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Monthly Giveaway!
Enter your email for a chance to win 5 lucky winners will receive gift certificates to create 2 customized storybooks from MyOwnStory.com.
By Shirin Yadegar
My two oldest girls start planning their birthdays six months before the big day. They have big expectations with large guest lists. Keep in mind they are only 8 and 6.
After plentiful research and numerous birthday parties I have found the best of the best at the most affordable prices for all of their parties.
The list below is made up from my personal experience with these vendors. I have used all of them and have always been more than happy with their interaction with the kids. They are always on time, professional, well priced and make the party a blast!
Make sure to mention LA MOM MAGAZINE when you call them so they give you my rates!
Tips on dressing up your table for the holidays
By Deborah Gleiberman
What is creative luxury? It means using creativity to enrich our lives. Whether you find an inventive way to store toiletries, fold clothes while humming a song, or add an unexpected spice to a chicken dish, you are accessing your creative side. Luxury is refinement of living rather than a necessity. Well, if you ask me, refinement is a necessity! When I set a table, I want it to look beautiful and refined. It just doesn’t need to cost a lot, at the holidays or anytime. Anyone with the right pocketbook can walk into Saks Fifth Avenue and buy the latest Baccarat votives, call a florist, and call it a day. But for the average mom whose go-to blush stick just might be a pack of ketchup and whose little ones are begging for a Wii or (worse!) an iPad, creativity in the luxury department is a necessity.
Your child can be the star of the story.
By Atoosa Nehorai
For children, the world is wondrous place filled with new experiences and new challenges. Every parent knows that some life events are more complicated and require more attention and discussion than others. As a mother of three, I came to realize the power of storybooks in helping parents explain new situations to their children. I learned that these books can play an important role in facilitating an honest and open discussion about the issue at hand. Upon seeing the benefits of these storybooks, I decided to launch a website which allowed parents to create customized stories which addressed specific issues that were significant to their child; a place where families could write their own stories. (more…)
Teaching your kids to love nature.
By Lisa Niver Rajna
“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life and
not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.” Henry David Thoreau
Not all of us can make a commitment to nature like Henry David Thoreau to go live on Walden Pond, but we do not have to go to such lengths to inspire our children to love nature. By creating wonder and a connection to the environment we can all protect our planet.
We can even share seeds and caterpillars with our children without even going very far outside! As Janine M. Benyus states in Biomimicry:
Bringing children back into nature and nature back into childhood is a job for teachers and parents and friends willing to take a child outside for a lark. There need not be an ‘official’ park involved; finding a place where green things grow, even if it’s a crack in the sidewalk, is enough.
Finally there is a way to get help organizing all of your kids’ artwork.
By Dana Hostage
Have you unpacked your child’s backpack yet from the last day of school? What does one do with the backpack contents when it’s finally unpacked? With certainty, that stack of artwork the teachers sent home is in there and most moms will simply add it to the pile of artwork collected throughout the years.
What can you do with it? Rachel Ray had an interesting post by Katia Hetter on her blog about Purging Picassos. Katie suggests asking your kids which art pieces to keep and which to toss and explaining to them why the need to toss. What child would actually agree to throw out their masterpieces? We have all done it: tossed some art into the trash when no one is around hoping that you’ll never be asked to produce it again.
By Jessica Williams
“Mom, I’m bored!” “Dad, can I use your phone?” “I wish I could’ve brought a friend.”
“Honey, if we leave the hotel at 7:30am, we can make it to the Kapai Trail Loop by 7:45am which we can complete by 9:15am and then we can take a shuttle to the Kunai Trail Loop, and…”
“Sweetie, I was kind of hoping to stay put and have lunch by the pool.”
The kids are out of school, summer camp is over, and it’s time for your annual family vacation. You’ve researched the location, you’ve gotten the time off of work, you’ve spent the money…now, how to enjoy your time together and not secretly long for the days of 9-5! (more…)
By Cari Levin
The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. It’s the one holiday I have never been disappointed by. At the mere mention of it my mind goes straight to perfect weather, kids running around and fireworks that light up the sky. I think it’s the one holiday that hasn’t lost its brilliance as I’ve grown older.
I would be a big liar if I didn’t admit that I look forward to 4th of July food as well. I’m one for the basics: hot dogs and hamburgers, corn on the cob and warm peach cobbler. (more…)
By Shirin Yadegar
A perfect family vacation is when everyone is happy. Rarely do you encounter a place that’s both fit for kids and adults. A place that isn’t too inandated by children, but welcoming to the little ones.
Last month, my husband, three children and myself stayed at the W hotel in Miami beach. It was sensational. The rooms are mainly suites with kitchens so you have plently of room and a stove to make eggs with a full refrigerator for milk and other goodies. (more…)
By Jennifer Brandt
It’s our day to shine and be pampered, but let’s be realistic it doesn’t always seem to work out that way so www.redtri.com is sharing their ideas of how you can spend a great Mother’s Day.
Get Mom-Spired
If you or your mom need some help in the home design department, we have a fun activity that will inspire you both. Tour the Pasadena Showcase House. The entire estate (pictured), from the front yard to the garage, is carefully styled and design by an interior design team. Rich, luxurious, and entirely beautiful, the showcase house is a fabulous way to spend the day (or evening!) in someone else’s home, where marveling with your mouth open is entirely appropriate. Tickets purchased in advance start at $30 and proceeds from your tickets support the LA Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall and local symphonic, cultural and educational programs for youth since 1948. (more…)
By Lisa Niver Rajna
April 22 is Earth Day. What will you do to celebrate our planet? With so many options out there, what will you choose? I’d like to share a few of my favorites that teach our children and show that we can make a difference. With snowfall last month in the San Fernando Valley for the first time in nearly fifty years, major earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, Santiago, Chile and Haiti in the last year, and other environmental issues like the enormous volcanic eruption of Iceland, science is everywhere and a part of everything; it just depends what lens you use to look through. (more…)
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