Kids can dress up visit the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside for trick-or-treating at the mall on Monday, Oct. 31 from 4 to 8 p.m. There will be treats - of course - and face painting, crafts, music, games and prizes.
All activities will take place in the lower level in Center Court at the Galleria.
Grocery chain Safeway recently conducted a family shopping survey called the "ABCs of Healthier Mealtimes" with Babble.com, which looked at various aspect of grocery shopping for parents. Here are some of the details:
When grocery shopping for your family, how much time do you spend reading nutrition labels on packaged foods?
I thoroughly check every label: 16%
I check only the items I don't regularly purchase: 48%
It depends on how much time I have: 18%
I rarely do this: 17%
There are labels on the food?: 1%
Other: 1%
Which category of food causes the most arguments with your kids while grocery shopping?
Desserts: ice cream, cookies, cakes, candy: 25%
Snacks: chips, crackers: 20%
Other: 13%
Mealtime entrees, sides dishes: 12%
Breakfast foods: cereals, oatmeal, breakfast bars: 11%
Beverages: sodas, juices: 10%
Fruits and vegetables: 8%
If you had to choose between the following benefits of a food,
which one is the single most important factor that determines which foods you purchase for your kids?
Organic: 20%
Natural: 35%
Calorie Smart: 16%
Low Fat: 15%
Other, please specify: 12%
Gluten Free: 3%
With these tidbits in mind, Safeway included some tips for happier mealtimes as well that include some great ideas.
ReStore, a discount home improvement store that funds Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area (HFH SBA), will celebrate the grand opening of a Loma Linda location at a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The store, located at 25948 Business Center Dr., will have a variety of home improvement products ranging from furniture to building materials available at discount prices. The products are targeted toward a lower income demographic, and all profits from sales go to the funding of Habitat for Humanity SBA homes.
Several speakers will commemorate the opening of the store, including San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris, Habitat for Humanity SBA President Philip Souza and ReStore Manager Rick Rodriquez.
The ceremony will end with the ribbon cutting of ReStore, which will be done by the Loma Linda Chamber of Commerce and ReStore staff.
The ribbon cutting ceremony is part of a two-day ceremony. The second day, Aug. 13 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., is the public grand opening for shoppers.
Halloween Adventure will open at least two stores in the Inland region this year. So the seasonal store has announced plans for two job fairs, one on Aug. 22 and 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fontana Superstore location, and another on Aug. 29 and 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Riverside Superstore location.
Positions the company will be hiring for include management, sales associates and cashiers. People with customer service/retail experience are encouraged to apply.
The Fontana store is located at 15080 Summit Ave. and the Riverside store is located at 10000 Magnolia Ave. near the Galleria at Tyler.
For more information on Halloween Adventure Superstores visit www.shophalloweenadventure.com.
Feeling crafty? Craft retailer Michaels will have new classes and free in-store events for children and adults throughout the month to celebrate National Craft Month. The following workshops are offered at all Michaels. Visit www.michaels.com to find a location.
Saturday, March 12, 10 a.m.-noon: The Knack Free family event, "Make-It-Take-It Yarn Doll. Learn to make a simple yarn doll. Age 3 and older.
Saturday, March 19, 10 a.m.-noon: The Knack family event, "Clay Pot & Saucer Make-It Take-It. Turn a clay pot into a giant decorative cupcake. Age 3 and older.
Saturday, March 26, 10 a.m.-noon: Free scrapbook page "Make-It Take It" and free shadow box demo. Make the most of your memories with a stylish scrapbook shadow box. Adults only.
Sunday, March 27, 1 p.m.-3 p.m.: The Knack family event, "Make-It Take-It Bottle Caps." Design your own bottle cap creations. Ages 3 and older.
Kids. They grow out of clothes so fast sometimes, the tags don't even come off.
So for the parents out there who have baby and children's clothing that's barely been used and want to sell, and for those who need clothes but hate to spend a bundle on items that'll oh-so-briefly touch the skin of your growing child - Savvy Chic Kids has your back.
The group's spring consignment event will take place March 20 and 21 at 10811 Indiana Ave. in Riverside, with 200 participating consignors selling more than 25,000 items for children ages 0-14.
Savvy Chic Kids began in 2008 when three Inland area moms created the twice-yearly consignment event in order to keep their children well-outfitted each season without shopping at high-end department stores. Each year the sales have grown.
"Our event has become a much anticipated community event with hundreds of shoppers returning sale after sale," said Lisa Walcker, one of the Savvy Chic Kids founders. "We also have many participants who travel from surrounding areas such as San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angles and San Diego counties."
Savvy Chic Kids accepts cash, ATM, Visa and MasterCard. On the Savvychickids.com website you can purchase admission to the VIP preview sale Friday, March 18 from noon to 5 p.m. for $7 (noon to 2 p.m.) or $5 (2-5 p.m.) if you want to get first peek.
Watch a video from last year's sale by clicking here.
After braving the first round of the holiday break and winter weather, kids still have some time before they head back to school. Arts and crafts retailer Michaels will host a free 'The Knack' Family Fun event Saturday, January 8 to give everyone in the family a chance to get out of the house and put their creative skills to work.
All 1,030-plus Michaels stores will hold the Pinewood Derby Finishing Workshop Event from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. Families can bring in their own Pinewood Derby cars or purchase one - Michaels will provide all the finishing touches to add some flair.
Kids can also make a colorful pennant to cheer on a favorite team and decorate their room.
'The Knack' is Michaels' kids program that encourages kids to explore their creativity through a fun ideas, projects and crafts designed just for them - every child has a knack for something.
You can find additional information on 'The Knack,' 'The Knack' Free Family Fun events and get additional kids project ideas at www.michaels.com/theknack.
Fisher-Price has announced the recall of more than 10 million tricycles, toys and high chairs in response to safety concerns. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the tricycles and high chairs were blamed for children's injuries.
There have been about 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles recalled. From those there were 10 reports of children being hurt, six required medical attention. The trikes have a protruding plastic ignition key near the seat that has caused injuries.
Fisher-Price is also recalling more than 1 million Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me High Chairs, There have been 14 reported problem, including seven children who required stitches. The pegs on the back of the high chairs can be used to store the tray, but children can fall on them, resulting in cuts and other injuries.
Also recalled were more than 2.8 million Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playground toys, Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcade toys, Baby Gymtastics Play Wall toys, Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium toys, 1-2-3 Tetherball toys and Bat & Score Goal toys. The valve of the inflatable ball on the toys can come off and pose a choking hazard to children, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The agency said there were more than 50 reports of the valves coming off the balls.
About 100,000 Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand 'n Play Rampway toys were also recalled because the wheels on the purple and green cars can come off, posing a choking hazard.
Fisher-Price is a unit of Mattel Inc. Consumers can visit the company's website at www.service.mattel.com for more information on the dates of sale and model numbers for the recalled products.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Big Bear resident Jordan Romero made history when at age 13 he reached the peak of Mt. Everest last May. Now his story will be told in a new book, "The Boy Who Conquered Everest."
When Jordan was 9 years old he set a goal to climb the tallest mountain on each of the continents, collectively known as the Seven Summits. Now age 14, he has scaled six of them, with the most recent being Mt. Everest.
Written by Big Bear author Karen Blanc, "The Boy Who Conquered Everest" takes the reader on a visual journey through Jordan's quest. There are pictures of everything from Team Jordan training and base camps to finally standing on the summit of Mt. Everest. There are also inspirational messages and tips on goal-setting from the young adventurer.
Blanc has followed Jordan since the beginning and decided she wanted to write about him.
To complete the Seven Summits challenge, Team Jordan plans to conquer Antarctica's Mt. Vinson Massif this winter. For more information visit www.jordanromero.com.
Author Katherine Blanc lives in Big Bear Lake with her husband Noel, son of Looney Tunes voice-actor Mel Blanc. Her previous books include "The Bad Puppy's Guide to Life," "The Bad Kitty's Guide to Life," "Today," "Big Bear Historical Museum Coloring Book," "Gold Mountain Girl," "No Baths For Betsy," "Cliff the Climber" and "Just One Vote."
The book is published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House.
The Lake Elsinore Outlets has some family-friendly activities coming up. Here are the details:
Wednesday, Aug. 18: Storytime with the Book Warehouse, 11 a.m.-noon
Visit Suite 106 where the Book Warehouse will host an event where kids can enjoy interactive stories, sing familiar nursery rhymes, and color or create a craft.
Friday, Aug. 20: Anthony the Magician, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
See a family magic show full of audience participation in Suite 106. Visit www.Anthonythemagician.com for more information. My kids and I saw Anthony at Tom's Farms once and he was great! We've still got the signed poster hanging in my kids' room. :)
Wednesday, Aug. 25: Storytime with Book Warehouse, 11 a.m.-noon
Visit Suite 106 where the Book Warehouse will host an event where kids can enjoy interactive stories, sing familiar nursery rhymes, and color or create a craft.
Friday, Aug. 27: Pacific Animal Productions, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
This is a multi-age program that features a python, giant millipedes, a monkey and a hedgehog.
Sept. 3-6: Labor Day Weekend Sidewalk Sale
Back-to-school sale over the holiday weekend.
For more information, please visit www.LakeElsinoreOutlet.com or call (951) 245-0087.
I wrote about some of the farmers markets in the area a few weeks ago and neglected to mention one in Yucaipa.
The Yucaipa Farmers Market is in its first season at Yucaipa Community Park (34900 Oak Glenn Rd.) and is open every Saturday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It'll be closed August 14, but runs through November.
That's a great location! So I'm thinking I need to take the kids and check it out.
OK this is cool. I don't do product reviews or anything like that, but I came across the iPregnancy app for iPhone and iPod Touch users and had to mention it.
Nothing like this was around when I was pregnant with either of my kids, but I know I'd have obsessively poured over it just like I did with "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and another book that detailed what was going on pretty much daily during the pregnancy. (The name for that one escapes me right now.)
iPregnancy was designed by Dr. Gregory P. Moore, who felt existing pregnancy apps didn't focus on correct medical information and the psychology of the pregnant woman, as much as the pregnancy planning effort.
So what does it do? It can calculate the due date, conception date and ultrasound date; show 3-d ultrasound pictures and schematic images of the baby at each week; a baby information section has a summary of happenings with the baby at current gestational age; lots of the same what-to-expect info for the mom to be; a journal for keeping notes and photos; a baby name picker list; and a whole lot more. It also integrates with Facebook and Twitter.
Sounds like a great way to stay organized - there are even Weight Gain Analysis and Questions For the Doc sections - and it looks really fun. For more info visit www.ipregnancyapp.com.
The National Financial Educators Council offered some tips for teaching kids to be financially literate and the ideas are simple, but really helpful.
"I'm reading studies that are saying as many as 80 percent of college grads have to move back home after graduation," said Vince Shorb, president of NFEC. "Living independently is getting more difficult with each new generation of graduates, and one of the key problems is that we aren't equipping these kids with a good sense of how to run their finances."
Here are the tips:
Relate Money to Lifestyle. Today's youth aren't just focused on money. It's what money allows them to do. Use that by talking about their personal dreams and find out how they want to live their day-to-day life. Then relate their aspirations to the ways in which having a financial education can help them reach their goals faster.
Help Them Recognize Opportunity. Even though many people are going through financial challenges now, it is important that we teach our children how to recognize opportunity. When the economy is in bad shape is when many financially savvy people are making investments that will increase their long-term net worth. A simple financial literacy lesson like a practical understanding of market cycles gives youth the knowledge of how to take advantage of future trends can have a profound impact on their life.
Savings Plan. Getting your child, teen or young adult in a habit of setting financial goals and saving money as soon as possible is an important financial literacy habit you can help them develop. Since today's youth are comfortable with technology it is highly recommended you teach them to automate their savings and budget plans.
Build a Solid Financial Foundation. Make sure your child has their checking, savings, Roth IRA and brokerage accounts open as soon as possible (even if they do not have money to put into their brokerage or retirement accounts right now). People that have these accounts open are more likely to save their money and begin investing at a young age.
Power of Compounding Interest. Youth gives our children a huge advantage when it comes to their financial health due to compounding interest. If you are over 60 years old and if you had begun investing $100 per month in the S&P 500 index starting at 18 years old, you could be a millionaire now. Don't you wish you fully understood compounding interest and how to take advantage of it when you were 18 years old?
A colleague sent this site over and I think it is such a cute idea: www.astorybeforebed.com.
Basically, it's an interactive site where you can record a child, mom, dad or grandparent reading a children's book. There's a library to choose from and participants record a video reading for a fee. Then you can e-mail the recording and replay as many times as you'd like.
It's a fun way for grandparents to interact with grandkids, or parents to record readings of favorite books or cute kids to record their own readings.
You can see a toddler demo at www.astorybeforebed.com/demo/toddler.
Love it!
The 9th annual Spring Inland Empire Show Extravaganza will be at the Ontario Convention Center Friday, Saturday and Sunday (April 23-25). The show will include hundreds of exhibitors specializing in home decorating, event planning, remodeling, entertaining, landscaping, and eco-friendly and water conservation products.
Home Depot will host how-to clinics on everything from framing a new window to laying tile. There will also be Kid's clinics with "make and take" projects.
Look for discount coupons in The PE, at The Home Depot and online at L.A. Spas, Barbeques Galore, Renewal by Andersen, The Frontier Project and at www.inlandempireshow.com.
Show hours are 1-7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
SmartRiverside and the Riverside Unified School District will hold a free e-wast drop-off event benefitting the Digital Inclusion Program from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 24 at the RUSD District Office, 3380 14th St. in Riverside.
Items accepted include computers, televisions, CRTs, VCRs, DVD players, circuit boards, wiring, small home appliances and electronic equipment. Major home appliances will not be accepted.
For more info call 951-351-6190 or visit www.smartriverside.org.
Warning to moms with infants: The U.S. government is readying a safety warning about baby slings - the cloth infant carriers parents can sling around their chests to carry a baby hands-free.
There have been reports of injuries from falls and suffocation when infants are either held too closely against the body or tangled in clothing.
Inez Tenenbaum, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, announced today that her agency is preparing a general warning for the public that will probably be released later this week.
"We know of too many deaths in these slings and we now know the hazard scenarios for very small babies," Tenenbaum said at meeting of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association. "So the time has come to alert parents and caregivers."
In 2008, Consumer Reports listed about two dozen serious injuries, most occurring when children fell from the slings. A follow-up blog warned of suffocation risks and linked the slings to at least seven infant deaths. Other product complaints were made prior to these as well.
For more information visit www.cpsc.gov.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Clyde Stewart, a Riverside author and minister, has released a new book, "Life Without the Father," that delves into the role of fatherhood.
In the book, Stewart recounts his experiences as a young black man growing up without a father and shares his experiences as a teenager with a child.
"The book contains spiritual and natural insights that will help men fulfill their responsibilities as fathers," Stewart said. "If a man takes God's perspective on the importance of being a father, knowing he will be the deciding factor in fulfilling a child's destiny, I believe men will view their role in a more serious light."
Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available through bookstores nationwide or at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com.
Stewart worked in the penal institutions of Calif. before starting Stewart's Home for Boys, a community center that helped steer the lives of about 650 juvenile delinquents and more than 100 foster children. He was then called to the ministry and founded San Bernardino Westside Christian Center. Stewart is married with two adult children.
Murrieta author Denise L. Bradford's new children's book, "Little Jon and the Tumbleweed Travesty" celebrates nationwide release this week.
The story is about a curious, you boot named Little Jon. When prickly tumbleweeds roll into town, Little John must find his way through some not so ordinary dilemmas.
Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available in bookstores nationwide or at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com.
Bradford has been married for 23 year and has five children, two of which are currently serving in the armed forces.
Savvy Chic Kids Consignment will hold its spring sale March 14 and 15 at 10081 Indiana Ave. in Riverside.
Savvy Chick was created by three Inland region moms, Lisa Walcker, Sara Gillespie and Yoli Merklin about a year and a half ago. The women gathered consignors with gently used items priced 50 to 90 percent below retail and began holding twice-yearly sales (spring and fall) to help families purchase items for their children for discounted prices.
The first sale took place in October, 2008 with 50 consigners. This year's spring sale has approximately 150 participating consignors.
"We see this as a way to give back to the community by providing a venue for families to both make money and purchase necessities such as clothes, shoes, furniture, baby gear, bedding, toys and maternity wear at discount prices," Walcker said.
After the sale, some consignors allow SCKC to donate unsold items to Inland charities and churches that serve women and children. For the spring sale, SCKC will be donating to Family Service Association, La Sierra University Church's Community Services, San Bernardino Pregnancy Resource Center and Helping Hands.
Here's the schedule for the spring sale:
TUE, March 09 - 9am-6pm Consignor Drop Offs
WED, March 10 - 9am-6pm Consignor Drop Offs
THU, March 11 - 9am-6pm Consignor Drop Offs
FRI, March 12 - 11pm-4pm Volunteer Pre-Sale
FRI, March 12 - 2:00pm-4pm Consignor Pre-Sale
SAT, March 13 - 6pm-9pm VIP PRE-SALE (Pass Required)**
SUN, March 14 - 9am-9pm PUBLIC SALE
MON, March 15 - 9am-10am Discount Pre-Sale (Volunteers Only)
MON, March 15 - 10am-6pm DISCOUNT DAY (Many Items 1/2 Off)
TUE, March 16 - 3pm-6pm Consignor Pick-Ups
**Purchase pass at http://www.savvychickids.com/Savvy_Chic_Kids/SCHEDULE.html
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