The lines can be long, it’s expensive, and once aboard, it goes pretty quickly, but riding the Pink Pig is a family tradition for both of my daughters.

I remember shivering in cold, windy December weather on the roof of the old downtown Rich’s Department Store to ride the Pink Pig around Rich’s Great Tree—a Christmas tradition with my oldest daughter Ashley many years ago, who would then proudly wear her “I Rode the Pink Pig” sticker on her coat for the rest of the holiday season.

Two years ago, I took Brianna for her first ride, joining the four generations of Atlantans that have ridden Pricilla the Pink Pig into the holiday season since her debut at Richs in 1953. Pricilla the Pink Pig no longer sits on the Rich’s rooftop. Instead, sponsored by Macy’s and the Coca-Cola Company, she is corralled in a 170-foot tent on the Lenox Road upper-level parking deck at Atlanta’s Lenox Square. In the 1950s-themed Pink Pig tent, an all-new Priscilla travels along train tracks, carrying children and parents through a life-sized storybook that includes the original Pink Pig and her friends. Read the rest of this entry »

Logistics is obviously important when traveling with kids. Is it a 15-minute drive or do you need to pack a lunch and their favorite toys? Do you need to book a hotel or can you get to your destination and back home without a lot of backseat grumbling?

From my perch in Fayette County, I try to cover a lot of ground around the state. One of my favorite places to travel to in Georgia—and take children along—is Savannah. There are two times a year when that lovely city particularly calls my name—spring and the holidays. So, right now, I am starting to long for River Street and the smell of pralines and ocean air. For me, this means about a four-hour drive, without stops.

A piece of advice—whether you live in the Savannah area or, like myself, need to plan an overnight trip with a child, a great website to visit is SouthernMamas.com. Anne Hart, a Savannah mom who writes the website, has the scoop on where to stay, what to see, where to eat, and every worthwhile activity that you can enjoy with your family while in that marvelous area. You can even subscribe for a free, weekly e-mail newsletter “This week for kids in Savannah & the Low Country.”

Learn more about SouthernMamas.com here at Brown’s Guides.

Adopted in 1985 at Babyland General Hospital, Cabbage Patch Kid Nell Nessie resides in Brianna’s playroom, waiting for another brother or sister to join her.

I admit that I’m one of those parents who traveled all the way to the North Georgia mountain town of Cleveland in the mid-1980s and stood in line to adopt a Cabbage Patch Kid for my daughter, Ashley.

Back then, artist Xavier Roberts had been making and adopting his handmade soft sculpture Little People Originals® for about a decade from Babyland General Hospital, a turn-of-the-century medical facility in Cleveland that Roberts had renovated and opened to the public. In 1982, he had decided to license his dolls with a major toy manufacturer to produce toy replicas, changing their name to Cabbage Patch Kids®—a name that would identify the toy dolls as well as the handmade originals.

This is where the trouble began for moms and dads across the country. The “Kids” were so popular that supply simply could not keep up with demand. The Kids flew off toy store shelves. In fact, CPK went on record as the most successful new doll introduction in the history of the toy industry and were featured on the cover of Newsweek in December 1983. It was extremely difficult to even find one—unless you made the trek to Babyland General Hospital. Thank goodness, we at least lived in the state of Georgia. It was just a two-hour drive! Read the rest of this entry »

You’ll find pumpkins of all sizes at pumpkin patches and corn mazes during the fall months. Most are operated by local farm families, who want to share the farm experience as well as a little farm fun with others.

When the leaves take on autumn hues, the air is a little crisper and pumpkins litter farm fields like orange confetti, it’s definitely time for a trip to a pumpkin patch. Pumpkin patches have seriously come into their own since my older children were young. In fact, I’m not sure where you went to visit one back then, but there sure weren’t any advertised in my vicinity. Not so now. Pumpkin patches and corn mazes are all the rage in the fall.

To run a farm these days, it takes a lot of hard work (sweat), patience, love and faith in the weather. You’ll find that a number of farm families want to share their farm experiences and their knowledge about animals and plants and let visitors, especially youngsters, have a good time doing it. Each September and October when the pumpkins are ripe on the vines, many farms open their gates, so to speak, to schoolchildren during the week and the public on the weekends. I’ve taken Brianna to Uncle Bob’s Pumpkin Patch in Coweta County a couple of times and to Ison’s Farm in Fayette County with a preschool group, but there are numerous ones around the state. Read the rest of this entry »

Cooking up something with apples just seems right in the fall. This apple crumble recipe is one that kids can enjoy getting their hands into, while everyone else can enjoy eating—right down to the very last crumb.

Cooking is something that Brianna likes to help us with. In fact, she says she might like to be a chef when she grows up! Here’s a recipe we especially enjoy in the fall. It’s from the Usborne Farmyard Tales Children’s Cookbook by Fiona Watt. This colorfully illustrated cookbook for children, full of step-by-step instructions, has simple and delicious recipes that are fun to cook and eat.

Apple Crumble
Serves 6

3-4 eating apples
6 tablespoons of water
ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon of sugar

For the Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350˚F. Read the rest of this entry »

Learning to scoop, measure and mix ingredients is just part of the fun at the Young Chefs Academy. Kids make the recipes from scratch and then have the delight of eating their culinary creations, too.

Did you ever imagine that you might be raising the next Rachael Ray or Emeril Lagasse? Being a chef when they grow up or just cooking in the kitchen with mom or dad is many times a favorite with kids of all ages. From KinderCooks to Master Chefs, the Young Chefs Academy is one place where children can take classes to experience the joys of cooking and learn age-appropriate cooking skills.

The cooking school offers regular weekly classes as well as summer camps, scout merit badge programs and holiday workshops. You can even cook up a birthday party! We hosted a 5-year-old birthday party for Brianna and her pre-school class last spring. The children learned to measure, made their own dough, and decorated their own personal pizzas. The lively staff led them in fun activities and handled the details of the whole party—from mailing out invitations to opening birthday gifts to assembling party gift bags. Read the rest of this entry »

Exploring rows and rows of produce and other food products at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market can be a fun time for kids. It’s a colorful and busy place with an ethnicity that is interesting and exciting for everyone.

I think the best way for children to learn where their food comes from is a trip to the farm—but if you want to visit a fun and colorful place in the Atlanta area where they can see mounds of fruits and vegetables from all over the world and gaze at every type of fish and seafood imaginable, try the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.

It’s hectic with stockers maneuvering tall rolling shelves filled with produce to load rows and rows of bins with exotic and ethnic fruit and vegetables: eggplant, garlic, beans, peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, plantains, 25lb. bags of carrots, melons, mangoes, blueberries, oranges from Chili and Australia—all brought in several times a week direct from producers.

Kids might not be so interested in the imported cheeses, spices, nuts, sauces, the more than 30 varieties of coffee beans, the olive oils, vinegars, beers and wines—but the octopus and the squid tentacles, tubes and rings will definitely catch their eye. They can also check out fresh conch, crawfish, sardines, smelt, oysters, muscles, shark and marlin, as well as whole red snapper, bass grouper and catfish. There are tanks of live tilapia, Maine lobster and blue crab. Brianna was particularly curious to watch shoppers lift the live crab from the water with prongs. Read the rest of this entry »

Over 300 artisans and vendors set up shop at the Cotton Pickin’ Fair, which takes place next weekend, October 3-4. This nationally-known fair in the Meriwether County town of Gay is one of the most popular festivals in the state.

I hadn’t been to a Cotton Pickin’ Fair in Gay, Georgia, for years when I decided to take fair director Ellen Gay McEwen up on her offer of a couple of tickets last spring. It seemed like a good time to expose Brianna to all the sights, sounds and smells of a big country fair. So, we made the drive to Meriwether on the first Sunday in May.

The Cotton Pickin’ Fair has been in existence for 26 years. Originally held in October—“cotton pickin’ time” in the South—the fair has grown to a biannual happening the first weekend in May and October in this sleepy town of 100 people. The fair draws some 300 artisans and vendors from around the country—selling arts, crafts, antiques and Southern food—and about 30,000 visitors—making it one of the most popular reoccurring events in the state.

I can’t say Brianna was that enthusiastic about the pottery, sculpture, weaving, woodcarving, jewelry, painting and wearable art that caught my eye; but she thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie rides (particularly, the inflatable bounces, slides and moonwalk in the children’s area), the face painting, and the corn dogs and powdered sugar-sprinkled funnel cakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Twenty-some years ago, my longtime friend Wendi Farr and I would take our young girls to The Foxx Theater in Atlanta for various plays and musical theater. As we said back then, “We’re going to give them culture and expose them to the arts, whether they like it or not.” Today, as far as I’m concerned, our old adage still holds true, but fortunately I don’t have to travel to Atlanta with Brianna to give her a bit of cultural entertainment. There are more and more regional and local theater groups that are doing a wonderful job. In my locale, The Legacy Theatre in Tyrone ranks right up there with any theatrical performances going on anywhere in the state, the region and across the country – for adults and children.

My first experience with The Legacy Theatre was last December when I went with Brianna and her pre-school class to see a performance of “The Elves and the Shoemaker.” All the acting was first-rate—not a weakness anywhere. The choreography was outstanding and, most importantly, the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. Brianna, who was four at the time, was so mesmerized that I immediately looked into the rest of children’s series to see what was offered and ended up buying tickets for the remaining season.

This summer, the regular season ended with a musical production of “The Wizard of Oz,” and Brianna and I were once again enthralled—Dorothy and the gang, singing and dancing Munchkins, poppies, trees and jitterbug ghosts—all New York City worthy. Read the rest of this entry »

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.”

Remember that? It’s the opening line to one of my favorite childhood books, Ludwig Bemelmans’ “Madeline.” The series of Madeline books are ones I’ve read to my oldest daughter and now my five-year-old many times. There hasn’t been a new Madeline book for 50 years, but recently we traveled to the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur to hear Bemelmans’ grandson, author John Bemelmans Marciano, read from his new book “Madeline and the Cats of Rome.”

The Decatur Book Festival is in its third year and although you might not think of a book festival as a fun jaunt with your young one, think again! The festival holds a children’s parade at 9am on Saturday morning where children come dressed as a favorite storybook character. This year the parade theme was Madeline, of course, and we arrived early with our Madeline-bedecked Brianna, expecting about 30 to 50 kids to show up. Imagine my surprise when there were more like 500! Read the rest of this entry »