Is your family looking for a Dentist? Look no further than Gentle Dental in Wakefield

Ah, the Dentist, the Doctor that looks at your teeth.  Yes, I know, I was bad about my teeth too for a long, long time (ahem, I know, not good) and I am relatively new living in the North Shore, MA area (yes, well, 5 years…) and I didn’t know any good Dentists to go to.

Enter Gentle Dental in Wakefield, MA http://www.gentledental.com/ has great staff, open evenings until 7 pm, and has really nice Dentists.  Yes, and they do take children as young as 5 (I asked).  They take insurance, and they will accept you even if you don’t have Dental Insurance (you do have to pay full amount at time of appointment).

Get this, if you refer someone else (including your husband/friends/in laws/kids) you get $25.00 off your next appointment!  Not bad if you ask me!

Tell them Gia Saulnier sent you!

Holiday time and New Year approaching

Can you even believe that it’s Holiday time already?  I know I can’t and hello um, Hanukkah is next Friday people!  Oh yes, we celebrate both Holidays and wasn’t it interesting that the Boston Globe magazine had two different articles describing how they celebrate both Holidays.

We celebrate with a menorah and candles, latkes (if you want the recipe, just let me know) and dreidles.  We celebrate with a Christmas(kah) tree and I even found a Jewish star of David for an ornament.  An old friend of mine gave me a Jewish Santa!

However you and your family celebrate the Holiday, we here at North Shore Parenting want to wish you a happy and healthy new year and Holidays -whatever you celebrate.

Oh yes, and a plug (of course)….ahem….my husband and I will be performing for Rockport First Night New Year’s Eve from 6 pm to 8 pm and the website for more information is http://www.newyearsrockporteve.com which is a great family event!  We will most likely bring our 5 year old to help out and perform with us!  (Don’t worry, we’ll bundle him up!)

So from me to you and your family - Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah, Hope you have a nice Kwanza and Blessed Be for the Winter Solstice.

Trains Galore

If you have small children, especially if you have boys (like me) then they most likely LOVE Trains.  Thomas® has made sure that my son has all the DVDs, has all the movies, all the tv shows, etc…oh yes, not to mention all the trains and tracks and tunnels…etc…

But there is more than that, you can actually go on real train rides (and not just the MBTA, although that is probably the cheapest option).  In fact, my father in law just learned about The Polar Express train http://www.wakefieldmusicboosters.com/polar-express-2009.html which will run from Anderson Woburn station to the North Pole for December 13th!  I love this because not only will my son love (and I mean L.O.V.E.) the train ride, he will also get to enjoy the story of The Polar Express® (from the movie and book) and we will get to see the smile on his face.

There is also the Train show at The Wilmington Shriners’ coming up too, http://www.trainshow.org/showinfo/200911WIL.htm on November 22nd. This is a lot of model trains that are put together and they do have a BIG section for just Lego land (my personal favorite) where they put a lot of legos together to make it one big scene with trains and buildings and people and and and…I digress…it’s all for the Shriners, so I like that too.

Of course there is the Hobo Railroad http://www.hoborr.com/ that you can go on, but that is in NH, and I think that there is a real Polar Express train ride too in NH, but I believe that there is a waiting list to get on (and it would take a year to get on it…)

That’s all the trains I can take…Have fun with your kids and take a train ride to remember.

Breakfast places to go to

If you and the kids want to do something special and go out to breakfast on the weekends, here are a few of the places that I personally like to go to.  There are more in New England area that I also like, but I’ll try my best to keep it to just North Shore.

1) Pignones - Stoneham, MA: takes credit cards, friendly, good service, and Crepes Foster.  Get there early, limited seating…need I say more?

2) The Country Chef - Wilmington, MA: takes credit cards, family friendly, great service, good eggs, and all around good time.  Good parking, sometimes a wait, but worth it.

3) The Real McCoy - Middleton, MA: nice, airy, open, good breakfast, has healthy choices, pretty good parking, takes card

4) The Dream Diner - Tyngsboro, MA http://www.dreamdiner.com/ Cash ONLY, this is by far my favorite place to go, 50’s type feel, great food, there is a wait, but totally worth it…go early, that’s your best bet.

5) Bagel World - Peabody, MA and Reading, MA great for bagels and coffee (for you) , there is a sit down, but better going through the drive through

6) Beyond Bagels - North Reading, MA - Cash ONLY - good place also for fresh bagels, nice people and there is better parking and sit down place.

7) Parker’s Maple Barn - Mason, NH (okay, this is a ride) http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/ but the ride is really pretty, and they do take card.  My suggestion - go hungry, ’cause their portions are HUGE!  They also have a website where you can purchase real home made maple syrup!  Yum!  They also have a gift shop…a little shopping, a big breakfast…how can you not go wrong here…beautiful scenery too.

Wading Pools around the North Shore

Going to the beach is fun and all, but sometimes you want to cool off without dealing with the hassle of sand and crowds.  Lucky for us, there are several wading pools located around the North Shore available for our enjoyment.

In Topsfield, there is a wonderful wading pool, perfect for the preschool crowds, at Bradley Palmer State Park. Along with the pool, there are trails and fields, picnic tables and bathrooms.  Perfect for a day’s outing.  Parking within the park is $5, so it’s economical, too. [Yelp Review]

For a more exotic day, you can visit CoCo Keys Water Resort in Danvers. Here you will find indoor and outdoor pools for all ages. Tickets are more expensive and I believe you are not allowed to bring your own food, but it is quite the experience!

Finally, for members of the North Shore YMCA and their guests, a new outdoor pool has just opened at the Lynch/Van Otterloo YMCA in Marblehead.  This pool features sprinklers in the wading end and a patio for lounging in the sun.

Are there any other wading and outdoor pools in the North Shore area?  Where else do you go for cooling off in the summer?

Teach your kids about History from Hammond Castle

You know the great thing about being in Massachusetts, is that there is a lot of historical places to go to, and take the kids to see.  Plenty of museums around also, but one in particular is really great, and it’s in Gloucester, MA called Hammond Castle and it is considered  North Shore’s (and actually one of America’s) Castles!

Yes!  A real castle!  http://www.hammondcastle.org is their website if you would like more information, but Hammond Castle is the Castle built by Dr. John P. Hammond, the famous inventor (you can thank him for the T. V. remote control by the way) in 1920.  Dr. Hammond was a collector of medieval things, art, music, instruments, and Mrs. Hammond was the one who loved to have dinner parties.

The castle is filled with lots of towers, interesting artifacts and an indoor eco-system that has a pool!  They do have special occasions, and if you know someone getting married, this is a most beautiful spot that is right on Gloucester Harbor with lots of pictures to take.

There is actually a full organ with pipes that the main hall was built around just to get the organ in the Castle!  Oh yes, and if you like spooky things, they do have a Halloween event coming up, and they say that Hammond Castle is haunted.

Do check their website for any upcoming events and tell them Gia Saulnier sent you.

Getting to know Eastern Farm Stand

A friend of mine (who is currently in Isreal at the moment), informed me of her cousins that own The Eastern Farm Stand http://www.easternfarmne.com/ in Ipswich, MA.

According to their website:

“Eastern Farm’s mission is to utilize natural organic ingredients in nature that will support, and maintain the organic cycle, and eco-system for Mother Earth.

We specialize in producing organically grown vegetables & herbs from seed, the way nature intended.  All of the products we use are certified organic.”

Sounds really good right?  I mean it makes me want to visit them just to get fresh produce and organic at that!  If you haven’t been to Ipswich, MA it is a really beautiful location with lots of beaches near by, so you could stop at the farm stand, make a little picnic, and just head to the beach!

Wow, I want to go now!  Anyone with me? 

Take the kids to see The Lowell Spinners

Have you gone to see The Lowell Spinners? http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t558

This is a great first time baseball game to see with the young ones, the tickets are much cheaper than if you were to take the kids to see The Red Sox in Boston. 

We went July 19th with my inlaws and my 5 year old son.  We had a great time, and my son really enjoyed most of it!  They even had “Jumpin’ Jack Flash the Dog” that chased after Frisbees, which was a lot of fun to watch.  Hmm, maybe they should hire the dog for the team?  I really liked that they had birthday promotions and raffles that you could win as well. 

There were great seats all around the arena, and there are special promotions that go on with it as well.  For example, up until September 1, 2009 if you buy Kraft Cheese  Singles and bring the wrapper in on Tuesdays you can buy one ticket and get the other for free! http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/events/kraft_landing.jsp

Great deal right?  It’s a win win, and your kids can get to see a great local team play and you get to get all the souveniers and food (beer is available too) that go with it for a lot cheaper than if you were to take them to Fenway, oh yes, and parking is a lot cheaper too.

My advice though, do use sunscreen (and liberally) and also bring your hats, on a sunny day, it does get rather hot!  They have things going on during the game as well, including a fun area for the kids to go and play on.  (We didn’t go, we were more interested in the game itself.)

Do check out The Lowell Spinners and support the local business which support it as well.  Play ball!

Strawberry Season

I am excitedly awaiting my next family-friendly adventure: strawberry picking.  My son, who’s now 3.5 years old, is old enough to recognize ripe strawberries and I anticipate that he will actually be helpful this year instead of just a tag-a-long.  Well, not so much a tag-a-long as kid-who-just-wants-to-eat-strawberry-shortcake.

Last year we went to the Strawberry Festival at Smolak Farms in North Andover.  By the time we arrived, most of the pick-your-own strawberries were gone; the field had been picked out.  It took me quite some time to find a section that had been overlooked and I filled one or two pint-sized buckets.  My son managed to add many unripe strawberries to the batch.  Back at the farm house, there were strawberry shortcake and local folk musicians… each alone is enough to make my day!

With all the rain we’ve had this year, I am hopeful that the strawberry crop will be abundant.  We plan to attend Smolak Farm’s strawberry festival on June 20th and 21st.  This year, however, I plan on either picking during the week, or early, early in the morning!

Many other local farms have fields of pick-your-own produce… after all, it’s saves them a lot of labor to have you doing all the work for them!  At www.pickyourown.org and mass.gov you can find listings of local farms. Additionally, you can find reviews of several Essex county farms here on North Shore Parenting.

An Adventure I Can Handle

I like little adventures… trips that get me out of the house, but allow me to tuck myself into my own bed at the end of the day. I’m also a full time graduate student and have a three-year-old and seven-month-old at home. I’m with the kids one or two days a week, and usually we stay close to the house–there are a lot of chores that need to get done. Today, however, as I was driving my son home from pre-school, we started talking about fish and frogs. We discussed having fish as pets and putting together a home aquarium. I briefly entertained the thought of heading over to a pet store and picking up a small aquarium and a couple of fish. But then I remembered all the work involved in setting up a tank, including the several day wait to make sure that the water was properly primed for inhabitants. A much better plan entered my mind– a visit to the New England Aquarium.

As a Swampscott resident, it was easy for us to zip down to the Wonderland stop on the Blue line of the MBTA. The train ride was fast, and in no time we were standing at the Information Desk renewing our family membership.

I could not believe how quiet the aquarium was at 3:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon. It was incredibly nice! We usually visit on the weekend, and it’s so crowded you can barely see the penguins, no less find a quiet spot to observe all the big fish in the large tank. But today there we no problems! We explored until closing time at 5pm.  Then, a stop at The Panera across from Rowe’s Wharf, train ride home, and we were home by 6:30pm.

My son loved the adventure, the baby just soaked it all in, and I wasn’t completly exhausted.   Perfect!