Update on the Day Spa for Kids

So I finally tried out La Di Spa, the kid-friendly day spa with three other girl friends and their daughters (see Day Spa for Kids post). The staff was fabulous and the girls had a blast. They were served crackers and "tea" (fruit punch served from a tea set), got to pick out their own "ice cream" (aka scented fizzy balls) and drop them into the water. The kids definitely enjoyed the pampering, with lots of giggles and glee.

While I'd do it again (as a special occassion, of course), I would opt out of my own mani/pedi next time around. This is clearly a place you go for the experience, but don't expect your treatment to last long after you walk out the doors.

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What's in that movie?

Like millions of other moms, I took my kid to see Wall-E at the theater over the summer. It looked cute, got great reviews, and was rated G. It has an adorable little robot and the story covers the importance of taking care of your body and the environment. And it scared the bejeezus out of my daughter. We're talking tears-streaming-down-her-face scared.

It would have been handy to know there was a scene in which a space ship appears to land on Wall-E and it's unclear if he will be OK. Even though the movie is rated G and was a lot of fun for the over-4 crowd, I wish I had know about Kids-In-Mind.com before heading to the box office.
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The site not only gives you a quick-look visual of why the movie is given a certain rating based on how much sex, nudity, violence, gore and profanity it contains, it actually describes the "offending" scenes so you know what to expect, how your child might react, and make decisions accordingly. And a huge plus, they also rate the short that precedes the main feature!

I'm thinking this site wouldn't be bad to evaluate date night options, either. Only our criteria would be quite a bit different, if you know what I mean (wink wink).

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Anti-Princess Books for Your Little Princess

If you have a preschool girl and you're anything like me, you are a little sick of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and all their sorority sisters in fairy tale land. They all fall in love at first site to some gorgeous babe of a prince who is somehow not arrogant, self obsessed or spoiled and they go on to build false expectations about love, relationships and, well, being a girl.

Like many 4-year olds, by daughter is in love with Princesses. She had a Princess birthday party, wants to watch all the princess movies, read all the princess books and buy all the princess toys. Fortunately, a good friend gave my daughter "The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert N. Munsch a few years ago, which has been one of my all-time favorites (thanks Jen!), but I've struggled to find more like it.

So kudos to the Amelia Bloomer Project - a list of anti-princess books for girls from preschool to young adult. I'm definitely going to have to check out this year's recommended title "Princess Pigsty" and a 2005 listing "The Princess Knight", both by Cornelia Funke.

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Day Spa for Kids

I've been waiting for the day my daughter is old enough to go to the spa with me. I dream that we will sit at the pedicure station, chatting idly about what boy she likes that week while sipping on iced lattes.

I can't wait.

Well, now, apparently I don't have to! OK, at 4 years old I may need to trade boy talk and lattes for Dora the Explorer and ice cream, but at least we're close.

There's a new spa in town called La Di Spa that I can't wait to check out. I found it, by the way, from a site featured in a previous blog post.

La Di Spa is the first kids day spa in Austin. They actually cater to kids! I'm planning to get my kid the Gummy Worm Pedi. Plus, they use natural and organic products free of harmful toxins (another biggy for me if you haven't seen Is Your Lotion Toxic).

I haven't gone yet, but I'll be sure to check back in when I do!

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Stuff to do in Austin and Houston

Here are some fun little gems forwarded to me from a friend: Austin Tidbits, Austin Kidbits and Houston Tidbits.

You sign up for tidbits via email from gotidbits.com and they send you fun new things to try in Austin and Houston. The Kidbits one is my favorite - they tell you when Beauty and the Beast will be performed at Zilker, who has yoga classes for the wee-ones and where to go in Austin to get creative.

The Austin and Houston tidbits tell you thing like where the party is, who's having a sale, how to rent designer clothes, and more. You can check out previous tidbits to see if it's up your alley before you offer up your precious inbox space. Pretty cool stuff!

Fun with Photos

Always trying to find something fun to do with the kiddo, I ran across an interesting site: Scrapblog.com. This is a free service that allows you to create online scrapbooks to share with family and friends.

Now, I'm not a big scrapbooker. And when I do scrapbook, I prefer the cutting and pasting version. However, this site is great for inspiration and, better yet, kid entertainment. After clicking on the "Get Started" button, start with a blank page. Then, find a good picture of your kid's face and upload it to the page. Reduce the size, then copy/paste until you have a page of wallet-sized images of your kid.

Click on the "stickers" button on the right and the scroll through the options (at the time of this writing, I couldn't get the "search" function to work, but you may want to give that a try). Select wigs, crowns, silly hats, etc. by clicking on them. Your kid can help you pick them out, though this step may take a while.

Now, for the fun part! Click "Done" on the stickers page, and all the stickers you selected will be on the left side of the page. Click the one you want, position and size it on your kid's photo, and walla! Your kid with purple hair, as a pirate, at the baseball game...how cool is that?