Rooster's Southern Kitchen has become one of our favorite spots for dinner because the food is so delicious. We always feel like we're eating at the table of a cherished family member who prepared a secret family recipe just for us! Every meal is fresh and delicious and we love that Rooster's makes it so easy to dine out with kids, too! But with Christmas fast approaching, I've been on the go just about every day of the week. Rooster's has become my go-to lunch spot while I'm

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! This Fall has flown by and I am so excited to get into the kitchen with my family and put together our favorite meal. We love Thanksgiving and honestly, we don’t reserve this meal for once a year! We often make more than one turkey feast in November. Weird, right? But we love to cook and try new recipes so it’s always changing! But as much as we love to cook... Is there anything more daunting than cooking the night before Thanksgiving? With all the p

When it comes to giving back to our local community there are a few local restaurants that really lead the pack to help with fundraisers and community engagement. On the top of that list is the Outer Banks Brewing Station. When you take a look at their events calendar, you’re sure to see special events that benefit any number of community projects mixed in with their epic concert scene. This weekend you won't want to miss the Backyard Benefit at the Brewing Station. This bran

When you think of a brewery, you might not automatically think of a child friendly atmosphere. While brewery tours and innovative brewing may not interest your little ones, the wind turbine that powers the Outer Banks Brewing Station is going to fascinate them. We’re huge fans of the Outer Banks Brewing Station and time after time, we have had incredible dining experiences at the Brewing Station with our entire family. The Outer Banks Brewing Station is the first wind-powered

When you live on the Outer Banks, your home often looks like a small hotel during the summer months. Our door is constantly opening to visitors, overnight guests and week long family members who come to enjoy some time at the beach. While we love having company, it can sometimes feel a little bit daunting to cook and feed extra people during our busiest season. Earlier this month we had our sweet nephews and my sister and brother in law in town to celebrate the multiple Summe

When we started the Outer Banks Mom Approved program, the goal was to simply create a little black book of local restaurants that make dining out with children a little bit easier. The places on our list are our go-to’s when we’re taking the family out for a meal so when it came to Two Roads Tavern in Kill Devil Hills, we knew we needed to include them on the list! We love Two Roads for so many reasons! First of all, the local owners are great people with kids of their own an

One of our family’s favorite breakfast spots is Barrier Island Bagels in the Southern Shores Marketplace. They were easily added to our Outer Banks Mom Approved list because of the way that they pay special attention to children, offer healthy and delicious options and because they are locally owned! Our kids always look forward to a special weekend trip to B.I.B! I could go on and on about their amazing bagels and smoothies. I could tell you that our kids crave the açaí bowl

As the calendar inches closer to Summer it has me so motivated to keep working out and eating healthy so that I can feel good about going into beach season here on the Outer Banks. I feel so lucky to live here because running around outside with the kids is a part of my daily routine. Between chasing kiddos, long beach walks and morning Mommy & Me workouts, staying active seems to be an easy thing for me. But one thing that I have always struggled with is feeding myself! That

Last week Penny brought home a special report. All year, she has been hoping to earn a special award from her teachers and the look on her face when she got to tell me that she finally received this special report was so sweet. Penny was thrilled that her teachers had recognized her for being a helpful friend and she was proud to hang her award in our craft corner. Of course, we were so proud of her too! We do our best to give our kids one on one time whenever possible. So I

If you read my recent blog about how I am re-implementing self-care into my life then you already know that I have carved out some me time each evening after the kids go to bed. For the past 8 years, I have owned my own business and I always use the evening hours to do a little bit of extra work. At the start of the new year, I started using this evening time to write, exercise, pray and stretch. I’ve been sneaking in deep conditioning treatments and face masks here and there

Last week I was sitting at Waverider's Coffee and Deli in Nags Head. I was waiting to meet a friend for lunch and I took a seat in one of the many sun-drenched seats by the window and scrolled through my Facebook feed. I mindlessly clicked on the “thumbs up” icon while friends shared photos of the waves in Hatteras or snapshots of their children’s handmade Valentine’s Day boxes. I love Facebook for these simple joys. I kept scrolling and I noticed a local man and business own

We had the best birthday celebration for our sweet Lulu! Our tiny girl is officially 2! Seemingly overnight her hair doubled in length and she started putting words together. She loves to say things like, “Me too” and “I’m ready!” Her birthday is December 30th so it always seems near impossible to put a real party together because of the busyness of the holidays. Penny has been hyping up the whole “birthday” idea this year and she has been teaching Lulu how to blow out candle

While we fully recognize and agree that our local Outer Banks restaurants deserve a little winter break, we are sometimes left craving our favorite dishes. When the marquee at Pigman's BBQ lit up on Friday night saying that they were re-opening for two weeks, we were so stoked! You can bet the Krieg family was first in line for Country Ham and sweet potato fries and since my Dad is in town for the holidays we knew he was going to get his fill of ribs and chicken! Penny girl

If you’ve been to any of our great outdoor Outer Banks events this Fall, then you have probably seen the OBX Frozen Yogurt trailer. From the Food Truck Showdown and the 4th Annual Brewtag event, to the Kitty Hawk Elementary School Fall Carnival, FroYo on the Go has been there to supply the sweet treats and keep the little ones and their parents happy! At some of our Outer Banks events, we have noticed that there is a kid-friendly component missing. While the music and enterta

It might seem easy to find a restaurant that has a kids menu. You can easily find a place that welcomes kids, too. The true challenge is finding a high quality restaurant that serves children well. When you’re on vacation and you have a special occasion to celebrate it can feel a little bit daunting to know a great place to take the kids so that they can be included in the celebration. Maybe you’re just looking for a great night out and you want top of the line food. Look no

It’s not a secret that I didn’t grow up here on the Outer Banks. Like so many, I grew up vacationing here and jumped at the chance to move permanently in 2011 and it felt like moving home. After loving the Outer Banks for 20+ years, I just couldn’t shake the sand from my soul and I somehow convinced my husband to move down from Pittsburgh. Of course, having Barefoot Bernie’s, a local Steelers bar, near our new home sure made it easy to convince him. It’s funny how some things

Ever since our kids were little, especially Joey, they have basically been BBQ connoisseurs. It's funny because it's definitely not something that we cook very often because of how much time it takes to perfectly cook. Luckily for us, we have Pigman's BBQ in Kill Devil Hills! Our kids are obsessed with their ribs, wings and hushpuppies and they always want to take a bottle of Pigman's famous BBQ sauce home with us! Jason and I initially wanted to try this restaurant out be

I’ve said it a thousand times, Saturdays are my favorite days here on the Outer Banks! I love to watch as the cars line up on the highway waiting to check-in to their "happy place” accommodations for the week. I adore seeing kids getting out of their cars at the Kitty Hawk Starbucks, still in their PJ’s because their parents carried them into the car in the middle of the night so that they could get to the beach extra early. I can remember those exact days when I vacationed

We're so excited to announce that Southern Shores Pizza is on the Outer Banks Mom Approved list! I know what you're thinking, obviously a pizza place is kid-friendly, right? I would have to agree but Southern Shores Pizza can check off every single box that makes a restaurant become Outer Banks Mom Approved! Offering so much more than pizza, this restaurant is impeccably clean which is #1 in my book. The minute you walk in the door you feel a warm welcome from the staff and f

If you have ever met the Schwartzenberg family then you know that kindness beams out of each of them like sunshine and when you stop by OBX Frozen Yogurt in Southern Shores, you will instantly feel welcome. We caught up with the local owners to invite them to our Outer Banks Mom Approved program because on top of an incredibly clean and kid-friendly establishment, they also take the time to make sure that everyone that comes through their doors receives the same top-notch ser