Coast 2 Coast Mom

Disney.com Create Adds Artistic Collaborative Features & Fun

Last week Disney.com added more features to its popular Create site, which offers kids, tweens and teens an online canvas to create and share their own imaginative Disney character artwork.

Now, a new "Group Wall" adds interactivity and collaboration to the site by allowing you to submit your own original Disney artwork in the form of an evolving online mosaic, in addition to its searchable online galleries of original art where people can search by artist, character and make comments. 

We played around with it yesterday, and Li'l Boo liked watching the Group Wall transform as more artwork was added each minute, hour and day, and of course, finding his OWN artwork in the mosaic. You can "fan" a favorite artist, or "favorite" a piece of artwork, which is a fun feature for older kids and teens.

Since launching in August 2009, nearly 1.5 million original pieces of content have been created on Disney.com Create, and you can count one of them as ours. The launch of the new Group Wall features a cute new portrat of Mickey Mouse, although future Group Walls will feature other Disney characters and stars. (I'm sure LI'l Boo is hoping for a Buzz Lightyear and Woody picture, or maybe a Camp Rock 2 portrait as we know the movie's coming out in September ;-) ). While I was playing around with the site with Li'l Boo, I should say that I thought it was really geared to older kids - I'd say perhaps 7+ whom are old enough to read and understand how to manipulate all of the artistic options.

My other favorite new features for creative Disney fans include:

• Comic Creator You can develop your own comic book using your favorite Disney characters -laying out your own page with graphics, text and images to create your own comic story.
• Music Slideshow Users can create your own music videos using photos of Disney stars and songs from Disney artists.
• Scrapbook Fans can build their own online art portfolio to share with friends utilizing elements from all of the Create activities including comic books, digital paintings, slideshows and more.

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!

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:

 

Make Your Own Muppets on FAO.com

I don't remember how exactly, but this morning I stumbled upon FAO Schwarz's online Muppet Whatnot Workshop. Li'l Boo perked up from his dinosaurs and caught a glance of my computer screen just while the Kermit and Miss Piggy video introduction was playing, and ran over to join me. Although not intended as a game, he loved the virtual Whatnot Workshop! I bet he spent a half-hour rearranging the optional body, eye, hair and costume choices, designing his perfect Muppet Whatnot.

Which made me glad that I didn't expose Li'l Boo to the Whatnot Workshop last holiday season as he appreciated it MUCH more today after having visited Disney's Hollywood Studios and experiencing Muppet Vision 3D earlier this year. (I think that was the first time he'd actually seen The Muppets cast of characters, and I think it's important to see them interacting to get a true sense of what The Muppets are.)

So now I have something else to send Li'l Boo and c2cDad off to do the next time I'm busy in the city on a weekend: they can head to FAO Schwarz and make their own Muppet Whatnot for us to keep. :-D

You can order the muppet you design online for $129.99, and they'll ship two or three business days after you place your order. They also offer e-Gift Cards for people to go online and design and order their own.

Pretty cool, huh?

Mom, Can I Bring The T-Rex Home With Us?

Our mini-Ross was in paleontologist heaven today. Seriously. He had his first dinosaur encounter.

The kiddo proved his bravery yet again as we stood in the crowd of around 100 people and he PET the most realistic dinosaur we have ever seen.

For two years we've been waiting for the return of Walking with Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular to Madison Square Garden (MSG). Today, Li'l Boo got an up close look (and feel) of the smallest incredibly life-like character from the show: the baby T-Rex. It's making appearances every 30 minutes near the corner of 43rd and Madison today and tomorrow as part of the EarthFair going on near Grand Central. Check out the video to see for yourself:

Walking with Dinosaurs from c2cmom on Vimeo.

To be honest, I am shocked that Li'l Boo even put his hand out to pet the baby T-Rex in the video. He later commented that he wanted to take one home, "but smaller, like when it comes out of the egg", he says (perhaps a reference to Buddy the T-Rex on PBS's Dinosaur Train). However, It was so lifelike in its skin, movements and range of motion that it looked crazily real out in the middle of 43rd Street.

It roared and whipped its tail around with such force that the crowd had to duck with amazing reflexes to avoid getting whacked in the head. It moved in close to people's faces and bags to take a look or snap at them and make everyone jump.

It. Was. Awesome.

Or, as Li'l Boo says with a fist-pump, "double awesome!"

We cannot wait to see the show in July! There will be 12 performances from July 21st - 25th and to buy tickets, head to www.thegarden.com/dinos. There is a limited time special offer going on now until May 2nd! It is 22% off tickets with code DINOBLOG.

Cooking with My Kiddo

This post is inspired by the Silicon Valley Moms Blog monthly book club choice for March, Top 100 Finger Foods and Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I received a copy of both books as a part of the book club.

I remember when the idea of cooking with Li'l Boo first came to me. I read in several parenting books when he was a baby that kids are more apt to try foods when they help prepare them. I made a mental note for when I deemed him old enough to assist me, and moved on. Then while living in Naperville, I saw a neighboring family of four kids from about ages 2-8 prepare dinner and a lightbulb went off.

There they were, standing around the counter in the kitchen on various step stools and chairs, each working on different stages of dinner prep. The oldest was chopping a carrot, two were ripping lettuce, another stirring something in a bowl near her mom at the sink. Aha! So THAT'S how she does it! That's how she doesn't lose her mind everyday during the late afternoon/early evening witching hour.  She's not breaking up wrestling matches and blowing up over crayon drawings on the walls upstairs or ushering wailing children indoors to check out a boo boo. She gives' em jobs and keeps 'em busy. These kids were focused and taking pride in what they're doing. . . and relatively happy and quiet. I vowed to copy her from that day forward.

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.

Wild Wild Animals at AMNH

This Weekend I took Li'l Boo along to attend the "Wild Wild World: Awake at Night" program at the American Museum of Natural History. It was a talk about nocturnal animals led by Rob Mies the Director of the Organization for Bat Conservation at Cranbrook Insitute in Detroit. (Yes, I willingly attended a talk about bats - the things we do for our kids. ;-))

Let's Move: Parents Take Action Against Childhood Obesity

Recently the Silicon Valley Moms Group contributors were invited to participate on a call with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss some of the new initiatives being put forth to improve the school lunch programs from a federal level.  This call took place in support of Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative launch today. I was bummed to have missed the call (don't worry - I wasn't TOO bummed, being at Disney World afterall! ;-) )

I had access to the notes of some of the other SVMoms participants and have been reading their posts from the call this morning, and wanted to chime in myself as my perspective hasn't been reflected. The purpose of the call was to educate moms on the current state of school lunches and discuss reauthorizing the Childhood Nutrition Act and increasing school funding for more fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches. (Which is a TOTAL no-brainer for most moms.) I learned that the U.S. provides lunches to 30 million children a year, and serves breakfast to around 10 million, making school lunches a critical component in the Let's Move initiative to combat childhood obesity.