'Macaroni Mom' Makes it Easy for Ankeny Families to Find Fun, Affordable Activities

Are you a family looking for fun yet inexpensive things to do with the kids? One Ankeny mom has you covered.

A stay-at-home mom by day, 29-year-old Christi McKeag is the publisher of Macaroni Kid, a family-centric website serving Ankeny and surrounding communities in the northwest Des Moines metro area.

For no cost, Ankeny area families can have local events, activities and giveaways delivered straight to their email inboxes each week.

“I try really hard to list everything I can find that’s free or low-cost to families,” she said. “Since you find all this in one spot, it makes it much easier to find.”

Macaroni Kid is a national company based out of Water Mill, N.Y. Each website is managed by a local publisher mom, who scours community resources to fill their sites. Publishers also share articles with one another, covering topics ranging from health and safety to crafts and at-home activities.

“For example, we have a publisher of one site who’s a nutritionist, so she will share her articles with all of us,” McKeag said.

Parents can sign up for Macaroni Kid’s free weekly newsletter, which contains local family-friendly events and activities. The site also does giveaways on a regular basis.

McKeag said Macaroni Kid is all about finding things for families to do at little to no cost. If an event as an admittance cost or entry fee of more than $10, the event sponsor has to pay to have it listed on Macaroni Kid.

As part of her job, McKeag finds events and activities to post from cities including Ankeny, Adel, Huxley and Baxter.

McKeag and her husband, Shane, moved to Ankeny five years ago after graduating from Iowa State University in Ames. McKeag said they liked Ankeny because it seemed “family-oriented”.

Within six months, McKeag’s first daughter, Adalyn, was born. Two-year-old Maddox came later.

At the time, McKeag was working for Childcare Resource & Referral of Central Iowa as a data specialist. When her son later developed some health issues, she made the decision in September 2010 to quit her job and stay home with her kids. 

“Going through all that, I was having a really hard time coordinating work with all the doctor visits,” she said. “I figured it would be best for me to stay at home with them.”

As a result of her newfound stay-at-home mom status, McKeag said she found herself searching for activities to keep she and her kids busy. That’s when she stumbled across the Macaroni Kid website in Ames.

“I loved the format of it and that you could customize a site to show what was happening locally,” McKeag said.

McKeag found herself thinking the Ankeny area could use a site like that. A year later, Macaroni Kid for Northwest Des Moines was born.

Macaroni Kid works like many other online publications. McKeag said she happily accepts reader submissions and anyone interested in advertising on her site can email her at christim@macaronikid.com.

One of the things she loves most about being a Macaroni Kid publisher is that she gets to remain a part of her community. 

“I like that I still get to have a hand on what’s happening,” she said. “I would never regret the time I’m spending at home with my kids, but I like to feel like I’m still being challenged.”