My daughter’s last day of school is on Friday. That means its time to calendar in all of our favorite fun and educational activities to do in Utah during the summer. One activity we always love is going to This is The Place Heritage Park and I am excited to be giving away a family-membership to a lucky reader.

In case you haven’t heard of This is The Place Heritage Park, it contains over 50 historic homes and structures to visit and countless fun activities to help visitors learn about history and step back in time to see how things used to be. I love that they are continually adding new activities. We can’t wait to try out the splash pad.

Activities include:

• Train rides (there are three)
• Pony rides
• 
• Petting farm animals
• Panning for gold
• 
• Playing in the splash pad
• Shopping in the gift shop
• and much more!

All the activities are included with your admission ticket so you can enjoy and entire day of fun without breaking the bank! Right now is baby animal season which makes it the perfect time to visit!

In addition to all the fun activities, you and your family can grab a bite to eat at the Huntsman Grill and you can also find other tasty treats like Brigham’s Donuts at the Social Hall and soft serve ice cream at the Ice Cream Parlor.

With so much to do, there is no reason you won’t want to take the kids there several times with summer.

Now with that being said, you all know how much I love hosting giveaways so…

This is The Place Heritage Park is giving away a 1-Year Basic Family Membership to the park! This is a $100 value! That means the winner will be able to visit the park all year long plus receive:

• Unlimited FREE general admission, Pony and Mini Train Rides
• FREE admission to Mountain Man Camp, Liberty Days, Pioneer Days, & Little Haunts
• Monthly “This Is The Place Messenger” e-Newsletter
• 50% discount to Haunted Village
• $20 per person admission to Witches’ Ball
• 10% discount on purchases at Heritage Park Gift Shop and ZCMI Mercantile Store

To enter this awesome giveaway just use the rafflecopter widget below. Giveaway ends 6/1/15. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: This blog is not responsible for prize fulfillment. The giveaway is sponsored by This is The Place Heritage Park

The post Summer to do list – This is the Place Heritage Park + Giveaway appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

By way of introduction, we’re Team Awesome! Nine bloggers who want to amp up your summer with a phenomenal giveaway. We’ve teamed up with these amazing sponsors to give you everything you need to start, or continue, your summer fitness journey.

Our sponsors are offering giving ONE lucky winner over $450 in health and fitness-related prizes. Want to see what you can win? We thought you’d never ask!

Meet our amazing sponsors…

ALTRA

ALTRA is a group of passionate individuals committed to reducing injuries and better running technique through biomechanically proper footwear. To put it simply, they’ve created a line of footwear which blends barefoot freedom with shod protection.

BEACHBODY & SHAKEOLOGY with Trina Kshyk

Beachbody has been in the home fitness market since 1998, creating popular programs like Turbo Jam and P90X. Since any good workout needs to be backed by good nutrition, Shakeology steps up to help you get the best results from any fitness program you use.

As an Independent Team Beachbody Coach, Trina knows firsthand what working out can do for you mentally and physically. After being in two car accidents, she decided to reclaim her health and is helping others to do the same.

R HOUSE COUTURE & SPOTTED OWL SOAP

Both these companies are run by a group of three dear friends, brought together through their passion for adoption.

R House Couture focuses on hand-stamped sterling silver jewelry, making gifts of hope, courage, and encouragement. The sky’s the limit, so let them customize whatever you dream up.

Spotted Owl Soap began with a desire to turn good soap into great soap. They use NO fillers, NO detergents, NO animal fats, and NO animal testing. Just good, healthy soap and body products.

SWOOB

Swoob is on a mission to support the active lifestyles of women through innovation in clothing. They’re signature invention? The sports bra with pockets for phone, key, chapstick, and energy pouch. If you’d like to get in on ground floor, check out their Kickstarter campaign to help fund function and fashion.

KISSTIXX

As if kissing wasn’t fun enough, Kisstixx decided to up the ante with flavorful pairs of lip balm. With 100s of combinations, it will take your “lip-locking” to the next level. Simply choose a compatible two-pack of flavors, put one on and give your partner the other, kiss to mix, enjoy, and repeat.

SWEET MONKEY PRINCESS

Offering an array of no-slip, velvet-lined headbands, Sweet Monkey Princess has solved the problem of “workout hair”. Not only will your hair stay out of your face, you’ll look stylish at the same time. It’s a definite win-win.

One very lucky reader will win the fabulous Get Fit Giveaway worth over $450! There are MANY ways to enter, so make sure you do all of them to increase your chance of winning. The contest is open to US residents and ends 7/14/13 at 11:59 pm MST. Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Get Fit Giveaway appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

During the summer, I am planning learning activities for my children as many days I can.    I view summer learning as a fun way to reinforce skills and concepts learned during the school year. This sneaky mom doesn’t want the kiddos to catch on that they are actually still learning!

Last week I may have blown up over 30 balloons for Lily’s sixth birthday. Those balloons have been bopped, kicked, and chased all over the house. This week my goal was to introduce our new Alphabet Flash Cards from Educational Toys Planet. I needed an activity for my emerging reader, six-year old Lily, and my pre-reader, three-year old Cortland.

Enter in the balloons and the flash cards – such a fun combination! I took the word from each flash card and wrote it on one of my balloons so that each card matched a balloon. Put 26 balloons in one room and you are bound to have fun! I gave each child a card and sent them on a treasure hunt to find the right balloon. My daughter matched the words while my son matched the first letter. When they found a match they tossed the balloons on the bed until they had matched all the pairs. My children loved this activity and have asked to do it several times.

After we made all the matches, we played several games that were outlined in the card pack. We mixed up all the letters and then sang the ABC song to put the cards back in order. Once they were in order we matched the pictures from the lower case letter cards to the right upper case letter card. I love that ABC Flash card set came with both upper and lower case letters! The cards were colorful and my kids thought the pictures were fun.

The best part of this activity was the smile on my daughter’s face when she found a match. Success – fun and learning! I am so excited for the rest of our summer learning activities. Stay tuned for a fun 4th of July reading activity as well! Until then I am going to be trying out a great idea from my sister who blogs over at Live to be Inspired. Shooting site words with a nerf gun – pretty sure my kids can get into that!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Linking up to Tot School!

The post Simple Ways to Make Reading Fun appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

I am so happy to be sharing our family’s end of the school year traditions over at Keeping it Simple today. Head on over to check out what we did to celebrate Lily’s last day of kindergarten. From water balloon fights, to secret gifts, to banners, and photo shoots – it was a fabulous day!

The post Celebrating the End of the School Year appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.