Month: May 2011

Event round-up: People’s Fair, Arvada Trails Day and more!

Saturday. Hit the road at the 10th annual Arvada Trails Day. Held at two locations, the outdoorsy event includes all sorts of trail-related fun, including two 5K walks and a 20-mile bike ride. Start your day at either Majestic View Nature Center or Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuge: Both locations will feature live animal demonstrations, educational activities and information about Arvada’s trail system. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Majestic View Nature Center, 7030 Garrison St., Arvada; Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuge, east of Kipling Street on West 80th Avenue, Arvada. (Bike ride begins at 9 a.m. at Majestic View.) Admission is free. arvadafestivals.com Saturday-Sunday. Capitol Hill comes alive for the 40th annual People’s Fair. Presented by the Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods organ...

Father’s Day Pick: Metro-Denver’s Guide to Everything for Dad and Kids

The Perfect Gift for Father’s Day: Wonderdads! The Metro-Denver’s Guide to Everything for Dad and Kids. A Great Resource to Help Dads Explore the City with their Children.

Mile High Mamas Memorial Day Wishes & Events

As you enjoy your Memorial Day with family and friends…. Just take a moment to remember what it is all about. Love, The Mamas P.S. For an extensive of list of Memorial Day events, please go here.

Study finds fewer newly homeless in Denver, but more are families

The number of newly homeless people has dropped significantly over the past two years in metro Denver, but an increasing number are adults with children, according to the 10th Homeless Point-in-Time Study, conducted on Jan. 24, 2011, by the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative. In 2011, the number of newly homeless — which means homeless for the first time and for less than one year — was nearly 24 percent, down from about 45 percent from 2009. “Our theory is that

Magnet school first-graders take hands-on approach to studying dinosaurs

Aidan Hartman squatted near the 152 million-year-old fossil and studied it with a critical eye. The only other dinosaur bones he had seen before Monday were in a museum and were well- scrubbed, connected and intact. But this piece, excavated by a group of Northglenn High School educators just a few months ago, held a special fascination for the 7-year-old. “It confused me,” said Aidan. “I’ve always wondered what a dinosaur would feel like. And this is nothing I’ve seen before.” Not surprisingly, Aidan came away with another revelation.

“Kung Fu Panda 2” offers eye candy, wisdom for kids

***1/2 more panda-monium “Kung Fu Panda 2” makes one thing clear from the get-go: Lord Shen, he’s one angry bird. Gary Oldman voices the peacock whose pride may goeth, but not before he causes a storm of destruction in the lovely sequel to the 2008 surprise that introduced us to Po. Jack Black returns as the voice of the pudgy panda who dreamed of becoming a martial-arts hero. Angelina Jolie returns as Tigress. Dustin Hoffman reprises Master Shifu, Po’s wise, wry teacher. Along with the Furious Five, Shifu keeps the peace in the optimistically named Valley of Peace. And his father Mr. Ping’s noodle restaurant has the memorabilia to prove it. Directed with verve and nerve by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, “Kung Fu Panda 2” offers plenty of lessons about misre...

Nothing to wear? Shop offers a designer dress good for one night

or her 26th birthday, Kellie Hernandez wanted to get all glammed up for a night on the town, but her champagne tastes — designer dresses and professionally styled hair and makeup — didn’t quite square with her modest salary as a medical assistant. Fortunately, she had an inside line to a modern version of Cinderella’s godmother — her friend Antoinette Sotelo. Sotelo recently opened Dollhouse Cilhouette, an upscale dress-rental boutique that also offers hair styling and professional makeup for clients. Her business strategy: Why spend $200 or more on a dress you’ll wear once or twice instead of applying that money toward renting a dozen fabulous frocks? A slim young woman with a keen interest in fashion, Sotelo is a fan of Rent the Runway and similar websites but less enam...

Cancer-survivor mom’s mission to help parents with cancer

Now that she no longer feels like the Sword of Damocles is hanging by a slender thread over her head, mother-of-two Jen Singer can at last get her dream off the drawing board. That dream is Parenting With Cancer — the website she wishes had existed when she was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on June 6, 2007. Singer would wander around at night in tears fueled by medication, trying not to disturb the family, and

(Local) Mother of invention: Backpack helps parents and kids breathe a lot easier

As any parent will tell you, the gear you need to lug around for a newborn — diaper bags, baby carriers and the like — sometimes feels better suited for a bellhop. But when your infant needs a constant hookup to an oxygen tank, the load is literally almost too much to shoulder. That’s certainly what Michelle Staley thought after her son, Ty, was born. Ty was three months premature and spent the first months of his life breathing with the help of a 10-pound oxygen tank. “You can imagine what it was like carrying the baby, the diapers and the tank,” said Staley, who lives in Fort Morgan with her son and husband, Scott. “It was really cumbersome. “I went online and tried to find an efficient carrier, but found nothing,” she said. So Staley, who trained at t...

Ministries, non profits rally for International Children’s Day

Christian ministries Stand4Kids and India Transformed!(formerly UEMI) are sponsoring Global Kidz Day to celebrate International Children’s Day Wednesday to provide Denver families with an opportunity to learn about helping children around the world and locally. Nonprofit organizations dedicated to easing children’s suffering, including Compassion International, Encompass, Food for the Hungry and Women of Vision, will host booths with educational materials and activities, such as henna painting, creating a mural for the United Nations, purchasing mosquito nets for children at risk from malaria. Global Kidz Day will be held 4-7 p.m. Wednesday on the lawn of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School, 700 S. Franklin St.

Cheers to SPF and Age-Perfected Anti Aging Serum

Human skin – it’s a funny thing. Of the many purposeful uses and all that the soft tissue must encounter each day, one might think we’d come equipped with full armor. But, no, we burn, bruise, puncture, bleed…wrinkle, freckle, splotch and sag. As moms, the attention we give to protecting this fragile attribute of our children is insurmountable…and evident in the budget allotment for sunscreens, floppy hats, kneepads and Scooby Doo band-aids. No doubt, we spend a little on our own skin as well…nigh creams, mud masks, foundations and whatever the “new thing” might be. Human skin is similar to that of other mammals except for the fact that it is not covered by a protective “pelt.” Nope, just the garments we place on our bodies, and *no* the pelt argument is not sufficient for furry, frivolous...

Your Opinion: Are today’s grade-school “graduations” celebrating mediocrity?

I’m all about celebrating milestones. Births, deaths, birthdays, holidays–I’m your gal. However, there is a trend in our schools that disturbs me: the graduation ceremony. Twelfth grade, college and even 8th grade Continuations should be lauded affairs, a recognition of many years of hard work. I have fond memories of my senior year revelries as my dear friends and I celebrated our journey together and toasted our future. Now, can someone please tell me where preschool, kindergarten, grade-school et al. “graduations” fit into this formula? Rites of passage are important and I don’t want to diminish recognizing that a child is moving from one grade to another. But it was when a friend sent a picture of his (albeit darling) kindergartner in her cap and gow...

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