Chinese New Year

February 10 marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year as Asian people all over the world welcome the Year of the Snake.  Here are a couple of events where you can enjoy the festivities of the new year.

The Pacific Asia Museum is celebrating its 3rd Annual Lunar New Year Festival this Saturday, February 2 from 11 am to 5 pm.  This popular free event opens up the museum’s galleries, courtyard and parking lot for a full day of family-friendly performances and activities to celebrate the Year of the Snake!  Food trucks will also be on site if you get hungry.

Chinatown will hold its 114th Annual Golden Dragon Parade and Festival on February 16 and 17 starting at noon. The Dragon parade will take place on February 16 only from 1 pm to 3 pm.  It’s lots of fun for everyone.  There will be plenty of performances and booths, and if you’re a foodie, there will be some gourmet food trucks there as well.  My kids LOVE to take the train so as a bonus for them, we generally hop on the MTA Gold Line in East L.A. and head out to Chinatown from there.  This way we don’t have to deal with the many street closures and trying to find parking, which will probably cost as much as our train tickets.

Happy New Year!

Here are some pictures from our Chinatown visit last year:

Mini dragon parade

Food trucks

Baseball league

Baseball league registration for the City of Cerritos begins today for residents.  The league is sponsored by the City of Cerritos Recreation program.  If you sign up with a friend, the city is offering a 50% discount for each player.  Registration opens to everyone on February 2.  To register, go to the Cerritos Sports Complex at 19900 Bloomfield Avenue (562) 916-8590.

See you at the ballgame!

FREE Apps: Wheels on the Bus & Weird But True

Wheels on the Bus for the iPhone and Wheels on the Bus HD for the iPad by Duck Duck Moose are both free for a limited time.

Weird but true!:  App offering lots of fun trivia facts is free right now.  It normally retails for $1.99 and is compatible with both the iPhone and the iPad.

 

Aha!

No, I’m not talking about these guys…  but did you know they’re still around? Seriously!  Google it.  Anyways, I digress.

This weekend there will be an Aha! Presentation in Los Alamitos.  The Aha! Presentations’ are offered to inspire student appreciation and excitement for STEM programs and careers to increase success and achievement in school and opportunities for a collegiate education. Bring your K-12 students to stimulate their interest in learning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.  This Saturday’s topic is Robots in Space Exploration

When: Saturday, January 26, 2013

Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm

Where: Mathobotix, 10900 Los Alamitos Boulevard Unit 111, Los Alamitos, CA 90720

Description: Robots are taking over, both on and off the Earth. Robotic spacecrafts and rockets bring people and goods to outer space, and push the boundaries of science and exploration. Join SpaceXer Baird Hendrix as he discusses how he moved from robotics competitions for fun to engineering for space, and how students can get involved in space exploration.

Click here to RSVP

Presenter: Baird Hendrix, Power Avionics Engineer, Space X

Bio: Baird Hendrix is a graduate from North Carolina State University, with a long standing fascination with electronics and robots. He now works for Space Exploration Technologies (better known as SpaceX) on power systems for their Falcon rockets and Dragon robotic spacecraft. He got his start with robots in college, working with the AUVSI RoboSub challenge, and now works full time with out-of-this-world robots.

Forget those resolutions…

FREE classes at the SCE

What is the SCE you may ask?  No, it’s not Southern California Edison…well, it is, but they aren’t offering free classes.  The SCE I’m referring to is the School of Continuing Education for the North Orange County Community College District.  They have a site at Cypress Community College and they offer classes called “Joyful Parenting: Art/Music” depending on the age of your child.  The upcoming session starts on January 11 and they are all FREE!  If you end up joining any of these classes, please let me know if you enjoyed it.  I would love to hear any feedback.

SCE also offers classes through their Kids’ College program but there is a fee for those classes.

FREE Apps: Lazoo & Bamba

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Lazoo and Bamba are not technically apps–they’re the producers of some very cute apps for young children.  Here are a couple of recommendations and they are all free:

• Lazoo: Drawing and coloring apps that come alive.
  • Let’s Color: they are offering an additional 16 pages for free right now.
    
  • Squiggles
• Bamba:  If you and/or your kiddos are fans of the Toca Boca apps, then you will surely enjoy these apps as well.
  • Bamba Burger
  • Bamba Ice Cream
  • There’s also Bamba Pizza and Post office but those are $1.99 so I’ll let you know when they’re free.

All of the apps are only compatible with the iPad.

Family Night at Cerritos Library

It’s Family Night at the Cerritos Library tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s show features Hansel and Gretel performed by Omni Puppet Theater.  Show starts at 7:00 p.m.  Recommended age is 4 and up but of course, it’s open to everyone and registration is not required.

Cerritos Library

Skyline Room

18025 Bloomfield Ave.

Cerritos, CA 90703

Mommy-n-Me Preschool Spring registration

The ABC Adult School offers a parent education program, which is essentially a mommy-n-me preschool program.  I love this program not only because it develops our toddlers’ socialization skills but it also allows parents an opportunity to meet other parents with children of the same age.   The classes are broken up by age and held at different campuses throughout  the district.  For the youngest group, this class is very similar to Gymboree play and music classes. The pricing varies by class but it is so reasonable for the experience you & your child will be receiving.   For more information, here is a link to the website: ABC Adult School.

If you’re interested in enrolling in this program, spring registration online begins today on January 7, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. or you can enroll in person at the Cabrillo Lanes campus starting on January 18 at 8:00 a.m.  Spaces fill up fast so don’t wait!

The First Weekend of 2013

Happy 2013 everyone!

Welcome to the first weekend of 2013.  I hope you all had a great holiday break.  Here are some fun activities to cap off the end of winter break.

• It’s FREE day at the La Habra Children’s museum and the theme is January Jamboree.  A day of circus style performances to celebrate the New Year in a carnival atmosphere! Children will participate in interactive performance techniques including plate spinning and juggling!
• There’s also a free Kids workshop at Home Depot where your child can build a birdhouse.
• On Sunday, head out to downtown LA for a double header of holiday fun.  First, the Japanese American National museum will be ringing in the New Year with it’s Oshogatsu Family Festival.  Admission is FREE all day.  There will be fun arts ‘n crafts and other fun cultural performances.  Later in the evening, head over to Olvera street to watch a reenactment of Los Tres Reyes Magos.    The Feast of Epiphany is a celebration of the day the three kings arrived at the nativity.  The three kings aka the three wise men will make a colorful procession down the street commemorating the journey following the star to Bethlehem.   Prizes, free champurado and pan dulce will be available for all the kids to enjoy and there will even be a Piñata for the kids to break.
• If Downtown is not your thing, the Bowers museum is also having a HOLLYWOOD FILM AND FASHION FAMILY FESTIVAL.  Admission is FREE all day.

Have a great weekend!