MyTime Calendars

If you’re an Arizonan, you know exactly where this article is coming from! Those of us sweltering away in the Arizona summer are on the prowl again for some summer fun that does not involve melting away in the afternoon heat! So we’ve got a few ideas for those of you looking for excursions with your kiddos that will wear them out well before the afternoon sun begins to beat us into submission! Incidentally, we’ve included some pricing here but if you want to get in some of these places for free, get to your local library and check out a “Culture Pass“!

The Phoenix Zoo has welcomed two new baby zebras along with a host of other new little ones!

Visit the Phoenix Zoo! If you have never been to this locale before, then it is definitely time! And if you’ve visited enough to say, “we’ve seen it all!”, then we’ve got news for ya…you haven’t! The Phoenix Zoo has welcomed a slew of new babies into their midst. Zebras, marmosets, big horn sheep and even a couple of year old giraffes have joined the crew. Plus, their new summer hours make it a much more enjoyable experience for all. They open now at 7:00am (or 6:00am if you’re a member) and close at 2:00pm on the weekdays and 4:00pm on the weekends. Enjoy the animal encounters throughout the morning, pack a lunch for a picnic with the monkeys at monkey island, and then cool off at the refreshing waterfall, waterslide and splash pads of Yakulla Caverns before departing for a welcomed afternoon nap! Admission is $16.00 for adults (ages 13 and up) and $7.00 per child (ages 3-12).

Check out the brand new Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills Mall!

Visit Arizona Mills Mall for a unique experience at their Sea LIfe Arizona Aquarium! You can enter through the mall but once inside, kids will see an underwater playground where thousands of marine animals are shown in 12 distinct habitats. You will even be able to walk through a 360-degree tunneled walkway  directly through a massive tank full of schools of tropical fish, rays and sharks as they swim above, below and all around you! There is a children’s play area, video room and educational center. You can purchase day admission tickets, flex passes, and memberships. A day pass will run you $9.50 for kids 3-12,and $17.50 for adults (these are the online prices which are slightly cheaper than buying at the door).

Think the library is just for reading? Guess again!

Think the library is just for reading? Guess again! Our Public Libraries not only have a great summer readers program for kids, but they’ve also got some fun events you might want to put into your calendars!…

• Every wednesday (except June 16th) from 10:30-11:30am, the Main Library offers Toddler Time for Ages 24 through 36 months and their parents/cargivers (siblings welcomed). 20 minutes of stories, songs and fingerplay fun especially for Toddlers! (Limited to the first 50 people)
• June 8, 1:00-2:00pm (Main Library) Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium activity…Wonders of the Water: Learn about and meet some cool aquatic and semi-aquatic animals. Also available on June 24th, same time, at the Red Mountain Branch as well as June 30th at the Dobson Ranch Branch.
• June 9, 10:30-11:30am (Dobson Ranch Branch)…Join the puppeteers for a performance of the classic fairy tale Rapunzel. And at 1:30, bring your older kids to try their hand at making their own “ball” book!
• June 10, 1:00-2:00pm (Red Mountain Branch)…kids of all ages will have a blast with the crafts and bubble blowing at this event! You can catch this event at the Main Library June 15 from 10:30-11:30am or June 16 at Dobson Ranch Branch, same time.
• June 19, 1:00-3:00pm (Red Mountain Branch)…great opportunity to get your video game addicts out of the living room and into a library! On the 3rd Saturday of each month, the Red Mountain Branch will test your skills on their Wii along with board games and fun for ages 4-18.
• June 26, 1:30-3:30pm (Main Library, Dobson Ranch Branch, and Red Mountain Branch)…In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you might not be aware of the Eclipse movie coming to theaters at the end of this month. Join the Library in celebrating this books release to theaters with Twilight trivia games for prizes (such as Harkins movie tickets, drink cups, and popcorn coupons), raffles for a book purse made from the Eclipse hardback, dress like your favorite Twilight character (JUST BECAUSE!), sink your teeth into some snacks and if you’re into preparing a little, make and wear your own Twilight-themed T-shirt to enter the “Wear Your Own Twilight T-shirt” contest to win a copy of Eclipse!
• June 28, 1:00-2:00pm (Main Library)…Express your artistic side through the art of silk screen printing. Learn the basics and create a cool t-shirt (supplies and t-shirt provided)!

Looking for some free books for your kids? Barnes and Noble can help! Sign up at any location for their readers program! Just download their Readers Passport to record your child’s progress. Once your child reads 8 books, they get to choose one for free from their local Barnes and Noble!

Well, that should hopefully get you started! Maybe we’ll see you somewhere along the way! Enjoy your kiddos while they’re at home and don’t forget to mark your planned activities on your child’s personalized calendar so they can look forward to and remember all the fun you have this month!

Tags: arts and crafts for kids, Calendaring Tips, Crafts, education, entertainment, Family and Home, free stuff, fun, toddlers
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Get your kids ready for all the April activities by creating a custom calendar marking all their important activities and celebrations!

Looking for a little help on marking your children’s calendars this month? Well, we’ve got a good start for you! We’ve compiled a list of some of the observances that make April so special! There are some great links to help give you ideas on how to get in on the fun with your kids so check ‘em out. We’ve sorted them by month, week and day. Remember, every day is special because today is a gift…that’s why they call it “the present”!…

April Monthly Observances…

• National Humor Month
• Internation Guitar Month
• Keep America Beautiful Month
• Lawn and Garden Month
• Poetry Month
• National Pecan Month
• National Welding Month
• Records and Information Management Month
• Stress Awareness Month
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month
• Autism Awareness Month

Weekly Breakdown:

• Week One: Library Week, Read a Road Map Week
• Week Two: Garden Week
• Week Three: Organize Your Files Week, Medical Labs Week
• Week Four: Administrative Assistants WEek, National Karaoke Week

Celebrations By Day…there’s something for everyone! :

1. April Fool’s Day, International Fun at Work Day, International Tatting Day
2. Children’s Book Day, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, national Walk to Work Day, Reconciliation Day
3. Don’t Go to Work Unless it’s Fun Day, Tweed Day
4. Easter, Hug a Newsman Day, Walk Around Things Day, School Librarian Day, Tell a Lie Day
5. Passover begins, Dyngus Day, Go for Broke Day
6. Plan  Your Epitaph Day, Sorry Charlie Day
7. Caramel Popcorn Day, No Housework Day (YEAH!!), World Health Day
8. All is Ours Day, Draw a Picture of a Bird Day
9. Name Yourself Day, Winston Churchill Day
10. Golfer’s Day, National Siblings DAy
11. Eight Track Tape DAy, Barbershop Quartet Day, National Submarine DAy
12. Big Wind Day, Russian Smonaut Day
13. Blame Someone Else DAy, Scrabble DAy
14. Ex Spouse Day, International Moment of Laughter Day, Look up at the Sky Day, National pecan Day, Reach as High as You Can Day
15. Rubber Eraser Day, Titanic Remembrance Day
16. National Eggs Benedict Day, National High Five Day, National Librarian Day, National Stress Awareness Day
17. Blah, Blah, Blah Day, National Cheeseball DAy, Pet Owners Independence Day
18. International Juggler’s Day, Newspaper Columnists Day
19. National Garlic Day, Patriot’s Day
20. Look Alike Day, Volunteer Recognition Day
21. Kindergarten Day
22. Girl Scout Leader Day, National Jelly Bean Day
23. Lover’s Day, National Zucchini Bread Day, Take a Chance Day, World Laboratory Day
24. Astronomy Day, Pig in a Blanket Day
25. East Meets West Day, World Penguin Day
26. Executive Admin’s Day (Secretary’s Day), Hug an Austrailan Day, National Pretzel Day, Richter Scale DAy
27. Babe Ruth DAy, National Prime Rib DAy, Tell a STory Day
28. Great Poetry Reading Day, Kiss Your Mate Day
29. Greenery Day, National Shrimp Scampi Day
30. haristyle Appreciation Day, Natioanl Honesty Day

Have fun celebrating this month and remember…play with time so you have time to play!

Tags: Calendaring Tips, education, entertainment, Family and Home, holiday activities
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If you are searching for that perfect valentines gift for a techno-mommy on your list, we’ve got a winner for you! We have stumbled across an iPhone app that is truly a mommy-tool calendaring wonder! The TotalBaby app definitely makes our MyTime Calendar recommendation list! The TotalBaby Application is a calendar and event tracking solution for kids and babies whose application is limitless!

Developed in 2009, this application was the brain-child of ANDESigned, LLC and is truly inspired work. It allows you to track multiple children from birth to whenever! To better explain this application, I will use my own family of 4 children as an example. Each child was entered with all their birth information and a current photo. I was then able to enter all their vaccination information through a slick interface that allows you to record by vaccine, date and even be as specific as the time of day. You can also make notes at each vaccination entry about how they reacted, doctor recommendations, etc. Next, I was able to enter all the doctor visits I wanted to for each child. For most of my children, this included just the well-visit check-ups for which I entered their measurement info and any pertinent doctor advice I wanted to keep track of. But I have one child that has had health conditions that necessitated specialists so I was able to enter these “sick” visits as well to track exactly when he went and what was discussed.

Total Baby is the most Complete Baby Logging and Tracking Application available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

But it doesn’t stop there! There is a wonderful diary entry area for each child where you can use pictures from your iPhone gallery or snap one for immediate use and couple it with any information you want to include. This is great when your child says or does something funny or memorable and you want to remember it but may not remember at the end of the day to write it into your journal. This app lets you jot it down right as it happens! There is also a milestone area…you title each entry so you can track when they took their first step (with photos!), first words, first smile, or even their first day of school! How about those parent/teacher conferences, concerts or special assignments? Yup, you can record those too! This area also comes with a timing feature so you can track the exact moment you want to notate through a handy drop-down menu that deafaults to the current moment!

If you choose, you can email the TotalBaby reports. Just specify dates or "all data" and you get a well organized synopsis of your child's history!

This event timing is one of the coolest features. Total Baby combines 13 separate timing and tracking functions into a single complete solution. You can track events for each child like diaper changes, bottle feedings/nursing (even which side they nursed on and for how long!!), naps, bathtimes, and one of my absolute favorite features (because I have multiple children to track) is the ability to track doses of medication. For instance, if I have more than one child that requires medication, I can track exactly what I give each child (time, quantity and specific medication) so I know exactly what they’ve received and when they are due for another dose. This is invaluable for sleep deprived mothers who may or may not have the ability to trust their memories at two o’clock in the morning.

To wrap up our review, all this information is literally at your fingertips! So when your friends ask you “so when was she born?” or your doctor asks “how many wet diapers did he have today?” or your child asks you “what did I do when I was 2?”. Not only is it easily accessible but you can also back up the files as well as email them (choosing all information or just specific dates)! We have looked at several other baby/child tracking apps and this one truly shines above all the rest. For only $4.99, it is a totally fun app that is so practical every mom should have it!

Our only complaint (and we had to reach to find a complaint with this app!) was that a growth chart would be very helpful to have in addition to the growth recording abilities it now has. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this feature will be included in future updates!

Tags: Calendaring Tips, Family and Home, health, parenting, product reviews
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