Forget about inking her kids’ names or their birth dates: Jessica Alba’s tattoos for her kiddos are seriously out of the world.
The actress, entrepreneur and mom of three recently posted two Instagram pics featuring her latest ink. The photos show off Alba’s arm—now bearing three constellations—inked by celeb tattoo artist Dr. Woo
In the caption, Alba commented, “Honor Gemini. Haven Leo. Hayes Capricorn.” The three astrological symbols are her kiddos’ signs. The completely creative way to “honor” Honor (and of course sibs Haven and Hayes) struck a chord with Alba’s IG followers. The comments feature plenty of praise for the mama and her simply sweet idea.
Just in time for a spring refresh, several new collabs have dropped at Pottery Barn Kids and you’re going to want to shop them all.
Both Lilly Pulitzer and Mark & Graham have partnered with Pottery Barn Kids on two new exclusive lines. On the heels their first hit collab, Lilly Pulitzer is once again teaming up with Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen on exclusive new home collections.
The new collections, which feature Lilly Pulitzer’s colorful, beach-y prints, offer a range of new items including bedding, furniture and décor for kids’ bedroom and the nursery, as well as a bath line and outdoor accessories.
Mark & Graham has just launched a limited capsule collection of the upscale Nylon Convertible Diaper Bag and Changing Pad Clutch. The matching bag and clutch come in four color ways, including classic black or colorful stripe designs and of course they can all be monogrammed at no extra cost.
Earth Day is Apr. 22 each year—and it’s right around the corner. Here are some simple things you can do with your family for Earth Day—or any day of the year—that will make a difference for our planet.
1. Read Books about Taking Care of the Earth
There are so many great children’s books on this topic to choose from. Written with fun and engaging story lines, they also teach kids about the importance of loving and caring for our Earth. Here are a few of my favorites:
Gather your neighbors and spend a couple hours walking around picking up trash. You will be surprised at how much you will collect. Make it a contest to see who can collect the most trash. Don’t forget to wear plastic gloves and make sure to wear appropriate clothing for wooded areas. Trash grabbers are a great item for kids to use. They will have so much fun grabbing garbage with the claw and it keeps them from handling the trash directly.
3. Plant Seedlings Using Upcycled Items
Earth Day marks the day we start seedlings for our garden each year. We use anything that we can plant in: egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, K-cups, plastic bottles. Turning these items into mini planters is a fun project for the kids. Once your seedlings are ready to be planted in the ground, you can just use the planters again or recylcle them.
4. Start Composting
For whatever reason, my children are obsessed with composting. I think it is because the concept is a bit gross, and they love anything gross. Composting can be done all year in your kitchen with the use of a counter top compost crock. They blend in with your kitchen and are designed to be odor free. Composting is a fantastic way to support our environment and reduce food waste.
Kids can see how their vegetable scraps are turned into fertilizer to help the Earth. Almost anything that comes from the ground can be composted, like as fruits and vegetables. Other things you can compost are egg shells, coffee grounds, flowers, plant trimmings, and herbs. Compost is a great natural fertilizer and alternate to consumer fertilizers that can contain chemicals. Composting also reduces landfill waste.
5. Give Out Seed Favors
Send the kids to school on Earth Day with a seed favor for each classmate! Kids love getting favors and these will encourage kids to go home and plant their own flowers. These favors come in all different adorable shapes and designs with seeds embedded into the paper. All you have to do is place them on the ground outside or in a planter to grow.
6. Host an Earth Day Playdate
Great for any age, invite your children’s friends over for a playdate all about Earth Day. Set up a coloring station with Earth-themed coloring books, do a craft using recycled or upcycled items, read a book about the Earth or plant something outside.
7. Get Your School Involved
The PepsiCo Recycle Rally is a program designed to help get schools get involved in recycling by offering programs, rewards and educational incentives. Ask your child’s teacher or principle if they know about the PepsiCo Recycle Rally Program or PepsiCo Recycling Roadster. See if they would be willing to participate or learn more about the program. You can find more information here.
8. Have a Tree Planting Ceremony
lant a tree in your yard, take pictures and record the height. Check on it each year on that date to see how much it has grown. You can find tree seedlings at your local nursery, or you can even purchase them online.
Lastly, although Earth Day is a great day for celebration, it is important that we take care of our Earth each and every day.
Hi, I’m Jennifer Farmer, an adventurer at heart. As a mother of two young children, I seek out fun adventures and opportunities that connect families to nature and the outdoors. Follow my blog for fun, budget friendly ideas for your family.
Problem: You want to create a comfortable, happy haven for your little one, but have zero time to scour those design blogs—and what exactly is a “mood board,” anyway? Solution: Snag one of these innovative products that’ll make you look like a design pro in no time. From a play table that grows with your kid to actually writing on the walls, scroll down to see them all.
Solution: The incredibly stylish all-in-one bedding from Beddy’s will give you Joanna-Gaines worthy beds in literally, seconds flat. How? The bedding essentially is like a comforter + sheet set that fits any size mattress (there’s even a toddler size). You simply zip it up along the sides to make a seamless look. Unzip to give yourself breathing room in the night, or keep it zipped up for coziness. Think of it like a giant lined sleeping bag for the fanciest bed in town. The sheet-lining is ridiculously soft and comfortable (we tested it ourselves) and comes in either cotton or “minky” line. In spite of our skepticism, washing them up was super easy. Added bonus? Your partner can’t kick the sheet down in the bed
Problem: You want a style-savvy rug, but you’re worried about the mess.
Solution: The play mats from Comfort Design Mats are completely waterproof, with cushy padding that make play easy for everyone from babies up to grade schoolers. Measuring in at 6 ½ by 4 ½ ft, there are 12 different designs, ranging from classic to contemporary, to choose from. Spills wipe up easily, and you can even put furniture on top of the mat, which gives it a real floor covering feel.
Problem: You want your playroom to look Houzz worthy, but … kids
Solution: The hidden storage compartment in the poufs from Mimish Designs means you can sweep all those LEGO bricks, stuffies, LOL dolls or whatever else is on the floor, out of sight in mere seconds. Plus, if your home is short on storage space, these will be a lifesaver. Offered in various colors, there’s even room for athletic equipment!
Problem: Wallpaper is totally in right now, but you don’t want to commit.
Solution: The removable wallpaper from Chasing Paper makes it easy for you to add a splash of something special without having to commit to the real stuff. There are all sorts of different prints to choose from, and we are totally crushing on the latest: Head in the Clouds. It’s easy to install too—the signature peel-and-stick fabric is printed-to-order in 2 x 4 ft. panels.
Available at Chasing Paper, $40.Problem: You need extra places for kids to sit, but you don’t have the storage space for tiny chairs.
Solution: These incredibly sleek stools from REN+RO look like a book, but when unfolded, become a sturdy place for kids to sit. The honeycomb structure of the recycled cardboard can handle up to 200 lbs of weight, and when unfolded the dimensions are 12.5 X 11, which is perfect for kids. You can choose from all sorts of fun combos like Water + Melon, Pine + Apple, Ice Cream + Cone and Mexican + Blanket, and you get one felt top for every piece you pick. And, the best part? Each one weighs just over three lbs Basically, the art of paper folding just got a lot more interesting.
Available at REN + RO, $65. Problem: Your kid needs a night light, but you don’t like traditional styles.
Solution: No doubt, a neon tabletop light is way more decor-savvy than a standard plug-in illuminating light. We especially like the new ones from Olive and Gal, because not only are they less than $100, but they’re designed with kids in mind. Made with a lightweight glass structure, they easily plug into a standard outlet.
Problem: You want to display your kids’ evolving art skills without feeling overwhelmed.
Solution: How about frames that make it easy for you to swap out art as the kids bring it home? Wexel frames are a sleek design made with clear acrylic and magnets, you just lift the top off and change out what’s being displayed. You can opt to buy a single wall unit, or splurge on a whole set that can be cleverly arranged for a real statement.
Available at Wexel, $49.99 & up.Problem: You need a play table, but you’re worried she’ll outgrow it soon
Solution: Find a table, like this Grow with Me Table Delta Children, that has multiple heights so you can adjust as your child grows. Offered in three different finishes, it’s a perfect way to ensure your kids’ furniture gets good use.
Problem: You still need to use blackout curtains, but hate the way they look.
Solution: Plenty of decor companies feel your pain, have started designing blackout curtain that doesn’t look like heavy duty plastic. This shade-version from Best Home Fashion has star cutouts for a stylishly whimsical look. You’ll still get the filtered light and privacy your kiddo needs for that daily power naps.
Solution: Available in 26 colors and two shapes (rectangles and circles), you’ll actually enjoy watching your tiny artist scribble all over the walls thanks to these whiteboard and chalkboard decals. Arrange the stick-on images in different patterns, orientations, and color combinations to bring a fun pop of color and a ready-made canvas for creativity in your child’s play space or bedroom! Check out the Chalk by Bilk website for layout inspiration.
Fitness tracking devices can be a fun way to encourage tech-driven kids to get up and move. A new line of products, including a Fitbit wearable for kids, has just launched to help kids get more exercise.
Fitbit has just launched four new wearable devices including the Fitbit Versa Lite Edition, the Fitbit Inspire and Inspire HR and last, but not least, the Fitbit Ace 2, which is made just for kids.
The Fitbit Ace 2 is designed for kids six and up to develop healthy habits from an early age and to encourage kids to be more active. Made with kids in mind the Ace 2 has a bumper to protect the screen and it also has a new swim-proof protection. The new version also features new animated clock faces, colorful avatars and motivational challenges to get kids moving.
In order to use the device in sync with the newly updated Fitbit app, parents will need to first create a Fitbit family account. This helps parents keep track of kids’ activities and ensure that they are getting enough daily exercise.
The Fitbit Ace 2 comes in three band colors and will be available to purchase soon on Fitbit.com.
There’s nothing harder than caring for a baby that’s sick, especially before they can verbalize what’s bothering them, or blow their noses. There are many tricks on how to soothe a sick baby, but the latest product from FridaBaby looks like a winning solution.
FridaBaby, the makers of the highly acclaimed NoseFrida, have a brand new product to help ease stuffiness in those impossibly tiny nostrils. The all natural Vapor Bath Bombs are exactly what they sound like, a dissolving bath fizz that is infused with soothing eucalyptus and lavender oils.
photo: Target
They are safe to use for kids ages 2 and up and, because you know that stuffy nose is sure to hit you next, these sound like the perfect remedy even for grown-ups. The FridaBaby Vapor Bath Bombs are available now at Target for just $8 for a pack of three.
You probably didn’t have Korean BBQ bowls, chicken pesto pasta salad or meatless Italian Calzoni for school lunch as a kid, but thanks to Revolution Foods, school lunches are getting a healthy and delicious transformation. The creator of kid-inspired, chef-crafted, nutritious meals for students, Revolution Foods is building lifelong healthy eaters nationwide. Wishing you could send your kids to school knowing they would be served an excellent lunch while being taught the importance of nutritious eating? Read on to join the mission and ignite a healthy food revolution in your school.
The Scoop for NY and NJ Families
Committed to transforming citywide wellness by offering meals that exceed federal nutrition standards, Revolution Foods believes that all children deserve access to healthy, delicious food.
The company currently serves 2,500 sites, including early childhood education centers, districts, charter schools, and community and after-school youth programs in 400 cities, including the New York and New Jersey region. Having served the region since 2010, Revolution Foods designs, produces and delivers over 225,000 meals each week to students across 200 school and community sites throughout Greater New York and New Jersey. As a result, they’ve created over 150 new jobs in the community and continue to build brighter futures for our youth and families.
Kid-Inspired, Chef-Crafted Meals Students Will Love
Revolution Foods aces the school lunch menu by serving well-balanced meals that are great tasting too. They pride themselves in using only clean label and wholesome ingredients, including fresh local produce, high-quality proteins, rBST-free dairy products and no artificial flavors or colors. Their meals are truly next-level.
Always going the extra mile, Revolution Foods engages with kids at every step of the development process to create menus that kids will enjoy eating. They survey over 2,000 students every month to gauge students’ satisfaction level of their meals!
You won’t find standard issue sloppy Joes and chicken nuggets on their menu. Revolution Foods has made elevated school lunches a reality. With both meat and vegetarian options, the company’s chef team crafts culturally and regionally relevant meals to broaden kids’ palates and help them build a positive relationship with healthy eating patterns.
Student favorites from Revolution Foods in the NYC area include the chili citrus drumstick and rice, classic spaghetti and meatballs, chicken teriyaki with brown rice and more. Each meal comes with seasonal fresh fruits and veggies of the day with choices like chili citrus corn, island-glazed carrots, and cut melon and plums.
Food for Thought: Healthy School Lunches Lead to Positive Academic Outcomes
Every parent who has ever prepared a school lunch knows that food is the fuel kids need to get through a long school day. That’s why lunch must pack the right punch and be a combination of proper nutrition and foods your kiddo will actually eat.
Revolution Foods has got your back when it comes to making sure your kids are eating healthy while away from home, by teaching your children how to love food through classes that demonstrate how foods can help them grow strong and succeed beyond the classroom. Proper nutrition and healthy, nourishing foods can drive positive academic outcomes. In fact, a recent paper published by UC Berkeley showed that nutritious school meals create improved health and academic outcomes, helping kids achieve their true potential.
Get Healthy Meal Options…Even in the Summer Months
When summer break is on the horizon, food insecurity becomes a looming issue for lower-income families across the country who rely on school meals to feed their kids. Revolution Foods is on a mission to ensure that kids don’t go hungry when school’s not in session. They aim to make healthy food accessible to all and currently provide great tasting, healthy meals for schools, community centers and parks and recreation sites across 15 states.
Contact your community summer programs and Revolution Foods to learn more about how your kids can enjoy free or reduced rate meals during the summer.
Join the Revolution
Revolution Foods empowers parents by offering healthy meal options, so they can advocate for better food in their kids’ school cafeterias.
Ask your school to partner with Revolution Foods as the school provided lunch solution. You can take a proactive stance in improving the quality of school meals by encouraging your school to become involved in wellness and nutrition education.
Revolution Foods believes in the power of community and spearheads nutrition advocacy programs to empower students to make smart food and lifestyle choices beyond the cafeteria. They team up with best-in-class community partners such as FoodCorps and Share our Strength to enrich kids’ lives with nutrition curriculum, cooking classes, gardening lessons and other educational events. Join the revolution today, to create a better tomorrow for your kids.
Copy by Beth Shea; photos courtesy of Revolution Foods
The petite party circuit is in full swing, and in order to help you out, we’ve carefully curated 20 unique party favors that all kids will love. From sparkly lights that’ll give their bike a fun glow to doughnut-shaped crayons that look good enough to eat, pick out your favorites below, and make your celebration the pint-sized party of the year.
After having a wild time with all your little party animals, send them home with these animal masks as favors. Made of sturdy felt, Lilly and the Bee's adorable forest friends masks will make a great addition to kids' dress-up bins.
Packed with seeds for flowers that will attract birds and butterflies, seed bombs make for a beautiful party favor. The dense balls are a mix of seeds and other natural ingredients and come with instructions so kids will know how to make their gardens grow.
Eight different mini tins of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty will delight eight different party guests. Kids love to stretch, squish and twist this putty, whether they have a glow-in-the-dark or heat-changing hyper color tin.
Don't want to pass out more plastic? These simple, sleek wooden yo-yos are ready for painting and playing. They make a unique party favor that kids will keep around.
Ten feet of stickers, ten hours of fun. Mudpuppy's Animals of the World Sticker Roll features little ones' favorite animals, ready to peel and stick all over the place.
Make new friends—book friends that is—with Little Golden Books. Send home classics like The Shy Little Kitten or the Pokey Little Puppy with your party guests. It's one uniquely bookish party favor that kids and parents will love.
Everything is awesome, especially some LEGO Minifigure party favors. Each bag contains one of 20 Minifigures from The LEGO Movie 2. If your kid's more into Hogwarts than Emmet and Lucy, pass out Harry Potter LEGO Minifigures instead.
Make it a batch of scented Birthday Cake Slime with extra sprinkles, please. Available in sizes from two to eight ounces, it's an ooey-gooey favor all kids will adore.
This party favor is for the dogs—and dog-lovers. The small size of these decks (and the price) from Bicycle Cards make them a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
There's no mistaking it: these fruit-scented icy pop erasers are extra cool. Plus, they're puzzles that kids will have fun taking apart and putting back together again.
Get a party favor to match that doughnut cake. These round, chunky crayons are easy for little hands to hold, and, when paired with a notepad, make for a delicious party treat to take home.
Send your party guests off with a game. These tic tac toe sets come in canvas bags that can be customized to fit with your party theme, or with guests' names. It's a fun, unique favor that kids will reuse again and again.
Keep all the kids in your neighborhood safe for twilight bike rides with a color-changing LED bike light. The lights securely attach to bicycle wheels and have three different twinkling, super-bright modes. These party favors are sure to light up the night!
Your birthday party will last all the way until bath time, thanks to these birthday cake bath bombs. In bright yellow, they fizz and bubble once in the tub. Just add water!
Zing Air's Big-A-Bubbles makes it easy for preschoolers to create bubbles with a wave of their hands. All they need to do is put on the included glove, dip it in the bubble solution, and whirl around. They're a unique twist on giving bubbles for a party favor.
This pack of eight mischievous monsters will please even the toughest crowd. Made by Tattly, specialists in unique nontoxic tattoos that you won't find anywhere else, these little guys will stick around after application for two to four days.
Raising kids can easily be equated with growing flowers: they both require nurturing to thrive, but the type of flower also makes a big difference in what that nurturing looks like. According to an expert, the same is true for different types of kids, and he has an answer to the question what’s an “orchid” child and how do you raise one?
Dr. Thomas Boyce, an emeritus professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, is the author of a new book titled The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive. He was interviewed recently on NPR’s Fresh Air where he explains that the majority of kids can be classified as “dandelions” because they are generally able to cope with stress and challenges in a healthy way.
Orchid children, on the other hand, are more sensitive to both good and bad environments. They have biological reactions to their experiences which makes it difficult to cope with stress. Boyce conducted research in a laboratory setting to observe primary stress response systems in kids. One test measured the stress hormone cortisol and the other looked at the autonomic nervous system, otherwise known as the “fight-or-flight” system.
“We found that there were huge differences (among) children,” Boyce told NPR. “There were some children at the high end of the spectrum who had dramatic reactivity in both the cortisol system and the fight-or-flight system, and there were other children who had almost no biological response to the challenges that we presented to them.”
Boyce recommends that parents of orchid children can help their kids by being supportive and not trying to change them. They should also encourage their kids to try to move outside of their comfort zone. He told NPR, “I think that this is probably the most difficult parenting task in raising an orchid child. The parent of an orchid child needs to walk this very fine line between, on the one hand, not pushing them into circumstances that are really going to overwhelm them and make them greatly fearful, but, on the other hand, not protecting them so much that they don’t have experiences of mastery of these kinds of fearful situations.”
From brushing teeth to recognizing letters, preschoolers pick up a remarkable amount before kindergarten. Softer skills like kindness and the motivation to “do good” are just as important, but can feel challenging to tailor to a young crowd. Good news! The title characters of Corn & Peg produced by Nelvana Studios and the latest show from Nickelodeon, are always up to good in their community of Galloping Grove. For more inspiration, we rounded up 5 easy ways to get the good deeds going early and often in your family and community.
1. Help Out At Home Home really is our first community. There are different people to consider, common spaces to share, and rules to make everything run smoothly. And because preschoolers nearly always want to be involved with what you’re doing, make a fun activity out of it when you can. Ever seen a kid’s glee with a spray bottle? Let them wash the windows! Finding those ways to let them help gives them feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment—wonderful rewards for doing good that might just make them feel like little superheroes, too, the way Corn and Peg, do.
2. Volunteer Together Whether it’s a neighborhood garden project or an informal beach cleanup day, keep your eye out for activities you and your kiddo or the whole family can participate in. The experiences enrich the young lives you’re raising and show them the fruits of their labor, like a cleaner beach for all to enjoy. By the time community service is expected of them later in school, it will already be second nature.
3. Express Appreciation Wherever You Go In Galloping Grove, for instance, Corn and Peg’s good deeds might help out a postal worker, the sheriff, or the mayor. Similarly, get kids in the habit of thanking those who serve the community at large. Let them help pick out gifts for Teacher Appreciation Day, bring a drawing to that next doctor’s appointment and simply say “thank you” to whomever lends a hand throughout your day.
4. Trot the Talk The phrase “food insecure” has come to the forefront, so go ahead and teach it to your kids, who may share the lunch table with kids who don’t have as much as they do or run up against food insecurity themselves at some point in their schooling. Raise the topic organically, as you involve a kid in meal prep. Or, the next time a picky toddler rejects a homemade meal, talk about “food waste” and what can be done with food we don’t finish.
5. Be on the Litter Lookout Kids notice everything! Whether you’re at the playground, out on a soccer field or hiking a trail, they can pretend to be little litter police and have fun while doing good, just like Corn and Peg. Make it a habit of carrying an extra bag for some trash pick-up from time to time. Leaving common spaces a little cleaner than you found them benefits—and respects—everyone.
Get excited about Corn & Peg by watching this fun video:
Tune in weekdays to Nickelodeon to catch fun-filled original content your kids will love. Catch clips of “Corn & Peg” here anytime!
