Need a cookie? Me too. So I printed out this free cookie coupon on the Val-Pak website. You can also print out an offer for buy one get one free cupcakes at the yumminess that is Gimmee Jimmy's.
Hint: When you pull up the website, be ready to print quickly. The coupon locks up after 30 minutes, and of course, you can't print it twice (unless you do it from a few different computers, shhhh).
I'll pick one up tomorrow on my way to New York Sports Club. And then I'll go back at lunch. Then I'll take the kids to Gimmee Jimmy's after dinner. How can I resist when I look at that gorgeous chip-filled photo at left?
Last weekend, we headed to Vernon, NJ, for a family getaway. We rented a condo and spent the days at Mountain Creek Water Park. My best friend was with me. She took her 2-year-old and 8-month-old on a short walk on a main road in the large condo complex where we were staying. That's when she saw them. A mother black bear and her cubs were also out having a stroll.
She froze. The bears were only 20 feet away. She didn't want to alarm her 2-year-old who was likely to start screaming and crying if Mommy started screaming and crying. As she slowly stepped away, she looked for cars. She frantically flagged down an SUV and told them she and her kids needed to get inside. The driver was happy to help and took them back to their condominium safely.
Our au pair also saw some black bears just outside of the water park right before she met us there. Then today, I read that a black bear in Vernon knocked a man over last Friday and took his sandwich. The bear took the bread, salami and meats but left the lettuce, onions and tomatoes. It was the first time a bear had attacked a person in 25 years, police said.
So be careful if you're headed to rural NJ this weekend. Especially if you're just going on a leisurely stroll. Especially if you're carrying a salami sandwich.
Local artists--ages 5 to 13--showed off their creativity at Panera last Monday. Students from the Montclair Art Museum children's classes were invited to have an exhibit, see photos from their big show, below.
One excited artist, 11-year-old Andrew Portnoy, said, "I can't wait to take my next class." He's in luck: Summer children's classes at MAM are still open for registration.
My 5-year-old got her first bicycle last weekend. She made me proud when, before even looking for the bike she wanted, she ran over to the helmets to choose her favorite. Apparently this is not so common. A new national study shows that families in the U.S are not making helmet wearing a priority for their children.
The study reveals that 1 in 4 children age 4 - 17 never wear bicycle helmets. Only 21 states and the District of Columbia require children to wear bicycle helmets. NJ's law states that children age 17 and younger must wear them. In states with the helmet law, helmet use is more than twice as high as in areas without a law.
If you're looking for a summer activity to fill up the day, head over to Madison Square Park in NYC. Every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the summer, Madison Square Kids offers free children's concerts and entertainment for the family. The line-up is great and includes: Trout Fishing in America, AudraRox, The Deedle Deedle Dees, and Montclair's own, Danna Banana.
The concerts take place on the Oval Lawn, which is right in the middle of the playground and Shake Shack, so after the kiddies work up an appetite playing in the playground and rocking to the music, you can fill their bellies with burgers and fries.
We are getting in the July 4th spirit at our house. I can't quite help make a float (or a prom dress out of duct tape) but I can help you make some musical instruments for the kids.
I thought they can use them to "march" in the parade. My son has been practicing - making up songs and shaking his "tambourine" and "maraca".
Start your 4th of July festivities early and attend All American Family Night tomorrow in Upper Montclair. The celebration takes place on the lawn of St. James Church at Valley Road and Bellevue Avenue.
Little kids will love the balloon art, treasure hunt and "Red, White and Blue" costume contest. There will be entertainment from American Idol contestant Stephanie White and guitarist Robbie Lafalce. Grab dinner at one of the local restaurants, but save room to enter the pie eating contest at 6:45 p.m.
See them setting up, below, and click to the jump for all the details...
After reading Kristen's post last week about when an adult hits a child, I starting wondering how common spanking was these days.
I was spanked as a child--frequently. My mother strongly believed the saying, "Spare the rod, spoil the child". She is from Mississippi, where a kid had to go out and pick a strong, thick switch for a beating. Luckily, she wasn't that harsh with me, but I had some pretty bad spankings that I'll never forget.
According to ChildAdvocate.org, corporal punishment is illegal in 17 countries. In the U.S., it is legal in all 50 states to spank your child and in 23 states, teachers can paddle your kids. In fact, The U.S. and Somalia are the only countries in the United Nations who have refused to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
July has arrived and it's a holiday weekend. There will be parades, BBQs and fireworks to enjoy. If you want to find something to do with your kids, Barista Kids is the place to look. Check our calendar often and sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of all the local happenings, great deals and giveaways. Here are this week's highlights:
Attend a Film Festival July 1
Head over to The Newark Museum for The Black Film Festival's youth cinema.
Enjoy a Parade July 4
Montclair's 59th annual 4th of July Parade marches through town. Wave hello to Barista Kids!
Do Some Summer Reading July 7
It's the kickoff event of the Be Creative Summer Reading Program at the Bloomfield Public Library.
Nelson Mandela Day is July 18, and includes and all-star concert at Radio City Music Hall, a special stand at Grand Central and a dinner at Cipriani's.
One local boy was part of the pre-celebration when 11 New York City area kids went to Johannesburg, South Africa. They were selected from a pool of 1,000 students who submitted essays about Mandela's legacy. They all had individual meetings with Nelson Mandela. See Aron Augustitus, a 13-year-old from West Essex Middle School who lives in North Caldwell with Mandela at left.
Aron wrote new lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream for Mandela, read it on the next page.
I'm frantically trying to come up with an idea for Barista Kids' 4th of July Parade float this Saturday. We have a red pickup truck, but that's about it. Have any ideas for us? Please help me before I am driven to drink vodka (even though I hear vodka makes me old). I promise not to drink while driving the float.
Maybe I should ask these nifty kids, see left: They're creating duct tape prom dresses. Around the country, couples made thrifty outfits from the tape that can solve the world's problems. Then they entered their photos in the Stuck at Prom online contest, which is down to 10 finalists. The winning couple and school will get $3,000 scholarships. Vote for the best duct tape prom dress by Thursday, July 2.
At a meeting around my dining room table last night, a few parents mentioned that their daughters were bored in Girl Scouts, and the implication was that this might lead to them dropping out of the troop.
Bored is one of those trigger words for me--I get up on my mental soapbox, and start delivering a lecture on the many meanings of the word and how we should and shouldn't respond when we hear it. Not only does it come from my nostalgia about childhood, and how back in the day, we were never bored--because I know that can't be true. There were times when my club meetings didn't provide enough entertainment. They often took place in the crawl spaces under the garden apartments in Whitestone, Queens, with suds coming in from the leaking washing machine above, and lights flickering from a Sabbath candle on an orange crate.
In my years as an elementary school teacher, bored kids were accustomed to having grown-ups fix the things in their lives that weren't easy.
For mothers of little kids, a child's birthday is all about bouncy houses and goody bags. But when your kid turns 17, it's all about the driver's license -- especially for boys. I can't say I was ready for this milestone, but when the time came (and it came early, because we had an 8 a.m. appointment in Wayne), I was rooting for him. Here's what it looked like.
Glenfield Middle School students are raising money for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan tonight. Head to Montclair Public Library to hear their songs and get some dessert.
A Coming Home: Teens Tribute for our Troops Who: All ages What: A fundraiser for troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan Where: Montclair Public Library
50 S. Fullerton Ave.
Montclair, NJ 07042 When: Monday, June 29, 7 p.m. Cost: $7 per person, all proceeds to benefit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Update: Joe Jackson & Al Sharpton held a press conference at 2:40 p.m. Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson's mother, has been granted temporary guardianship of Michael's three kids.
In Panera Bread this morning, a 4-year-old boy was singing Beat It--and doing a moonwalk. This weekend at Mountain Creek Water Park in Vernon, NJ, teenagers were trying to belt out the song, but they didn't know the words.
Imagine that? They did not know the words to Beat It. They didn't even know the part, "So you wanna be bad?" I felt bad, for sure--like I was 2,000 years old.
I just read an article on NJ.com about Michael Jackson's kids that got me thinking about what's next for them. He had three: Prince Michael, 12; Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7, also known as Blanket. Surely, he had chosen their legal guardians in case he died. (My husband and I still haven't done that, and we need to.)
Will we ever see those kids' faces? I hope we don't. MJ wouldn't want that.
See Janet Jackson speak at last night's BET Awards--an impromptu Michael Jackson tribute--below.
This morning when I dropped the twins off at MMO summer camp, I forgot their sunscreen. We've had so little sun this summer that I had taken it out of their backpacks. Luckily, I had some $27-a-tube Anthelios facial sunscreen in my purse. I slathered them with it.
I'm afraid I'll get locked up if I let them burn. Do you ever forget your kid's sunscreen?
My Third Grader at Hillside worked his charm on me last week, begging to be allowed to bring home a pair of chicks or ducklings for the weekend that his class had been watching grow from pre-hatching days, courtesy of a local farm. Once the little birds get to what he aptly calls the 'leggy' stage, they're sent back to the farm, where I'm sure they are allowed to feed and run freely and live a long far from the slightest whiff of tarragon or plum sauce.
"They're really easy to look after," my 9-year-old assured me, "and there will be many lessons learned." He was right, here are the lessons I picked up. I dearly hope he learned as much as I did.
Lesson 1: What goes in must come out. The minute we walked through our door with the adorable, fuzzy 3-day-old house guests, my son announced, "Oh, by the way, all they do is poo and pee the whole time." No kidding.
We got the letter. The letter that Montclair parents of 5-year-olds nervously await--the kindergarten assignment letter. After touring and reviewing the six magnet schools Montclair offers, parents list their choices 1-6 and keep their fingers crossed that they get the school of their dreams.
We got our first choice--Nishuane. It's the largest school so getting in probably wasn't that hard. Still, I let out a loud, "Woohoo!" when I opened up the letter. I felt like a winner.
Today is day two of the Bloomfield Center Sidewalk Sale. If you missed it yesterday, don't fret, there will be more great deals, food tastings and family entertainment today. Dandy Dan, a stiltwalker, balloonist and juggler will entertain the kids from 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. That's him in the photo on the left.
We also hear that Williams-Sonoma, in Montclair, will have an all-day free food tasting of summer favorites: baked beans, coleslaw, ice cream and more.
1st Annual Montclair Community Pre-K Super Flea Market (20 stations!)
Montclair Community Pre-K
49 Orange Road
Montclair, NJ
If it rains, we're safe under the parking structure! Stop by and purchase cool new stuff. Featuring: lots of adult & kids clothing, toys, electronics, sports memorabilia, beauty products, & more! All money from the sale of spaces went directly to the Pre-K scholarship fund!
Garage Sale
Girls junior clothes: Abercrombie, Hollister, AE; swingset; tama drumset; Radio Flyer Wagon (see left); heavy duty folding metal trailer w/spare
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (no early birds)
24 Melrose Place
Montclair, NJ 07042
It will actually feel like summer this weekend, according to weather reports. Hopefully, they're not teasing us. Here are some news bits to keep you busy.
1. Turtle Back Zoo will host the 7th Annual Essex County Open House. It will be a day of free admission, live music, games and giveaways.
2. Another open house on Saturday and Sunday: Colony Pool in Chatham, NJ, will offer free admission to their beach Saturday and Sunday. This is such a great, uncrowded spot for younger kids--see photo left. The pool is still taking members, unlike Montclair Beach Club. This pool is a steal compared to our options in Essex County, and it's only 25 minutes away.
3. If your kid has dreams to be the next Bobby Fischer, bring him over to Church Street Kitchen for a free chess demonstration by Essex County chess champion, Lev Zilbermintz. Lev will be there to teach his chess skills to both young and old. Learn more about the game and have lunch too.
4. Finally, still looking for summer camp? How about sewing and fashion design? Two Montclair moms have started Camp Style for tweens and teens. One of them, Chelsea Harrimon, has worked as a professional costume designer and fashion instructor at FIT, Montclair State, and Berkeley College. Kids will create new projects every day.
Need a cookie? Me too. So I printed out this free cookie coupon on the Val-Pak website. You can also print out an offer for buy one get one free cupcakes at the yumminess that is Gimmee Jimmy's.
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