Highland Family Aquatic Center Opens for Mother's Day Weekend

The Highland Family Aquatic Center in Largo will open on Mother's Day weekend, May 7-8 form 12 pm to 4 pm. they will offer a special friends and family rate of $12/$23 for a group of 5 people. 

The address is 13120 Vonn Road, Largo, FL 33774.

Click here for more information. 

Students look grown up, practice life skills at Enterprise Village

This school year has just flown by. I can't believe summer is here already. My oldest daughter is graduating from fifth grade this year. A milestone in school, as next year she will be in middle school. It seems like just the other day she was in kindergarten. I bet some of you are thinking the same thing as your child is graduating from pre-k, elementary, middle, high school or college.

As part of the fifth grade curriculum, the kids get to go on an all day field trip to Enterprise Village. It is located in the Stavros Institute in Largo. Enterprise Village has been around since the 1980's and is a self-contained economic education program providing a hands-on learning experience for students. The kids spend 6 weeks in their classroom learning economics including how to write checks, use a debit card, keep a checkbook register, apply for a job and work with a group. When students go to Enterprise Village they put what they learned into action.

I was a parent volunteer. As a volunteer, we had to go for about an hour of training before the students arrived so we could help them throughout the day. What was interesting is some of the parent volunteers had gone through the program in school when they were in fifth grade.

I was amazed at the whole operation and impressed by the students at how serious they took their jobs. The layout of Enterprise Village is like a shopping mall. There are about twenty plus businesses in the village. Some of the businesses included: Home Shopping Network, Tampa Bay Times, McDonalds, Bright House networks, UPS, City Hall, Bank of America, Salvador Dali Art Center, Waste Management, Pinellas County Utilities and United Giving.

The students had to apply for their jobs in school before coming to Enterprise Village, so they knew where they would be working. My daughter was so excited because she was one of the disc jockeys for Mix 100.7. As a disc jockey she played the music throughout the day for everyone at Enterprise Village and announced commercials for all the businesses. The commercials were written ahead of time at school by the students who worked at each business. She also took song requests from students and played their songs. The students took 3 breaks throughout the day, received paychecks and had the opportunity to be consumers and make purchases at the other businesses.

Students were able to see that it took several people working together to run a company. The students were given Enterprise Village money for working and could spend it at the stores. They had to deposit their pay checks at the bank. I think that was the moment I knew my little girl was all grown up. When I looked across the room and saw her with her purse in hand standing in line to deposit her check. My heart sank, as I thought to myself how mature she had become.

After the kids deposited their checks they could purchase items at stores that sold merchandise. The kids each had a lunch break where they received lunch at McDonalds. Each student had a job, some were gathering stories as reporters for the Tampa Bay Times, others were reading meters for the power company, others delivering packages for UPS, there were television anchors on the Bright House station, some students were live on television selling items for the Home Shopping Network. One of the students was even Mayor of the city. The day was a great learning experience for the kids to understand what it is like to be a part of society. They even had to give money to charity.

At the end of the day, students working at the Tampa Bay Times put out a newspapers full of stories from the students and from the interviews the reporters did that day. This was truly amazing to me to see a six page paper full of stories completed in one school day. They did a wonderful job! The newspapers were sold for $.25 and most students saved money to purchase the paper.

Overall the kids learned a lot and most said it was their best day ever. Teachers also said it is one of their favorite field trips for the kids because of all the skills the students learned and they were able to put them to use.

The Stavros Institute also offers a program similar to this for high school students called Finance Park. I look forward to my daughter going on that field trip. If you want to learn more about Enterprise Village or Finance Park or maybe you want to volunteer,  log onto their website by clicking here. 

Ceramics painting fuels summer creativity

Recently my two girls started painting ceramics. One of my friends and her daughter told us about a wonderful little pottery shop in Largo that they started going to and love. We decided to check it out and found it to be a fun place to go especially during the summer when the kids get bored and want to do something new. It’s also great place to go rainy days!

The place is called Get Creative Gallery and the owner is Robin Smith. The shop has been around for awhile, but Robin is a new owner who purchased the place earlier this year.

We have been going for several weeks and my girls have painted some incredible pieces of pottery including: a chimpanzee, a little jewelry box, a heron, horses, a bunny, flip flops and a few other things. The girls can sit there for hours painting. They get so involved in what they are doing, just watching them take their time to paint is incredible to me. They are 8 and 9 now, so  they are not rushing as much as they use to.

Our friends who introduced us to the gallery help out there several days a week, so it makes it even more special for us to go there. The owner Robin is no nice and very welcoming. You feel like you are right at home painting. Robin has another assistant who also helps out and she is very sweet too.

What I also like is that the pottery isn’t that expensive to paint. For the amount of time that you are there and for the finished product it really is reasonable and for those of you out there like me who are on a budget, this is really affordable. Something else that I found different about this shop and others, is that you don’t pay for the paints, just the ceramic piece you are painting. I have been to other galleries and you pay for not only the product, but for the paints too. One of my friends told me her daughter painted a mug one time and it was expensive after they paid for the mug and the paints.

It is important for kids to be creative. At the gallery, my kids are having fun and enjoying the arts. What I like is that when the pieces are fired in the kiln they all end up looking pretty good. The kiln gives them that a beautiful glaze. Sometimes my kids can’t wait a day to have their piece go in the kiln, so they get it sprayed with a gloss. It also looks nice sprayed.

This isn’t a place just for kids to go. It’s for adults too. They have pottery that everyone can paint. They also do birthday parties, Mom’s Night Out parties and canvas painting parties.

In my house we are already thinking about Christmas in July. The girls are starting to make some of their Christmas gifts. What a treasure their gifts will be.

The Get Creative Gallery is located at: 13836 Walsingham Road, Largo, FL 33774

They are open Tuesday through Saturday. The phone is 727-226-4345.

Click here for the website also check out their Facebook page by clicking here.

Business Mamas network on a mom's schedule



At a recent meeting are on the top left Brittany Moore, Jennifer Savarese with Origami Owl, Jenni McKay with Perceptivity Studio, Dr. Laura Meyer with Partners and Pediatrics, Natasha Gwatney with Mary Kay Cosmetics, Lindsay Dicus-Harrison, Realty Executives, Bottom row, Melissa Goodnow with Barefoot Birth, Gladis Rubio with The Fourth Trimester, Jennifer Sullivan, Baby Bootcamp, and Greta Green with Green Pearl Photography.

Over the past few weeks I have talked to more and more moms who have reinforced what I have always believed: being home with my kids while they are young is important, but with today’s economy it’s hard to be a stay at home mom, most moms have to work.

The problem is it’s tough to find a job that works around children. Most jobs are not the kind that allow for you to take off when your child is sick, or go on a class field trip or go to other school events during the day. It’s difficult for moms who work full-time for a company to get off during the day. Most full-time jobs are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Because some mom’s don’t want to be constrained to a set schedule, I have noticed a lot of them are starting their own companies or working for businesses where you can be your own boss like Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, Origami Owl and Mary Kay Cosmetics. This way they can work from home or work when their husband gets home from his job.

I recently ran into a bunch of moms at a referral networking group called Business Mama’s Referral Group Pinellas County. I had heard about the group from my sister-in-law and then heard about it again through a co-worker. I wanted to find out what this group was all about. I thought I could maybe get some leads from being a part of this group. For me small businesses like this would be great for the marketing, public relations and social media that I do for small businesses.

Since my co-worker couldn’t attend, she asked me to fill in for her. You see with this group you can’t miss more than two meetings a year without someone substituting in your place at the meeting.

I think the idea to have moms gather and talk about their businesses and refer clients to each other is a wonderful idea . The Business Mama’s was started by realtor Lindsay Discus-Harrison, a mom with a young child who wanted to create leads for her business, but couldn’t get to the other referral groups and organizations because they didn’t fit her schedule or her needs. She decided to create her own group with a few other business moms about a little over a year ago and now they have about 28 members and are growing.

 They have a group in the Largo/Seminole area that meets once a month on the first Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at Panera Bread in Bardmoor. The group is expanding and forming another group in the northern part of the county that will meet the second Thursday of the month.

It was fun listening to the moms give a 30-second elevator pitch about their company and giving one about the company I work for. The group does this to give each person time to introduce their business, so fellow members can get to know each company a little better. They feel that everyone in the group is a sales person for each member in the group.  

Part of the rules and regulations of the group include that they can’t have more than one person of the same business in the group. The members also have to make one referral a month to another Business Mama member or bring a potential new member to the monthly meeting. It seems to be working for these women. Some of the other businesses include moms who work as a photographer, pediatrician, hair dresser, professional organizer and fitness instructor.

I also noticed they have business play dates. A lot of the moms in this group have young kids, so this is a way for them to socialize and network at the same time. What a great way for moms to join forces and help each other so they can work and be able to be with their kids.

For more information about the Business Mamas Referral Group call Lindsay Discus-Harrison at 727-656-1584 or email them at businessmamaspinellas@gmail.com

FREE Baby Boot Camp Classes in October

You don't want to miss the October FREE Baby Boot Camp classes in Seminole and Largo.
Just what is baby boot camp? It is an innovative stroller fitness program that helps moms regain or enhance pre-pregnancy fitness levels and meet the physical challenges of parenting by emphasizing strength training in a supportive environment.

 It is a lot of fun and you don't feel like you are exercising. The other great benefit is you are with your little one.

The trainer is Jennifer Sullivan and she is having her 2 year anniversary with her baby boot camp!
Any interested mamas can join us for the month of October for FREE! That's unlimited classes at no cost to you. Anyone that joins after her first class will receive $10 off the Enrollment Kit. Please email Jennifer.sullivan@babybootcamp.com to reserve your spot in class! Tell her you saw it on the Mom 2 Mom Family Fun Blog.


For more information and the schedule click here.