Key Lime Cove

Key Lime Cove – My kids have now declared it as the best water park. We went during the week and had a wonderful time. The park and rooms are super clean. The tropical theme is carried on throughout the entire facility. There is a lazy river, wave pool, hot tub, 3 inner tub slides, and 2 body slides. My 9 year old could and did go on all of the slides. My 6 year old was not tall enough to go on just one, the Vortex. I went on the 3 raft slides and enjoyed them. The water and air temp was great, nice and warm. They have wristbands that you use as a room key, and credit card. It is nice not to have to worry about keys and money when the whole family is in the water. They have activities for kids unrelated to the water park. In the afternoon the kids decorated cupcakes. In the evening they went on a scavenger hunt. There were also crafts and Wii contests but we did not participate in them. All in all we had a great time.

Introducing KIDWINKS-BLOG by Dream Weaver

**NEW** KIDWINKS-BLOG
Who can forget the birth of their first child? Even though it was almost 9 years ago for me, I still remember the overwhelming feeling of cluelessness. It wasn't that I was ill-prepared - I had read every baby book recommended to me prior to her birth, and I could easily summarize the main idea of Sears, Ferber, Weissbluth, and the What to Expect series. What I found missing the first few months was practical information, like how to get around the city of Chicago with a stroller or what neighborhood restaurants are family friendly. I remember the first time I tried to take my baby daughter in her stroller to a Wiggleworms class. I walked to the Addison el station, took the elevator up, boarded the train, switched trains, and then exited at Armitage only to discover that not all el stations were wheelchair (or stroller!) accessible. I thought I was so public transportation and city saavy, but I suddenly realized that this new baby would change my routine in even more ways than I anticipated. It didn't even occur to me that my navigation skills would have to be rethought with a stroller. And unfortunately, I have learned that many destinations, even those billed as "family friendly" are not easy to explore with a stroller. All the fun activities I had planned with my daughter suddenly became tedious because of unforeseen obstacles. Our outings were hit or miss as to whether I enjoyed the experience or ended up incredibly frustrated. Like many first time moms, I sought out a group of likewise new moms and we began to share our experiences, such as which of our favorite restaurants are baby-tolerant, which have changing tables, and which ones have more than one high chair for patronswith babies. The older our babies got, the more our needs changed, and the more quickly our e-mail network grew to warn friends of bad experiences and share greatones. The problem was that our frustrations outweighed our joys, and we lamented the fact that there was no central resource for practical information PRIOR to an outing. Surely other moms with older children had already figured out how to navigate the townwith a baby or two in tow. Why did every new parent, every new moms group, need to recreate the wheel, so to speak? I know the internet is full of websites that advertise fun activities for kids. But before I pack up the diaper bag and head out for the day to an activity that sounds amazing, I want to know the reality behind the advertising. DoI know anyone who's been there? What is their opinion? How would they rate theactivity, location, price, changing tables, etc.? Can I get some feedback on the best way to get there(drive or public transportation), what I should bring (is the food child friendly, healthy, is it cold/hot inside, etc.) and any tips to make the first trip a success. How many times have I left somewhere thinking, "next time, I will...." Why should the first visit somewhere be a learning experience? It was this group of questions that led to the kidwinks.com information sharing website. Before I set out on a great adventure, I check to see if someone has been there and done that, and shared the information with this group. I plan to share a lot of my experiences and opinions. I welcome your feedback, too. Dream Weaver, mother of 3.

Kidwinks.com Press Release

For More Information

Please Contact:

Kimberly Eberl

773.771.6807

kimberly@motionpr.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KIDWINKS LAUNCHES; ALLOWS FOR FAMILY-FRIENDLY REVIEWS

Park Ridge, IL (October 22, 2008) – Park Ridge, IL moms Nina Taluc and Jean Lemke today officially launched Kidwinks.com, Inc., which combines local search and user reviews geared towards kids. Kidwinks.com takes the guess work out of planning family outingsby collecting and organizing facts and recommendations in one convenient place.

Taluc and Lemke created the unique site to serve as a central repository for finding kid-friendly events, activities, restaurants, shops and services in one's backyard. Kidwinks not only helps visitors find all of these things, but also encourages user-generated reviews of them for an unbiased take on all the kid-related venues in the Chicagoland area.

To date, Kidwinks lists over 2,600 events, restaurants, shops, services and activities just in the Chicagoland area alone and early buzz has already brought a growing number of visitors.

"We created it to help parents like ourselves who want a one-stop-shop on what to do and where to go with their kids any day of the week," said Taluc. "Kidwinks is a great solution for anyone who has a young child in their life but not enough time to plan and find places to go with them."

Kindwinks.com is a first-of-its-kind website with exceptional features to make visitors' online experience easy and engaging. Useful features include:

• Extensive Listings – From restaurants and festivals to concerts, museums and story times, Kidwinks boasts an exhausting database of everything happening in its visitors' own backyards.
• Searching – Kidwinks' database is easily searchable and can even be drilled down based on a child's age and gender, minimizing unnecessary results. Of course, the site provides for searching by type of venue as well (i.e. activity, event, shopping, etc.) and even for sorting those results by distance.
• Dining Deals Calendar – This very popular feature allows parents to click on any day of a calendar to get a list of restaurants offering kids.. dining deals for that day.
• Reviews - Visitors can get the inside, unbiased scoop on kid-friendly locations or services by reading the ratings and reviews written by other parents who have visited these businesses.
• Email reminders – Taluc and Lemke understand firsthand how hectic parents lives are, so they included email reminders to make sure parents won't forget about that fun upcoming special event they saw listed on kidwinks.com.
• Member Profiles – Kidwinks members can create a unique profile that protects their privacy while giving them an opportunity to showcase themselves and their children.
• Kidwinks' Picks – Kidwinks' Picks are the kid-friendly favorites picked by the founders ofKidwinks.
• Ideas - This section holds some ideas for fun, usually seasonal, things to do with children.
• Contests, Coupons – Visitors can take advantage of coupons to some local hot spots along with monthly contests to win family-friendly prizes.

"We wanted Kidwinks to be not only a definitive guide for kid-friendly establishments and activities but also a friendly, entertaining and interactive place for parents and adults to share their experiences," said Lemke.

The Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce is hosting a ribbon cutting commemorating the launch at 10 AM on October 22 at 32 Main Street, Suite F, Park Ridge, IL with Mayor Howard Frimark scheduled to attend.

For more information, please visit www.kidwinks.com.

Ribbon Cutting – Take 2

We have sent out invitations to our ribbon cutting to all of the elected officials in Park Ridge. Although we have asked them to RSVP we have not heard from many of them. Mayor Frimark, the mayor of Park Ridge will be there to cut the ribbon. I did invite Senator Obama but have not heard whether he will be able to make if or not. I think that showing up at our ribbon cutting would be a nice way to show his support for mom entrepreneurs. I know that he is a busy guy, especially right now but the ribbon cutting will only take 30 minutes. I guess I will have to wait and see if he shows up or RSVPs. I’ll keep you posted. There’s still a chance, right? Not much left to do for our ribbon cutting other than alerting the media and getting a haircut. I am not sure which prove to be more difficult. Now that I work for me I am a dedicated employee. The problem is that I don’t know when to stop. Showering, grocery shopping, laundry, paying bills all become things that I put on the back burner so that I can spend all of my time working on kidwinks.com. I know all of us moms feel that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done but I don’t WANT to do any of that other stuff I just want to make kidwinks a household name.

The World of SEO - Just a Baby

How do we get our site seen? We have awesome content. If any mom or dad is looking for Chicago fun we have it! If parents are looking for kids meal deals we got them! We have a ton of events and activities for kids and families. Looking for anything to do with Chicago for kids, that’s us! The problem is that we aren’t coming up in searches. Why!? I think one of the main reasons is that we are new. We are so very new in the eyes of the World Wide Web. We have only been live for 6 months even though we have been actively in web development for 3 years. Looking back I think that we should have had something as a placeholder to get www.kidwinks.com some sort of traffic. I don’t know if it would have helped or not. But maybe if we had had something going on on our site we wouldn’t be considered so new. This is the first time since I have been over 21 that I wanted to age quickly!

Ribbon Cutting

Kidwinks.com is going to be having a ribbon cutting. When I say that to people I get one of two reactions. One reaction is “Oh, that’s great! When?” It is usually accompanied by a big smile. The other reaction is a look of confusion accompanied by “Where?” Yes, we are an internet site and no we don’t have an actual location, yet. We are going to have our ribbon cutting at the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce. We are going to invite our Aldermen and State Representatives, the media, other chamber members, business associates, Kidwinks.com members, friends, and family. The Chamber of Commerce has recently hired Gale Haller a woman who was born for the job of Executive Director of the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

Now we need to get ready. The plan was easy, now comes the hard part, pulling it together. We need to write a press release, invite all of the media and officials. We already know that the mayor of Park Ridge is going to be there to do the actual ribbon cutting. We need to get a banner made, food ordered, and all of the supplies purchased. We need to get an outfit fitting of such an occasion! Hope I don’t get a zit the day before. We have already gotten a door prize for a raffle. The Wine Styles store in Park Ridge is going to provide a wine tasting session valued at $100. All On The Road Catering is going to be providing mini breakfast treats, coffee and juice. I will keep you updated on our ribbon cutting progress. This is such an exiting time but also a bit stressful. We have so many things going on at once.

For those of you who don’t know what the site is, here is a little info:

Kidwinks.com is a resource for parents looking for kid-friendly events, activities, restaurants, shops and services throughout the Chicago land area. Find everything from story times at area libraries and neighborhood festivals to all sorts of Chicago fun -- all in one place! Get the lowdown from the experts by reading reviews posted by other parents. Sign up for our newsletter and get a list of upcoming kid-friendly events emailed to you twice a week! If you find yourself searching for family fun using the search terms, Chicago kids, or Chicago for kids, kidwinks.com is the site to know.

Networking

I have been doing a lot of networking the last 2 weeks. Talking to people I don’t know, about business, has never been something that I seek out. In fact, I never really talk business at all. I prefer to talk about places I can go with my kids, good restaurants, and traveling. And I prefer to talk about those things over a bottle of wine or two. Now that I have Kidwinks.com I have to go out and talk it up. I am finding that I enjoy talking about the site especially to people who get it. They get the idea and why there is such a need for it. Of course, I don’t particularly enjoy talking to those who either don’t get it or are uninterested. As a business owner socializing and getting the word out is something that I have to do. Luckily, it turns out I may actually like it. The problem is that the time I spend talking to people is less time that I spend working on the site. There are just not enough hours in the day. Because I work from home I need to stop working all the time. I need to set some limits on the time that I spend thinking and working on the site. It is hard! I want to shout from the rooftop what a great site Jean and I have created and that every parent should know about it. The goal – make Kidwinks.com a household name. For those of you who don’t know what the site is, here is a little info: Kidwinks.com is a resource for parents looking for kid-friendly events, activities, restaurants, shops and services throughout the Chicago land area. Find everything from story times at area libraries and neighborhood festivals to all sorts of Chicago fun -- all in one place! Get the lowdown from the experts by reading reviews posted by other parents. Sign up for our newsletter and get a list of upcoming kid-friendly events emailed to you twice a week! If you find yourself searching for family fun using the search terms, chicago kids, or chicago for kids, kidwinks.com is the site to know.