nj travel Archives - We're Parents

ScienceSeeds | Princeton, NJ

May 30, 2019 by Larisha Campbell Leave a Comment

ScienceSeeds in Princeton, NJ is the ultimate hands-on science enrichment program that gets children 4-70+ years old interested and excited about learning!

**Scroll to the bottom to see our fun video experience after reading the post!**

The best way for kids to learn is by experiencing things hands on. Whether they are learning a new language, how to create they next art project, or all things science, kids thrive by hand on learning. Studies have shown that the physical act of doing helps them gain a better understanding of the material they are learning about, regardless of subject matter. ScienceSeeds in Princeton, NJ is thriving at this learning style.

We were invited to come out and learn about ScienceSeeds, a New Jersey based science enrichment program. They focus on children from 4-17 years old; however, there are even options for adults and the owners are even open to other ideas you may have no matter the age. When I was initially invited, I wasn’t sure about going. There wasn’t a ton of information about the place I found on-line and even walking into the space, I wasn’t sure how much our girls and their friend would enjoy it.

Crazy enough, we were blown away. I’m not just saying this because we were invited. I legit mean that we were blown away by the creativity, fun, and learning that we had in just two hours. It’s been about 2 weeks since visiting and our girls are still talking about it. The adults are too. At every single corner we turned, there was something new and exciting to engage in and we didn’t even complete a fraction of what was offered.

What is ScienceSeeds in Princeton, NJ?

Obviously, you want to know what ScienceSeeds even is. ScienceSeeds has been in business since 2008 in the same space in Princeton, NJ. Just minutes away from world renowned Princeton University. It’s the result of two parents who couldn’t find family-friendly hands-on science and engineering programs.

Currently, ScienceSeeds offers camps, birthday parties, weekend maker sessions, workshops, after-school classes, and more. They have done homeschool programing in the past and even adult parties and open to do either with enough interest.

What are some things kids can do or learn at ScienceSeeds?

When I say the possibilities are endless at ScienceSeeds, I truly mean that. Some of the things kids can learn about are:

cars
balancing
chemistry experiements
color and light
robotics
electricity (spinners, vibrating bugs, and more)
hydraulics
lego engineering
game programming
3D printing
and so much more

When we attended a tour of the facility, we loved that the team was super involved. They took their time, really explained things to our kids and were very hands on in the entire process. They learned about gears and got to make one, saw how the 3D printer works and the laser cutting machine. The girls loved picked their own laser cutting projects and putting them together from the pieces the machine made.

I loved that it really taught them all about how things are made and what really goes into creating anything. How detailed and intricate everything around us is all the time.

I can’t make it to or don’t live near Princeton, NJ – how can I get my kids involved?

Can’t make it to the physical location or don’t live close, there’s still ways that you can get your kid(s) involved in wanting to learn more about science and being hands on. ScienceSeeds offers DIY kits that can be shipped directly to your home. They cost as little as $8, up to $25. All well within reasonable for a summer or school year of fun. Perfect weekend family activities to get everyone involved in as well. Especially, creating something like a large catapult.

It was truly a fun, but really educational way for kids to learn. They have tailored age specific programs, so even if you have a high schooler, there’s something they can learn and do that is more involved than what we were shown! Definitely check out scienceseeds.com and see how they can fit into your schedule for the summer and beyond!

See all the fun at ScienceSeeds in Princeton, NJ:

I Keep It Moving For My Daughters

August 30, 2017 by Larisha Campbell Leave a Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Dramamine(R). The opinions and text are all mine.

You ever feel left out?

Kind of like… maybe everyone forgot about you?… Or even like your holding everyone back? The feeling is a bit indescribable. I could only sum it up as a degree of loneliness. It’s crazy the things you will try to tell yourself too with the goal to make that emptiness go away. You think… “oh, that’s childish.” Then, you do this sigh mumble thing saying “you go head, I’m perfectly happy right here”. As you try to enhance your tone at the end of the sentence to sell the “happy”.

This was my childhood… in theme parks, boat rides, carnivals, you name it. As my older brother and father ran off to the next cool thing, I would hang with mom in the gift shop looking at key rings and overpriced tee shirts.

Motion sickness was not my friend.

I swear if I even stared at a ride too long nausea would come knocking on my esophagus. Looking back, I was the perfect mobile coat hanger, stroller pusher, map reading companion. Or at least that’s what I told myself to feel good about the fact that my parents spent money on me to come along.

Fast forward to now and this all changed.

So, I hear about Dramamine®! A motion sickness medicine! But hold the phone!!! I don’t do medication. I’M A CRUNCHY BABY! WAIT!!! WHAT DOES THAT SAY?????

Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals.

KEY WORD… NA-TUR-ALS!

SOLD! I get me a box because Larisha is planning a family boat venture on the Jersey shore. And I am thinking… Maybe I don’t have to be cut out of this one. I don’t want to be cut out anymore. My own kids are involved now. Naturally, I want to experience those belly laughs and adventures right by their side.

I won’t lie… I was nervous. Last time I was on a boat…. I did not bring a food, but I still feed the fish….. If you know what I mean.

A half hour before the trip, I took the Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals. Although it’s in a capsule, it taste just like ginger. Which I personally loved because that taste did not come off as a flavoring. It was as if I drank a soothing tea. I immediately started feeling very confident in the task I was about to approach.

We also gave the girls some of the Dramamine® Kids line because the littles is already exhibiting lots of motion sickness signs and the big one got sick on a boat already. Nothing phases them though and my girls were continuously saying… “Daddy you coming, daddy you getting on the boat?”

And there I was not even 20 minutes later right by their side on the boat as waves pushed it right to back, forward to left. No matter how unpredictable the ocean was, no longer was I alone watching everyone enjoying themselves. I was right there with my girls kicking pirates’ butt and showing them how daddy discovers the open sea!

It was a magical day and I now know, armed with Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals, that I can hang with the big girls and do amazing adventures right alongside them. I can’t wait to see where our next adventure takes us.

Here’s some other shots from our amazing day:

Normally, I would feel so nauseous that I would beg to go home and lay down the rest of the day. But not this time. I felt so good afterwards that we headed over a few blocks to the shore and we played in the water and sand the rest of the day.

Are you ready to #KeepMoving? Grab Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals at your local store for a non-drowsy solution to motion sickness. One dose contains the full amount clinically-tested dosage of ginger needed to prevent and treat motion sickness. Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals is safe to use every day you travel by taking 30 minutes before starting an activity.

Plaza Azteca – 5 Quick Tips

May 18, 2017 by Larisha Campbell Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that my ethnic food cuisine of choice is Mexican/Spanish style food. I openly talk about my love of pizza, but if I had to choose just one food to eat the rest of my life, I’m 99% sure it would be tacos. Sometimes Andrew jokes that it’s only my favorite cuisine because growing up in a small town in West Virginia, it was the ONLY ethnic cuisine choice. When we would go to the local Mexican restaurant growing up (technically, even today), my mom would order a kid’s menu pizza and fries because the food was “too spicy”. Luckily, I had more sense than that.

I was excited when we moved into our house that there were not one, but two quick service style Mexican inspired eateries within 5 minutes of our house. To much my excitement, a few years after moving in, Plaza Azteca, a TexMex inspired chain-style restaurant announced they were opening a location 5 minutes away.

It actually took us awhile after they opened to visit, but after our first visit, we’d knew they would be a favorite of ours for years to come.

5 Tips for Dining at Plaza Azteca

Call your local location and ask for the specials
- They aren’t readily announced, but our local location has Free Kids Meals on Tuesdays, drink specials, and more.
Order the Guacamole
- Guacamole is made table side and such a fun experience. So fresh, and you get to tailor the ingredients to your style.
Less is more
- Unlimited chips and salsa will leave you full before you food even comes. We have found that ordering small meals or even splitting some of the options with the kids instead of ordering kids meals is best for our family.
Go for lunch
- Ordering at lunch save you money but you still get a ton of food. Andrew and I went for a date lunch once and still had enough leftover for a small dinner later
Try something you normally wouldn’t think to get
- Andrew got a shrimp quesadilla once, I had chicken topped with a chorizo mix. The menu is large and the food is flavorful. We vowed to never get the same thing twice until we’ve eaten through the menu (Hint: It will be forever before we do that).

The girls love it, we love it. Plaza Azteca has become one of our favorite restaurant here and we can’t wait to go there again.

In addition to their Sicklerville, NJ location, they have locations in VA, PA, NC, and more.

10 Things to Do at Howell Living History Farm – Lambertville NJ

March 31, 2017 by Larisha Campbell Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, we found ourselves at Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, NJ. I’ll admit that I had never even heard of this place before a friend suggested it, but it was just about an hour drive away, so we went. Once there, I couldn’t believe we had never been before. This place is amazing! Seriously, I immediately told all my friends that we have to come back and bring our kids again. Andrew is really hard to impress, especially when I told him we were going to a farm, but even he was blown away by the awesomeness that we experienced there. And best of all, it’s TOTALLY FREE!

Howell Living History Farm is an educational facility that preserves and interprets farming life and processes from the era of 1890-1910. It was amazing to see a real life working farm from this era as if nothing had changed at all. It’s recommended to wear older, comfortable shoes when you go as there is a lot of walking and possibly mudding in some places. Rain boots are a great option too!

Here’s 10 things you must do when you visit Howell Living History Farm!

Grab a snack or even lunch in the main building
- When we were there, they had soup, hot dogs, and mac and cheese, as well as homemade cookies, drinks, and bags of chips.
Spot the beehives
- Don’t get too close to the bees, but it’s fun to spot them and teach your kids about where honey comes from
Visit with all the animals
- There’s sheep, pigs, horses, oxen, chickens and more. The girls loved touching the thick sheep’s wool and trying to feed an ox. There’s plenty of opportunities to get up close with them if your patient enough.
Watch the horses carry equipment from one area of the farm to another
- While we were there, the horses were carrying containers to collect sap and then carrying it to where the maple syrup is made. Depending on the season you visit, will determine what you get to see the horses doing
See if you can walk across the creek without getting soaked
- There’s a few rocks you can hop on to get across the creek. It’s a fun challenge for the little ones. Don’t worry, there’s a bridge to cross too if you don’t want to chance getting wet.
Eat freshly made pancakes in the kitchen of the farmhouse
- Unfortunately, we didn’t get to partake in this, but we did get to see the farmhand gather the eggs from the chickens and walk them over to be used to make the fresh pancakes
Help cut and chop the wood
- There’s a station set up down near the creek where you can help hand saw logs and then chop smaller pieces with a hatchet
Pump yourself a fresh drink of water!
- Our girls thought it was amazing that they could pump water from the ground! I haven’t seen one of these since I was little and remember having the same reaction.
Take part in the special seasonal activities
- We attended during maple syrup season. While we were there, we got to see how to collect the sap and then got a lesson on when is the best time, how to see if you can do it at your own house, and how to spot the best maple syrup in the store.
- Depending on the time of year, you may also be able to learn about beekeeping, plant things in the garden, collect and learn about egg grading, lambing, hog weighing, and more.
Have a picnic!
- Bring your own lunch and blanket and have a picnic or eat at one of the picnic tables provided. There’s a ton of open space where you could eat at anytime during your visit

Bonus! If you live close enough, consider enrolling your child in one of the kid’s programs. These weekday and weekend programs, as well as a summer camp that immerses children in the farm lifestyle. In these programs, they will do things like gather the eggs, feeding the animals, gathering firewood, and so much more.

Learn more about Howell Living History Farm, including hours and location, here.

5 Kid Friendly New Jersey Sites To Visit This Summer

March 15, 2017 by Larisha Campbell 7 Comments

Today, we’re sharing with you 5 Kid Friendly New Jersey Sites To Visit This Summer!

This summer we will have a 4 1/2 and 2 year old, which means more summer trips with less hassle. Both girls are carefree and down for adventure at any given time. They love getting out of the house and exploring the world around them. Since I haven’t lived in New Jersey my entire life, there’s a lot of things I haven’t seen, so it’s just as much of a joy for me as it is for the girls. Andrew also works crazy hours, so being able to do day trips is really important for our family to be able to get out and explore together.

We’ve slowly been exploring more and more parts of New Jersey and we thought we’d share some of our favorites so far with you!

Ocean City, NJ
- Hands down Ocean City is one of our favorite things to do every summer. We’ve gone to Ocean City every summer since having kids. It’s our favorite spot shore place!
- Must-Dos! Of course the beach! But after you’re done, grab pizza at Manco & Manco, Gelato at Shriver’s, and then finish out the day with rides and games at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier! Don’t forget the taffy!

Adventure Aquarium
- This is the first place that I took Serenity as a baby. Andrew and I also had been here before we had kids. We all have a love for water, so it’s just a fun place for us to go! There’s always a new exhibit opening for you to learn more about and it’s the perfect place to go for rainy day fun. Touch a Shark and a Stingray, watch the hippos swim, walk across the Shark bridge and get face to face with over 400 animals in their 760,000 gallon home at Ocean Realm. Pack a lunch to eat inside or outside (or grab one in the cafeteria).

Paw’s Discovery Farm
- A recently new family favorite New Jersey location. We love the abundance of indoor and outdoor play spaces available, along with the ability to have lunch outdoors, take a nature walk, and get up close and personal with lots of fun animals! Make a weekend trip by checking out the Children’s Discovery Museum and Kid Fit Cherry Hill, both partner businesses.

Diggerland/Sahara Sams
- This was the girls’ first waterpark, so it will always hold some special memories for our family. We first went here during a birthday party for a cousin, but have been back since and every time we go it’s so fun. I love the ability to combine the waterpark and Diggerland passes together for the ultimate indoor and outdoor experience. We plan to head back to Diggerland soon since Serenity is now tall enough for most of the attractions! Lazy river and the slides are our favorites at Sahara Sam’s, and the swing ride was a favorite for Serenity at Diggerland in the past.

Howell Living History Farm
- We know how hard taking trips can be when they are not financially feasible, so we wanted to include a FREE option. Yup, completely free. You do have the option to make a donation to support the farm, but it’s totally optional. This is a real working farm based in the late 1800s. You can pet animals, see how the farm actually worked then and is still working now – like watch as they collect eggs from the chickens, and take to the kitchen to whip up homemade pancakes. Every weekend they have a different activity going on to teach you as well. The weekend we went we learned how to make maple syrup, but there’s also activities like Saw Milling, Ice Harvesting, Lambing, Beekeeping, and more!

This year, we’re also planning to go to:

Hiking trails in southern New Jersey
Wildwood, NJ and Morey’s Pier
Cape May Zoo
Edelman Planetarium
Storybrook Land

Looking for more inspiration? We’ve teamed up with four other local Jersey bloggers to get 5 of their favorite places to visit in New Jersey. We took a sneak peek and there’s a bunch of fun places to check out!

Reesa at Momma Lew – The Liberty Science Center sounds so cool!
Hilary at A Fancy Girl Must – We need to get to LBI!
Kimberlee at The Millennial Mom – Dukes Farm is just our type of fun!
Corine at Everyday Cori – I must have a Coney Waffle ASAP!

What’s your favorite kid-friendly location in New Jersey? Leave a comment below letting me know. We’re dying to get out and explore more, but these are a few of our favorites!

10 Must Do Things At Paws Discovery Farm – Mt Laurel NJ

March 9, 2017 by Larisha Campbell Leave a Comment

Disclosure: We were hosted for this post at Paws Discovery Farm. Thoughts and opinions are 100% our own.

Having never been in New Jersey before having kids, there’s so many things to do that I’ve never experienced before. I have a bucket list a mile long of places to take the kids, and Paws Farm was always on that list. It’s never happened though. Luckily, they recently rebranded to Paws Discovery Farm and invited us to their media day opening. From the moment we walked in, I couldn’t believe I never made time to get the girls out there before.

Hint: Stop putting off Paws Discovery Farm and GO!

My initial thoughts were blown away the second we walked in the door. You pull into the parking lot to a small sign with a building that could look like a medical office. But what’s inside will make you want to sign up for a membership that day. Think – you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. You’d have no idea all that lies inside the acres behind those doors.

Here’s our 10 Must Do Things while you are there!

1. Play in the Welcome Center! Get crazy with the Wild Things, make music on the drums, jump in the ball pit and more, all as soon as you walk inside the doors.

2. Try to find a butterfly in the butterfly garden. It was a little too cold for butterflies to be out when we were visiting, but we can’t wait to go back and hopefully spot one ourselves.

3. Play on the outdoor structures! A huge play house, a train, a tractor, a ship, and more gives you endless opportunities for imaginative play!

4. Have a picnic! Paws Discovery Farm doesn’t typically have food for sale, but you are welcome to bring a lunch and enjoy outdoor nature at one of their few dozen picnic tables.

5. Take a hike! Literally, you can take a short hike on their nature trail. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how cold it was when we went and we weren’t dressed for that. But it just gives us some extra things to look forward too when we go back next time!

6. Explore the turtles, lizards, and more inside the Farmhouse. This area wasn’t ready to open during media day, but it will be open soon!

7. Inside Paws Farm indoor barn. There’s so many fun activities inside the green barn! Learn about cows, play as a veterinarian, a grocery store, slides, trains, and more! Coming soon is an A.C. Moore sponsored craft center too!

8. The Animals! Head into Storybook Barnyard where you can find sheep, goats, swan, chickens, llama and so much more. During busy days, there’s opportunities to go into the petting yard and get even closer to the animals. Call Paws to find out those times.

9. Spot the peacock! We almost missed this guy because she (or maybe he) was hiding out on top of a building. I had no idea it was there so when the peacock got up and started walking, it kind of freaked us out. See if you can spot it!

10. Purchase a gift on your way out! Lots of fun learning toys and games are available for a reasonable price, plus, there’s an an opportunity to donate to the farm by sponsoring a specific animal which I thought was so cool. Lastly, there’s a table of local businesses you can support like a soap maker and a beekeeper with local honey!

We can’t say enough amazing things about our time at Paws Discovery Farm and we didn’t even have a chance to do everything. We definitely plan to head back soon and spend most of the day there!

Paws Discovery Farm is located in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Tickets are $10 per person for anyone over 1 and memberships are available.

Here’s some things that might help with your trip!