. One of the main attractions is Splish Splash water park. It’s a fantastic fun day for anyone who loves water, like this family. It can get really crowded so we get the season membership and go for shorter times more often. This way we don’t have to pack it all in in one long day. And there is QUITE A LOT to pack in. Lines can get long but rides are so much fun! The park is clean and heavily treed.

Our other favorite attraction in Riverhead is the Long Island Aquarium. Again, the membership, if you will go often enough, pays for itself on the 3rd visit. We love the aquarium year round but particularly in the summer where we can meander outside. Not only do they have the typical fish and water creatures, but monkeys and various other surprises. Kids can take shoes off and wade in a salt marsh. There’s a simulator ride and a large outdoors sky ride with an expansive view of the water. The sea lion show is short but  quite cute. Nothing like a boogeying sea lion to get the family laughing!  My kids love the arcade outside and they have to climb the rock wall every visit!
Riverhead also has a Tanger outlets which can take up another whole day shopping. A few new large hotels are in town so a 2 day excursion is made convenient. There’s another fun place called Out East Family Fun with a giant hippo slide and water wars in the summer and mini golf weather permitting.

For weekends, we like to take 2 hours or so playing hands-on games and activities at the Long Island Science Center. It’s learning while having fun and they have some changing exhibits that are seasonal for the kids.

Riverhead also is home to Hallockville museum farm and Indian Island county park, where you can camp for a night or more and enjoy some nice Long Island wilderness along with gorgeous views.
And though this family is not into car racing, the Riverhead Raceway packs out on race nights with racing fans and is the only local raceway I know of.

Stony Brook

Stony Brook has a wonderful family fun spot called Avalon Park and Preserve. We go and feed the ducks often, check out the grist mill and then take a scenic hike around the pond and through the woods. There’s also a quaint village with nice shopping, a small beach that clammers love, an Educational and Cultural center that holds events, the Avalon Sky lab – for space viewing-  and a wetlands cruise.  On top of all that, Stony Brook is home to a large University that holds events and shows at it’s Staller Center. There’s also a nice set of museums where visitors can check out carriages through the years and view art and history . Stony Brook really has the North Shore and old-fashioned  feel which I really like. Check out the village site to learn more

Montauk

I can’t leave out my favorite town of all. Though it’s a bit of a far ride and hell on summer weekends to get there, Montauk is like being world’s away. My father is a fisherman there and I spent plenty of childhood summers exploring the beaches, hiking the dunes and just relishing in the salty air.
Now that I take my family, we also explore. I love to start with the town, full of great little surf shops, souvenir shops, clothing stores and food joints. Then we take a ride over the the lighthouse, maybe walk the paths down to the beach, or climb to the top of the lighthouse (for a fee).Then I can spend an afternoon over at Gosman’s docks. Between watching the fresh catch of the day come in on the hundreds of fishing boats, walking the jetty, poking into all the stores and shops, grabbing lunch at Gosman’s restaurant and just watching the boats come in one by one, in an almost non-stop parade, we can spend the entire day there.

But there’s a lot more too! There’s Deep Hollow Ranch and Rita’s stables for animals and horse rides. There’s hiking and biking and seal-watching.There’s state pars, walking dunes and sand dunes.There’s night life and culture. Surf lessons. paddle board lessons. Mini golf. Book shops and bike shops and hotels , motels and resorts galore along the sweeping sand dunes that run from the Atlantic Ocean and wrap around to the bay. Does this already sound like some tropical island? Well, it IS like being on vacation and you really need a few days to explore all there is to do in Montauk. Do not miss at least a day out in Montauk! You’ll remember it forever. A great site to learn more is OnMontauk

What’s your favorite Suffolk County Long Island town? Which one have you never been to that you will visit this summer?  I know I will be back at them all plus a few more awesome ones that I’ll highlight in a few months…. Stay tuned! We are  ready to hit the shops and beaches soon!

Find out about More Suffolk County Towns for Families!

The post Great Suffolk County Towns for Family Trips appeared first on NYC Mama .

But seriously, think about it. Who do you want to support? A hardworking Mom or Dad just like you with kids in sports, outgrowing shoes and a family who would love  to take a vacation to play together? Or the CEO of the large company who most likely owns several vacation homes, a private jet and of course, the maids.

I KNOW how convenient it is to go to Target or Walmart. I have bought on Amazon for convenience too. But I do try to hit up the local towns and order from direct selling Moms when I can. I hope you will think before you buy and remember that we have some amazing businesses here on Long Island. It’s nice when the business owner knows your name, thanks you sincerely for coming in and  smiles when they see you. You don’t get that at the big box stores do you?

So if you can make at least 25% of your purchases locally, it’d be a GREAT start!

Some ideas:

When you see an Avon (or other direct sales company brochure) book on a ledge at the store, grab one and order something. Most direct sales reps take online sales so you don’t even have to call but they sure appreicate your business and you will help a work at home Mom put food on her table or pay for braces or sports.

Support the work at home Mom friends who showcases her item on facebook. It could be skin care, candles, purses or vitamins.It could be anything that is in stores. However . most direct sales companies make quality products but you pay a drop more than drug store or large store  items. It’s worth it knowing you are helping friends, though.

How about the local small stores? Independently owned boutiques, health food stores and children’s toy shops cannot compete with large store prices , so remember to drop in and make a purchase when you can.

Go to craft fairs when you can. These folks work hard at their art and they pay often hefty booth fees. Handmade items make great gifts too!

Support local food co-ops and farmstands by buying local produce. Buy organic when possible. It’s so important to support local agriculture.

Like wine? Buy Long Island wines! There are so many lovely vineyards on our beautiful Long Island forks and these fols work hard to produce quality wines , which they do. And many of them are great prices. So rather than an imported wine, or a Cali wine, think local!

Whatever you can do , remember charity (and business) begin at home so let’s help our our communities and our island and our state as much as we can!

The post Why you need to support local small businesses and work at home Moms appeared first on NYC Mama .