Hot Toys!

The View did their Hot Toys-2009 episode today. I have to say that I like the "Meatball Madness" toy from Taratoy. The meatballs float above an air-blowing hand-held spoon and you take the meatball through hoops to get to the plate. My kids might be a little too old for it, but I'd have fun!

Will the Elmo Tickle Hands be a hot item? Probably! Elmo has been popular since my kids were little.

There are Zhu Zhu Pets - toy hamsters that scramble through a tunnel home. And no smell! No wood chips to change! No nocturnal wakings!

I think the big hit in our house (and our wallet) will be the electronic toys. My plan is to wrap them in giant boxes loaded with rocks. I've got to have my fun, too, you know?

Got teens? Here are hot toys for teen boys - I think my son would enjoy the mini-projector but I object to the Psycho shower curtain. Ick.

Tween girls might enjoy these gifts.

My kids love science stuff and might just see a few of these toys from Edmund Scientific.

One of my favorites toys are the 3D puzzles. There's a great selection here but I've seen some of them at Barnes & Noble and other local toy dealers.

Remember those in need and grab an extra toy for the local Toys for Tots program or donate many of the local charities and chamber programs set up to help local families enjoy the holidays.

Happy Shopping!

Happy Birthday, Sesame Street!

If you've been noticing this week's colorful Google art, then you know it's Sesame Street's 40th birthday! I guess I was only three years old when Big Bird hit the airwaves. I remember watching it with my younger sister on PBS, one of our only TV channels (no cable!). I think she loved Grover. Then again, it was almost 40 years ago, so who knows!

My kids always loved Elmo but I was more of a Cookie Monster fan myself, for obvious reasons. "C" is for Cookie (and Carolyn) and that's good enough for me.

Congratulations to Sesame Street and all the wonderful people, and muppets, there for 40 years of bringing free educational programming to children all around the world!

Think you know Sesame Street? Take this challenging trivia quiz! I completely bombed! (There's a 35th anniversary quiz here. Take it just to hear Oscar taunting you!)

This blog post brought to you by the letter "S" and the number "40."

Joys! Joys! The Big Book of Toys!

There was a time, not long ago, just after Halloween, when the most coveted of all catalogs would arrive. No, not the Crate & Barrel holiday issue - that's for me. It's the Toys-R-Us Big Book of Toys. We would place, with great reverence, the most prized book on the breakfast table and unveil it after the Sunday comics were read.

The kids would grab magic markers and spend hours circling the toys they wanted. Then they'd make lists, ranked lists, of all the toys they wanted Santa to bring.

Our 'big book' arrived the other day and as I flipped through the brightly colored pages filled with toys, I realized there was only one page my tween & teen kids would enjoy now - the video games page.

We have almost every board game there is, tons of sports equipment and a basement full of other toys. Now their interest is mostly focused on electronics. They're beyond Transformers and Hot Wheels, Barbies and Bratz (thank goodness for small miracles), and, bless his little red furry heart, Talking Elmo.

The presents under the Christmas tree used to spill out all over the living room. Big toys, little toys, toys stuffed in stockings, books and stuffed rabbits, hockey sticks and red wagons. It was hard to find the kids in all the wrapping paper.

Now they want tiny things. Software. Video games. Things that you have to plug in and recharge. They want i-Pods. I'm not even sure I typed that correctly...I-Pod? iPod? How uncool am I?

They want to go skiing or maybe have a luxurious island holiday vacation (I'm kind of with them on that). And they want to take a friend along, as if our joyous company wasn't enough anymore!

Someone told me once that as kids get bigger, the toys get smaller and way more expensive. I think we're there.

Now, I'll have to find the Big Book of Electronics. It's probably next to the Big Book of Bankruptcy. I could always wrap the i-Pod thingies in a red wagon box...just to mix it up a bit.

More from the Walkway Over the Hudson

Motherhood - The Movie

I just saw the trailer for Uma Thurman's new movie entitled, "Motherhood" opening this weekend in select cities. Can't say I agree with the tagline "there are no time-outs in Motherhood."

Sure there are! When you don't get them, therein lies the problem! Moms should always give themselves time-outs, whether it's a long, hot bath, time for reading, a night out with hubbie or the gals or, and I remember those days, a drive-thru coffee while the kids are asleep in the backseat. Take it when you can get it!

Back to the movie, the early reviews panned it, but I obviously have a connection to the premise - a stay-at-home mom with little children, a blog about the same and a deadline that can give her something she's been missing - a job. Who knew I could've starred in this movie?! Why didn't I attend the casting call? I'm firing my agent forthwith.

Anyway, Uma beat me to the punch and plays my character, Eliza, mother of two, who is spending a harried day planning her daughter's birthday party. OK, she's in the city and I'm in the country, but we have similarities. Who hasn't taken their kid to school still half-dressed in their pajamas? Right? I just did it this morning! Bueller?

By the reviews, it's nothing new in the motherhood movie theme department, but I suspect some moms will connect with her on some level. Harried? Check. Feeling under-appreciated and drifting from your former self? Check. Turned crazy by seemingly menial domestic tasks? Check. Trying to take stock of what you have and not worry about what you don't? OK, yes, fine, check, check.

Still, I might take in the matinee next week. I can't pay full evening ticket prices if they didn't even call me for an audition. Hmph.

Autumn in NY

Here are some photos from around the yard...autumn in the Hudson Valley.

Too Old For Trick or Treating

I don't know why all these childhood milestones surprise me. I know they're coming, I just don't know when exactly. So when they crop up - they still blindside me.

The latest isn't earth-shattering but still, it hits me where I live. My 13-yr old son said he's "too old for trick-or-treating." Too old?!! *I* like trick-or-treating and I am so not 13 years old!

I don't understand this. It's one night where you go out into the cold, dark world, scare little kids if you want, and get...(wait for it)...free CANDY! Candy, I say! What kid rejects free candy?!!

Then again, what mother should push it, right? "Hey, kid, you're not getting your daily requirement of chocolate - eat this Snickers immediately!"

I know kids hit that milestone of "It's just not cool, Mom" during the early teen years. He tells me like I have two heads, "Teenagers just do NOT trick-or-treat, Mom." As if I were unaware of the "cool" requirements of the teenage years. I know them, I just want him to reject them.

I've heard of a few Halloween parties cropping up for the "too cool" teens but I'm still going to miss the family ritual and the excitement building up to Halloween. Like the whole Santa Claus thing...just takes the wind out of your sails.

Halloween is fun! You shouldn't avoid it because of someone else's preconception of what "cool" is. Fun is cool. Free candy is very cool. Walking about in the neighborhood in the dark is probably the ultimate of cool because, as a teenager, I'd give him a little rope out there because I know he wouldn't be vandalizing stuff and making mayhem. Why wouldn't you want to go?

So, to summarize for my very math-oriented son:

fun + candy + freedom = halloween

Halloween just adds up to a good time. I hope he reconsiders.

Meanwhile, my daughter has already said emphatically that she's...not...sharing. (Except with me, I hope. Dibs on the Mary Janes...!)
Halloween Peanut Brittle Recipe

Bake Sale Ban in NYC

NYC schools are taking a stand against sweets. In an effort to combat childhood obesity and diabetes, there will be no more bake sales at school.

Bake sales after 6pm on weekdays and weekends are fine (beware hungry, unsuspecting parents on your way to a PTA meeting), but not during school hours.

I don't see this as a solution to anything, unless NYC schools were having bake sales every day during school hours. The bigger problem is the cafeteria menu which, in our school, includes things like: hamburger/cheeseburger; corn dog on a stick, chili with cheese, chicken nuggets and cheese breadsticks. It offers chips, sweet drinks, fries and brownies every day.

They say the food items aren't fried there, but they were fried somewhere. That's how a corn dog comes into being. You take a hot dog, already loaded with saturated fat, salt and who knows what else, then you dip it in a corn meal batter (which has fat in it), then you fry it. In oil. Yes, the school bakes it to heat it, but the damage has been done. Average corn dogs have 12-18 grams of fat. For a child - that's about a third of their total fat and all of their saturated fat - in one portion of one meal. A full third of this month's meals are coated with a fatty coating.

It's not the bake sales. It's the food. And it's the sedentary lifestyles that we allow our children to have. Yes, they have video games and TV's with 24/7 cartoons that make them happy. Should we let them be plugged in for 5 hours straight? I think we know the answer to that question.

Chef Jamie Oliver is on a mission to save at least one U.S. community from it's unhealthy eating habits. He'll star in a new reality show on ABC to help Huntingon, WV, tagged as the nation's unhealthiest city, to help them eat and cook healthier. To make his point, he showed up at school with more than 5,000 lbs of fat - the equivalent of what the school cafeteria serves every year. Ick!

A few years ago, I did a story on a school that hired a caterer to make, not just healthy meals for school, but a full vegetarian menu. Did the kids temporarily lose their minds? Yes! Did they adjust and actually learn to love butternut squash soup? You betcha.

Is it possible to have healthy meals at school? Absolutely. Is it easy in this era of heat & serve kitchens? Not so much. But not impossible.

Healthiest meals are likely the ones we send in from home. Assuming we don't send a portable bake sale!

Takin' It to the Bridge

I finally ventured out - and up - to the Walkway Over the Hudson today. A bit nervous at first because I'm afraid of heights but it was fine...as long as I didn't look straight down. The views are spectacular up there, particularly now when the leaves are starting to turn.

I highly recommend it with the kiddies, although there are no seats anywhere on the 1.25 mile length of the Walkway so bring a stroller if you have little ones. And something to drink. Which I didn't, and I regretted it at about mile #1. It didn't look that far when I was on the ground looking up!

Congrats to Fred Schaeffer and the countless other leaders and volunteers for putting this thing together. I remember more than a dozen years ago Fred (a volunteer for my organization at the time) trying to get me up on that bridge when it was just a few wood planks out over the Highland side. Glad I waited for the cement walkway and safety railings! Now it's doable for a scaredy-cat like me.

It's a really great place to walk and see the Hudson Valley. And people are in great spirits up there. It's like they were waiting for something to bring them together...and this Walkway was it.

I can see the potential for new businesses and shops near the parking areas for the Walkway. I could smell the food from Mt. Carmel square from up on the bridge. A cannoli was calling me...

Worth the trip!

Slideshow here.

Bike Route from Poughkeepsie train station to Walkway Over the Hudson

Bike Route from Poughkeepsie train station to Walkway Over the Hudson

Start:

Poughkeepsie Train Station to Walkway Over the Hudson:

(The waterfront is just down the hill from the train station. Pizza, seafood, pubs down there.)

Exit upper level onto Davies Place.
Go up hill to the left onto Davies.
Take right onto Dongan Place.
Left onto Mill St (eat cannoli at Café Aurora’s, 145 Mill, or get it on trip back for train ride home)
Continue north and turn right onto Verrazano St.
Turn left onto Washington and take quick right onto Parker Avenue.
Walkway Over the Hudson entrance is on the left ¼ mile down.
2.5-roundtrip ride across the Walkway.

Walkway to Vassar College Ride:
Turn left out of Walkway parking lot. Turn right on Garden St.
Eat Aloy’s pizza (since 1929!) Large rectangle pizza, thin crust, tasty toppings ($9.95 for a large)
Turn right out of Aloy’s parking lot onto Garden St.
Take 3rd right onto Mansion Street
The post office (FDR laid the cornerstone) and Poughkeepsie Journal buildings are both historic landmarks.
Turn left on Market (also called Civic Center Plaza). (pass 1869 Bardavon Opera House)
Go six blocks (1/3 mile) and turn left on Montgomery St.
Go five blocks and turn right on Hooker Ave. (Rt. 376)
Take third left onto Forbus St. (turns into Fulton) continue for 1 mile.
Go around traffic circle (to go to road straight across) to Collegeview Ave.
Park bike. Eat cheap eats along Raymond & Collegeview.

Recommended:
Thai Spice, north on Raymond across from elementary school
Twisted Soul on Raymond – empanadas, dumplings, noodle bowls, “concept foods,” art-friendly
Babycakes on Collegeview –café bistro fare, paninis, soups, salads (outside seating in season)
Beechtree Grill (have crab cakes) – full bar, good eats (outside seating in season)
Fresco Tortillas (handmade tortillas…cheap-eats tiny takeout place next to Juliet pool hall/café)
Dutch Cabin (down Collegeview to Fairmont Ave) – pub with Tex-Mex food.
Saigon Café – Vietnamese (Raymond to Lagrange Ave)

Alternate local Route 9 historic site route:

Go north on Route 9 from train station and hit Marist College, Culinary Institute of America (get food here at Apple Pie Bakery & Cafe), FDR Home & Vanderbilt Estate. (7.5 miles one way)