Welcome to Macaroni Kid South Hills! Whether you are a brand-new addition to our family, have been with MacKid for a while, or just stumbled upon us by accident, we’ve designed this guide to assist you in making the most of this amazing FREE resource that is soon to become your go-to for local family fun, resources, deals and guides in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.
1. Know what Macaroni Kid is and How it is going to serve YOU.
Macaroni Kid is a website and a FREE e-newsletter that is focused on fun, family events and anything family friendly happening in the South Hills communities and surrounding areas. The most important thing you can do if you haven’t already is SUBSCRIBE HERE. Our e-newsletter publishes every week with the latest local 411 and subscribers receive it (did I mention that it’s FREE) in their email inbox every Thursday morning, so they don't have to remember to check our website for new content and updated events. We aren’t going to annoy you with 56 emails a week, just 1, and we promise it will be one you are excited to get! Our newsletters contain the most current content from everything you see below - can’t miss events for the week, local articles containing the 411, contests and giveaways, business reviews, local deals, parenting and wellness tips and more! If you’re like me and don’t want to constantly be searching for “that awesome website that has all that local family fun and info,” you can save the site to your favorites as well.
PRO🌸TIP: PINK LINKS take you places!!! Almost 90% of the time, if you see a PINK WORD on the Macaroni Kid site that turns underlined when you hover your mouse above it, in a Macaroni Kid Newsletter, Article, Guide, etc., it is CLICKABLE!! That means, it will take you to a destination that corresponds with the venture you are on. Most of the links are set to open in a new tab, so don’t be afraid to click and explore as your previous destination should be waiting for you when you are done. Go ahead and try it out in this guide. Each pink link will take you to a designated spot for easy exploration. Don't worry if a link takes you OFF of our site, we personally build those into our text on the back end so we can bring you to a sponsors secure site for more information on what you are viewing :)
2. Explore our Event Calendar:
By far, the BEST part of Macaroni Kid! I search high and low for as many family-friendly events I can find located within the South Hills of Pittsburgh (or a short drive from). I put them in one, convenient event calendar for you that is available 24/7! You will find a list of Today's Events at the top of the Homepage (please note there is usually more than what you can see, you can scroll down). These events link to our Event Page, which is one of our most popular features. It outlines the most comprehensive list of kid and family activities happening locally.
- Look at events on a particular day, or take a glimpse at a week coming up, or even a month view to see how you may want to plan ahead for events.
- Search for events by Age, Date or Category.
- Click on an event for more details including Google maps to site locations.
- Scroll to the bottom of an event for the option to automatically add it to your Google or iCalendar so you don’t miss it!
- Check back often, as we're always adding new activities as we come across them! Know of an event? You can always submit it to be added to our calendar HERE. Don't fret if you don't see it show up right away- Macaroni Kid check all events submitted for appropriateness and has to approve it on our end before you will see it on the calendar.
PRO🌸TIP: this site has cities under the category tab to easily search events closest to your location.
3. Read our Articles - they are pretty awesome!
Articles on the home page are always going to be the most up to date content we have and range in topics currated specifically for YOU. Featured Articles are displayed on the Home Page, at the top in the slideshow. My personal favs I stick in the “Publishers Picks” carousel at the top of the Articles page. Articles can be updated throughout the week if important or time sensitive information is given to Macaroni Kid to share. As more articles are published, they will leave the homepage and move under the Articles Tab where you can browse or search for any previous article.
PRO🌸TIP: Miss a previous newsletter? Looking for a specific recipe, craft, movie, or date night idea? If you don’t see what you are looking for, no need to browse, try searching for it in the Grey Search Bar located at the top of each page.
4. Are You Social? WE are!!!
Follow us on social media where we post changes to event information, new events in-between e-newsletters, specials from local businesses, giveaway announcements, and parenting (or life lol) inspiration.
FOLLOW US |
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PRO🌸TIP: Want to see Macaroni Kid South Hills FIRST on your Facebook News Feed? Because News Feed is such an integral part of your Facebook experience, you can prioritize Macaroni Kid South Hills first in your News Feed!
How do I do that?
1. Go to the Macaroni Kid South Hills Facebook Page
2. Underneath the cover photo on the right hand side you will see a button with three dots …
3. Click the …
4. Click on Follow Settings
5. Click on the button to the right of “Favorites”
6. You can also customize your notification settings. We suggest leaving your posts no less than highlights and your live video settings to All Notifications so you don’t miss any great deals or updates in between newsletters.
5. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! We've got Contests and Giveaways to make EVERYONE happy!
Who doesn't like a great giveaway?! Macaroni Kid South Hills is always partnering with local companies and brands to bring our readers a little thrill. Giveaways are for SUBSCRIBERS ONLY and are most commonly found in our newsletter. However, sometimes an opportunity will come up that can’t wait until the next publication, so we will use our social media to spread the word! You can find past contest and giveaway winners at the end of our business directory. If you are a local business and want Macaroni Kid to host your next giveaway campaign, please contact Emily at emilyp@macaronikid.com
6. Play and Shop Local with the help of our Business Directory
The way of the Macaroni is to enhance and enrich our communities. What better way to do this than to support our neighbors just a little more than supporting THE MAN (in my deep, funny, intimidating voice)? Macaroni Kid provides a Business Directory for family friendly businesses, artists and service providers in the South Hills. Macaroni Kid reserves the right to only list businesses they believe reflect the best interest of our readers. If a business has the Macaroni Kid seal of approval in their listing, you can be assured that someone from our personal Macaroni Kid team can stand by the integrity of that business.
Macaroni Kid can build brand awareness for our amazing local businesses that want to reach local families. If you know of a local business who wants to target hyper-local families, please encourage them to partner with Macaroni Kid South Hills.
7. Guides: Anyone else need a Guide to Life? 🙋🏼♀️
We haven’t published that one yet (stay tuned), but we DO have other great Guides with more to come! Macaroni Kid guides are SUPER popular - we work hard to put all necessary information in one place so you don't have to go bonkers searching for it. There is a "Guides" tab at the top of the homepage so you can reference it easily. Guides have seasonally-appropriate information compiled for easy reference. As this site has been newly taken over, part of the revamp process includes going through each and every guide on the backend to make sure the content is current before putting it back out there to be viewed and shared by you. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s sharing bad information in any form and I commit to do everything in my power to prevent the spread of bad info!
Do you have an idea for a great guide for our local families? Email me and let me know!
8. Get to KNOW and LOVE our Business Partners & Sponsors:
Please support our sponsors. They are part of our community and make it possible for us to offer this website and e-newsletter as a FREE community resource. Each local ad is approved and added to the page by Macaroni Kid, so I can assure you that they are safe to click through. Of course, any transactions between you and the advertiser are the responsibility of the two parties involved and not myself or Macaroni Kid. Anytime you see SPONSORED on an ad or event, you can assume that Macaroni Kid has been supported in one way or another by that business but know all opinions expressed are 100% our own. We will never give you anything less than authenticity from our team. When you visit our sponsors, tell them you saw them on Macaroni Kid! They 💗love 💗 to hear that!
Do you own a local business that would LOVE to market to hyper-local families? Become a partner with Macaroni Kid South Hills! Advertise with us and reach over 5,100 families in the South Hills. We can customize an advertising package to work with your needs and your budget. Send an email to emilyp@macaronikid.com and I can answer any questions you have and send you more information. Our sponsors are what allow us to provide this incredible free resource for parents.
9. Go Big or Go Home. Macaroni Kid National and National Editions:
In addition to our amazing local e-newsletter and website, Macaroni Kid is National and offers great content on a larger scope than your local Macaroni Kid. Follow National on their Facebook page for giveaways, great reads, and more! You can also subscribe to Macaroni Kid National for specific content that will also go right to your inbox only once per month. If at any time you are getting too many emails form National and want to unsubscribe from National only, please email me and I can take you off the list. Unfortunately, if you unsubscribe from a National email, you will automatically be unsubscribed from your local South Hills edition and we’d hate to see you go!
10. It's Nice to Share with Others
Don't keep us to yourself! A BIG part of Macaroni Kid success is represented in the number of our subscribers. There are TONS of ways YOU alone can help us with that!!!
- You can help by good ole' fashion word of mouth advertising. By sharing WHY you love Macaroni Kid with your family, friends, babysitter, daycare, school, mom group, church, you name it - they are going to want in on the secret!
- Make sure dad and mom have subscribed so no one misses out! They will be asking to take the kids more and more once they discover all the free fun our city has to offer.
- Forward our newsletter to your friends, the new mom down the street, the high school kid looking for an internship or the mommy blogger who wants to be featured across the 'Burgh.
- Love something you see on our site? Post our links, share our events and articles on your social media and spread the Macaroni love!
- Show off what you learned from Macaroni Kid on your social media. There's nothing more fullfilling than seeing our readers doing something they saw on our site. Be sure to use the hashtags #macaronikid #macaronikidsouthhills #MKSouthHills and tag us for your chance to be featured on OUR social media stories!!!
- When you refer a new subscriber, make sure they use your name when asked who referred them because we’ve been known to do random acts of love to our biggest fans when we can ;)
- We are all in this together and can use all the support we can get!!! #noparentleftbehind
And lastly, please know that this newsletter is ACTUALLY run by a local mom who shops, plays, visits and engages in the South Hills. Born and raised in Bethel Park, you can read more about me HERE; and if you haven’t met me in person yet, it is only a matter of time ;) If you ever have any questions, comments, fun ideas to share or just want to say hello, you can contact me anytime at emilyp@macaronikid.com.
Welcome to the Mac Kid Family my little Macaronian.
xoxo Emily
