We spent the “Day Out With Thomas” on Saturday and it was a great day. Thomas the Tank Engine was there, large as life. I think the sight of the real Thomas scared my son. After all, he’s used to playing with a Thomas that is only 2 inches high!

The event features Thomas the Tank Engine in all of his glory and a train ride with Thomas — we’re on the coaches he’s pulling/pushing. Although the train ride and meeting Thomas are the highlights of the day, there are several other activities to keep the little tykes occupied until it is his/her turn to see Thomas. Sir Topham Hatt makes appearances and poses for photos too. And there is a fake tattoo station, cotton candy vendors, a bounce house, and an imagination station where kids can play with Thomas toys.

Thomas is making his yearly tour across the country, so check the events listing his Web site to see if he’s coming to a town near you. One little boy on our train ride, summed it up best, “I love you Thomas!” he proclaimed.

Thomas in all his glory! Truly a sight to see.

Sir Topham Hatt.

Related:

• Find a Day Out With Thomas event near you.
• The official Thomas the Tank Engine Web site.

While taking photography in college I dreaded one assignment in particular; photograph the sunrise. It’s hard enough to make an 8:00 a.m. class, let alone be out of bed before dawn trying to get the perfect shot — hoping to not screw it up and have to repeat it the next morning. It was the assignment that everyone in the communications department knew about and dreaded. But, it turned out to be the one assignment that I loved most.

Nowadays I’m up by sunrise (like most Moms), but am busy getting ready for the day that I miss the beauty of the actual sun rising. Miss it no more: Discovery Channel has developed a series called “Sunrise Earth.”

Shot in HD, each episode highlights sunrises from around the globe. We’ve watched a few of these shows as a family during our quiet time before bed. My favorite so far is one done in China: We watched the peaceful nature of Chinese fisherman using birds to catch fish. Read the description from the Discovery Channel Web site:

Sunrise Earth International
Li River Cormorants
TV-G, CC

In the last hour of darkness, witness a 2,000 year old working partnership between fishermen and their fish-catching birds, the great cormorants. Dots of light bob at the end of slender bamboo rafts, attracting fish for the trained diving birds to capture … “

These episodes are peaceful, quiet and beautiful. Give one a try one day soon.

I’ll leave you with a sunset for the day:

Photo courtesy stock.xchng

Related:

• View user submissions of sunrises at Discovery.com.
• Find when you can watch “Sunrise Earth.”

Mr. Rogers is one of my all time favorite TV personalities so it is fitting that I honor him on my blog today, the “Won’t You Wear a Sweater? Day.”

Rollins College is honoring Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers) with a celebration of his life, on what would have been his 80th birthday. Mr. Rogers went to college at Rollins in the ’50s.

I remember watching Mr. Rogers when I was a kid. Loving the land of make believe. His gentle nature and soothing voice always captivated me. When my family made a big move, from Canada to Florida, the one constant was that Mr. Rogers was on TV in Florida too!

I’m sure my son would love Mr. Rogers — especially the train. I think I’ll honor Mr. Rogers with a tribute video tonight with the family.

Related:

• “Rollins College Celebrates Life of Fred Rogers” at Rollins.com.
• Orlando Sentinel’s “Rollins strives to preserve neighborly spirit of Mr. Rogers.”
• Mr. Roger’s company, Family Communications.

The mom blog site, 5 Minutes for Mom, is having a blog party and I’m joining in. It’s a networking party that I can share my goals about helping women with more moms. After all, that is why I blog.

Since it’s a party, we’ll need cake. You can read my post about my trials of baking a specialty cake for my son’s birthday — I struggled with making it, blue icing wedged deep under my fingernails, staining my fingertips. After it was over, I was soooo glad I did and have a picture to prove it! It’s a super cute car-shaped cake that took waaay too long to make, and was devoured waaaay to fast, but was totally worth all the effort.

So, as you can tell by now, I’m a mom and I have a son. I also work full-time and believe in balancing work, life and family. Although, you don’t have to be employed to need to find balance in your life. It’s not easy for any of us to do, but I use this blog to help me keep balance in the forefront of my life. In doing it in blog form, I am able to help other women realize they aren’t alone in their quest to get things done, and have fun doing it too. I post every week day so be sure to stop here often. Read more about me here.

And, since this is a party, I should send a shout out to all the Internet peeps who regularly come here to read my posts. *shout* THANK YOU *shout* WOOT! I really appreciate your support and hope that you get as much out of it as I do each day.

Here are some of my favorite posts:

• ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ is ruining my night
• Is our account screwed up or is my dear husband just not paying attention?
• Observations from my two-year-old
• Family yard day turns into family lazy day
• Crib tent helps parents and child sleep (with photo)
• I was recently interviewed for an article about trends in American families
• Read my most recent posts.

Reporter Cheryl Wetzstein from “The Washington Times” wrote an interesting article about trends in American families. The article starts with census data:

America’s family trends held steady in 2004, with most American children living with their married biological parents, a new federal report says.”

I spoke with her yesterday about the difficulties of juggling motherhood with marriage and life in general. It’s definitely a balancing act that moms are still trying to figure out today. There isn’t just one path to success.

Read the full article here and see my quote.