Portland Parents

My mother gave me a bite size tester of “Lunchbox Love” from sayplease.com.

My elder daughter doesn’t take a lunch bag but she has to take her clarinet to school each day. I put a few in there for her. It amused me; I always wanted to be the kind of father who left little notes for his kids in their lunches. And this is a relatively inexpensive way to do it. Each card is about a quarter. On one side is some affirmation (“Thank you for being honest!”) and on the other is a little bit of trivia (“Big Bird on Sesame Street is only 6 years old”). Each one is colorful and fun.

Check them out!

Here’s a picture of the Santa my daughter went to see at Clackamas Town Center. He was great. No “Bad Santa” here. The other malls all have their own “Helper Santas” but we happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch this one. Santa at Pioneer Place today was “Ho Ho Ho”ing and waving at people. And he caught my eye and said loudly “I bet you’re still looking for that choo choo train.” He had a great attitude (but not much line at 1PM on a friday. )

Let’s see some other Santas out there- where’s the best one?

Is your second or third grader ready for Dora?

You might think of Dora as a preschooler’s cartoon. Backpack and map are engaging for the younger kid. Maybe even a kindergartener. But a third-grader? Most third-graders have outgrown the three-problem, Swiper the Fox engagement, where’s the answer on the screen format that Dora presents. So Nickelodeon and Mattel are doing something about it.

Meet Dora the young girl. Her mysteries have moved to the mall and she’s more Nancy Drew than Bratz.

But is this really necessary?

source

We were at the Holiday Expo yesterday, and our four year old really took a shining to these BeatBuckets. Basically, they’re a special lid for a 5 gallon (round) bucket. You might have one or two of the buckets around, in which case you just need the lid and drumsticks. The price on those at the expo was $15; it was marked as a special price for the Expo, so it might be somewhat more.

You can also get the whole package (ie, drum head, bucket and whacker things) or the deluxe (the whole package as well as a strap for carrying in a parade).

While the buckets were loud and sounded kind of like some kid banging on a bucket, the guy playing them was pretty good. If I had the spare money I certainly would have thrown some at him.