This wonderful organization raises money to support the discovery processes that lead to cures for devastating childhood diseases. The group is currently helping to fund the creation of the new Steele Children’s Translational Research Center in Phoenix.

On May 12, 2012 PANDA hosted its “Oh, The Places We’ll Go” fashion show at the Phoenician Resort and raised almost $600,000 in one day! This funding will go a long way in supporting the goal of bringing the benefits of research to children in Maricopa County.

Please join me today to celebrate the end of the school year and to have fun. I’ll have goodie bags for the first 500 children and a popchips snackers lounge for snacks, games and fun. The event runs 10:30am-5pm and is open to the general public. Many thanks to AZ Air Time, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, Make Meaning Scottsdale Quarter, Menchie’s Scottsdale Quarter, IT’SUGAR Scottsdale Quarter, Wikki Stix, popchips and Sqwishland for sponsoring this event.

This event is a fantastic opportunity for your children to contribute to a cause and to kick-off the summer break. AZ Air Time is located at 13802 North Scottsdale Road #145 Scottsdale, AZ 85254. Learn more about this event on MomIndex.

This colorful and compact product is aircraft approved and comes with a 100% guarantee. From my perspective, it was well worth the $8.97 gamble, especially since it claims to work with most bottles with a removable nozzle and offers 50 full sprays when full. Before I opened the package, I visited Travalo online and saw that it was featured in Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle and Oprah’s O Magazine. In addition, the brand has almost 68K Facebook followers. Although, I had missed the news and product trend, I was patting myself on the back for my cool mom find.

The real test was whether it would work with my beloved Clinique Happy. I’m excited to report that the Travalo passed my test. As a result, if you see me at activities with my kids or on my next vacation, I’m likely to be well scented!

My kids thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and were excited to see familiar faces on-stage. My kids attend school with several of the cast members and that factor motivated them to sit through the entire performance. In addition, since the cast was a nice combination of children Kindergarten age through high school, my kids were able to connect with different characters and to relate to their personalities. I heard lots of giggles when they watched Lumiere and Cogsworth perform and saw a lot of smiles when Gaston was on stage.

The characters, music and scenery were engaging and memorable and the musical performances were creative and lively. My kids enjoyed how the entire cast was involved in bringing the characters to life. Whether a child was a plate or a villager, he or she had an opportunity to bring his or her personality to the stage.

If your child aspires to be involved in performing arts, I would recommend this program. Children and the crew practice for 10 weeks before bringing the show to the stage. If your child wants to participate in theatre this summer, visit DC Ranch online for information about Acting Camp, Musical Theatre Camp presented by VOICES Studio and Improvisational Theatre Camp. All three camps are available for children ages 8 and older.

I have been to this restaurant with my kids as well as on a date night with my husband. It stands out from the crowd because of its simple and well executed concept. The menu includes a variety of burgers, including a build your own option and you may substitute a beef burger for a veggie or chicken breast sandwich. However, I highly recommend a beef burger as they are juicy and tasty. Most dishes are served with a side such as coleslaw, onion rings, fries, homemade chips or tater tots. If you are a tater tot fan, order the sweet potato or standard version. Both are seasoned to perfection and will leave you craving more. Kids can choose from favorites including sliders, grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese.

Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers offers a casual and easy date night. It serves local and popular beer options on tap and the atmosphere lends itself to relaxing and catching-up over comfort food. Although sports fans appreciate the games on TV, I like that they mix things up by offering live music from time-to-time. For those of you on a budget, the restaurant also offers happy hour, drink specials and take-out discounts.

My husband stumbled upon these Annie Chun’s seaweed snacks at our local Bashas’ store and since that purchase, my kids have been hooked. My kids crave seafood and sushi rolls (with cooked fish of course) and they were fascinated with these salty and crunchy snacks. They snack on them as if they are eating popcorn or potato chips.

I’ll caution that seaweed snacks are not for everyone. Quite frankly, they are fishy and the texture is new for many children. However, I believe in exposing my kids to a variety of snacks and recipes so I can expand my meal planning at home. Why not offer a packet and see if your kids want to snack?

Annie Chun’s seaweed snacks are available in either sesame or wasabi flavor and I’ve purchased them at Bashas’ and Fry’s grocery stores. I have also purchased a similar product at Trader Joe’s and my kids liked it too.

I love summer, I am a huge fan of the heat, and swimming, and ice cream.  That should be a dead giveaway that I’m not originally from Arizona, but I digress.  My children are 5 ½ year old twins.  Although they will be entering kindergarten in August, their only cares in the world revolve around always being right, running around as much as possible, and who can make the biggest mess.  Why then do I feel the need to have their entire summer break planned out before the end of school?   Are the days of just letting the kids play and frolic in the sun really gone?  Or, am I the one imposing this on myself?

The choices in camps are overwhelming, as are some of the price tags.  Yet, I feel compelled to check them all out and weigh my options.  While I want to send my kids to the same camp (selfishly for my own sanity), I’m not certain my son would enjoy Princess Ballerina Camp as much as my daughter would.  And now that we are closing in on the end of May, some camps are already full with waiting lists, really?  I thought just about everyone left Scottsdale for the summer!

I am torn between scheduling every week (I do have to work!) and not scheduling anything (how will I work?)  I wish I felt that the kids could just “go out and play” like the good old days.  But, these aren’t the times we live in.  And, I also feel that I didn’t make the decision to stay at home with my children so that I could just send them away all summer!  I am sure we will somehow find the right balance between planned activities and unstructured play time, and in the end summer will be fun!

Does this sound familiar? Your child races home from school, runs to the fridge and grabs what appears to be a frosted cookie from Paradise Bakery. As he or she asks to eat it, your jaw drops because you realize it was a breaded chicken patty from weeks earlier. How do these things end up in the fridge for so long and why do kids mistake rotten pieces of food for delicious treats? I’m bewildered too.

This brings me to the topic of children’s lunch boxes. Most likely, you have a routine of emptying your child’s lunch box or bag and filling it with what you believe is a balanced and nutritious meal for the next day. However, have you ever taken more than a few seconds to see what might be lurking in your child’s lunch box or bag? Recently, I decided to explore those hard to reach areas and linings and was surprised to discover what was actually lurking in my children’s bags.

My children had dried yogurt and apple sauce, old pieces of granola bars and even pieces of hard cheese hidden in the bottom of their bags. I thought what kind of parent am I that I would put their health in danger by not properly cleaning their bags on a daily basis. I had taken so much care in planning and preparing their meals that I had almost forgotten about making sure they were protected from germs and spoiled food. My mind quickly went into panic mode as I pondered what if it was already 100 degrees in Phoenix or what if they mistook the hard cheese for a pretzel or chip? After I put things into perspective, I decided a proactive cleaning strategy would be sufficient.

I’m proud to share that I now empty and wipe the inside of their bags and then wash and inspect the ice packs for leaks before I return them to the freezer. I also replace unused napkins with new ones and am careful to toss their lunch bags into a load of laundry on a regular basis. What’s next on my sanitizing agenda? The laundry room shoe pile of course!

Well, the ornament served its purpose until April 2012, when I decided that the girls, who despite the “Rocky Incident”, never gave up their dream of owning a dog, deserved a dog. Why the change of heart? If you have read my “Contributor Bio”, then you know that since June 2011, my girls have been working actresses. When they are not hanging at elementary school in Scottsdale, they are hanging on a set in LA. AND unlike Dina Lohan, I consider it my job, as their Mother, to ensure that they have a happy, normal childhood. And what could be more normal than having a dog? So, we are now the proud owners of Onyx, a 1 ½ year old Schipperke-Pomeranian. Aside from my husband, he’s the only male in the house, which has lead to some interesting conversations with the girls. For example, today as I was preparing to take Onyx to the vet to be neutered, Caroline asked what “neutering” meant – I tried to explain that the vet was going to remove the little round things, called testicles, by Onyx’s tail. That’s when Caroline, in total shock, responded, “What? Testicles? Angelina told me those were his butt cheeks”!!! Looks like my next post will focus on me explaining the “Birds & The Bees”.

I really could have used this product two years ago when my feisty toddler would unfasten her seat belt and climb around the car while I was driving. The incident I’ll never forget occurred when we were only one block away from our house. I had all my kids in the car and they were making a lot of noise and laughing. I turned to notice my toddler hugging my headrest, giggling and saying “Hi Mommy.” I screamed at her and waited for what felt like eternity to approach the nearest stop sign so I could secure her in her car seat. Since then, I have been programmed to keep my eyes and ears open for products to prevent such “terrifying toddler moments.”

Imagine my excitement when I saw a stack of these Hands Off adhesive reminders tucked away in the corner of a local closeout store. Two things quickly went through my mind. Products you want are never available when needed and second, is it possible that I was the only parent who was unable to keep her child restrained in a car seat?

Shortly after I located these adhesives and shouted “score” in my head, I sort of chuckled at the packaging. My reminders were in no way gentle and were not effective at keeping her in her seat. I’m not sure these adhesives would have eliminated her habit. However, they might have given me a fighting chance to make it home or to the side of the road before my head was spinning and my heart was in my stomach.

Anyone try this product or a similar solution? If so, what worked best for you?

Have you heard the news? Since 2010, MomIndex® has been keeping you informed about everything related to living and raising kids in the Phoenix metropolitan area. We are excited about our growth and relaunched our blog to offer you the opportunity to get to know our contributors on a more personal level.

Our contributors will share their parenting insights and much more with you on a regular basis. Ever wondered about other family dynamics or wanted tips or recommendations about schools, sports teams, medical and childcare providers, products, crafts or entertainment and attractions in the Phoenix area? How about how other parents confront challenges or tackle day-to-day responsibilities?

You are officially invited to join our diverse and talented team as we grow, learn and experiment during our parenthood journeys. It is hoped you will find our stories and posts are informative, creative, funny, insightful, inspiring and newsworthy.

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