Category: Ideas + Advice for Families

10 Family Friendly Things to do in Napa Valley

In general, one does not think “Napa Valley + Kids”, but on our recent visit, our kids had the best time (and so did we!)  Here is a guide from our friends Mark & Kris Hoffmeister of the Wydown Hotel in St. Helena and their  favorite picks for 10 Family Friendly Things to do in Napa Valley…

Here’s what Kris wrote:

My husband and I love living, working and most importantly raising our three little girls (ages 5,4 & 1) in a truly beautiful and unique place, the Napa Valley. Our kids are exposed to nature, agriculture, fresh, wholesome food and have limited knowledge of fast food and strip malls (no chain restaurants are allowed up valley). While most visitors come to Napa for girls’ weekend, birthday celebrations and romantic getaways, there are many family friendly options as well. Here is a list of our favorite family activities (the list does not end here). . . . . Happy reading and cheers to planning your wine country weekend!

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A Beach Theme Birthday Party

This guest post today comes from Kristal, my friend over at the fabulous LA mom blog PierToPeer.net, about the darling beach theme birthday party she threw for her daughter’s 4th birthday last summer. I thought she had the cutest ideas on how to throw a super cute beach birthday party. Here is what she wrote…

Last year for my daughter’s 4th birthday we decided to celebrate on the beach. Living in Manhattan Beach and having a summer birthday, it was the perfect setting for her big day…

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UNREAL: Candy Unjunked

What if I told you a candy company existed that took the “junk” out of junk food?  UNREAL is a new generation food company with an outrageous mission: to “unjunk” the world. And they started with the worst offender ~ candy.

Many candies we are familiar with are filled with corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and GMOs.  Ingredients that are in there to make the candy cheaper to manufacture, not taste better. But were our bodies meant to ingest these ingredients? I have to think absolutely not! 

UNREAL has developed a line of candies that has taken out all that junk and replaced it with double the cacao, more peanuts, real milk, cane sugar and organic palm fruit oil. They also have substantially less sugar, more fiber, protein and less calories. Not that is unreal.

And I happen to LOVE this part ~ instead of targeting natural food retailers, they are competing head to head (at the same price) at stores like CVS, Walgreens, Target, Rite Aid, Kroger, with new major retailers being added every day.

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What Do Teachers Really Want?

I bow down to teachers. I don’t know how they do it. To me, it’s one of the most important jobs one can have. And it must also be one of the hardest.

We loved Emma’s kindergarten teachers this year and I want to get them something special for their end of the year gift. Something they would really love and appreciate.

I know I must have some teachers (current or former) reading this, please tell me, what do teachers really want?? 

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