Grab your wands! JuJuBe will release its latest Harry Potter collaboration, Lumos Maxima, on Thurs., Sept. 3, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. PT. The dazzling, celestial print is featured on JuJuBe’s diaper bags, backpacks, totes, organizing cubes and much more.
The overlapping blues and blacks in the starry midnight sky give an illusion of never-ending depth. No matter where the Sorting Hat places you will be able to pick out iconic representations from each house as they decorate the heavens.
See if you can spot the courageous lion, loyal badger, ambitious snake and clever raven gleaming in light blue undertones. Discover each house relic, the sword, cup, locket and diadem, shining brightly. Glimpse inside to find soft grey lining with house mascots encircled and interspersed among the stars. A dazzling raised, silver logo plate with deep blue background coordinates perfectly. Satin silver zipper pulls depicting Hogwarts Castle, as well as the Sorting Hat will leave you spellbound.
Are your kids looking for new ways to express their creative side? DreamWorks has launched a new creative hub filled with countless ways to entertain them. Download fun, interactive activity sheets, games, crafts, recipes and more from your favorite DreamWorks TV series and movies including Trolls, The Boss Baby, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon and more.
Create Harold and George DIY Sock Puppets or She-Ra’s magical sword, solve a Kung Fu Panda puzzle, Troll-ify yourself with a Trolls headband or try out a delicious Hand Pie recipe courtesy of Spirit Riding Free. Watch for new games and activities to be added soon.
We have hunkered down over spring break due to the coronavirus, which has meant lots of family movie watching. One of the first flicks we were sure to catch was the last in the Star Wars series, The Rise of Skywalker. It brought me back to this article that I penned four years ago and still holds true. I added a new point to the list as well. Moms of boys, I hope this makes you smile…
My boys, ages four and six, watched the Star Wars trilogy for the first time this winter. They couldn’t wait to reenact the scenes. They became proud owners of matching lightsabers, courtesy of their grandparents.
The sabers glow red and make a sound upon impact. One afternoon after jostling, my older son ran to me in amazement. Apparently, they had just fought with their eyes closed and their lightsabers still met. He proudly announced that they now knew the ways of the Force.
While I knew they needed an outlet for their energy, especially when it was too cold to go outside, I worried the sabers would miss their intended target and leave a welt on someone’s cheek. As I laid down the respective ground rules before their next jostle, like keeping their eyes OPEN, my older son said proudly, “Mommy, you don’t have to worry. We have training.” And there was no doubt in his mind that this was the case.
This experience, among many, has matriculated in the following list. Moms of little boys know the adventure of raising them is often one with distinct markings. Along the path of wanting to raise gentlemen, I’ve had to be an observer of a world that’s very different from my own. I balance every day the desire to mold them and let go, being respectful of their boyishness. Here is what I’ve learned while maneuvering their dynamic, yet endearing world:
1. What’s cool has nothing to do with conversation or pampering—it’s watching Star Wars and memorizing every line.
2. Sword fighting requires no rules or training, at least in the way that you view training. Yoda, can you help here please?
3. Boys often bond through sports and wrestling. Sometimes they remind you of puppies. In a cute way.
4. Hugs and playful punches express equal endearment.
5. The only drama they know is playing until someone gets hurt.
6. Their pockets are always full—of something. Sometimes you’d prefer not to know. But you’d better find out BEFORE doing the wash.
7. Stones really do look prettier after the wash though.
8. Boys need a special place to stash their treasures. These treasures might include: a rock, stick, dead bug, baseball card, or money. All have equivalent value despite your assessment.
9. What’s gross is often either interesting or funny or both.
10. It’s not their stuff unless they can mess with it. And mess with it means tie ropes to it, punch holes in it, dunk it in water to “experiment” with it, launch it, etc…
11. They prefer to be on the move…to anywhere and at anytime.
13. Speaking of food, when you cook a meal they enjoy, they really do feel your love (and this doesn’t change as they get older).
14. A favorite shirt isn’t truly a favorite unless you have to pry it off of their bodies to wash it. The word dirty isn’t in their vocabulary and certainly doesn’t apply to anything beloved.
15. Sometimes when they hold you, they make little gestures they only do with you, and you remember them as your baby. Those are the best moments of your day.
Noelle Kirchnerbelieves we don’t have to live with full schedules and thin souls. A mom of boys, she's a minister who's published in places like the TODAY Show Parenting Team, Huff Post Parents and iBelieve.com. Her television show, Chaos to Calm, features parenting hot topics and has hosted three New York Times bestselling authors.
Over the course of the last few weeks, my four-year-old has developed a horrible new habit. He gets out of bed multiple times a night, begins screaming, “MAMA” at the top of his lungs, and moves into the bedroom, still screaming, until I sit up and have a conversation with him about why he is screaming for me.
I cannot tell a lie, it completely and totally sucks. There is nothing like being jarred from sleep by a four-year-old with a blood-curdling scream. The first time it happened, I was terrified. I thought he had fallen out of his bed and broken his leg or that something equally as terrifying had happened.
But no. That is and never has been the case.
All I have to do is ask him what’s wrong and he will calm down after about 30 seconds and say something along the lines of, “My big toe itches. Will you scratch it?” through snot and tears. So I scratch his toe or rub his back, or get him “this much” to drink.
As a person that truly loves sleep and needs at least eight hours a night to function, I have developed a habit where I lie in bed all night anticipating that blood-curdling scream. So needless to say, I have not been getting the best sleep lately.
This morning, I got a blood-curdling scream and thought about how much I miss the little things, like being able to sleep and having alone time.
Disclaimer: Yes, I love my children more than life itself. I would step in front of a train for them. But becoming a parent has taught me that some things are non-negotiable. So don’t comment that I’m a bad mom, Lisa, the internet troll.
Here are 11 things you must love —or learn to love—if you want to become a parent.
1. Being woken up in the middle of the night by a blood curdling scream or by its equally terrifying counterpart, the tiny person staring at you while you sleep.
2. Poop. Cleaning poop. Picking up poop. Finding poop in odd places. Teaching your kid to poop in the potty. Watching them poop in the backyard like the dog. That last one might just be me.
3. Never being alone. The minute you have kids, you will never have alone time again. They will always find you. You could hide in the crawl space under your house and a tiny little hand would find its way under a crack to ask what you’re doing.
4. Fart jokes. Maybe this is just because I’m a boy mom, but my kid is in the “fart, poop, laugh” phase and it’s killing me. Every sentence ends with the word poop, fart, toilet or underpants.
5. Bad knock-knock jokes. Henry just learned what knock-knock jokes are and I have said, “Poop who” at least 500 times in the last 5 days.
6. Crumbs. I don’t care what my kids are eating, they will somehow make a massive amount of crumbs from it. They could eat ice cream in a bowl and somehow develop crumbs. My advice is to get a dog to lick up the crumbs.
7. Someone completely defying societal norms. Having a kid is like one big sociology project. They will stand in the elevator facing the wrong way. They will tickle the back of a random person’s neck while at church. They will scream, “Is that a BUTT?” at someone in Target. And yes, Lisa, I have told my child we don’t say butt, but he has not complied.
8. Tantrums. Wrong color bowl for eggs? Lay on the ground screaming. Wrong superhero cartoon? More screaming. Ask if they had a good day at preschool? Screaming and crying. Taking them to a place they asked to go? Screaming and crying.
9. Doing things that gross you out. I rode a freaking camel at the zoo the other day. Enough said.
10. Teeny tiny toys. Damn the inventor of Tsum Tsums and Shopkins. I know they are tiny so you can sell more and pay less to make them, but I have spent so many hours on my hands and knees searching the backyard for a 3 cm sword that goes to a teeny tiny pirate.
11. Ryan’s Toy Review. So annoying. Props to Ryan for creating a virtual empire, but does he go to school? How does he find time to make all these videos?
So if you are about to have kids, or are thinking about trying, just remember that they are adorable little minions that smell like fresh baby powder for a few days, months or a year if you are lucky. But you will then learn that you won’t sleep until they are 18, your coffee will always be cold and they will repeat the bad words you say.
So don’t yell, “Use your blinker, you as*hole!” in a fit of rage on an Interstate somewhere.
I am a full time working mom with two little boys, Henry and Simon. I write about real life and real life gets messy. Contributor for Motherly, HuffPost Parents, Scary Mommy, Today Parents, Love What Matters and Her View From Home.
It seems that Disney is churning out live-action remakes at a rapid rate, but the latest new movie looks quite a bit different than the original animation it’s based on. Disney has just released the first trailer for Mulan and it’s missing a few key Disney ingredients.
The new Mulan trailer introduces audiences to the sword-wielding heroine of Disney’s 1998 film with scenes that seem to mirror the original in both costumes and setting. But as some fans have pointed out it’s missing not only the musical aspect but also a main character: Mulan’s sidekick, Mushu is nowhere to be seen.
It had previously been rumored that Mushu would be replaced by a Phoenix character. It’s possible that the bird which makes a brief appearance in the trailer could be the new sidekick in question, but it’s too soon to tell. Despite the loss of fan-favorite Mushu, if the teaser is any indication, the new Mulan will be a beautifully crafted and action-packed tale.
Why stop at playing video games while you’re awake when you can continue in your sleep? No, that’s not a sci-fi movie premise. The Pokémon Company has just revealed the newest groundbreaking way to play: Pokémon Sleep.
As the name suggests the new game will extend Pokémon GO from waking hours to sleeping. The announcement via Twitter explained, “What if you could continue training your Pokémon…even in your sleep? In 2016, Pokémon GO turned the simple act of walking into entertainment, making the entire world into a game. We’re about to do it again, Trainers—this time, for sleeping.”
We’re pleased to announce the development of Pokémon Sleep, a new app from @Pokemon_cojp that tracks a user’s time sleeping and brings a gameplay experience unlike any other!
The new Pokémon Sleep app uses a special device to track a user’s sleeping time and incorporate it into gameplay. The details on what that actually means are still sparse but the game, along with the new Pokémon GO Plus+, will launch in 2020.
The company also announced the release of Pokemon Home, which allows all of the Pokemon you’ve collected across the various games, including Let’s Go Pikachu, Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee, Pokémon Sword, Pokémon Shield, Pokémon GO and Pokémon Bank on the Nintendo 3DS to be stored in a cloud and accessed by whichever game you are currently playing. In other words, you could catch a Charmander in Pokémon GO and battle with him in another game.
Years ago I read an article about a young mom going through a horrific divorce. To mentally combat the abuse she suffered, her therapist recommended she focus on what made her happy as a child.
As children, we are blessed with innocence and freedom. As a Southern girl, a day of raking pine straw from the tall trees that stood as pillars in our vast front yard, could easily turn from chore to play. That same pine straw allowed my sisters and I to become birds with personalities all our own, intent on building the finest nest in all of Georgia.
As a mom, do I let the same creative joy envelop me? I can say for a fact that the last time I mowed the lawn, washed the dishes, or did the laundry, those actions felt like chores—necessary, but still something to trudge through. Yet, I often reflect on that once-familiar article, not because I’m going through a divorce (I’m not), but because sometimes I look at my children and yearn for the joy that envelops them.
My remedy came one day during a familiar mom task . . . waiting. Between preschool carpool and speech therapy, I found myself waiting in a parked car on a sunny day for ten minutes to pass so I could trade one waiting area for another. I opened the car door and helped my son out. The green grassy field ahead of us was too inviting for him to pass up. His little feet hit the pavement and ran, desperate to feel like Frauline Maria in an open field, without ever knowing The Sound of Music himself. Seeing him exuberant flipped a switch in me.
My parental boredom gave way to an opportunity long forgotten. Several long branches lay at the base of a nearby shady tree. “Wanna sword fight?” I proposed with a smirk to my eager son. As we swung branches around like Jack Sparrow, I realized the joy was there. It had always been there. And I was ready to reclaim it.
Not one, but two new Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch are set to launch this year—and you really gotta catch ’em both if you want to get in on all the Pokémon awesomeness!
Nintendo just announced its latest additions to the Pokémon game universe in the form of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. Like other titles in the Pokémon video game universe, the two games operate in duality, offering similar game play but differing in characters and storylines.
Players will be introduced to a whole new line up of yet unseen Pokémon and, like previous Pokémon iterations, players start with the option of choosing between three new starter Pokémon, including the rabbit Pokémon Scorbunny, the water lizard Pokémon Sobble and the chimp Pokémon Grookey.
The universe in Sword and Shield is known as the Galar region, which like past games, is inspired by real world geography. In this case the countrysides and snowy mountains are meant to mimic the United Kingdom.
Female heroes aren’t just about empowering and inspiring young girls. The eight-year-old heroine at the center of the popular Netflix series True and the Rainbow Kingdom is proving that boys love female heroes, too.
Looking at the way TV shows and toys are typically marketed towards kids, there is often a clear gender divide. However, one series is paving the way towards a future where gender doesn’t play a role in how characters can have an impact and make a positive impression on kids. True and the Rainbow Kingdom, which is produced for Netflix by Guru Studio in collaboration with musician and singer Pharrell Williams, has found a base of enthusiastic fans, not only among girls, but boys as well.
photo: True and the Rainbow Kingdom/ Guru Studio
True might not wear a super-suit or carry a sword, but she is a hero that uses her intelligence and compassion to help her friends and other inhabitants in the world around her and both girls and boys are finding her inspiring. While True and her candy-colored world might seem targeted towards girls, boys across the country have become avid fans. Parents have taken to social media to share their excitement over the series.
Boys are celebrating their love of True in a variety of ways, from Halloween costumes to birthday party themes.
It’s not entirely surprising that the series, which is focused on teaching kids mindfulness, fostering empathy and developing critical thinking skills, appeals to kids across gender lines. Early testing of the series before its debut showed an equal amount of engagement from both girls and boys.
Fans of the series will be excited to learn that True and the Rainbow Kingdom has just been green-lit for a third season and a new line of toys is in development, set to roll out this fall at major retailers like Walmart.
Got a little putter in your house? With a few household items you can create a golf course for them that will entertain them, rain or shine. You can go elaborate and make each room of the house a different hole or keep it simple and do it all in your yard. Your only limitation is your imagination (and your swing). Read on for ideas.
If you don’t have a toy golf set get creative. Unless you’re playing outside and the kids don’t have wild swings, you can use superballs, ping pong balls, or even a tennis ball. No putter? Try out a sword, stick or even your own hands. Just keep the size of the ball in mind when you are creating your obstacles.
Use a cardboard box like Craftulate did here to create a simple three-hole obstacle for the kids. Make one hole harder by making angling the box, or try making the holes different sizes. You can also use empty cereal or tissue boxes. Try turning them on their side or even at an angle by taping them down with duct or packing tape. Old wrapping paper or packing tubes can become tunnels.
There’s nothing like a plastic cup to make a “hole” for your golfers. Turn the cups on the side and tape them lightly in place to putt gently into them, or put them upright across the yard and see who can get their ball in. Tupperware works great for this too! Household items like runner rugs, paper plates and pillows can all be used to make pathways and “holes” for the golfers to target.
Create an obstacle course more challenging than your local mini-golf with toys you have around the house. Use LEGO bricks to build arches and tunnels; Hot Wheels tracks to create an extra-tricky way to level-up (bonus to anyone who can keep their ball on the track); books to create ramps and tunnels; and even stuffed animals to make gaps that the kids have to hit between.
If you are playing outside, create difficulty levels for each area by drawing targets or boundaries with chalk. Use rocks to make roadways that kids have to hit through.
Unlike many other games, less is more with golf. The lower your score the better you’re actually doing. Basically, each stroke you take counts as a point. If you want to be true to the sport assign each hole in your obstacle course a number of difficulty beginning at Par 3 and moving up.
For example:
Par 3 means it’s a shorter hole and you should be able to get it in within three strokes
Par 4 means you should be able to get it in the hole with four shots (or less)
Par 5: five strokes or less
Par 6: six strokes or less
(etc.)
Tip: Make some of the holes a high par so that the kids almost always score under!
