As a Rose Parade newbie I couldn’t be more amazed! Wow!

Here’s Jack and his Uncle John checking out the Trader Joe’s floral l tribute!

Today we zipped up to Simi Valley to check out the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. We are about to step onto Air Force One.
What an awesome place and view.

Regardless of your politics, you can’t help but get drawn into this place with its history and great exhibits.

It is crowded on this holiday weekend but worth a bit of standing in lines. Especially to see the plane!

Thanks to Steve for writing and performing this and then letting me put it on my blog. He also made a really awesome pumpkin pie. Hope all your holidays were happy and full of wild reindeer.

wildreindeer

Regular readers might notice a leaner blog season as we roll into Christmas and New Year’s. I’m just giddy from the fact that I don’t have to drive 1,200 miles with two kids to plod across three states to visit our families in New Mexico. I love the season there, but in our eight years as SoCal residents, we have yet to experience a Los Angeles Christmas. 

But this is our year! My mom and sister are here and will be ready to pop up after Santa drops down the chimney. Then Steve’s dad, three brothers, two sisters-in-law and a two nephews (one with a wife, the other with a girlfriend) will arrive to experience a Tournament of Roses New Year’s. I know there will be crowds and traffic and craziness, but I’m excited about seeing a parade that I used to watch from my couch as a kid (OK, and as an adult). 

Is it ever too early to start thinking about baseball? Not if you have little Dodger fans racing through your home field.

Kids will have a ball with the new Jr. Dodgers program, which is free and open to fans ages 14 and younger. Members receive their own newsletter and have a chance to participate in some of the team’s most over-the-top experiences, such as taking the field with their favorite Boys in Blue or serving as a guest reporter for the newsletter. They also get VIP access to select Kids Run the Bases events and have the chance to announce “It’s Time for Dodgers Baseball” to kick off a home game. They also have access to some of the cool gift packs.

You can sign up at the Dodgers Web site. Or for more information call 323-224-1507 (Monday through Friday) or e-mail jrdodgers@ladodgers.com.

Here’s a way gift-givers can go beyond the iPod and scarf this holiday season – even if it’s last minute. How about giving someone a chance to become a seal trainer for a day? Or allowing them to be a passenger in a stock car ride-along? Or sending them on a zero-gravity flight?

The Discovery Channel (in partnership with high-end gifting company Excitations) is all about its Discovery Experiences, which bring to life those amazing TV adventures and packages them so that they’re ready to deliver to the weekend warriors – or couch potatoes – on your list (there are several for kids, too). Select the “Astronaut Biplane Adventure,” and for $495 the recipient gets to roll and spin just like Chuck Yeager. For $90 you can give someone a tour of Venice Beach via Segway. There’s even a parent and child rock climbing excursion for $275. 

Search for experiences in the L.A. area or trek farther afield for such activities as cattle drives, sailboat trips and snowmobile safaris. The process is pretty easy (and sure beats finding parking at the Beverly Center right now): Just select your adventure, and the recipient can redeem whenever he or she is ready.

We’ve managed to keep Associate Editor Ronna Mandel pretty busy lately. Just in the past several weeks, she’s earned a copper spatula at a special Nintendo cooking-game event, attended an opening of a Burbank kids’ eatery and is planning today to check out a book reading at Every Picture Tells a Story with Burbank author/illustrator David Shannon (check back soon to find out how that went). This week she also got her game back on and made the trek to a holiday party sponsored by Electronic Arts. Here’s her report. 

I thought finding my way down to EA Headquarters in Playa Vista was going to be a challenge, but that proved a lot easier than beating Chandra Knee from the PR company Murphy O’Brien at Connect 4, one of the fun games included on Hasbro’s Family Game Night for Wii. My 7-year-old son Coleman and I attended the Winter Gaming Wonderland sponsored by EA, but for gamers, it could easily have been called Paradise.

Picture a room set up with every electronic game you could dream of, there for you to play alongside the game’s designers and publicists! My son and I started off by sampling Spore, a PC and Mac game rated 10+ E for Everyone, but Coleman tried it and was off and running – well, at least his creation was. Despite the fact that he was a little under the age recommendation, Coleman designed a sort of cucumber-looking creature in this brilliantly conceived program in which players design living beings, tribes, worlds and universes (and can even incorporate others’ creations into their own game/world).

While we did not try Boogie Superstar, the crowd of young girls ‘rocking’ around that game never waned. Stopping for a while at the Brain Quest station, Coleman picked up a Nintendo DS and began playing Brain Quest for grades 3-4. The other version currently available is for grades 5-6. I’m not embarrassed at all to admit that the Sudoku on here, as well as on Travel Games for Dummies, was addictive and a great way to keep those neural pathways in shape for us older moms!

We meandered over to Boom Blox where Coleman stayed for the remainder of the event (apart from a few excursions over to play NERF “N-Strike” (in stores now) and his other fave, Zubo, (due out this March). 

Under the guise of treating my family to a Wii for the holidays, I’m actually heading out today to buy a Wii for me. But remember, mum’s the word. I simply cannot wait to sink my husband’s submarine playing Battleship on Hasbro’s Family Game Night!! “Hey honey, I sunk the ship.” 

Despite our rather volatile economy, all signs point to the fact that parents are still seeking fun family outings as well as great places to throw birthday parties for their children. In that vein, a new place has opened up in Burbank, sure to give Chuck E. Cheese a run for the money.

Associate Editor Ronna Mandel scouted out the press preview of Kids Castle for L.A. Parent. Here’s her report:

While there may be no moat to cross upon entering Kids Castle in Burbank, you’ll find everything a child – let me rephrase that – an entire family could wish for.

On Tuesday I attended a media preview of L.A.’s newest family entertainment center opening this Sunday, Dec. 7 (on opening day, a portion of all dine-in sales will benefit the Burbank Boys & Girls Club).

Picture Dave & Buster’s with all the pros and none of the cons, toss in an amazing and delicious assortment of affordable food, family-friendly décor (check out the fabulous dragon murals) and a staff dedicated to customer service, and you have a guaranteed great day or evening outing suitable for any demanding monarch.

Families get the royal treatment here whether they come to dine and play games or throw a birthday bash or family reunion in one of the three beautifully appointed party rooms that can hold up to 40 people each.

Other attractions include the Dragon’s Den (a 600-square-foot indoor soft playport), the Wizard’s Wild Ride (an indoor Himalaya amusement ride), a Build-a-Buddy stuffed animal station (a family favorite) and some pretty good redemption prizes.

Finding out there’s free Wi-Fi on premises clinched it for me. My teen, the princess, can sit on her iPhone and keep in touch with her realm while my husband, the king, can bring his laptop. As queen supreme, I can play with my little prince on the cool Deal or No Deal electronic game ‘til kingdom come. And you can be your family’s knight in shining armor if you treat them to an outing at this new royal attraction!

      Kids Castle is at 2814 Empire Ave. in Burbank. Phone is 818-565-5552. Hours are 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. Tiara for the day not included.

The other day, a friend of mine and I were talking about how much we love jigsaw puzzles. My brain makes a contented little sigh when I snap together interlocking pieces of cardboard to create calm – and a picture of kitties – from jumbled chaos. But my brain doesn’t like having to stare at those same pieces of colorful cardboard scattered all over my dining table when the lasagna comes out of the oven and it’s time to set the table.

Thank goodness for our homegrown J Paul Getty Museum, which recently relaunched its GettyGames site. Unlike many electronic jigsaw puzzles on other kid sites, this little artsy corner of the Web takes cool art from its collections and shatters it into up to 144 pieces.

Of course, jigsaw puzzles aren’t the only draw. The site has a nice collection of other cool brainy games that are reminiscent of some favorite puzzles of my youth. In Detail Detective, you determine which smidgeon of art belongs to the full-sized painting. All of the games are a subtle and interactive way to expose kids to different paintings, sculptures and ceramics by artists that range from Van Gogh to Jacob van Hulsdonck (a Dutch painter who created Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate, in case you’re wondering).

The site also includes some cool little downloadable art projects. And, like the Getty itself, the games are free and free of advertising.

For parents out there who miss their old night-club days, it’s time to grab your sequined diaper bag and hit the dance floor with Baby Loves Disco, a parent-hosted dance party that’s become quite a hit in the Southland.

Last weekend L.A. Parent’s graphic designer Terresa Burgess took her 14-month-old daughter Teagan to an event, which was held at Cinespace in Hollywood, a restaurant and club normally reserved for the young and usually childless crowd of L.A. hipsters.

While toddlers find their groove, grownups can enjoy adult beverages and relive a little of their ’80s dancing days. The little ones like the bubble machine and hula-hoops, and there’s also a play area and snacks. A real DJ spins the hits (decibel levels are made for young ears, although Terresa thought the volume might’ve been a little loud, especially after being there for a while). Parents can raise concerns about volume or other issues to their parent hosts, which are stationed at every event.

The baby dance craze was born out of the Baby Loves Music indie label, which makes music CDs, books and other products geared for toddling music lovers. Events are held throughout the U.S. and even in the United Kingdom. Tickets are $15; stayed tuned to the Baby Loves Disco site for future L.A.-area dates.

Here’s Teagan rocking out solo, with her dad Sean and mom Terresa: