With two cold-weather babies, I've always envied moms who could plan an outdoor birthday party and take advantage of their backyard or local park. Nature makes the great outdoors ideal for garden parties, water games, messy projects, and sporting events — and best of all, they can be done at a fraction of the price of indoor ones without rental fees. Check out 44 fun parties you can throw right in the yard, without ever worrying about how you'll fit all those kids in your home!
Barbecues and carefully wrapped gifts took a backseat to simply spending time with family around Hollywood this weekend. Celeb dads got the royal treatment from their partners and kids on Father's Day, and lucky for us, celebrity moms were on hand to capture and share the moments via social media. From Dean McDermott's relaxing day in the pool with baby Finn to Neil Patrick Harris's combination birthday and Father's Day, take a look at how Tinseltown's dads were feted by their kids.
Well hello there, Everly Tatum! In honor of Father's Day, Channing and Jenna Dewan-Tatum shared their first picture of their little bundle of joy! Everly Tatum, who was born on May 31, made her public debut on her parents' Facebook pages today.
For a long time running, it seemed People had a monopoly on introductory celebaby photos. Nicole Richie, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, and the Jolie-Pitts all turned to the well-established magazine to show off their newest family members. However, today, many celebs are turning to competitors who are doling out generous offerings to new parents. Others are releasing their own photos — either on their own or through photo agencies — to bypass the whole magazine scenario. See how your favorite Tinseltown parents debuted their little ones, and tell us how you think the newest Hollywood babies will be introduced to us!
Naming baby is the first big decision parents make for their child. The word will follow their kiddo for the rest of his or her life, but it's not something that moms and dads need to fret about. It's fun! We've rounded up our hottest tips and conversation topics to give you the complete guide to baby-naming.
Moms love to share their parenting experiences — the good, the bad, and the ugly! From searching for the best postbaby bathing suit to how to speak to your child, moms have a lot to say. Take a look at the five stories that had our readers talking the most this week.
With swimsuit season finally upon us, we're not surprised at all that a story about one mom's quest for the perfect, confidence-boosting swimsuit is among our most popular posts of the week. More than 130 weighed in with their thoughts on her final pick, and why it was a winner.
We often forget how carefully we need to talk to our children when discussing important things. Our post about choosing our words when telling tots we're disappointed in their actions received a vote of confidence from more than 80 readers.
Keep reading for the rest of the most talked about stories this week.
A little (OK, a lot of) rain throughout the week failed to put a damper on celeb tots' activities. From Harper Smith's jaunts throughout New York City to Ben Brady's leisurely swing up in Boston, celeb parents had a great time snapping — and sharing — photos of their little ones soaking up life this week. Click through now to see this week's cutest celeb tot candids, and don't forget to follow POPSUGAR Moms on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter!
If your iPad looks anything like ours, it's filled with apps for your kids, rather than yourself. You're also probably always on the lookout for a new app that will not only occupy your little ones' time, but teach them something at the same time. There are more than 33,000 kids' apps in the iTunes store, so finding the best ones out there can be a chore. Lucky for you, we've found recent additions to the iTunes store that will make both mom and tot happy. From new color-educating apps for toddlers to a movie-making app from Disney, check out our favorite latest downloads now!
If your tot's lemonade stand is raking in the dough this Summer and turning into more of a business venture than an afternoon activity, you might want to book a trip to NYC's Trump SoHo Hotel. In true Trump fashion, the hotel just launched the Trump Kids Young Entrepreneurs SoHo program, where kids 3 to 17 can live like minimoguls in the hotel. Kids receive personalized business cards, invitations to exclusive events like film screenings at the Children’s Museum of the Arts, and cooking and etiquette classes. They can even enjoy beauty days at the hotel's spa, and receive a soon-to-be-launched shopping card that grants them discounts at local clothing boutiques and toy stores. During their first stay, the tots also receive a monogrammed child-size robe, while subsequent visits will bring them surprises like bedtime milk and cookies or a candy buffet. And while the focus of the program is on the kids, Trump doesn't leave the parents out — they receive waived fees on rollaway and sofa beds and dining incentives throughout their stay.
We've seen hotel rooms designed for almost every type of tot, but for budding tycoons, it doesn't get much closer to living the high life than this. We're just wondering if the hotel staff gives tips for achieving the Donald hairstyle as part of the program.
I'm the first one to admit that I'm a bargain shopper. It's great for my wallet, but not for my time-starved, working mother schedule. Spending endless hours comparison price shopping is the last thing I really have time for these days. So when I heard that Decide.com was expanding to the baby and kids realm, I was anxious to test it out.
The site not only provides purchase recommendations based on user reviews (all products receive a color coded and numerical rating from one to 100), but it uses proprietary price-predicting technology to determine if the price is likely to rise or fall in the next two weeks, so you won't feel burned when the high chair you purchase goes on sale the day after it ships to you. Playing around, I found it to be an easy way to make a decision about anything from high chairs and strollers to a set of Legos. The high chair I was looking at was ruled a "Buy before prices rise" while the stroller received a "Wait for prices to drop" mention (and it told me how much they should drop in the next two weeks). It made purchase decisions a cinch, freeing up my evenings for the first time in ages.
I kept looking for a catch, but couldn't fine one. The service is free for all "Decide Scores" as well as up to eight price predictions. After that, there's an annual $30 membership fee that gives you unlimited access to price predictions for the year. So tell us, would you pay for access to such a site?
The clothes are labeled and the bags are packed; all that's left is for your child to head off to camp for the Summer. While it may appear that mom and dad's job is done once they ship their little one off to sleepaway camp, the moment the bus pulls away is when the real work begins — sending care packages that show the kids just how much you care. Though camps have pretty restrictive lists of what can and can't be brought onto campgrounds — candy, baked goods, and snacks are often banned — there are still plenty of fun, small items that can be shipped up to your tot. Click through for 18 of our favorite care package finds, including one sneaky item that your child will love!
Homemade gifts are all the rage when it comes to Dad's big day. Before you pull out the crayons, paper, and glitter, get thee to the computer and get ready to print! The web is filled with gorgeous printables that add a lil creative juice to your lil one's gift this year. Check out our favorite Father's Day finds for your printer, from printable posters to cupcake toppers to tags for his favorite brew!
With two little girls running around her Brooklyn home, Maggie Gyllenhaal is very familiar with the ubiquitous Johnson & Johnson First Aid Kit. The kit, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, has come to the rescue of everyone from railroad workers (its original intended audience) to soccer moms over the past century. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, the star of the upcoming White House Down and mom to daughters Ramona, 6, and Gloria, 1, joined with Johnson & Johnson "Everyday Care" campaign to provide first aid safety information to families in need through Safe Kids Worldwide. The campaign — which consumers can support by creating their own custom First Aid Kits at CVS stores — will create five Sports Safety Clinic Kids' Zones across the country that educate kids about proper hydration and preventing sports injuries.
Though Maggie told us that she's been relatively lucky in the accident department so far, she knows the power of a Band-Aid to help a child, both physically and emotionally. "Sometimes though, I feel like they do want some attention and there is not much you can do," she said. "So to put on a Band-Aid [works]!"
Here are some more highlights from our conversation:
Maggie on her involvement with Johnson & Johnson: You just take for granted that there are first aid kits everywhere you go, and that there are Band-Aids and Neosporin. They are there when you need them, so it just seemed like a good fit.
Maggie on balancing her career and family: There was a project that I was thinking of doing that was in New York and it was OK, and then there is this thing I am going to do which is in London and it is fantastic. But, they worked it out for me that I can get her back to start second grade. What it took was me just saying, “Look, I really want to do this but I am a mother and I don’t want her to start a week late.” Because if you think about it from the perspective of a second grader, it is a huge deal. So I think that her dad [Maggie is married to Peter Sarsgaard] will probably take her back three or four days before me and then I will get back a few days before school starts and it will be fine. But I know my husband won't be able to clear all of her old stuff out of her room so we have to do that before we leave for London. [We will] get some new clothes for her for school in London — my husband he can do a lot of things, but he can’t do that!
Maggie on her girls understanding the celebrity factor: Ramona . . . has been doing this interesting thing. I will be with my kids and people will say, “Can you take a picture with me?” And I will say, "No, because I’m with my kids and I don’t want to ask my children to wait for you, you are a grown-up." But Ramona started doing this funny thing where she says, "Yeah, yeah you can!" I think she is joking me, like, "You can’t get out of it if I say it!" If someone comes up to me and I start to smile, she’ll say, "That’s a fake laugh!"
Keep reading for more of Maggie's thoughts on juggling acting and motherhood, traveling with her girls, and what it's like working with Channing Tatum.
The temperature's rising, school's out of session, and all your kids want to do is sit inside and play. Make the next warm Summer day more fun than ever with games, crafts, and activities they can't really do indoors. From messy projects to those that will cool tots off with splashes of water, we've come up with 41 activities that will have tots begging to head outside this Summer.
— Additional reporting by Emily Bibb
Can you imagine a time when boys and girls wore the same clothes and pink and blue weren't even available in the baby section of a store? According to a new book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys From the Girls in America ($25), it wasn't that long ago that parents dressed their little ones in white (it was considered more practical because it could be bleached if baby spit up or made a mess), and little boys even wore their sisters' white dresses until they were 6 or 7. It was as recently as the 1940s that genders began to be identified by pink and blue, and then it quickly became the gender norm.
While Jo B. Paoletti's book focuses on children's clothing trends over the years, the same theory can be applied to kids' toys, just pushed back a few decades. Toys that were introduced in the '60s and '70s had a decidedly gender-neutral feel to them — think primary colors. But as we approached the '90s and the '00s, popular manufacturers began distinguishing their toys geared toward girls from those for boys. We're not saying it's right or wrong, but it certainly is interesting to see what toymakers think girls want in a toy. Take a look at how some classic toys have evolved and gender specified in recent years.
