A Seuss-Tacular Weekend!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

I am so excited about this weekend! I love the wonderful of Dr. Seuss and so does my son, so this year for Dr. Seuss’ birthday we are at an age where we can really do some fun celebratory things! I’ve started putting together a little list of things to possibly do this weekend that my little Hooligan will enjoy to honor the man who has brought the joy of reading into his life.

The first thing of course is visiting Seussville & PBS KIDS for some very cool coloring & activity print outs. Create a coloring activity book from these fun pages to enjoy during snack time. It’s as easy as print, stack & staple! Seussville also has a lot of printouts and ideas for outdoor/indoor games for various ages and groups of kids. PBS Kids is also have a Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That marathon today. Jaxon absolutely LOVES this show… and I have to admit I do too! It’s got all the essential characters from the original story, (the only addition is the little boy from the story is now black on the show, can’t be mad at the diversity) and they go on daily nature/science adventures where they discover new animals and their habitats. I’ve also downloaded a couple more interactive Dr. Seuss classic story apps on the iPad. Jaxon loves these because the words light up as the narrator reads so that he can read along. The pages also give a description of items on the page when you touch them. I’ve also download Seuss Band which is a great little musical app that uses Seuss-struments in an interactive play for tiny fingers. Jax really lives up to his namesake with this app (One of Jax’s middle names is Coltrane).

There is an endless list of fun budget friendly options you can do with your munchkins this weekend to get them excited about Seuss and reading, below are some of my ideas!

Food:

1. Green Eggs & Ham: Of course this is a given!

2. Sneeches Sandwiches: Take your hooligan’s favorite type of sandwich and cut it out with a star cookie cutter

3. Cat In The Hat Yummy Yogurt: Take a clear glass or cup and make a fun parfait in the colors of the Cat’s Hat. Fill the bottom of the cup with their favorite berry cut or mashed up. Add a spoonful of strawberry yogurt, then vanilla yogurt, then strawberry, then vanilla until you’ve almost reached the top. For a little crunch on top you can add Cheerios or Rice Krispies

4. Roast Beast & Who Tater Pudding: Mashed Potatoes & their favorite Meat or Non-Meat item

5. Noodle Poodle Salad: Spaghetti & sauce. If he/she isn’t to keene on red or white sauce, try warming the pasta in a little olive oil, lemon juice and a grated parmesan or vegan cheese w/ a little lemon pepper.

6. One Fish Two Fish: Get some of the colored Goldfish and in a muffin tin or cupcake holders count out 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Blue Fish, Red Fish. You can also do a fun sweet/savory movie treat. Pop some popcorn and to the popcorn add colored goldfish, graham cracker goldfish and if your child is old enough, some swedish fish!

7. Visit Big Sugar Bakeshop: Big Sugar Bakeshop in Studio City usually have great themed items for special days like today because they are owned by two moms…so they get it! LOL! I’ll probably get a couple of Dr. Seuss items from them this weekend depending on what they have.

Crafts:

1. Face-painting: Painting your hooligan’s face like a cat to watch The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That or to read The Cat In The Hat will definitely make them giggle. Add daddy’s red tie or bow tie and some short white gloves and let their imagination go! For a different character add a shiny star to their cheek or stomach to read The Sneeches. Personally my kid likes walking around the house, belly to the wind so it might be a Sneeches day!

Now I’m not the most crafty person, but I found this online and will be trying some of this stuff out! Seuss Crafts

READ!!!

Dr. Seuss was all about reading and education! So this weekend try to get through at least 2 new Dr. Seuss books with your little one! I believe Target is having a sale on Dr. Seuss books this week, so pick up a couple if you don’t have any in your library. They are also always available at your local library. Grab a blanket, a nice spot in the house and cuddle up to your hooligan and enjoy the wonderful world of reading & Seuss.

Local Los Angeles Events:

Friday March 2:

Giggles N Hugs: Dr. Seuss all day! They will have The Cat In The Hat, Story time, open play and more! I LOVE this place and we will try our best to get there. It’s one of the cleanest indoor playgrounds I’ve ever seen! They also have great food, very secure, a coffee bar and… *drum roll* WINE! LOL! We had Jax’s birthday party here and just fell in love. If you’d like to shop in the mall while your kid enjoys story time today, you can do the drop off for an extra price where your child will be under the watchful eye of a sitter at the facility who will make sure they eat, have a great time and are safe while you shop.

~All Day Long

Saturday March 3:

Central Library Downtown: Dr. Seuss on the loose. Story time and live puppet show at the KLOS Story Theater.

~2pm-3pm

Sunday March 4:

Zimmer Children’s Museum: Dr. Seuss Sunday. Stories, crafts and more at the children’s museum.

~3pm-4pm

And then of course there is the opening of the LORAX today!! I think Hooligan and I will close our weekend with Seuss with that movie on Sunday! If you have any ideas or know of any other events happening, please please share! Have a Seuss-mazing weekend!

Pits, Tar, Dinosaur Bones with a side of Soul Food

Football free Sundays are reserved for Church, Love, Food & Family. Something about being able to just go to breakfast and then end up at a park or a festival, museum or farmer’s market is just the absolute best. I mean usually I am a planner of all planners. I like things organized, mapped out and evenly timed out! But then there are those days when you just take a breath and let the wind take you on a little journey. You may do a lot, you may do very little. And when that happens, that’s when you experience the most magic! Yesterday was one of those magical days!

Hippo, UmMa (my mother) and I decided to trek over the hill for a little brunch at CJ’s Cafe on Pico. Now if you don’t know about eating Catfish, Grits & Cheese Eggs w/ a coffee & fresh squeezed carrot/celery/apple/ginger juice after church on Sundays at CJ’s  than you’re not a true Los Angeles Angel! Roscoe’s ain’t the only thang on Pico Blvd! CJ’s Cafe is one of those local food gems like King Taco, Hugo’s, The Griddle Cafe, Toi On Sunset, Mom’s BBQ, Johnny’s Pastrami on Adams, Vivian’s Millenium Cafe or Bay Cities. These places make up the food fabric of Los Angeles. On any given day you may visit a place like this and you will definitely see someone you know or knew. Places like this make it seem like our little city is nothing more than the little orange grove town it started out to be. So yesterday seemed like the day for a little CJ’s catfish and grits. However when we got there the line was out the door, it was more packed than Roscoes! So we decided to head to the one in Baldwin Hills which has less café feel, but still all the great food and drinks from the original cafe’s menu! I went in with my heart set on Catfish and grits, as usual, but then something made me change to the chicken wings & waffle! I guess a little switch up never hurt nobody! A little chicken wing and waffle and some greens hit the spot! Jax had chicken wings as well and french toast with mama’s MacGuyver vanilla milk. All I did was add 1.5 Vanilla creamers to his milk and then stirred it up. It went as fast as that french toast he inhaled.

Afterward, we had planned on just coming back over the hill and taking a relaxing day on the couch so we could watch the Oscars. The Oscars for me are an inspiration, for her (the hairstylist) they’re homework! On the way, I asked if she could drive by the LaBrea TarPits so Jax could see the Mammoth Statues on the outside. But when we drove by, it was a little hard to see, so we decided to park and play in the outside park so we could get up close to the outdoor pit. What a great idea! The park was filled with families, kids, kites, laughter and sunshine! Jax took off from the energy around him. Once outside the museum, Jax followed the tracks to the big tarpit that faces Wilshire Blvd. and found himself staring at the big Mammoth display! Little did I know that that would only lead to a string of questions. “Was that?” “That Dinosaur?” “Where Dinosaur, Mommy?” “Where Teef-Wex (T-Rex)” “That Dinosaur Train?” By that point my mother and I realized this kid wouldn’t be satisfied until he saw some more dinosaurs and with a kid’s free admission price, we decided to take a stroll around The Page Museum.

I’ve never heard so many “WHOA!’s” and “COOL!’s” come out of my kid! He was beyond excited about all that was happening in that small museum. The first thing you’re hit with is the Saber-Tooth Tiger hologram. It’s a hologram of a Saber-Tooth tiger that will change into the bone structure of the Saber Tooth tiger. It’s a sweet quaint interesting place. It’s actually the first place I ever went to on a school field trip waaay back in 198…*Cough*! To Jax’s dismay, there was no T-Rex! The exhibits are made up of the fossils that have bubbled up in the tar that lives below the surface in that area. Apparently the Mid-Wilshire district was the real setting of ICE AGE! It would seem that Saber-Tooth tigers, Sloths & Wooly Mammoths were chasing each other up and down Fairfax Blvd. It had been some time since I had been in the museum and they had some pretty cool stuff. The animatronics reminded me a little of the old It’s A Small Small World, where you’re kinda wishing you had brought your can of WD40 with you, but Jax didn’t mind. He was blown away by each exhibit big and small. He ran around pointing and reading all the signs out loud, dragging my mom around back and forth with glee! We didn’t sit in the theatre for whatever the presentation was because Jax just had too much energy and he was also on a quest for this Teef-Wex he was sure would be here with the rest of the prehistoric creatures. One of my favorite parts was the area where the scientists bring the bones back to the lab, restoring and prepping them for exhibition. In that area they had the large leg bones, skull and vertebrae of Zed the Mammoth! I’m not sure how much Jax absorbed when I tried to explain to him that the vertebrae fossil was apart of a Mammoth’s back, but the part he did understand I think blew his mind. He kept looking at it and then reach back to feel his own spine! Yea, kid, his is definitely bigger! I still get amazed when I see things like that. Any kind of document, or fossil or artifact that’s over 100′s of 1000′s of years old! That’s definitely the nerd coming out in me!

Once we circled the museum, the three of us went back outside and Jax took off running on the grass, up and down the giant hill. Across the park is their observation pit where you can see the original digging site where they began gathering fossils from the raw tar years ago. It went from an 8ft. dig to a 15ft excavation dig. Between the Page Museum and the Observation 91 Pit is a great landscaped park with some fun statues, nice trees and trails with fun animal tracks. Jax ran, skipped, hopped and danced all the way over to the observation pit, greeting other kids along the way. Once we got to the Observation 91 Pit and he got to see the bones coming out of the Tar and some of the tar bubbling we were pretty much done. The food in his belly had settled, he had danced until his legs were exhausted and the missing nap time came to a head! It was time to go!! The carriage was turning into a pumpkin and the dress back to rags, it was midnight, honey! Poof! But, my kid had explored, dance, run and read every word until his heart exploded with glee! And he jump started a little life into UmMa & Mommy with his infectious laughs. It was an amazing day! Even through a small colitis flare up, with another person there, I was able to enjoy myself because the place is small enough to walk through, but has plenty of places to sit! Another great thing about that museum and area is that it’s in a really great family friendly/art friendly area. The LACMA butts up against The Tarpits, The Petersen Automotive Museum across the street and the Grove & Farmer’s Market is just down the street on Fairfax. Then further east on Wilshire there are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops and stores. Such an amazing little area to live in and/or spend a lazy afternoon with the family or your sweetie. The great thing about LA is that the weather usually allows you to lead an outdoor lifestyle, so we should start taking advantage more often! Take one of your weekend days to get out and just walk or drive. You’ll be surprised at what adventures await you!

 

iPad & iPhone apps for the Tyke: part I

Most of you know the sweet agony of scrolling through thousands of apps trying to find the one that is worth your money and gig space. Let’s face it there are just waaaay too many options and it’s hard to tell what is really going to suit your needs just from the app artwork and screen captions, especially when it comes to apps for your little ones. I mean you don’t want them on a tablet all day, but when they are on it, like me, you want to make sure they are getting the most out of the app you paid $1.99 for!

So I’ve comprised a list of apps both educational and fun that my little Hippo not only enjoys, but has really benefited him educationally. We spend a lot of time playing them together, but Jax will also pick up the iPad, unlock it and play them himself without prompt.

 

Vocabulary:

1. ABC Phonics Word Family by ABITALK : Something new I found that does sounding out and match the word to the photo. He likes this one because when he does a good job a little dinosaur pops up and does a squeal! Cheesy, but he loves it!

2. ABC Spanish Reading Magic by LECTURA MAGICA: Last year when I was in San Antonio we had our son enrolled in The Pineapple School which is a great Spanish Immersion School that not only is in a green facility but is family owned and serves homemade organic Latin themed foods. I believe that school and weekend food fests in Luling City Market barbeque are the only things I really miss about San Antonio! I have been continuing his education with this app. It works and he loves it!

3. Alphabet Tracing by Oncilla Technologies: This one definitely takes a lot of patience when it comes to the tracing. But it has helped with the letter recognition and sounding out.

4. Little Patterns For Kids-Learn Little Patterns ABC by Grasshopper Apps: This one is great! It’s patterns and letter recognition. You can also record your own voice to it.

5. Into To Letters by Montessorium: Shows you how to trace, what sound the letter makes and the difference between lower case & capital letters! We’ve been using this one since we got the iPad!

6. Nick Jr’s A to Z w/ Moose & Zee by Nickelodeon: If your kid is a Nick Jr. kid like mine, he’ll love this one! It’s just like the mini hidden letter game they do between shows on Nick Jr. except now they actually get to pick the letter before Moose does! I wish Nick Jr. would come up with more Moose & Zee app games because this is one of Jaxon’s favorites! He plays it over and over again on both the iPad and iPhone! Speaking of Nick Jr., has anyone tried the Nick Jr. Boost? How do you like it? I’m thinking about joining.

7. Elmo Loves ABC’s for iPad by Sesame Street: Now if your kid is an Elmo freak like mine, they will LOVE this app! It’s pretty awesome! You trace the letter, you get three options of something that starts with that letter and then when you choose one, a song comes up about that subject & letter. There are also some other song options, letter finding, coloring and more. Love this one for younger ones, gets them started early!

8. Super Why! for iPad by PBS Kids: Great for the older toddlers that are just learning how to put their letters together to make a word. Jax loves Super Why! and it’s been very instrumental in building his reading skills. Each time the child completes a task they receive a sticker and that they can use for this interactive sticker book. Sticker was all Jax needed to hear!

So this is what I have for today and as far as vocabulary. Will post my picks for books, math, fun, etc. in the coming days! In the meantime check these out with your kids, I’m sure you’ll enjoy a few!

Liberal Democrat, Moderately Organic

I know most right-wing conservatives believe all us liberals to be agnostic, hemp wearing, peace & love, vegetarian, no shoes wearing hippies. But I’m here to say that all of us leaning toward the left, aren’t hanging off the left. I love my disposable diapers, my ribeye steak with brown butter, and leather Wilson’s nap sack as much as the next red-blooded American. I enjoy my Presidents moderate and my government bipartisan! And you would actually catch me walking out of a catholic church on any given Sunday….that is when it’s not football season! But like most of my liberal brothers and sisters I do try to live a pretty healthy, green, organic lifestyle. Unfortunately though I have fallen victim to the era of convenience many many times! Especially between work, and my colitis and just the hustle and bustle of life… Listen I have been known to feed my child a frozen dinner every now and again! Yes I said it! Me the mom who makes her own applesauce, soup stocks, and juice! However I’m not talking about Kid Cuisines or Hungry Man dinners. Here are some great products we use for our kid that works for my family’s hunger pains, time constraints & budget!

1. Earth’s Best Baked Chicken Nuggets: They can be hard to find, but when I was in Texas they were at most of the Super Target stores. In LA I have found them at Whole Foods.

Yummy!

2. Ian’s All Natural Gluten Free/Allergy Free Products: My son LOVES the chicken nuggets, the fish sticks, Cheeseless Mac & Cheese, and Popcorn Turkey Corn Dogs. I’ve shared some of these with him and have to say…pretty tasty!

Gluten Free

3. Alexia Sweet Potato Fries: Now usually I’ll slice some up and bake them, but these are just as tasty! No need for oil, or frying, just put them straight into oven!

You can get these anywhere

4. Amy’s Kid’s Meals: The Baked Ziti & the Rice Mac & Cheese…. Mommy Approved FOR SURE! So delicious! Vegan cheese! My carnivorous kid will eat these veggie meals!

Baked Ziti is my kid's favorite

5. Goodness for Kids from Fresh & Easy: They have juices, apple sauces and other products that are all tasty and good for kids. Not very much sugar.

Purchased from Fresh & Easy

6. Tritan Alaskan Salmon Burgers from Costco. Now these aren’t certifiable organic, but they are better than most salmon burgers out there and the kids love them. He’ll usually eat them as a burger or mixed with rice. I add a little lemon pepper to the burgers before putting them into oven.

Costco.com

Now these are just a few of my favorite products that I use often. But I’m always on the hunt for new stuff to buy and try. Most of the products from Trader Joes like the frozen Buffalo Burgers, Teriyaki Chicken, Battered Fish Sticks and the mini frozen pepperoni pizzas. I try not to give my son too much of this food, but when my colitis flares up, I’m gonna be too late too cook a fresh dinner or it’s just not a day I wanna be in the kitchen all day, these items fill my little hippo up and I don’t feel as guilty. You see my son has asthma, so I like to keep the amount of sugar and salt down in his diet. Sugars don’t only come from sweets and fruits, but gluten products as well, so we like to keep that down as well. Some of you try to keep the gluten down because of asthma or autism or whatever reason, so try pesto’s instead of tomato sauce. Some vegan cheeses are very tasty even to kids that have never had them. Try the Orowheat sandwich thins instead of regular bread. You can still use your cookie cutters to make fun shapes for the kids and it’s like a third of bread from a normal slice. I use Bragg‘s Liquid Amino Acid instead of soy sauce, salt for taste & color. Instead of sugar in my applesauce I use either raw, agave or brown sugars with fresh nutmeg and cinnamon for an antioxidant boost. I use grapeseed oil & cold pressed olive oil. There are little things you can do in every meal to help keep it healthy and delicious for your fam. Like I said I’m not the most green organic person, but I try!

Mommy Find

If you are a modern chic Z-Gallerie/Crate & Barrel/CB2/Robertson Blvd lovin’ mama like me, then I’m sure you will super love these frames! It came across my daily email from Totsy (and if you ain’t know about no Totsy you need to get on THAT! GREAT MAJOR DEALS!!! LOVE IT!) and I fell in love with them. They are by Secretly Designed and I heart them! Totsy has them in a deal going on now, so I would definitely sign up for that and check them out! They come in a ton of different colors and sizes!

Check out their website and check out Totsy.com for a great price on them!