Coast 2 Coast Mom

Still Gleeful After Seeing Glee Live Tour

c2cDad and I celebrated my birthday by attending the Friday night showing of the sold-out Glee Tour 2010 at Radio City Music Hall. Yay! Glee Live was a high-energy show and the atmosphere around our seats in the orchestra section was electrifying. Seriously! Everyone stood for nearly the entire show . . . I think we sat for part of one slow song. We were surprised - though not shocked - to see so many tween-age girls there with their moms.  Admittedly, we seriously aged-up our section of the orchestra level. ;-)

I think that attending the concert with so many tween-age girls in the audience screaming at the sight of a different character, or a new song, added to the excitement of the entire crowd. It would not have been the concert experience if it was a crowd of adults. There were several moments when some of the cast appeared amused because of the roar of the crowd - like when "Fin" laughed at the beginning of their Bon Jovi number. I'm not sure if the rest of their tour stops reacted with such enthusiasm for that song, or if it was the result of being such an NJ/NYC area group and song. There was a bit near the end when "Sue," Jane Lynch and "Will," Matthew Morrison appeared live on stage and they cut their bit short because the crowd was literally cheering so loudly that you couldn't hear what they were saying anyway. It was funny. I wonder if any of the cast ever envisioned themselves performing to a sold-out crowd at Radio City.

Volunteerism On The Rise: Yay! We're a Part of a Movement

This post is inspired by the Yahoo! Motherboard's topic of the month: volunteerism. Evidence points to an increase in volunteerism this past year, and while I can only guess as to why that is, I can say definitively that our family is a part of that upswing. Check out the site to read more posts by other Motherboard bloggers.

Our frequent moves have made me hyper-sensitive about raising our son with a connection to his family and community. It's important to me that he knows where he comes from, and feels a part of the world around him. So we walk around town completing errands and chatting with the store owners and workers we've come to know, we attend the local summer parades, and last year we started the habit of participating in charity walks and races in the greater NYC area as often as we can. This gives us the opportunity to explore and connect with our community as a family.

There are just so many different causes that we'd like to support, but we don't have the funds - or time - on one full salary to support 'em all, though we do as many as we can, usually two a month from spring to fall. I've written before about doing 5ks as a family and how we do it to instill a healthy lifestyle in the kiddo while getting us up early and moving so we're all outside breathing fresh air and circulating the endorphins for a great family day. I personally enjoy doing so many walks and races because it gives us the opportunity to explore the greater NYC area without traffic early in the morning, and we usually get some great views, photos and experiences out of it. ...plus those warm fuzzies for having done some "good."

Notes from The Sandbox Summit: For Today's Kids, the Medium Is As Important as the Message

Last Monday afternoon I hopped on the Acela and headed up to Boston (Cambridge) to attend The Sandbox Summit, iPlay, YouPlay, WiiPlay, a conference focused on "how play is changing media and media is changing play." It was one of the best conferences I've attended in that it lined up fascinating speakers, offered hands-on workshops, and was intimate in that it was a smaller summit and provided plenty of time for follow-up discussions and networking amongst academics, toy developers, researchers, publishers, marketers and media. It was a summit to share research, discussion, ideas and predictions.

I'll touch upon some of my favorite aspects of the summit that I was fortunate enough to attend (thanks to the team at 360 Public Relations) in various posts over the next few weeks. Though for now, I wanted to share some of what I learned at an interactive workshop led by Stacey Matthias, child development expert and founder and Co-CEO of Insight Kids and Insight Research Group, as an example of what the summit offered. Stacey's hands-on workshop explored the physical, cognitive and emotional development of kids at ages 4, 7 and 11 and which media has the most impact at which ages. Here's what I learned:

Moreso than any other generation, today's kids are living in a world driven by media and technology and this impacts how they communicate, think and play.  Stacey explained that there's no curriculum for integrating technology into young childrens' lives, so today's kids are vastly teaching themselves how to use the new technology, and in many cases teaching their teachers and parents how to use it. There's no 3rd grade curriculum for researching online virtual worlds and video games, or an 8th grade class about social media for kids like there's English and math curriculum, so kids are exploring the online virtual worlds and social media themselves - in a vacuum.

Join me at The Mommybites Summit in NYC tomorrow night!

While traveling home from the Sandbox Summit in Boston (I'll post about some of my fantastic learnings soon!), what got me through the train ride home, was picturing Babybites' Mommybites Summit: The Ultimate Moms Night Out coming up later in the week. I'm excited for some socializing and shopping tomorrow night!

The Mommybites Summit is an evening of parenting discussions led by some local parenting experts, shopping from some of the fabulous vendors and sponsors in attendance (I'm eager to check out several things for my pregnant sister, and did you see that Totsy is a sponsor?), and of course mingling with some inspiring local moms (I'll be making a beeline to meet @MyMomShops in real life, that's for sure).

So it should be a fun evening at the Columbia Faculty House in NYC. Tickets are $50, and $60 at the event, which runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow, May 20th. Won't you join me?

When Mom's Away, Spooky Tigers Come Out To Play

So . . .yeah. This is what happens when daddy watches the kid while Mom's away. Yesterday was a busy day in the city starting off with the annual AIDS Walk New York with around 45,000 in Central Park, followed by a BMS afterparty at the Central Park Zoo. Li'l Boo wanted to actually see all of the animals first - not as interested in the food or activities, but then upon return to the party tent, he himself requested a "spooky" face.

Now let me stop you right there becaue if I'd have been with Li'l Boo we would have skipped over the face painting station. I'm generally not a big fan of the activity. It doesn't seem to last very long, and tends to wind up getting wiped off or smeared onto hands, arms and clothes. However, when c2cDad emailed me a pic of this scary tiger while I was at the SV Moms party on Sunday, I laughed out loud. It looked fantastic, and lasted until they met up with me two hours later, and better still, lasted well enough for us to Skype with both sets of grandparents to surprise them with his colorful face at the end of the day.

Come to find out my Li'l Boo and c2cDad actually walked down 5th Ave to FAO Schwarz after the zoo to pass the last hour while they waited for me to head home to Jersey. They were getting looks and getting stopped along the way by passerbys asking where his face was painted. So Li'l Boo was actually prowling NYC like this on Sunday afternoon. Lol! He just loved it. I have to admit that I loved it too. I also loved that it came off easily with water in the bath.

The name of the company that did this to Li'l Boo is Agostino Arts where they specialize in "transformation facepainting." We thought it's pretty cool. Oh, and they do parties and events . . .seriously, check out some other faces on their site. It's CRAZY!

Having a Ball Playing Atari's New Sandlot Sluggers

Last week we were treated to an amazing baseball wonderland at Atari's headquarters in celebration of the upcoming launch of their Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers video game. They really outdid themselves bringing in Astroturf, a hot dog vendor, popcorn stand, t-ball equipment - thanks to Franklin for the backstop tents that saved me from spending my entire time chasing down baseballs to keep placing atop the t-ball stand for Li'l Boo to hit ;-) Oh yes, there were lots of video game systems set up for us and the kiddos to play Sandlot Sluggers.

Li'l Boo had a fantastic time (they had baseball pinatas! He got to play with @SelfishMom's kids!), and all of the kids appeared to pick up on the game quickly. The game feels like a diverse neighborhood gathering of kids playing baseball. Li'l Boo played it on the XBox and the Wii systems, and told me that he likes the mini games best. "Dingers" is his fave, and it's similar to playing a home-run derby with continuous power batting. Of course, this morning he awoke asking to play a "The Cube" mini game of pitching skills. ;-)

We Figured Out How To Make Dinosaur Cupcakes

We did it! After days of searching for online patterns or samples, or locating a nearby bakery to make them, we came up with our own 3D dinosaur cupcakes for Li'l Boo to take into school to celebrate his summer birthday earlier this week. I kept asking him, are you sure they have to be dinosaur cupcakes? How about dogs or baseball cupcakes? Oh no, they have to be dinosaurs mom. I want dinosaur cupcakes. Gah! (I did find that YouCake has a dinosaur design, but alas they're made in Brooklyn and I didn't have a way to get them over the weekend before Monday.)

So I shared our cupcake decorating books, Hello Cupcake! and What's New Cupcake? with c2cDad asked if he thought we could adapt any of the designs to be dinosaurs. He was up for the challenge. So . . . off we went to A&P and spent way too much time in the cookie, cracker and candy aisles loading up on items that we thought we may be able to use in the dinosaur creations. (In hindsight we bought way too much and have a snack and treat pile to last us a month.)

When Worlds Collide: the Launch Party for GetHatched.com

Last night was a rare instance when c2cDad's world and my world collided. Both of us attended the launch party for GetHatched.com, a Disneyfamily.com site featuring celeb mom Teri Hatcher. While we used to run into each other at related work events quite a bit before Lil Boo entered our lives, this was actually only the first or second time it's happened in the four and a half years since. These days when I attend events like last night with him, I attend merely as "the wife," so it was great for my psyche to have a reason for myself to be at the event rather than a "plus one," and I think I enjoyed myself more because of it. Though, how could I not with some other fabulous NYC area mom bloggers in the Rouge Tomate house last night?!

(Moi, MommasGoneCity, Teri, Nancy, Mominthecity and MacaroniKidNYC)

 
 

Spend Mother's Day with Us and Kids Club Thirteen at the Prospect Park Zoo

Here’s an idea for spending Mother’s Day with the family - and with Li'l Boo and me! PBS THIRTEEN is hosting its inaugural Kids Club Thirteen event on Sunday, May 9th at the Prospect Park Zoo Fleece Festival. Admission will be free on Sunday for Kids Club Thirteen members and you'll get the chance to meet and get a photo with Ruff Ruffman from FETCH! and some other zoo animals. This is the first of many year-round benefits for Kids Club Thirteen members that includes free admission and discounts to NYC-area museums, parks, festivals, etc., and on-air mentions of your kids birthdays! Club activities are geared for families with kids ages 3-11.  

One of the benefits of joining the club is that each month the Kids Club hosts an exclusive event just for its members - 13 events a year (upcoming events include days at the Staten Island Children's Museum, and the Intrepid Museum!) – including chances to meet the kids’ favorite PBS characters. The event at the Prospect Park Zoo on Sunday May 9th, will be the last opportunity to sign up for the Kids Club as a Founding Family member and get for two years at the price of one (a $75 donation). The line-up for Sunday's Kids Club  members-only exclusive activities from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. include:
 

Help Share Our Strength with the Bread Art Project

I took our budding little artist along with me into the city recently to learn more about the Bread Art Project, a program created by the non-profit Grain Foods Foundation and launching in 2010 with Food Network host Melissa d'Arabian and Share Our Strength, working toward the goal of ending childhood hunger in America by 2015. (Food Network fans may remember Melissa as the winner of season five of The Next Food Network Star and now host of her own series, "Ten Dollar Dinners.")

We listened to Melissa speak about why feeding hungry kids is so important to her and how critical whole grains are to nourish growing bodies. (Whole grains being a good source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and nutrients and can play a role in lowering a person's risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.) I was surprised to learn that 17 million children - nearly one in four struggles with hunger, and the ways children can suffer because of hunger: