The Next Kid Thing

I’ve been more MIA than usual the past few weeks since we’re finally in our “new” old house.  As part of our ongoing renovation and the eventual move-in, I’ve been researching ideas for the kid’s playroom.

There’s so many options, so many ideas, but only so much budget to go around.  I know the hurricane may or may wreak havoc on some parts of the east coast, what better time to share a new option for indoor playhouses.

Modern Playhouse recently debuted their new line of minimalist and sustainable indoor modular play structures.  Designed by momprenuers and San Francisco based designers Gitane Royce and Nisreen Witt, the playhouses were designed to be durable and safe for the children and environment.  Modern Playhouse uses FSC Certified wood products that are treated with non-toxic, non-formaldehyde containing, and naturally pigmented finishes. The metal fasteners and hardware contain no lead.

The Playhouses, which come in the Wedge or Circle option, also have furniture accessories that can be purchased separately.

I love the simplicity, yet contemporary edge to these playhouses, and their sustainable features make them even more attractive.  These gorgeous playhouses would be a great fit in our new playroom, but alas, at $1450, it’s not quite in the budget right now.

One of the best parts of spring and summer is the joy that is eating outdoors.  In fact, tomorrow celebrates just that!  June 18th marks national picnic day.

With keeping sustainability in mind, paper plates and plastic forks and spoons have gone by the wayside for many families.  So, besides using reusable picnic gear, what’s a family to do?

Go the bamboo route.

Yes, bamboo!

Bamboo, well known for its ability to grow quickly and decompose just as fast, has become one of the most sustainable materials out there…and that goes for kid plates and utensils.  As much as I dislike the idea of disposable gear, sometimes, for the picnic or beach, there’s no way of getting around it.

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This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, and I hope everyone is prepared for fun in the sun!  I’ve got quite the backlog of posts, so I thought I’d dedicate the next few to fun summer-inspired gear.

Speaking of which, I just eyed some fun whimsical summer prints, from the well-loved Swedish line, Polarn O. Pyret.

Polarn O. Pyret, synonomous with classic, well-made children’s clothing, has a distinctive European flair that stands out among the crowd.  Polarn O. Pyret accommodates sizes from babies to big kids and even mamas, too.  I love that so many of their prints and designs are gender-neutral, including this fun sailboat-clad Summer Fun T for baby.  The line also offers a fabulous variety of eco-friendly clothing that uses organic cotton, with sizes also available for baby, big kid and mama.

Check it

In the NYC area?  Citibabes is having Polarn O. Pyret trunk shows at its Scarsdale and SoHo locations.

Check out the Scarsdale Citibabes on June 3 for the Polarn O. Pyret trunk show.
RSVP to scarsdale@citibabes.com or 914.725.3334.

Check out the SoHo Citibabes on June 9th and 10th for the Polarn O. Pyret trunk show.
RSVP to soho@citibabes.com or 212.334.5440

Get ready to brush off the grill, and break out your aprons and grilling tools.  Not only is May National BBQ Month, but with Memorial Day right around the corner, backyard BBQ season is about to go into full swing.

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Earth Day has come and gone, but hopefully, the important lessons from the day continue to linger in your home, as I hope it will in ours, too.

There are so many fun and fabulous green toys on the market, especially now that the eco-friendly segment continues to grow as parents become increasingly more aware.  But one concept of green toys I hope to see more of, are upcycled toys such as Makedo.

Makedo, a concept that I learned about at Toy Fair, is a connector system that enables materials including cardboard, plastic and fabric to easily join together to form new objects or structures.

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Last year, Michelle Obama visited Sesame Street to tout the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Later in the year, the First Lady cultivated her own organic garden at the White House to further emphasize the value of healthy eating and gardening.

Since then, announcing her Let’s Move campaign, which focuses on combatting childhood obesity, Mrs. Obama has made it her mission to educate families and kids about making healthy choices, including cultivating your own seeds—figuratively and literally.

So, when Sesame Street, together with Ferry Morse, introduced their new line of gardening products geared to kids, the marketplace area at the Annual Easter Egg Roll was an impeccably-timed venue to help even more kids learn about gardening first hand.  The kid and I had a fun time learning how to plant watermelon seeds, or um, excuse me—wataaaahmelons.

The Muppets of Sesame Street can be seen on packets of watermelon, pepper, sunflower, pumpkin, garden beans and tomato seeds, for parents and children to plant together.  The new product line also features Sesame Street-themed gardening totes complete with an activity booklet, seeds, tools, labeling stakes and stickers, a mini garden kit and a mini greenhouse with recipe card.

Sesame Street’s new gardening line is a perfect way to encourage kids to be green while going green.  As part of Sesame Street’s My World is Green and Growing initiative designed to support children’s innate curiosity about nature, each product includes educational materials that teach children how fruits and vegetables begin with seeds and grow to become food for the table.  Additionally, it compliments Sesame Street’s ongoing Healthy Habits for Life initiative, helping children develop healthy lifestyles they can practice forever through fun and simple every day activities.  Materials include a booklet with activities for children, planting tips for parents and healthy recipes parents and children can make and enjoy together.  The following items are available now:

• Seed Packets – $1.99
• My First Mini Greenhouse – $4.99
• My First Mini Garden – $5.99
• My First Gardening Kit (tote) – $10.99

“Research shows that introducing young children to the natural world is the first step towards helping them develop a caring attitude towards the environment,” said Maura Regan, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Licensing states.

Be sure to head to Lowe’s to grab a few gardening items for the kids. I found them at the back of the store, close to the garden center.  Though I wasn’t too impressed with the plastic Sesame Street gardening tools (though, they’d be perfect for the littlest gardeners), the kits do look cool.  Even if you don’t pick up the tote or kits, the seed packets are reasonably priced at $1.99. We’ve got some peppers, sunflowers and green beans to plant!  Let’s hope they fare better than our watermelon seeds which didn’t make it back from DC in tact!

With Earth Week just upon us, BabyBjörn’s new offerings are a perfect segue to next week’s eco-friendly and sustainable goodies, gadgets and gear.

Last September, BabyBjörn went a little greener:  three of its most popular products are now being offered in organically grown cotton, including the BabyBjörn Baby Carrier Original Organic in Walnut (below left) and the BabyBjörn Baby Carrier Active Organic (last one) and BabyBjÖrn Babysitter Balance Organic in Walnut/Khaki (below right).

Organic cotton is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and from plants which are not genetically modified. BabyBjörn’s Organic textiles meet the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).  In addition, all fabrics that come into contact with baby’s skin are Class-1 Oeko-Tex certified, which means that they are absolutely safe and free from harmful substances.

In the baby days, I couldn’t have survived without our BabyBjörn Carrier Active. Not only are carriers wonderful for bonding, but when running errands, traveling or using public transportation, it was nice to have baby close and still have both hands to maneuver.  For busy parents who are on the go, the Bjorn is a product to consider.

The main caveat I had with our BabyBjorn, was after our kid hit 8 months, it was difficult to wear him because he was so heavy.  He was always in the 100 percentile, so after a certain weight, babywearing was tough with our particular carrier.  I’ll have to check out the new carrier with more backsupport for our next kid.  Also, I had to “settle” for our blue carrier, but if we had the option 2 years ago, I would have much rather gone the organic and natural colored route.  If the organic option’s there and you can afford it, then why not?

BabyBjörn’s Organic Line is now available in department and juvenile specialty stores throughout the United States and Canada.  In addition to the Organic Line, BabyBjörn will be introducing the Comfort Carrier, which is set to launch in May.

I typically review and talk about kid products and services, but I thought I’d start something new. I thought I’d overlap Mama Likey over here on NKT and feature products that might not be geared TO kids, but are still used FOR kids or, in essence, products that make our jobs as parents easier.

So, with that, I’ve got laundry on the brain today. With Spring in full bloom, we’re finding ourselves outside for hours at a time usually playing in dirt, getting sweaty and adding to the laundry piles. And I mean PILES.

Because we’re still city dwellers, at least for another few weeks, doing the laundry at the laundromat continues to be quite the chore. Gather, lug, schlep it a few blocks, unload, wait…and wait… It’s such a tedious process, to say the least.

And so, when a new laundry product designed to streamline this process makes its way onto the market, I’m usually the first in line to try it out. In this case, a few months ago, the husband* brought home a smallish, slender bottle not too long ago. The packaging, itself, was eye-catching because of the sleek modern design.

The cool bottle was none other than Method Laundry in Fresh Air.

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Egg Rolling, DJ Lance, fresh fruit and outdoor activities on the White House South Lawn?  Why, yes, please.

Yesterday, around 30,000 people from all 50 states and DC made their way to the South Lawn of the White House for this year’s Easter Egg Roll. Out of luck, our family won tickets in the online lottery for this year’s event and battled the traffic—cars and people—and let the kid have a go at this Egg Rolling business.

In addition to the generations-old tradition of egg rolling, the event reflected Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative introduced earlier this year. The Egg Roll’s theme, ‘Ready, Set, Go!’ echoed the First Lady’s campaign to educate kids about making healthy choices in an effort to combat childhood obesity.

As the official welcome, as seen in the event program, described, the White House’s South Lawn was transformed into America’s Playground for the day.  The Easter Egg Roll, the largest annual public event held at the White House, featured stations and activities sprawled across the Lawn, which were aimed at entertaining and educating all the kids (and even the parents in attendance.)

Healthy Activities

Aligned with the Let’s Move initiative, the healthy activities were a welcome addition to the event.  We spent most of our time dancing to the fun music in the Hop to It stage.  We missed out on seeing Yo Gabba Gabba which played during a different timelot, but we had the chance to see our good buddy, DJ Lance hula hooping on the Hop to It Stage.

The kid even hammed it up for Ellen Degeneres’ cameraman while dancing to DJ Tony, who just so happened to play a few of his favorite songs, one of which included Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow.  It doesn’t get any more memorable than that.

The Family Farmer’s Market was a cool area that gave kids a look at healthy eating with celebrity chef demo stations.  One of the stations was the smoothie station, something that the kid adores, much thanks to one of his favorite shows.  We loved the Make Your Own Garden, which not only used the White House Kitchen Garden as inspiration, but showcased some of the new seed packets from Sesame Street’s new gardening line (more info on this in a different post)  We took home a watermelon seedling and hope to plant some sunflowers in the garden of our new house.

The sports station, geared to the older kids, featured demos on softball, golf, soccer, basketball and tennis.  At later time slots, I heard professional athletes were on hand to offer the demos!

The performers and celebrities were quite the highlight of the day’s events.  In our specific timeslot, the kid managed to sit in on Maria reading a story, with Elmo on hand to help out.  Later in the morning, Reese Witherspoon, one of my favorite actresses, read to the kids as well.

Accessibility and Sustainability

The accessibility and sustainability of the Egg Roll were the two main aspects that impressed me the most.  In years past, the Egg Roll was said to be reserved mainly for Washingtonians and other locals.  This year marked the second year that tickets for the Egg Roll were distributed online.  The White House extended this year’s event, beginning the festivities at 7:45 AM (yawn!) and an end time of 5:45 PM. Each group of 6,000 guests spent two full hours on the White House’s South Lawn.  For the first time, guests from all 50 states and DC were represented at the annual Egg Roll.

As a parent who aims to be eco-conscious, I was pleased that sustainability was prevalent throughout the event.   I appreciate that the event geared to teach kids how to garden, to shop at Farmer’s Markets, make healthy foods and much more.  The White House said that it made an effort to minimize the environmental impact of the 2010 Easter Egg Roll.  Some of the highlights include: the “greenest” souvenir egg in Egg Roll history, crafted from Forest Stewardship Council certified U.S. hardwood; goody bags made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic; the use of organically grown fruits and vegetables at the Play with Your Food station; and increased recycling and composting capabilities on the day of the event.

Winning tickets for the Egg Roll was a special thing, and one that a few of my Twitter followers and friends were sure to remind me about. As opposed to the events that we regularly attend for NKT, this wasn’t a blogger event, it was pure luck:  Out of the 250,000 people who registered to attend, we were one of the lucky few.  In general, we don’t win much at anything, in fact, we usually have the worst luck ever.  So, even if it was an unexpected expense to travel to DC while we’re in the midst of buying our first house, and miss seeing most of our family this Spring, it was incredibly important for us to attend the Egg Roll.  To experience this special event, and also to be a part of the Let’s Move campaign first hand, a topic that I try to cover as often as possible here on NKT, the White House Easter Egg Roll was a fun adventure we won’t soon forget.

Thanks for letting me share this event on NKT, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

And here’s more information, in case you guys want to know more:

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Last week, I had the privilege of being invited to the annual Blogger’s Brunch here in NYC, where a number of influential bloggers networked and interacted with various companies and marketers. One of the organizations present at the brunch was Goddard Schools, a school that I know a few of my friends and family have turned to in the past.

Goddard Schools had a lot of great information to share with us bloggers, but one piece of information that was especially helpful for NKT was their 10 Eco-Friendly Toys Under $30. Together with Eco-Child’s Play, Goddard Schools unveiled a really great list of eco-friendly AND budget friendly toys.

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