Giving (and receiving) with the Family Giving Tree

2017 marks our 6th year of volunteering as a family at the Family Giving Tree. Strictly speaking, it's the 7th year for me and The Pea. She and I volunteered for the first time when she was 4 years old; she was too young to do anything other than hold a tape dispenser for me, and the boys were too little to help. Even at that age, I could see her mind opening as she realized that there were little boys and girls like her whose parents couldn't get them all the Christmas presents they wanted.  Volunteer opportunities for kids under age 14 are pretty scarce. I realized we needed the Family Giving Tree just as much as the kids who would be receiving the presents.

Easter Bunny photos through the years

We used to make a big deal out of Easter when the kids were small. Every year, we would attend multiple egg hunts -- community egg hunts, egg hunts at friends' homes, egg hunts at our home.  At some of the bigger events, they would get to see the Easter Bunny, and they would treat him like a big celebrity.  But for some reason, I never made a big deal out of Easter Bunny photos. The Easter Bunny was not a big part of my childhood and I've always found him a bit creepy (as you can tell from the photo below, Baby Pea agrees with me).

Ten Ways American Girl promotes inclusiveness and celebrates diversity

One of my clients is a nonprofit organization for the type 1 diabetes community, so when word got out late last year that American Girl was going to start selling a diabetes care kit for American Girl dolls, you can bet I took notice. I already love American Girl dolls, and the fact that they are helping kids with diabetes create an American Girl doll experience that is uniquely tailored to them makes me love them even more.

A letter to the parents of the losing soccer team

To the parents of the opposing team,

My sons' soccer team played your sons' soccer team today. It's a game that you might not want to remember, because the score was 12-0.  The gap would have been wider, but our team's coach instructed our players to stop scoring. Possession was 90%-10% in our favor, and 90% of the match was played in your half of the pitch. To put it bluntly, it was a thrashing.

Palo Alto's Magical Bridge Playground: a place for everyone

One of the reasons I love living in Palo Alto is that we're living in a place that values innovation and change. Traffic lights and potholes and internet access (hello, city council, when are we getting city-wide free wifi?) notwithstanding, Palo Alto and Silicon Valley is always on the cutting edge. And we're not just talking hi-tech: check out Palo Alto's newest playground, the Magical Bridge Playground. It's the only playground in the Bay Area designed to accommodate kids of all abilities, and one of the few playgrounds in the country that is 100% wheelchair accessible.

I've already published write-ups on the playground on Silicon Valley Mamas, Red Tricycle (the article even got picked up by SF Gate!), and Mommynearest, but I had a few more photos of this wonderful playground that I wanted to share.

Don't Drink and Fly (or Drive) on Halloween!

Yesterday I posted about the things you need to take with you when you're trick-or-treating with your kids.  One of the most important items is a flashlight, because when it's dark and you have kids running around looking for candy, the last thing they're thinking about is road safety.  We need flashlights to make sure drivers see us.... but we also need drivers to realize that they need to take even more care than usual.  They have to remember that there will be little kids in dark robes crossing the street, darting in and out between parked cars in their excitement.  The last thing they need is a driver who shouldn't be out on the road... in other words a driver that has been drinking.

How to make the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge more meaningful to your child

When I first heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, my initial reaction was one of distaste.  I'm all for raising awareness for causes you care about, but I didn't like the "hey look at me, I'm so cool" part, and I didn't like the "take the challenge or donate" part.  It seemed like a case of empty actions -- if you don't donate, all you have to do is pour a bucket of ice water over your head, and you feel good about yourself because you think you've done something to help the cause?  Instead of buying a bag of ice, why not donate that money to ALS research?  Here in California, we have another issue -- we're in a severe drought, so it's a waste of water.

Celebrating LGBT rights at Pride in London 2014

The first Gay Pride event I ever attended was in San Francisco (where else?), over 10 years ago.  Alfie and I took The Pea to the Castro, watched the parade, and celebrated with the community.  Although my kids know we support marriage equality and LGBT rights (as do they!), we haven't been to a Gay Pride event since then.  The hassle of parking and wading through the crowds has held me back.  Also, as open-minded as I like to think I am, I must admit that I'm not quite ready to wander around booths filled with S&M gear and be handed free neon condoms in front of my kids' curious eyes.

But this weekend I had the opportunity to visit my sister in London and leave the kids with their grandparents for the weekend.  Since my visit coincided with the Pride in London parade, I knew I couldn't pass up the chance to watch and celebrate!

A prize that money can't buy: meeting LeVar Burton

photo credit: Josh Hallett

One of the many perks of being invited to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is the chance to win some fabulous prizes.  Up for grabs were goodies like Disney gift baskets, runDisney gift baskets, Coppertone gift baskets, a year's supply of GoGoSqueez, Dooney & Burke bags, runDisney New Balance shoes, HP printers, and a Nikon camera.  Each time a raffle ticket was drawn, I crossed my fingers and prayed that my name would be drawn.

Lo and behold, my name was drawn.  I was one of five bloggers selected for an exclusive meet and greet experience after Saturday's Disney Junior character breakfast.

How to Cure Affluenza

There's no denying the difficulties of raising a child in a privileged environment without giving him a, well, sense of privilege. Money can buy many things, including knowledge and confidence and a sense that everything will work out for you, because it almost always does.

How Typhoon Haiyan affects us

photo credit: CAFOD on Flickr

In the Philippines, typhoons are a way of life.  Every June, classes started.  Every June, the rains came.  Every June, my classmates and I would start hoping for typhoons.  We were too young to understand the implications.  Rain just meant relief from the scorching summer heat (frankly, I don't know any Filipino who doesn't love hearing the sound of raindrops falling on the roof, and every kid I know loved standing outside and taking a shower in the rain).  Rain meant the chance to skip school.  Midwestern US schoolchildren have their snow days, Manila schoolchildren have Typhoon Signal #2.  Signal #1 was always met with groans because we still had to go to school (and possibly had to face some flooding along the way).  Signal #2 was great, because we got to stay home for the day.  Signal #3 was even better because it meant school would be out for several days.  Like I said, we were just kids.

Will you boycott Ender's Game?

I recently finished reading the sci-fi novel Ender's Game, and it was one of those books that I just could not put down.  After reading it, I immediately bought two more books in the series, and went online to find out when the movie would start showing in theatres.  I was sure the movie would be a certified hit; after all, Ender's Game and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, won back-to-back Hugo and Nebula awards, and the series has entered the realm of science fiction/ young adult classics.

So I when I Googled "Ender's Game Movie", I was shocked and disappointed to discover the controversy surrounding the book's author, Orson Scott Card -- there's a big movement to boycott the Ender's Game movie because of his position on LGBT rights.

Well, that was a certainly a surprise. It's quite ironic that an author who writes about life in the future would hold such prehistoric views.  I certainly couldn't tell from the book.  In fact,some of the themes of the book include tolerance for people who are different from you, empathizing with others, finding a way to communicate, and working together.  Discovering Orson Scott Card's hateful anti-LGBT views after reading Ender's Game was like devouring a Death By Chocolate cake... then discovering that the molten chocolate part in the middle had been riddled with maggots.

Join the American Cancer Society's 3rd generation Cancer Prevention Study

Helping in the fight against cancer is important to me.  I know too many people who have suffered from cancer to be indifferent.  The problem is, money always seems like the best way to help -- but I don't have much of it.

Fortunately, as the late Susan Niebur once wrote, "There are as many ways to fight cancer as there are types of cancer".  She identified 4 categories of ways you can help:

• Donate 
• Educate
• Advocate 
• Volunteer

Arguments against legal same-sex marriage (and why they're nonsense)

Finally, President Obama has taken a stand and voiced his support for gay marriage.  No, not gay marriage, just marriage -- marriage for everyone, regardless of race, religion, economic status, or sexual orientation.

I've long been an advocate for marriage for all, despite my Catholic upbringing. And no matter what your religious beliefs are, I'm hoping you'll agree that the law should allow any two consenting adults to wed.  If you keep in mind that we're talking about marriage as a legal contract, I don't see any arguments against it!  Here are all the usual reasons people oppose same-sex marriage -- and why I don't think they matter:

'Tis better to wrap than to receive

Let's be honest: Kids get greedy during the holidays. Despite all the heartwarming Christmas specials about being all together for the holidays, kids are all thinking about what presents they're going to get or what to ask for from Santa.

We can't really blame them -- they're just following what the grownups do. Everywhere: on tv, in magazines, at the mall, it's all about sales and shopping and presents. Even us mom bloggers, with our holiday gift guides and giveaways, are perpetuating the materialistic focus.

Spreading joy, hope... and Zhu Zhu Pets

Over the years I've had lots of fun working with MomSelect and Cepia to promote their line of Zhu Zhu Pets toys, doing product reviews, hosting giveaways and even throwing parties where my kids and their friends get to take Zhu Zhu pets home! Despite all these fun opportunities, I think the most rewarding aspect of my partnership with Zhu Zhu pets has been my participation in their holiday charity initiative, the Random Acts of Zhu program.

October 13 is National Metatstatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day

Last week I blogged about how people dislike the way companies are jumping on the breast cancer bandwagon and exploiting the pink ribbon to increase sales. Personally, I think cause marketing, done right, is a great way to raise money for breast cancer research, as well as money to fund treatment for women who can't afford it.

But there's another reason people for "pink fatigue".

Making a teacher's day better

One of the nicest things about being a blogger is getting the opportunity to participate in some really great programs and attend some really cool events. I'm not talking about product launches or blogger parties (although those are really cool too!), I'm talking about getting to make a difference in the community and in people's lives.

A Day Made Better with OfficeMax

I've wanted to participate in OfficeMax's A Day Made Better program ever since I heard about it, 3 years ago. Surprising a deserving teacher with $1000 in school supplies so she focuses less on equipping her classroom and more on teaching her kids -- who wouldn't want to be a part of that? With more and more funding being cut from classrooms, with teachers actually having to spend their own money to purchase supplies for their kids (an average of $1000 annually!), A Day Made Better is really making a difference.

Today was OfficeMax's fifth annual A Day Made Better, and they surprised 1,000 teachers across the nation with $1000 in school supplies. This year I had the pleasure of joining a team of OfficeMax associates at a local school, where we awarded Liz, a third-grade teacher, with $1000 in school supplies.

Boo to Republican audience for booing gay soldier Stephen Hill

I knew there was a Republican debate last night, and deliberately did not tune in to watch it. I dislike presidential debates in general; the candidates seem to treat it as a campaign platform, never answering the questions, always sidestepping and going off on some other tangent, either to highlight their own successes or insult their opponents. Also, the previous Republican debate really disturbed me. It wasn't so much the candidates that bothered me so much as the audience. I didn't like the way they cheered like a bloodthirsty mob when Rick Perry spoke out in favor of the death penalty, nor the way they booed Ron Paul when he said that the US's high-handed foreign policy leads to unrest in the Middle East and was party responsible for the actions that the terrorists took on 9/11 (they like to think that the US was attacked "because they envy our freedom").