Your go-to source for Ann Arbor Family Fun
Ann Arbor with Kids is an online resource for Ann Arbor area families to learn about local activities, events, deals, and more family fun. The target audience is families with kids from toddlers through tweens who live in Ann Arbor & surrounding communities.
History:
Ann Arbor with Kids started as Ann Arbor Area Events and Activities for Preschoolers in 2008, with a blog and social media launch in 2009. The site was rebranded to Ann Arbor with Kids in September 2011 as my daughter and the children of my readers were getting older. In September 2014, the site was completely redesigned with an improved calendar, improved mobile support, a new front page layout, and a weekly newsletter. A daily newsletter was added for summer 2016.
About My Family:
About Me
I never expected to be a business owner or a writer. Back in high school, I wrote for the school paper which came out monthly, but my real interest was in math and science. After an engineering degree with a computer science minor, I did technical programming for nearly 10 years before becoming a stay at home mom after my daughter was born. Now, I love being a business owner and connecting people with local businesses.
About My Daughter
My daughter is 12 and in sixth grade in the Ann Arbor Public schools and nearly as tall as I am. She loves swimming, reading, LEGOs, Star Wars, Marvel, Disney, our Wii U, and roller coasters. Over the years she has been an immense help with the site – from visiting venues to appearing in videos, to helping create graphics.
About My Husband
My husband is a UM Professor and like me, he is also an unexpected writer. As a scientist, he spends a lot of time writing grant applications and research papers. Combined with running a lab and teaching commitments, he works a lot of hours which is why he doesn’t appear in many pictures on the site.
Living in Ann Arbor
My husband and I moved to Ann Arbor in 2003 when he got a job at UM. We love living in Ann Arbor and taking advantage of all the fun family-friendly activities around town.
Traveling
Our family enjoys traveling and take several trips a year. We have family in Pennsylvania and usually visit them once or twice a year. Other recent destinations have included Cedar Point, Toronto, Walt Disney World, Disneyland, San Diego, Niagara Falls, Santa Fe, and more.
I’d love to chat with you sometime about your blog. I started KZOOkids.com with the help of Melody from grkids.com and am always looking for other local friends to connect with.
Have a super day!
Jill Piwko
Jill – I friended you on Facebook. I’d love to talk sometime.
Hello,
My name is Nadine Hariri and I am the editor of the local publication, Ann Arbor Family. I am subscribed to your blog and always look forward to the seeing the fun events you are posting about. We’d love to include a link to your blog on our website as an expert in AA events for parents. Please let me know if you’re interested!
Thank you,
Nadine Hariri
Thanks for your lovely article about the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History! So glad you and your daughter had fun.
Kira Berman
Assistant Director for Education (and I was staff on Sunday and met you briefly)
I have visited the Reptile Zoo, but it has been some time. We would like to go back with another grandchild, but I cannot find an address for it.
They closed a couple of years ago. I would suggest Creature Conservancy, Leslie Science Center, or Petting Farm at Domino Farms as places to see animals locally.
Thanks for assembling this resource. It’s so valuable to the Ann arbor and surrounding community. I’ve used your site to check out parks for my family. We’re trying to visit every park in Ann arbor and there’s a lot!
Hello! I’m Lee, the manager of Gaffield Children’s Garden at UM’S MBGNA. Thanks for your help connecting the Gaffield Children’s Garden with a wider audience. We’ve been asking visitors to our Summer Nature Play Pop-Ups how they learned about us. Ann Arbor with Kids has been the number 1 response. Thank you!