Month: December 2012

Denver Deal: Stock Show, Globetrotters, Family Nights & More

Happy New Year to You! Most of the people I know are plotting their New Year’s Resolutions. But, at this time of year my favorite thing to do is to create my yearbook. Each year (for the past four), I have put together a yearbook for each of my kids chronicling the fun things we got to do over the last year (it also serves as inspiration of what to do in the upcoming year). I have used MyPublisher, Shutterfly, Walmart Photo and Mixbook. I love using Mixbook the most. They have easy pre-made layouts that I can literally just drop in the photos. And Voila I look like a digital scrapbook star! Do you do something to commemorate your past year? StockShow Get out your yee and your haw! Let’s have some fun with the Stock Show. The National Western Stock Show, Rodeo ad Horse Show roll...

Ski Deals: Birthday Celebrations and Learn to Ski Month

Woo Hoo! We finally got some snow and now we can all turn our attention away from being inside in the cold to enjoying all the great outdoor fun and frivolity we have in Colorado! Some resorts are having great birthday celebrations, January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, and there are some super fun things happening in many of the resorts this month! Ski and Trade Colorado Ski & Golf Stores (including Colorado Ski & Sports at Park Meadows and Boulder Ski Deals) still offers the Junior Trade In Program – which allows you to rent equipment for your kids for the entire season at one low price and keep them all season long (unless the kids grow out of them in which place, Colorado Ski & Golf will replace with the right size). Even better… you get 1/2 the money bac...

Sales Insider: Botanic Gardens Free Day, Hat Trick & More!

A hat trick If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to improve your style, stop by Goorin Bros. in Larimer Square and pick out a new hat. Selected styles are discounted 50 percent through Jan. 15. Goorin Bros. has been in the hat business since 1895 and has shops all over the country. Shoppers will find fedoras, flatcaps, ballcaps, floppies and more for men, women and children along with accessories. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Don’t miss the store’s monthly First Friday parties from 7 to 9 p.m. with live music, refreshments and special discounts. 1410 Larimer Square, 303-534-4287, goorin.com Stay at at-ten-tion Warwick International Hotels has partnered with Macy’s and is ...

Colorado Access to offer health care for children of working families

Colorado Access, the state’s largest public health-care provider, has nearly 40,000 children enrolled in its Child Health Plan Plus, but according to staff, it could easily have 40,000 more. With that in mind, the Denver-based organization that serves most of Colorado is launching a “Get Your Kids Covered” campaign in an effort to get coverage for all children who qualify for its services. “We think there is a large contingent of families who are eligible and either don’t know or haven’t taken advantage,” said Gretchen McGinnis, senior vice president of public policy and performance improvement at Colorado Access. The CHP plan is designed for working families that make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford to get their child...

Mandarin Chinese becoming first choice as second language

Ivie Hunt was barely 6 last spring and had just finished kindergarten when she shocked the hostess at a Denver Asian restaurant by chatting comfortably in Mandarin Chinese. “Here was this little blond, white girl having a full conversation with the hostess in Mandarin,” said her mother, Ann Hunt, who admitted to being a bit stunned herself. That kind of surprise may wear off as Mandarin Chinese becomes the first choice of a growing number of second-language learners. More language students are saying adios to the recent stampede to learn Spanish and huan ying — or welcome — to mastering a Chinese dialect now spoken by an estimated 100 million non-Chinese.

Local Company Makes Team and Group Management a Snap for Parents

With the new year upon us, we are all looking for new tools and ideas for a better organized life. With every passing month it seems like new events, projects, gatherings and groups get added onto the schedule. I know I certainly need all the help I can get when it comes to staying on top of events and gatherings (as well as my responsibilities for each – do I have snack responsibilities this week?).

Giveaway: Win the Diono RadianRXT Convertible Car Seat (a $340 value)

**CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNER RACHEL B.!** I’ve been strapping children into car seats for 15 1/2 years. When I think back on the first few car seats and carriers we owned, I marvel at how much they’ve changed. My oldest children sat in seats with padded bars I pulled down and buckled. 5-point harnesses didn’t exist and the LATCH system was a gleam in some automotive engineer’s eye. The moment my older kids turned one, we flipped the seats to face forward. When they hit age four, they were done with car seats forever. Laws change, knowledge increases, and now we approach transportation safety with a more thoughtful and serious eye. Kids today have never been safer as they’re shuttled around town, across the country, and even in the sky. Recently,...

Winter Break Idea: New Kinetics Exhibit Rolls into the Children’s Museum

Need ideas for keeping your kids busy and learning over winter break? The Children’s Museum of Denver unveiled a new science and engineering exhibit in October that explores the laws of motion with one of the most entertaining interactive exhibits I have ever seen. The second-floor room features two glass walls that are full of gears, ramps, pulleys, levers, buttons and more.  Hundreds of orange plastic balls are scattered around the room and a series of vacuum tubes allow kids of all ages to watch gravity in action and also help move the balls through the tubes and obstacles into a huge ball collection bin on the ceiling.

Colorado’s New Year’s Eve Celebrations & New Year’s Day Guided Hikes!

New Year’s Eve Fireworks in Downtown Denver. The sky will once again sparkle over the 16th Street Mall with two spectacular shows at 9 p.m. and midnight. Costumed entertainers will interact with crowds between shows, including magicians, mascots, balloon artists, stilt walkers, comedians and more. Free. The Regional Transportation District (RTD) once again wants to be your designated driver by offering free rides on all regularly scheduled bus and train service Noon Year’s Eve at the Children’s Museum of Denver. The Children’s Museum of Denver is ringing in New Year’s Eve just like Times Square! With five ball drops every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., children of all ages can yell the countdown, watch colorful confetti splash the plaza and make fireworks with their feet whe...

Parenting: Holidays and the Santa lie

We raise our kids to be truthful. We teach them about the laws of physics. And then we tell them that nine flying reindeer pull an immortal fat man and his sleigh through the sky so that he can deliver gifts to millions of kids around the world one night a year. Is it bad that we lie to our kids about Santa? Though lying can be an awfully convenient parenting crutch – Sorry, sweetheart, but the police might arrest you if I let you have more candy so we better not – it’s generally best to keep it to a minimum, both to develop trust between yourself and your child and to lead by example. Except in December. Because guess what? Not only is the Santa myth harmless, but it might actually be good for kids’ cognitive development. Fantastical stories foster a type of imagin...

Centennial retirees makes 405,000 toys for children around the world

Dutch Van Maaren calls his passion of woodworking “an addiction.” And he uses that passion as a means of selfless giving. The 72-year-old craftsman and Gates Rubber Co. retiree, along with about two dozen volunteers at two Centennial retirement communities, makes toys for children and keeps the spirit of Christmas alive in their hearts all year long. In a third-floor workshop at the Johnson Center and Village assisted-living facility in Centennial, three women and 10 men spoke little but smiled a lot as they recently worked on an assembly line of wooden toy cars, tapping pegs and making wheels spin like overgrown, gray-haired elves in Santa’s workshop. “Woodworking is an addiction, and I enjoy it,” Read more and watch the video: Centennial retirees makes 405,0...

Adam Lanza and Asperger’s syndrome reports: Parents of children with syndrome worry about stigma

For Julie Shafer and her 10-year-old son, Caleb, a meticulous routine helps them maneuver through each day. Wake up at 6 a.m. Leave for school exactly 95 minutes later. Spaghetti for dinner on Mondays. Hot dogs on Tuesdays. The consistency comforts Caleb, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in March. “The need for structure is huge in our lives,” Shafer, a single mother, said Wednesday. “He moves by his own clock and it helps him stay focused and at ease.” In the days since the Dec. 14 deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Asperger’s has been thrust to the forefront because of reports about the 20-year-old gunman’s diagnosis with the autism spectrum disorder. Medical records have not confirmed it, though the discourse about t...

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