Welcome!

Hi there, and welcome! 

We are excited for the official launch of The Animal Kingdom's blog. 

We think having kids is pretty cool and hope to share that sentiment with you through quality real-life discussions about parenting, food, travel, creativity, learning, product reviews and more. We consider this to be a family lifestyle blog.

That said, there seems to be a new standard of "success" in raising a family these days, one that requires us to be supermoms and superdads – to achieve "Pinterest Perfection." A survey conducted by the TODAY Show revealed that of the 7,000 U.S. mothers surveyed, 42 percent said that they sometimes suffer from Pinterest stress – the worry that they’re not crafty or creative enough. 

We are not here to make you feel inadequate. You will feel no pressure here. 

We are real people with real kids. We are here to share our successes, discuss our mistakes and hopefully make you laugh... because we believe that the key to building great families comes down to two things:

1) Do you love each other? and 2) Can you have fun together? 

My husband, Jason and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage next week. We have a 2-year-old daughter. We have a white dog who doesn't always listen. We love each other. All of us. I couldn't imagine loving anybody more than those individuals that make up my family. We own a toy store. We are experts at having fun together. You will hear from both of us on the blog. We hope to share store news, family news and contribute to the discussion of life with kids. Quite simply, we want to encourage the next generation to grow up curious, creative and connected. (And yes, I'm an Instagram addict.)

I've also recruited two close friends – great moms and loyal store customers – to blog for The Animal Kingdom. You will meet Sara and Katy in the coming weeks and you will love them (and their families!). Thoughtful, honest, funny, relatable.

Please keep reading. 

Lindsay