I work 4 10-hour days so that I can have Mondays off with the girls. We try to do something fun on those days -- not just catch up on housework and errands. We're limited in what we can do right now as my older DD is in preschool until 11:30 and younger DD naps at 2 p.m. That leaves us a window of 2 and 1/2 hours or so, but it's plenty enough time to go to the zoo or the park.

One of our favorite things to do is to head for the bayfront -- it's easy now with the new eastside connector. We get on the connector by our house at Penn-State Behrend and we are in downtown Erie in 15 minutes or so. We stop at the main library to get our weekly books and videos, cruise around the dock to look at the ducks and then head over to Liberty Park where we have a picnic in the grass overlooking the lake. After lunch, we play at the park.

I always forget that it's cooler down there by the lake and it is perpetually windy. The grassy area near the amphitheater is large and tree-free. Which makes it the perfect place to fly kites as I saw one smart mommy doing with her two daughters yesterday afternoon.

We brought my kids kites this year and we've only had a couple of occasions to use them at home, but next time we go to Liberty Park, we'll be bringing them along.

Another couple of bayfront tips for moms: I'm not sure if they're open yet, but there's a nice miniature golf course on the bayfront and the concession stand at the Bicentennial Tower has all kinds of kid-friendly lunch foods -- hot dogs, soft pretzels, icees, popcorn and much more. They also have kid-size soft-serve cones with candy "eyes" on them for a $1 or so.

And, be advised that you're not allowed to feed the ducks and geese at the dock. I suspect you're not supposed to feed them at Liberty Park either, but there's no one there to yell at you, so go there if you're hell-bent on feeding the birds (do so at your own risk, though, the seagulls are obnoxious).