Tampa Mom

Lowry Park’s ZooBoo is open on Thursdays-Sundays through Nov. 1. Admission is $17/Adults (ages 12+), $14/Kids (ages 3-11). ZooPass holders pay $12/$10. Open 7-10pm on Thursdays and Sundays, 7-11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Important information: For the safety of guests, adults (ages 12 and older) are not permitted to wear masks, wigs, face paint or costumes of any kind. Little boys and “ghouls” (ages 11 and under) are invited to come in their most spooktacular attire. Toy weapons of any sort will not be allowed into the Zoo.

Guavaween Family FunFest will be held Saturday, October 25, 2008 (10am-3pm) in historic Ybor City. This is a totally free event with a daytime crowd estimated at around 20,000. Safe trick-or-treating, costume contest and parade, and pumpkin contests are among the fabulous family activities.

The Florida Aquarium is holding Guppyween 2008, a safe, fun, and supervised children’s trick or treating on Sunday, October 26 from 4 to 9 p.m. Bring your ghosts and goblins in costume for a deliciously fun time! Candy stations will be set up throughout the facility with plenty of kids’ activities in between. Kids in costume are free, while adults (12 and over) pay $12. It’s a safe, fun party with spooky creatures and loads of tasty treats.  * Limit four children per adult. Aquarium members get in free to this event.

MOSI presents their 3rd annual Hall-O-Boo! Family Halloween Event on October 24 & 25, 5-9pm. Admission for members is only $8, and non-members is $10. Activities include hayrides, monster mash ball, mad scientist demonstrations, and much more!

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom is a fun Disney event especially geared to the under-10 crowd. Tickets vary in price depending on the date. Expect to spend up to $56 for an adult ticket. October 31st is sold out. Event takes place 7pm-midnight, though October 31st.

If you know of another family friendly Halloween event, please post your info in a comment! Thanks! Happy Halloween!

What are you having for dinner Monday night?

From 2003 to 2008 research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has consistently found that children who have frequent family dinners are less likely to use marijuana, tobacco and drink alcohol.

CASA research reveals that compared to children who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), children who have infrequent family dinners (less than three per week) are two and a half times likelier to have used marijuana and tobacco, and one and a half times likelier to have drunk alcohol.

Monday, September 22nd will mark CASA’s eighth annual Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your ChildrenTM celebration. Family Day is a national movement to inform parents that the parental engagement fostered during frequent family dinners is an effective tool to help keep America’s children substance free and reminds parents that “Dinner Makes A Difference!”

“If you asked me based on CASA’s 16 years of intensive examination of substance abuse and addiction in our nation what’s the most effective thing we can do to curb this scourge and protect our children, I would say parental engagement. And there is no more effective example of this than frequent family dinners,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “Years of surveying teens have consistently shown that the more often they have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs.”

This information was excerpted from a press release from CASA this week. How many more reasons do we need to have dinner together? Health? Money? Those are some very good reasons, but the relationship building and accountability to one another in love is another great reason. My favorite web celebrity in this area is Leanne Ely, author of Saving Dinner. She finds great solutions when it comes to family eating situations. I came across Leanne Ely and her fantastic work on Marla Cilley’s popular website FlyLady.net. I’m a huge fan of her menus and eating ideas. She also has a great book about Nutrition and a companion Unit Study.

Ahoy! T’day is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Avast! Many pirate-y activities abound here in Tampa, the home of ye ol’ Gasparilla Pirate Festival.

Captain Memo’s Pirate Cruise has cruises for pint-sized to frigate-sized grog-drinking seadogs! Our wee matey gallavanted off to sea with his Grandma, an’ had a rip-roarin’ time afloat!

Ahoy! The Pirate Ship at John’s Pass is another place full o’ pirate-y goodness with gun battles, face painting, and treasure hunts! Arrr.

Capture this cool stuff for junior pirates from ye founders of this ‘ere day of celebration!

In our family, we’ve casually celebrated this day over the years since Dave Barry’s infamous column appeared in 2002. We still aren’t very good at pirate slang, but we try! Just sprinkle in “Avast!” or “Arrr…” into your daily conversation and you’re all set. If you really want to get into character, get your own pirate name at one of these sites:

• What’s My Pirate Name?
• Pirate Name Generator
• Find Your Inner Pirate

Dig up a treasure chest o’ fun with your mateys t’day!

Food allergy is one of my “interests” whether I like it or not. Now, many websites exist with information on coping with this affliction. There is no cure or treatment – only avoidance and survival. Here are a couple of links for recommended reading:

• Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network – my top pick
• Peanut Allergy Kid – a mom’s perspective

Can’t find an answer? Post your question here!

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, just a mom.

Do you struggle with menu planning? I know that I do, and it’s a constant battle. There is one menu-planning system that I’ve found that is absolutely fantastic! It’s called Saving Dinner. I’ve used some of these recipes and they all got a thumbs up from the whole family! I highly recommend Leanne Ely’s menus. Just give it a try. Your family will be so happy to sit at the table together eating a meal lovingly prepared just for them! Bon appetit!

You can add us to the no-TV crowd. We moved our remaining television to the garage where it sits unplugged. We’ve moved a computer monitor into its place that we use for iTunes through the stereo and a digital photo album. This is really cool during parties. For example, we showed pictures from all of Elizabeth’s birthday parties at her party.

We still watch a lot of movies and subscribe to Netflix. Everyone in the house has a laptop that plays DVDs, so that’s not a problem. My husband still watches a lot of TV, but it’s out of sight from the kids on his computer (he has rabbit ears on it and also many networks put their shows on their websites now.)

Overall, though, this has seriously cut down on the amount of advertising coming into the house and unwanted television. Although I miss cooking shows, Discovery Channel and some other stuff, I can pretty much still find what I actually need and want, rather than passively absorb unnecessary, unwanted information.

I don’t think the kids miss it at all, and I certainly don’t.

If you need further convincing, visit http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/. This is an excellent resource packed with intelligent discourse about television.

A side benefit to all of this is that we don’t have a cable bill. It’s quite nice.