Coast 2 Coast Mom

Keep Cool at AMNH's Race To The End of the Earth

One way to beat the heat in the NYC area this summer - or at least think "cool" - would be to head to the American Museum of Natural History to check out the new exhibit, Race to the End of the Earth, which opened this weekend. It chronicles two teams, both led by Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Britain’s Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott in their historic race to reach the South Pole and back during 1911 and 1912. I'll be taking Li'l Boo along with me next week once the preschool year ends so I can check it out for myself, and he can get another look at the Lizards and Snakes exhibit. ;-)

Race to the End of the Earth details the logistics required to undertake the 1,800 mile feat which took place almost one hundred years ago. Photographs, paintings and rare historical articfacts from both camps help bring to life the trek, tools and turmoil over decisions that each team made to reach their goal.  Interactive feautres, hand-on activities, and an impressive life-sized recreation of a portion of each of the competitor's base camps bring you closer to the action, making you feel as if you were there. When you visit you're given a card featuring one of the members from either the British or Norwegian team to get an up close and personal experience of how they lived during the expedition.

The exhibit runs this weekend through January 2, 2011. Tickets are available at the American Museum of National History or online through their website.

Getting Married at 9 - Similar to Getting Married at 4? Ridiculous, right?

This post is inspired by the Silicon Valley Moms Group book club choice, I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. It tells the story of Nujood Ali's childhood marriage to a man three times her age, and her courage in becoming the first child bride in Yemen to win a divorce. . .she went on to become a Glamour Woman of the Year in 2008. I received a copy of the book as a participant in the book club.

The saga of Li'l Boo and his preschool girlfriend continues . . .

At dinner last night we were talking about this being Li'l Boo's last week of preschool this year. I told him that the bigger kids in his class were going on to kindergarten, and he would stay with his teacher and a couple of the other younger kids next year. I let him know that his "girlfriend" wouldn't be in his class next year. Li'l Boo surprised us by saying that he'll see her when they get married. It appears that they already have their wedding all planned out. Here's what he told us:

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.

Family Night at 101 Dalmatians Musical

Friday night I was successful in getting c2cDad out of work early to join Li'l Boo and me at Madison Square Garden Theater for 101 Dalmatians the Musical. Li'l Boo was so excited to have him with us! The show didn't begin until 7 p.m., but we were treated to a private meet-and-greet beforehand with DX and Rascal, two of the real dog stars in the show. DX is a show dog, and Rascal came from Second Chances Dalmatian Rescus in Ohio - as well as many of the other dogs. All 15 of the dogs in the cast were noted in the program as in need of loving homes upon retirement from acting.

Me, Jacques Pepin and the Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off

I recently attended my first cook-off and celebrity chef event at the 4th Annual Manischewitz Cook Off in Manhattan. Perfectly timed before the start of Passover, the cook-off celebrated recipes that featured Manischewitz All-Natural Broth. The recipes were all certified kosher, though not necessarily kosher for Passover. (Though Manischewitz did display their new kosher for passover products and I nearly went silly once I got home hunting down the new cotton candy for the kiddo to try.) It was the first cook-off I've attended and I may be hooked!

The day began with a private media tasting with the legendary Chef Jacques Pepin. While I was familiar with him from his series on PBS Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way (and More Fast Food My Way), I learned that he began his formal cooking apprenticeship at age 13 (easy when your parents run a restaurant), and quickly earned respect for his creations, even serving as personal chef to three French heads of state - including Charles de Gaulle in the late 1950s. He moved to the US in 1959 where he made further contributions to the culinary arts and recently earned France's highest civilian honor, the French Legion of Honor. 

Super Science Saturday & Lizards and Snakes Galore

Saturday brings two great science activity choices for us: what to do. . .what to do...

Tomorrow, Ridgewood High School in North Jersey celebrates the 22nd year of celebrating scientific endeavors with Super Science Saturday. We attended last year and enjoyed our morning checking out the experiments, environmental discoveries and cool examples of scientific technology. The kiddo liked seeing the device the fire department uses to see heat sources in the dark, and looking through a telescope to see planets and corona of the sun. He also liked watching the flour, cornstarch and water mixtures "dancing" on the big speakers as music played (you may also have seen this experiement on The Big Bang Theory). Most of the crowd stuck around to see the model rockets launch on the football field afterward, and the kids all run around the field to catch (or fetch) the model rockets when they come back down to earth. It was FREE to attend, although I vaguely remember some booths accepting donations or having info available if you wanted to send in donations to their programs.

Getting Our Pre-Sale Tickets for Walking with Dinosaurs at Madison Square Garden Summer 2010

Li'l Boo has been interested in dinosaurs since he was about two - dinosaurs quickly replaced the train obsession, and today he can name nearly 100 different dinosaurs. (Hence why I'm such a HUGE fan of The Dinosaur Train on PBS.) Of course, his favorite dinosaur is the T-Rex.

I remember seeing commercials for the show Walking with Dinosaurs a year and a half ago when it was at Madison Square Garden, and debating every day whether to purchase tickets for us to see it, as I worried the show would be too life-like and scary for Li'l Boo at that time. I read other articles and blogs from people who had seen the show and the consensus was that most people

Can't Get Through The Day Without Your Apps? Catch "Planet of the Apps" Thursday on CNBC

Earlier today, the Apple App store announced that iPhone and iPod users have downloaded more than 3 billion apps to their devices in less than a year and a half. That's a lot of downloads and speaks to just how popular apps have become and how easy they are to use and share.

If you contributed to those 3 billion downloads, you may want to tune into CNBC for "Planet of the Apps: A Hand-held Revolution" on Thursday, January 7th at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Or, if you're at CES like me, and didn't set your Tivo for it, you can catch it again on Sunday, January 10th at 11 p.m. ET/PT. It's a one-hour program reported by CNBC's Scott Wapner that examines the cultural phenomena and big business of mobile apps: from the launch of the iPhone, to today's 100,000 available apps, the program will also feature developers taking their app to market and how apps have become a part of everyday life and necessary component in today's marketing campaigns.

As a user of many apps, it sounds like it may be an enlightening show. Check out these clips from it:

• What's Your Favorite App?
• Apple & Apps

Crawfish or Crayfish?

First off, I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect at a crawfish boil. Let alone an authentic one - complete with 120 pounds of fresh mudbugs driven up from New Orleans and hosted by a New Orleans native in Washington D.C. for the soiree. How do you cook 'em? Uhm . . . how do you eat em? Luckily, I came across this site to prepare me for the lazy-day boil before our drive down from NJ.

Second, I didn't really know whether you spell it crawfish (like it sounds) or crayfish (which looks right), and here's the answer I got: whichever you prefer.

Li'l Boo whole-heartedly took advantage of the "play with your food before you eat it" aspect (crawfish races and such) and spent most of his time fascinated with the live crawfish in the cooler. He liked how they would reach up with their pinchers if he leaned over the cooler or put his hand over them, and thought they looked "angry" when they did that.

As you can see, beer was imbibed, the crawfish were devoured and the boil was a big hit. It was great to hang with my other East Coast cousins, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to give Li'l Boo his first taste of 'Nawlins.