Olympic Skier Picabo Street On the Product That Will Revolutionize Learning to Ski

Last weekend I was invited to the SIA(Ski Industry Association) show at the Denver Convention Center. I am always a little giddy over the idea of getting to see great new products and telling you about them – but this time, I was invited to speak with Picabo Street! Yes, the iconic, amazing three-time Olympic Skier that even Lindsey Vonn looks up to.

What I was excited to learn is that like us, she is a mom. She has four–count them–F-O-U-R boys! The lady is busy! But, she took the time to talk to me about a couple really cool new products from LaunchPad, called Hookease and Wedgease.

I asked her about the product she’s endorsing,

Like-minded fiber and clothing merchants team up in Baker neighborhood’s “anti-mall” retail area

Fancy Tiger Crafts has been a go-to destination in the Baker neighborhood for clever crafters for the past five years. Its spin-off, Fancy Tiger Clothing, draws a young boutique crowd for men’s and women’s apparel and accessories. Now proprietors of those businesses have moved, chess-like, around the block, and were joined by veteran retailer Buffalo Exchange to give shoppers yet another reason to spend some time browsing on Broadway.

The three recently opened their separate shops under the same roof in a former mercantile space at 51-59 Broadway.

At Fancy Tiger Crafts, owners Jaime Jennings and Amber Corcoran have created an open, airy shop featuring shelves bursting with yarn from more than 30 vendors. Many of the vendors are small, local companies like Lonesome Stone of Granby. Bolts of colorful printed cloth line shelves along one wall, while a rack of

Denver Deal: FREE DAYS, Winter Festival, Score Big & more

I was super excited to get to go to the SIA show last weekend at the Colorado Convention Center. Be sure to check out our latest blog about new apparel, equipment, and more. Plus, I got to talk to Olympic skier Picabo Street about a product she’s super excited about – Hookease – that she says will revolutionize learning to ski.

FREE DAYS

Woo Hoo to FREE DAYS! We have several coming up this week. February 3^rd at Denver Botanic Gardens (Chatfield) AND First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe. February 4^th– Denver Art Museum is FREE and February 5^th & 6^th– Denver Zoo! Now that is an exciting weekend full of freebies.

Evergreen Winter Festival

Evergreen is celebrating Winter at the first annual Winter Festival at Lake Evergreen February 4, 2011. The event starts with a 5K Snow Dash at Echo Mountain. Events at Evergreen Lake Park kick off at 10:00 a.m. and are free during the day. Featured daytime events will include a snow mountain bike race, snow sculpture competition, figure skating exposition, sleigh rides, Snow Castle play area for kids, and unique winter sports. In addition to great events, the Festival will include hot drinks, fire pits, a winter beer garden, seasonal food and shopping from a wide variety of local vendors. Ice-skating will be open to the public throughout the day. The evening will include music, rail jam and fireworks at Lake Evergreen. There is a cost for the evening events.

Katherine Dines

Katherine Dines celebrates the release of her new CD Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta HITS with a full-band family concert. Katherine is a Denver-based indie artist who has been making original tunes for kids since the 1990s. She’s nationally acclaimed, tours internationally and has won numerous awards for her music. Katherine is slating a FREE family CD release concert at the Denver Puppet Theater, 3156 W. 38th Avenue, in Denver on Friday, February 3 at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) Free cocoa, cider and cookies. Bring a can of food to donate to the local food bank.

J.C. Penney

Have you seen J.C. Penny’s brazen new ad campaign? J.C. Penney is permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent so shoppers will no longer have to wait for a sale to get the lowest prices in its stores. Sale prices will become the everyday prices. Also nice, is that the pricing will be full dollar (really $19.99 is WAY better than plain ‘ole $20). The pricing starts on Wednesday, February 1st.

Denver Restaurant Week

Yes, it is that time of year again where Denver’s Best Restaurants put together special menus and deals to showcase their culinary prowess. February 25-March 9 is Denver Restaurant Week. Get your reservations in to the restaurants now. And give yourself some time to book that babysitter!

Score Big Tickets

ScoreBig is a NEW discount ticket website that promises you will save 10% to 60% on Denver/Boulder events. They aren’t a ticket broker or middleman, but work directly with venues, teams, and promoters to move extra tickets. Here’s how ScoreBig works: They get tickets to all kinds of events (mostly sports). Select the event, the seating area and bid. If your bid is accepted, you are notified instantly, they charge your credit card and deliver the tickets. If not, you can bid again at a later date, or in some cases, they’ll send a counter offer. No extra fees. It’s FREE to become a member, but ScoreBig is an invite-only site but as a reader of MileHighMamas you are now officially invited when you visit our special link.

Email me if you know of any great Denver deals!

Don’t want to miss any of Mile High Mamas’ contests and events? Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter so you can forward these great deals to your friends.

You can also follow me on Twitter (GeeWhy93). If I find a great deal during the week, I’ll tweet it out.

Event round-up: Chocolate Affair, Free Concert & More!

Saturday. Chocolate is lovable in all its forms—try out its many delicious permutations at Arvada’s 11th annual Chocolate Affair. Events will pop up all over Olde Town Arvada, from tastings to treasure hunts. Stop by “A Taste of Chocolate” at the DNote and sample decadent treats from local bakeries, chocolatiers and restaurants. Team up with choco-pals to roam Olde Town on a free Chocolate Treasure Hunt, or go solo with your chocolate skills and enter the Chocolate Cookie Contest. Face-painters, storytellers and horse-drawn carriages will add to the foodie fun. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The DNote, 7519 Grandview Ave., Arvada; cookie contest at Di Cicco’s, 5660 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada. Admission is free; sampling tickets are six for $5. arvadafestivals.com

Friday. Catch up with a “kindie” rock hitmaker when Katherine Dines performs a free concert at the Denver Puppet Theater. The Denver-based children’s musician released a CD of her most-requested songs, “Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta Hits,” on Tuesday, including tunes like “All the Way Around the World,” “Dad on Diaper Duty” and “Are We Ever Gonna Get There?” Youngsters can settle in with some apple cider and a cookie and jam out. Bring along a nonperishable food item to donate, too. Doors open at 6 p.m. Friday; show is at 7 p.m. Denver Puppet Theater, 3156 W. 38th Ave.; 303-458-6446. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call to save a seat. hunktabunkta.com

Through Saturday. Summer vacation comes a few months early when “Phineas and Ferb: The Best Live Tour Ever!” comes to the Wells Fargo Theatre. In the musical show, the two mischievous stepbrothers use the remaining days of summer vacation to work on their latest invention. It’s so awesome that even their sister Candace, who usually hates all their experiments, joins the fun. Perry the pet platypus goes on an adventure of his own, as usual, using his secret “Agent P” identity to track down evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. 7 p.m. tonight; 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday. The Wells Fargo Theatre at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St.; 303-228-8000. Tickets are $16-$27, available at ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-653-8000. phineasandferblive.com

Monday-Tuesday. Budding music lovers get an insider’s look at classical music in the latest season of Tiny Tots Inside the Orchestra. Presented by Central City Opera and the Junior Symphony Guild, the series of shows lets preschool- and kindergarten-age kids experience a kid-friendly concert with plenty of room for participation. Dance along to music from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Copland’s “Rodeo” and even music from “Looney Tunes.” Opera is back, too: CCO ensemble artist Chad Reagan performs the famous “Largo al factotum” aria from Mozart’s “The Barber of Seville” (think “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!”). Can’t make it this week? Two additional shows are scheduled for Feb. 13. 9:30 a.m. Monday. Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis Streets. 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Temple Sinai, 3509 S. Glencoe St. The suggested registration donation is $5. Make sure space is still available by calling 303-355-7855 or visit insidetheorchestra.com.

Starting Thursday. Go on a fantastic voyage in “Shipwrecked! An Entertainment—The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself)”, presented by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre. The show features the whimsical musings of de Rougemont, international wanderer, bold survivor and Victorian celebrity. He spins quite a tale, filled with exotic characters and thrilling scenarios—but keep in mind he’s not afraid of a little embellishment. This cheeky play is appropriate for kids age 6 and up; a special family matinee at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 25 welcomes the age-4-and-up crowd. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 25. The Dairy Center for the Performing Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder; 303-440-7826. Tickets are $24 general admission, $22 for seniors, $19 for students; all tickets are $15 on Thursdays. boulderensembletheatre.org

Kathleen St. John

How To: Start exercising after childbirth

Women often are eager to shed extra weight after pregnancy, but the first workouts should be gentle and follow medical advice, doctors say. “It’s important that the focus of the first two weeks be taking care of the new baby and getting sufficient rest,” says Dr. Jeffrey Henke, an obstetrician/gynecologist in Newport News, Va. Some tips:

Know the benefits. Exercising soon after childbirth is primarily good for mental health—possibly guarding against post-partum depression—not for shedding baby weight. So do what feels good, not anything exhausting. Note: Walking after a caesarian also reduces the risk of rare but dangerous blood clots in the legs.

Listen to your body. If you’re

SolVista Basin’s Screaming Deals & Family Activities

SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch has a special place in my heart: it is where my 3-year-old daughter learned to ski.

Or rather, first attempted to ski (see photographic evidence here).

Four years later, my daughter and SolVista Basin are still going strong. Touted as one of Colorado’s most family-friendly resorts, this mountain offers some fantastic terrain, an expanding base area with new facilities and a knowledgeable staff.

You may be asking: Colorado has many world-class ski areas so why bother with a small resort two hours from Denver?

This season, we’ll tell you why these GEM resorts (smaller, inexpensive) are worth a second look. Not only are they more affordable but they’re free of crowds, paid parking and over-the-top prices.

Policy violations in Colorado social-services system found amid deaths of 43 children

In the past five years, 43 Colorado children died from abuse or neglect after entering the child welfare program. Every one of those deaths was marked by a policy violation or sparked concern in the way the case was handled by county social workers.

Investigations completed by the Colorado Department of Human Services since 2007 indicate that social workers in 18 counties repeatedly failed to complete basic functions — such as interviews or follow-ups on assessments — in 43 cases where a child later died from abuse or neglect.

In 40 percent of those deaths — 17 children — county social workers failed to start or did not accept an assessment after a referral warranted an investigation for abuse or neglect.

The Year of the Ultrabook and Intel AppUp

A few short months ago I met with Mark Miller of Intel (Director of Communication – Netbook and Tablet Group). We spent time discussing tablets and netbooks that would soon be hitting the market and we also spoke about Intel AppUp. In short, AppUp is the newest app store on the block – it runs on Windows computers (similar to what the Mac App Store does) and many smart phones (Android and Windows phones).

February Family Volunteer Opportunity: Throw a Valentine’s Party!

Did you know:

“Over 66% of nursing care residents receive an average of ONE visit per year. 50% of us will spend some portion of our lives in long-term care.” -Rainbow Bridge 2010

Join Volunteers of America at their February Family Volunteer Event as they throw a Valentine’s Day party for low-income seniors and make their day special!!

When: Saturday, February 11, 2012;

What parents should know about the conflicting news on school food

The very same week we learned about the push to ban trans fats from Colorado school food, both at lunch and in before- and after-school snacks, another study asserted that junk food in school vending machines has no impact on students’ weight or obesity levels.

It’s confusing. Kind like all the conflicting studies about coffee – or red wine. (I know how I choose to interpret them…)

Does healthy school food make a difference? Or doesn’t it?