About Michele

I’m a Mom.  I’m a mom who visits parks and plays with my kids.  Then I journal the experiences on this BLOG to share with my readers.

I’m a play advocate. I believe every kid should have unstructured play time in their day. Every post is written with the goal of promoting play in mind. I was named Playmaker of the Month by KaBOOM.org soon after starting my blog. I’m a 2011 Park-a-Day Summer Challenger for KaBOOM and will be holding our 3rd Annual Play Day this year.  I wrote a weekly “Play Mom” blog post for OCFamily.com (Orange County) and IEFamily.com (Inland Empire) from 2010 to 2012.

I’m a travel writer.  Since my first freelance assignment ten years ago, I’ve been writing about family-friendly travel destinations for print and online publications.  This blog is full of posts about local travel locations and my Play Trips newsletter puts all the locations together into play day itineraries.  I’m a 2011 and 2012 contributing writer for the family travel website Trekaroo.com.

I’m a Nature Rocks Ambassador and founder of my own Nature Play Club. I built my family nature club using the Children and Nature Network’s toolkit. We have been taking monthly outings with a small group of families for over a year now.

About FunOrangeCountyParks.com
When I started this blog in April 2008, I had: an amazing husband, a 3 year old girl and a 6 year old boy.  It’s four years later and my husband is still amazing, but my kids are now 7 and 10 years old.   In those three years, I’ve added over 240 play locations complete with maps, photographs, and important details. I’ve also built a dedicated readership.  I love my readers! I think they are the best around. I know I wouldn’t still be writing without their encouragement and contributions.

How does this thing work?
Well, it’s basically a community service and I’d like people to use it as a resource to find places to play all over Orange County. I also talk about connecting kids to nature and spending time outdoors as a family.  If I’m missing a park on the site, it’s because it hasn’t been recommended or I haven’t visited it yet. I love it when readers help me by sharing parks.

How can I participate?
There are so many ways for you to share! I live for comments and interaction:

  • Comment on a post (even if I don’t publicly reply on the blog, I try to e-mail everyone who comments!)
  • Join our page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter
  • Check out inspiring videos on my PlayParksCreative YouTube Channel
  • Recommend a park (instructions)
  • Share park posts with others when you’re planning a party or playdate. Just click on the title and copy the URL (http:// address) to link in your e-mail or invite.

Learn more: