Free Toddler Activities on the Upper East Side

Here is a list of FREE things to do with your children if you live on the Upper East Side… so if you don’t have enough money to have a nanny, and also pay for preschool (which is only from 9-2 so you need your nanny anyway), join the kid gyms, art annexes, and indoor farms, this is the list for you! I must give credit to my wonderful nanny who totally understands that I am not a human ATM and on her own she discovered tons of things to do with Toddler T to keep them both busy, active and entertained.

On Mondays and Wednesdays the 96^th Street Public Library has kid friendly activities. Monday is picture book time for kids at 4PM. This program is for 18 months+ so T fits right in. If your kids are 3+ then check out the Preschool Stories and Films at 10:30AM and 11:15AM. The full calendar of events can be found on their website. http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/5/calendar

(Located on 96^th street between park and lex)

Nolen Library

T and our nanny regularly head to the MET – Metropolitan Museum of Art -for Toddler Story time in Nolen Library. They usually have this program Monday-Friday, so check out what works for you! The program is from 10:30AM-11AM and you do not need to pay to get into the Museum. Bring a print out of the schedule saying this, because the people manning the admissions desks turned our nanny away once because they were ignorant and a little entitled. Don't worry, it only happened once! Also, for now the MET is actually suggested donation, so if you want to explore the museum with your kiddo, pay a dollar, or a quarter – but beware,  I recently read some horrifying news that this might change.

The schedule can be found here http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/family-programs/storytime-in-nolen-library/toddler-storytime?eid=R042_%7b3152F630-79B5-4653-8BD3-11A1771E91DC%7d_20131030103000&rpp=10&pg=2

The MET is located on 5^th Ave and 82^nd

B&N story time

On Wednesdays, and I mean every single Wednesday because this is the greatest story time of them all, head over to Barnes and Nobles on 86^th street for 10AM story time. It is always a packed house and T always spends a few hours there playing with the toys and all of her story time friends! The story time is fun, interactive and many times they use a large projector so all of the kids can see the books. There is also story time on Sunday at 11AM but we haven't been yet. For some reason I can’t find mention of the Wed. story time on the website but here it is anyway.

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2278 (11.7 update: I now know why there is no mention of Wed. story time on the website - It has been put on hold until Jan 2014.) 

Located on 86^th between Lex and 3^rd

If you live or are hanging out a little further down near FAO Schwarz. They also have story time which takes place at 11AM and 3PM Monday- Friday and 11AM, 1PM and 3PM on Saturday and Sunday. http://www.fao.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=10829617

Located on 5th Avenue and 58th St.

Ok, I know all of the above write-ups are about story time! What can you do, it seems like it is the one kids friendly activity everyone is willing to do for free. But story time is always different, educational, social and indoors -and boy is it starting to get cold out- so hip hip hooray for story time! We LOVE listening to books being read and then we come home and read some more!

For non-story time free options- go to one of the zillion cute NYC parks or your local PETCO which we like to call our “free zoo”.  We live close to a Petco so when it is too cold or we don’t have enough time to go to the real zoo, we head to the little zoo to see aminals (as T would say). T loves fishes and our Petco has a lot of them, and birdies, and mice, and bunnies and chinchillas so it is perfect for a quick aminal fix! Find out where your local “zoo” is and I know your kid will love it! Go to http://www.petco.com/ to check find a store near you.

FISHIES!

Our family actually has zoo member ship, and I’ll blog soon about why it is by far one of the most worthwhile things to get if you have young kids and live nearby!  There are a few other gems I'm willing to pay for and I'll let you know about those too. 

The Best Baked Ziti

I don't really understand how people all over the web post such pretty pictures of the food they cook and rave about how delicious it is at the same time. If it were actually as good as you say, wouldn't you forget you had to take a photo and enjoy some of your dish first? I mean, come on people!! 

Toddler T and I both love noodles, pasta, pure carbohydrates- call them what you will. T actually calls them NuNus and even has a doll named NuNu because that’s how we roll. So we cook a lot of NuNus and this recipe is one of our all time favorites, and easy too! I also love this ziti because I am not a huge ricotta fan so the cottage cheese in this recipe is much better, and you can pretend it makes the dish so much healthier and have another bowl.

Cook up a box of your favorite pasta

Then add

16oz of cottage cheese (I like to use 1-2% milk fat, when I make it for other people I sometimes use 4%, because it’s a little creamier that way)

6oz + of your favorite cheese

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I love the smooth sauces like Rinaldi – it is also cheap!)

Mix together and put it in a pan, or mix in the pan and have less dishes to wash

Add more cheese to coat the top of the ziti

Bake for 25-30 minutes on 350

T loves to help me cook, so I let her mix the cottage cheese and the cheese together, it keeps her busy and happy while I'm prepping the pasta! 

Here are some add in options: 

Morning star meat crumbles and/or chopped spinach (defrosted and water free)

**I have even added both to the same Ziti and it was wonderful and a good way to add more protein and veggies to your dinner. 

Tripod Rock Hike!

We are so strong! 

This Sunday is supposed to be 65 degrees and sunny, my family considers that to be perfect hiking weather. So I wanted to share with you a pretty awesome hike we went on in late august. The hike is called Tripod Rock and it is located on Pyramid Mountain in Boonton, NJ. The hike is less than an hour from the city, which is our limit with Toddler T because she hates the car but loves the great outdoors. 

We went on this hike with lots of adults and T was the only kiddy. That was the perfect adult to toddler ratio because we don’t own a kiddy hiking transport system so all 6 of us took turns carrying T.  I brought along two sarongs to assist me in holding T and they actually really did help, but it was still nice to let someone else carry her throughout the hike.  If your kids are 4+ they can walk the trail and climb on their own with minimal help, under that age you definitely need a larger adult to kid ratio.

When you first arrive there is a super cute indoor area with a small exhibit, coloring station, helpful staff and a nice bathroom! One of the exhibits pieces showed samples of animal poop and you had to match it to the correct animal. My family loved it, super typical!

Exhibit and coloring station.

The hike we went on included Tripod rock and Lucy’s overlook. It took us about 3 hours, but that is with a toddler, lots of stopping and a lunch break. The trail was moderate, not boring at all, included lots of climbing and definitely do-able. We loved how nicely the trail was marked off, there were markers every few trees and we never worried that we were going to get lost.

Here is the website we found that helped us plan our hike http://www.njhiking.com/best-hikes-in-nj-pyramid-mountain-tripod-rock/ and if you place the coordinates N40 56.820 W74 23.268 into googlemaps.com you can get easy directions.

The best part is that there is no cost at all, there is a small donation box and if you have a great time you can show your appreciation that way. Happy Hiking!  

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Tri State Area, Free, Ages 4+, Adventure-full 

Ridiculously Easy Pumpkin Muffins

Look how moist! I ate this one piping hot. 

My Mother-in-law is responsible for this amazing creation. There are 2 ingredients, that is right, 2! And I try to always have these 2 things in my cabinet as a go-to. Let’s say it is Friday morning and I get a last minute Shabbat meal invite…oh no! no time to really go shopping or cook-- well hello, handy dandy pumpkin muffin recipe. So I tell my friend, of course we would love to come, can we bring anything along? How about some lovely pumpkin muffins?

So here it is…

1 box of spice cake mix** (just the powder, not the created batter)

1 can of pumpkin 14oz, we like Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin

**(if you can not find pareve spice cake you can use a yellow cake mix and add 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground ginger and 1/4 tsp allspice - that is actually what I did in this batch.) 

Mix the 2 ingredients together and plop into cupcake liners (make sure your plopping looks kinda nice, because they tend to look the same after cooking)

Heat oven to 350 and cook for 15-18 minutes, my oven kind of sucks so it varies.

You can choose not to believe me, I was also a skeptic at first and refused to believe my mother-in-law. I must have called her 3 times to make sure I don’t also add the oil, eggs and water first before the pumpkin.

That is it, and now for the best part, no raw eggs so you can eat the batter!! This recipe usually yields 16 muffins, but when I make it I end up eating at least 1 muffin’s worth of batter. Yummanuum! 

Before cooking, please note the missing muffin batter.

Fresh out of the oven and I've already eaten one.

Drizzly Sunday Activity: World of Wings

Before the butterfly "attacked" Daddy

Yesterday my family met up with friends and went to World of Wings in Teaneck, NJ. It was super convenient to get there from the city and was the perfect activity for a damp Sunday. The staff was super friendly and there were loads to do. We would have spent the entire day there if it was up to Toddler T.

The butterfly atrium was super cute; there are lots of beautiful butterflies that T was petrified of, and a cute little koi fish area that had turtles that T loved. She has a thing for Fishies, though.  If you ask her what her favorite animal is, she will respond… Fishies, umanuumee. It is a bit confusing to love fish and also eat them for dinner sometimes. Truthfully usually when we take her to see animals – it doesn't mean the zoo, it means to Petco around our corner and she spends a majority of her time with the fishies.

I think one day Toddler T will yell at me for this one, but I literally can not help myself. I crack up every single time I look at this. It is perfection...  

Back to my point, World of Wings is much more than a butterfly atrium. If your kid is under 5 years old going to this place is totally worth it. There is a GIANT soft play area. It includes a rock climbing area, ball pit, dress up, slides, cars, train sets. You can literally spend the day there exhausting your kid so they sleep well at night. T is a terrible sleeper and she was knocked out last night, ahhh the sign of a good Sunday!

Happy again!

Check out the website - http://www.wowbutterfly.com/main.asp?c=admission

Generally the cost is $16 per adult and $11 per kid. T is under 2 so she was Free! But here is the best part – for a very limited time- Groupon has World of Wings half off!! http://www.groupon.com/deals/world-of-wings-2

There is also a $2 coupon on the website if you miss the groupon deal.

If you are planning a trip to Northern NJ, include this gem in your adventures!