Maclaren Strollers Recalled :: One MILLION Strollers!

This week, the Maclaren Stroller company agreed to a "voluntary recall" of all its models sold as far back as 1999, conceding that the fingers of 12 children were severed by the stroller's hinges when they were opened or closed.

Parents with concerns over the safety of Maclaren pushchairs can ask for new safety kits after concerns were raised about injuries to children.

If you own a Maclaren Baby Stroller, get your repair kit today, for your child's safety:
www.maclarenbaby.com

Pretend City in Irvine :: Top of list for fun things to do with kids in Orange County

Pretend City Children’s Museum - Children at Play
http://pretendcity.org/

Children will have the opportunity to experience many professions as part of the Pretend City community. The opportunity for dress-up and role-playing are key components of education and fun at Pretend City!

When I grow up, I want to be…

There is an art place, where your child can do an art project. There is a garden to grow vegetables and harvest. There's a grocery store, a fire station, a gas station, a police station, a health station where you can pretend to be a doctor.

There is even an "ocean" where you can float boats and catch some fish. There is also a beach area to show how trash from the city can be get emptied out into the ocean. A little environmental lesson with your fun.

There is also a stage area where your child can either run the light-board or be in the show, mainly dress up and musical instrument play.

Your child can do various jobs and get stamps on a "timecard." You then go to an ATM machine and get money. Kids go to the ATM to get and spend money. Lots of little cars to drive around too.

It's a ton of fun, for kids and adults. It's on the top of our list for fun things to do with kids in Orange County. Check it out today: http://pretendcity.org/

Keep Kids From Eating Too Much Candy After Halloween

Keep Kids From Eating Too Much Candy After Halloween

While I love the cute costumes and the neighborly aspect of trick-or-treating, I sure don't love the giant sacks of candy that result from it. How do you keep your kids from eating too much candy, whether they've accumulated their loot on Halloween, Valentine's Day, Easter, or some other occasion?

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

My little girl had a Halloween Sleepover last year. Even though I took all her and her friends candy away and made them play lots of fun games, they still managed to get all hyper on there camp out. Before they went to bed I gave them each 5 peices of candy and took the rest away. Little did I know, her and her friends had bags in they had hidden plastic bags in there pockets and other bits of candy in there pockets. And one of her friends who lived next door had to go home, so I let her take her sweets home. What she done was went home through her back gate and threw her candy over the fence. When she came back with what she needed to get, she had got all the other girls to colect the candy. Now they had loads of candy in there tent. Some of the other girls Mothers had sent them with tubs of sweets to eat. So I had calls from the neighbours all night because they were really loud and hyper. My advice to parents is to take away the candy and check your child (and friends) for candy!!

Here's some tips from our readers;


Make 'em over eat

I remember this one time I over ate on candy right after halloween. This echoes a few of the posts here. I got sick right after a binge on candy. To this day, I never eat candy, and I can't stand the sight of candy and junk food.


Don't ration it!

I have to disagree with the advice to give a few pieces every night. The research on sweets and children shows that when you restrict a food, children view it as more desirable. So when you make candy a special treat and only give a little at a time you actually make it more appealing. I let my kids eat as much candy as they want on Halloween night and I also encourage them to give the rest away. Usually they're so sick after all that candy they are happy to part with it. :)


Teddy Bear Party

When my son was very young, I'd take him trick-or-treating with his friends, but afterwards, we'd have a "party" with his teddy bears. They "ate" the candy, and then we just threw it out when the "party" was over! My son grew up without a sweet tooth because that's really an acquired taste...so he was never very big on tons of candy. Whenever I had a party for him, we'd offer delicious but healthy food, and several mothers commented that they'd never seen kids behave so well. I'm sure it had to do with them not getting a sugar rush.


Ration It

After we went trick or treating my mom always made us dump all of our candy on the floor and went through it. She was looking for any candy that might have broken wrappers or look suspicious. Then she gave us a reasonable amount and stashed the rest in her room. We got a decent ration every day until it was all gone. There were no stipulations on whether we got it or not (I mean where's the fun in that?), but it did ensure that we weren't engorging ourselves on nothing but sugar all day.


Share with Adults

A co-worker brought in her daughter's Halloween stash and left in our break room. She simply asked her daughter if she would be willing to share some of her candy with her adult friends at work who didn't have kids of their own to share any candy with them. She gave her daughter a snack bowl to fill, allowing her to pick what candy to keep and what to share. I must say this little girl was very generous.