The Next Kid Thing

Of the hundred or so exhibitors at this year’s BlogHer conference, since it was a blogging conference geared to women, the booths were geared to moms and families.  Sprout was onhand to share all about their latest programming, and even distribute a few cool branded notebooks, coloring books, cups.  My guy is sort of obsessed with Chica, so we’ve set aside our Chica cup to use to organize pencils and pens in his new room.

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Chugga, Chugga, Chugga! Already a global hit, Chuggington, a Ludorum property, is a CGI children’s show that focuses on a trio of trainee Chuggers and is set to debut on Playhouse Disney on Monday, January 18. Playhouse Disney, home to kiddie favorites like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and one of our faves, the Imagination Movers, is known for introducing fun and playful shows—especially ones with theme songs that are sure to linger. (Hot Dog dance, anyone?)

Chuggington, which is geared to the preschool crowd, follows three young trainees, Wilson, Brewster and Koko and their colorful adventures. Introduced in the U.K. in 2008, and then in France, Australia, Germany, Japan and Canada, Chuggington is poised to be the new favorite locomotive series stateside.

The show conveys life lessons and social-emotional values relevant to preschoolers, validating its global popularity with kids and their parents. Chuggington was developed by the same brains behind Bob the Builder (Sarah Ball, Director and Writer) and Thomas the Train (Don Toht who led the creation of the toys systems).
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In the video game sector, titles and technology are constantly evolving. With many new handheld titles and fun family titles to choose from, I had a tough time narrowing down NKT picks. I could go on and on with this exhaustive list for great family video games, but I chose many of the ones below because I had the unique chance to experience them first hand. For the ones that I didn’t try out myself, I felt that their family-friendliness and entertainment value coincided with NKT’s scope.  And as far as giveaways go, this is a biggie!  Enter for a chance to win these recently released video games and NKT picks!
So, here they are:

Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom
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As a huge fan of Jim Henson, naturally, I love all of the quirky characters, including Emmet Otter! Moms and dads, do you remember Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas from the Muppets? I sure do! Who could forget Emmet and his Ma and their take on the “Gift of the Magi.” This holiday season, especially in these economic times, Emmett and his Ma’s story hits home even more.

And how cool is this? The Goodspeed Musical Theatre is now featuring A Goodspeed Christmas, their theatrical adaptation of Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter. The Goodspeed Theatre is located in East Haddam, CT and the Goodspeed Christmas is playing now until January 3.

Over on Twitter, it’s Emett Otter Day on the Jim Henson Company’s feed, so be sure to check them out for cool updates and giveaways! My guy is loving Emett Otter and friends because of the cool music; I can’t wait to watch it again with him!

Tonight is one of my most favorite nights for holiday tv: it’s the annual Rockefeller Tree Lighting on NBC! This year, is a little different since we’re not even in the NYC are at the moment, but it’s sure to be just as amazing!

As in years past, this tree lighting will be ushered in by a host of fabulous celebs and one of my favorites, Zachary Levi of Chuck will be hosting alongside of Jane Krakowski of 30 Rock Fame.

The tree lighting celebration will feature Michael Buble, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Barry Manilow, The Roots, Shakira, and The Radio City Rockettes performing a mix of some festive tunes. I heard some rumblings that the Electric Mayhem (as in The Muppets!) will perform along with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and Pepe the King Prawn tonight as well!

Aside from the Tree Lighting Celebration on NBC, be sure to catch day 2 of ABC Family’s annual “25 Days of Christmas.” The ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas will features a great lineup of holiday family movies, with the Pixar Shorts as the highlight for me.


Starting at 7:00 p.m. tonight as part of the 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family, Disney will present 20 “Pixar Short Films.” The lineup of shorts will include: “Presto,” “Lifted,” “Jack-Jack Attack,” “BURN-E,” “Unidentified Flying Mater,” “Adventures of Andre and Wally B.,” “Boundin,” “For the Birds,” “Geri’s Game,” “Knick Knack,” “Luxo Jr.,” “Mater and the Ghostlight,” “Mike’s New Car,” “One Man Band,” “Red’s Dream,” “Tin Toy,” “Your Friend the Rat,” “Rescue Squad Mater,” “Mater the Greater” and “El-Materdor.”

Jack Jack Attack and Boundin’ are our family’s absolute favorites!



The Tree Lighting Ceremony AND Two fun hours of Pixar awesomeness! Holiday programming just doesn’t get any better than tonight!

While we all have turkey and stuffing on the brain, I guess it’d be a good time as any to let you know what our friends over at Nickelodeon have planned.  Dubbed Superstuffed Nicksgiving Weekend, Nick has a great lineup of shows this weekend including new episodes, marathons, and movies.

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Over the weekend, the Yo Gabba Gabba Live tour kicked off at LA’s Shrine Auditorium. I loved following the developments on Twitter, which makes me that much more excited to hear about the show in NYC this weekend.

In case you haven’t heard, Sesame Street celebrated its 40th birthday yesterday! NYC proclaimed November 10 Sesame Street day, not only that, but they added Sesame Street to the NYC map (temporarily) were all over the news, and all over this blog too!


It’s hard not to notice just how much this children’s tv show is loved, what with the media frenzy all day and week. But one of my favorite ways that the world celebrated Sesame Street was with the various characters gracing the homepage of Google over the past week!


As the research geek, I’ve loved having the Sesame Street Gang greet me with each visit to Google! In case you missed them or want to enjoy them again, the Google has them all listed here and are available for download! I love the characters from other countries. I mean, how can you not?


Here’s to 40 more years of Sesame Street! (ah, ah, ah!!)

Thank you everyone so much for participating in the My Awesome Giveaway! From the reception of the contest, it’s quite evident that NYC Yo Gabba Gabba fans are no joke!

Congratulations to Jill Walenga! Watch your email for details! Congrats and enjoy! [As with all contests, the winner has 48 hrs to email me back. If I don't hear from them after that, I will pick a new winner.]

I wish I had more tickets to give away, but alas, there can only be one winner. Thank you again everyone for participating in such a fun giveaway.

For those still interested in scoring tickets, I just noticed that one of my good friends, Carol of NYCityMama is holding her own giveaway for YGG tickets to the 5pm show on 11/21. Her contest ends today and has different rules and regulations, so please make sure to read them before entering…and tell her Jen from NKT sent ya!

Thanks again everyone!

October 20 was a sunny day for me. In fact, the clouds—yeah—-they were swept away, too.
Oh yeah, I found the way to Sesame Street.

By way of a shuttle bus, along with several other NYC parent and family-oriented bloggers, I had the unique opportunity to visit Kaufman Astoria studios, home to one of the most beloved streets in history. After we made our way over the Queensboro Bridge, we found ourselves in Astoria, Queens, which is where the studio is located. The white exterior of the studio was a definite contrast to the color and character that resides inside.

In the room where we gathered, we were greeted by some vintage Sesame Street photos, along with a few plush versions of our favorite muppets. But in addition to the familiar pictoral renderings of Sesame Street’s past, there was a blown up screenshot of a new CGI segment that features the cutest fairy in training, Abby Cadabby, as well as a few promotional posters. But it was the exclusive behind the scenes tour of THE Street that made my heart skip a beat.

Sesame Street which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, quite simply, is an institution. The characters, storylines, songs, special guests—they’ve all moved us for generations (figuratively and literally!)

Considering they don’t offer tours to the public, to receive an invitation to see Sesame Street in action can definitely be grouped in my “awesome” life experiences.

The extremely cordial gang at Sesame Street, including Abby Cadabby and her muppeteer/performer, the very cool and funny Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, gave us a guided tour of the Street itself. I had the chance to gawk at Hooper’s Store, take a photo beneath the Sesame Street sign, oggle at Chris doing a silly song and dance with muppets (about Apps!) and admire the creativity of the puppeteers, handlers, directors, cameramen and all of the crew.

What goes on behind the scenes at Sesame Street transcends the word, “amazing!”

To gather a group of people that talented and passionate, it’s really no wonder why the show has been around for FORTY YEARS.

The upcoming season, which premiers on PBS on November 10, will feature guest appearances by Cameron Diaz, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Gordon, Adam Sandler, Jimmy Fallon, Ricky Gervais, Jason Mraz, Judah Friedlander and many others. I learned that one of my faves, Jason Mraz was extremely excited about his Sesame Street experience and seemed borderline stalkerish. haha. Cute! (For the record, I probably seemed full-on stalkerish)

Beyond being loved by so many generations, what’s so fabulous about Sesame Street is, they do what they can to stay ahead of the curve. For example, inviting NYC-area bloggers and engaging with us to create that important dialogue was huge. Even further, one of the reasons Sesame Street invited bloggers was to share their latest developments, so that we, in turn, could share with our readers/followers/whom ever will listen.

A chance to hang out with Abby Cadabby and sit in Big Bird’s Nest?  Um, yes, please!

To emphasize its 40th year of awesomeness in children’s media, Sesame Street upped its ante with its digital presence. In particular, their website, Sesamestreet.org, became even more child-friendly, in terms of navigation, lively graphics and interactive features. When you first log on, you’re greeted by a familiar-faced Muppet, which is sure to lure in the kidlets. You, or shall I say the kids, can create a “My Street” option to personalize their Sesamestreet.org page. But it’s the new games that stand out to me…er, I mean, the kid.

All the games are, once again, extremely child-friendly and interactive. The games can be navigated by character (so hard to choose!), theme (the fall ones are so fun and timely) and subject (we’re fans of the art games.) They can also be added to the My Street option, which gives you easy access to those games that you know and love. What I love most about the new games is that some of them are perfect for the littlest kids who don’t quite have a grasp on keyboard functionality, but show an interest in say, animals.

While I’m not one to park a teeny tiny kid in front of a computer for hours at a time, every once in awhile, it’s fun to let my 2-year old do a little click clacking for a change. With the Old McDonald game, the kid can just peck away at the keys and animals appear with each strike of the keyboard—it’s like magic!

In addition to all the games, the site has tabs for other interactive features such as Playlists and Video. We’re a dancing and singing kind of family, so I love playing the different songs to dance along with the kid. The video features are so fantastic for parents to share their love of Sesame Street with their kids. Alongside of the newer segments [Neil Patrick Harris as the Shoe Fairy is my favorite modern guest appearance video] of the shows are awesome classics, like ones with Kermit, Bert and Ernie and Cookie Monster. Just like the games, the videos and playlists can be navigated by character, theme and subject.

But Sesame Street hasn’t forgotten about the parents. On the parents tab, I love how there’s a different media for milestones [we just watched "cookie is a sometime food" under the 2 years tab] and links to all the goings on at Sesame Street. One of the newer features, however, is the inclusion of B is for Blog: Sesame Family Robinson. It’s written by Marty Robinson who plays Telly Monster and Snuffleupagus and Annie Evans, a writer for Sesame Street.

Their blog gives parents an insider’s look of a true Sesame Street family. Recently married on set, they are now the proud parents of twins, Lyra and Ripley. After meeting Marty and Annie (and their cutie twins, too) on the set, as well as during lunch, suffice it to say, Sesame Street is a family show—in more ways than one. Not only has the show spent the past four decades of making us laugh, sing and dance while talking about family-related topics, the people who make the show happen ARE one giant family. And thanks for the kind shout out, too! [Babyrific is my mama blog]

And from the bottom of my heart, it really, truly was an honor to experience the deep family bond on THE actual Sesame Street. It’s my hope that my kid will go on to share the same love of The Street with HIS kids one day.

Happy 40th Sesame Street, thanks for all the laughs, dancing, singing and Muppet fun!