urbanMamas Portland

Imagine a world where delicious, healthy and affordable meals are delivered right to your doorstep, and you don't have to shop, cook, or clean up the pots and pans. If you thought it was too good to be true, it's not!

Dine In 2Nite is giving away a full week's worth of dinners for up to 4 people (that's a $200 value). Head over to our giveaway tab to enter to win!

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the kid-friendly event listings from our friends at PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

On Friday from 9 to 11, take part in the Children's Culture Parade at Fort Vancouver.  Children study culture from around the world and share what they have learned in the parade.   

First Friday of the month means free admission to the Children’s Museum from 4 to 8.   

There are two elementary school carnivals/fundraisers happening on Friday.  From 4:30 to 7:30, the Jason Lee Community Carnival will be happening, including the starting goalie from the Timbers, rose city rollers, rock climbing, and food by Burgerville.  From  5:30 to 8, you can head to the Llewellyn Carnival for hula hooping, tug of war, face painting, crafts, and other family fun.  $5/child.    

This Saturday, Oregon State Parks are offering free day-use parking permits and camping.  In addition, Milo McIver State Park in Estacada, in connection with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, has scheduled a day of fun events, including traditional dances, drumming, and songs.  Saturday beginning at 10. Free! 

Local favorites Johnny and Jason perform music the whole family can get into at the Hillsboro Library on Saturday at 2:30.  Free!

It's finally here!  The Alphabeticians' big release party for their new CD "Junior" is this Saturday at E.A.T. from 4 to 6.  Matt Clark and Olive Rootbeer will be on the scene.  And dress as your favorite letter for a chance to win a prize.  $5/person or $15/family max.  

Performer Kathryn Claire (Kinderqueen) will perform a free concert at Lake Oswego’s Millennium Park.  There will also be activities appropriate for ages 2-10.  Festivities begin at 4:30. Free!

The Portland Rose Festival's Star Light Parade is this Saturday at 8:30.  The parade draws more than 250,000 people to watch the funky, eclectic fun.  Free!

Take part in a Father's Day knitting event at Twisted in NE Portland.  They will provide the tools and materials, and the kids provide the creativity.  Sunday from 9:30 to 11:30. $10. 

 Head to the Children’s Museum on Sunday at 1 to take in the marimba styling of Jangano Marimba, a band made up of local middle school students.  Free with admission of $9.

Jazz guitarist Anson Wright performs at the Central Library on Sunday at 2.  Free!

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

For as long as I can remember I both loved and mourned June. Every June for almost half my life meant goodbyes. Every teacher to whom you would never turn in homework again; every classmate who would graduate or move away in the summer; every community established so quickly and experienced so wholly. Each grade, from kindergarten all the way up to my second year of business school, had its own uncanny friendships and serendipitous societies and secret-keeping, had its possibilities and magic. And it had to end.

I was reminded of my memories of my junior year in high school during the Great Journal Revisiting that occurred when I performed early this month in Mortified Portland. I'd written a melancholy good-bye to my friends, the seniors, who were graduating. And I've been feeling the same way about the 11 days left of school for my kids.

This year, it's not teachers and fellow students I'll miss -- though indeed I will miss Truman's retiring teacher, Donna Zimbro, who was just what he needed. It's this time I'm having with my youngest, Monroe, who gets to hang out with me each day while his brothers are in school. He'll be in kindergarten next year, and our time together will change in character and intensity. Though I'll welcome the wide open possibility of 5.75 hours each day (!!) utterly to myself (let's do another !!!), I'm already nostalgic for this time we have. There's something irreplaceable about the time with a baby, a toddler, a preschool-aged child; I'm not ready to let go.

When his brothers come home from school on June 13, that time will have concluded, forever.

How has your relationship to the end of school changed as you have become a parent? Are you sad, or happy, or a sentimental mix? Do you mark these ends-of-eras in any special way?

We are giving away a  Mustela Newborn Set over on the Giveaways tab! Click over and check it out! 

I have a 2.5yo toddler, who - while very adept at going Number 1 at the potty (since he was 2years, 3 months old, same age as his two older siblings) - is not fond of going Number 2 at the potty.  Even his teachers have commented, praising his quick progress at peeing at the potty, but wondering whether he is successfully pooping at home in the potty?  He doesn't at school.

On a few occasions, I have cleaned up a crusty brown butt (ew!).  But, the other day, when he dropped poo three separate times in his fireman underwear, I thought: c'mon, boy!  What is it?  Are you uneasy with Number 2 on the potty, sitting instead of standing?  Do you hate the sensation?  Are you too busy playing to stop, sit, poop, wash hands then go back to playing?

I am curious with other parents' experiences with poop in pants as well as approaches to ensuring butts free of crusty, smooshed poo!

It is First Friday in Multnomah Village - so let's gather to have a bite, a sip and some shopping. Stores (Annie Bloom's Books, Indigo Traders, Thinker Toys, Switch Shoes and more) stay open late, and usually have deals, snacks and drinks. 

when: Friday, June 1

time: 6:00 - ? 

location: The Village itself, but we can gather at Journey's  @ 7771 SW Capitol Highway.

Hope to see you there. 

Summer is almost here so let's have lunch on the first official day. 

when: Thursday, June 21

time: 12:30

where: Daily Grill @ 750 SW Alder Street

Please RSVP in the comments by Tuesday, June 19. Reservation will be under Courtney/urbanMamas. 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do with your kiddos, check PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

This week's ladybug nature walk promises to be a good one - walk through the Columbia Slough with your preschooler and discover this beautiful natural area.  $3/preschooler.

The Portland Rose Festival's City Fair kicks off this weekend.  Enjoy rides, food, exotic animals, shopping, and lots more along Tom McCall Waterfront Park.  Friday from 5-11, and Saturday through Monday from 11 to 11.  $5 for ages 7 and up. 

Head to University Park Community Center on Friday at 5 for the 6th Annual Spring Fling Penny Carnival.  Free, but bring your pennies! 

The Multnomah County Fair is this Saturday through Monday from 12 to 7 at Oaks Amusement Park.  Dancing, pig racing, bands, talent shows, water balls - plus the rides of Oaks Park.  Admission is free.

Take a library story walk at the Spring Garden Park in Southwest with a Capitol Hill Library youth librarian.  This special storytime will explore a book and the park at the same time.  Saturday at 10:30.  Free!

Yarr!  There be a pirate celebration going on at the Children’s Museum Saturday from 9:30 to 3:30!  Create your own treasure chest, meet a mermaid, or take in a puppet show.  Free with museum admission.  Additional craft fees may apply.  

It's Open Cockpit Day at the Pearson Air Museum on Saturday from 10 to 5.  Visitors can sit inside a T-28 Trojan and Ryan PT-21 and experience the museum's light simulator lab.  $7 adults, $5 ages 6-17, free 5 and under. 

Oh no!  There's an alien invasion at the Sellwood-Moreland Library Saturday at 10:30!  Storyteller Rick Huddle will take you on an adventure to help save the planet.  Free!

The Tigard Library is hosting a pachyderm portmanteau party on Saturday at 2, based on the book Elephabet by Hilary Pfeifer.  In this hands-on workshop you can draw your own pachyderm portmanteaus!  Free!

Every Sunday, the Portland Art Museum holds a family tour, in which a docent skilled at engaging visitors of all ages leads the tour.  Tours are free with admission and free for kids 17 and under.   

The Portland Youth Philharmonic is performing a free concert showcase at Jackson Middle School on Sunday at 4.  No tickets necessary.  

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization – especially on this holiday weekend.

Jennifer Murdock Photography offers contemporary design, that will put the joy of your family, in your home for a lifetime. 

Check out our giveaway tab to enter to win an in studio session and free print from Jennifer.

A new study illuminates why pedestrian- and bike-friendly streets are so important, not just for the health and environmental impact of neighborhood residents but also for kids' fear and sense of overall well-being. As the post in The Atlantic points out, "Automobile collisions disproportionately kill kids, for starters. Heavy traffic also prevents them from playing on their neighborhood streets. And communities with limited opportunities for walking and playing outside have been shown to have higher rates of childhood obesity, which can lead to serious health complications in later life."

But the new study by Bruce Appleyard, a Portland-based urban planner and designer (and son of an urbanist who famously showed how heavy traffic in a neighborhood increases disconnection, disatisfaction and loneliness) talks about ground-level concerns, the ones I have a lot with my own kids: knowing their way around and being happy in the place where they live.

Bruce showed that kids in low-traffic, walkable neighborhoods remembered more features of their neighborhoods and remembered playing in more parts of their neighborhood than kids in high-traffic neighborhoods where they spent more time in cars. What's more, they simply liked their neighborhoods more and felt safer (according to the "cognitive mapping" techniques he used). He wrote, "In sum, as exposure to auto traffic volumes and speed decreases, a child’s sense of threat goes down, and his/her ability to establish a richer connection and appreciation for the community rises."

Later, he went back to the high-traffic neighborhood after it had undergone improvements in walkability and bike infrastructure. They knew more about their neighborhoods, and, he wrote, "Before the improvements were made in the heavy-traffic-exposure neighborhood, many children drew expressions of dislike and danger associated with automobiles and were unable to represent any detail of the surrounding environment -- possibly feeling overwhelmed by the threats posed by the automobiles. After the improvements alleviated the exposure to these threats, there were indeed fewer expressions of danger and dislike, indicating a greater sense of comfort and well-being."

I've thought about trying this experiment on my own kids, having them draw maps of the neighborhood (without scientific rigor, given that I know next to nothing about cognitive mapping). I think it would be a great way to celebrate Walk and Bike to School month.

Hop over to our giveaway tab to enter to win a copy of the new book, "French Kids Eat Everything" by Karen Le Billon!

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check out the kid-friendly event listings at PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

The Tualatin River Bird Festival begins this Friday and continues through Sunday at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.  There are bird walks, drop-in activities for kids (like nature-related crafts), and lots more bird-related fun.  Most events are free, but some have an additional charge.

Learn about water safety, and have fun doing it, at the Mt Scott Community Center this Friday from 6 to 8.  Enjoy an evening of swimming with fun activities, games and prizes, as well as water safety information. There will also be a free drawing for lifejackets. $0-4.50 based on age.

The Hillsboro Library is presenting a free showing of the 2011 Muppets Movie on Friday at 6:30.  Recommended for ages 4 and up.  Popcorn provided.

Oh boy, this is my son's dream come true. Dozer Days return to Vancouver this Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 4.  Kids can get in the drivers seat of actual dump trucks, dozers, excavators, and other construction trucks.  $5-10.  

Rachel Coleman, Emmy-Nominated Star and co-creator of Signing Time is performing at the St Philip Neri Catholic Church on Saturday at 12.  Tickets start at $2.

On Saturday from 1 to 2, head to Director Park to hear All Together for Music in Portland Public Schools.  Children in grades K-12 will sing songs in the park and share their love of music.  Free!

Kidical Mass hits the Southeast this month.  Join in on this family-friendly bike ride with a meetup at Mt Scott Park, a ride, and then a barbeque potluck.  The bike ride starts Saturday at 2.

Join in the fun at the Montavillage Spring Fair at the Creative Science School on Sunday from 1 to 4.  The free event includes food, local vendors, yard games, live music (including by Mo Phillips), arts and crafts, sustainability events, and a free raffle.

Learn more about edible wild plants at the Central Library on Sunday at 1.  Dr. John Kallas will show you how to identify, harvest, and prepare wild plants.  Free!

Head to Queens Mab on Friday from 11 to 1 for a creative recycling workshop on art gardening and toadstools. Every child will get a planter (shoe, boot or pot), an edible plant,
and a toadstool to paint.   For ages 2-16, $10.  Preregistration required - sign up at creativerecyclingworkshops@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/CreativeRecylingWorkshops

And with this weather, you may be looking forward to summer!  PDX Kids Calendar has a great listing of summer fun throughout Portland for you and your kiddos  - festivals, movies, Sunday Parkways, farmers markets…. 

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

My children are fortunate frequent recipients of little knick and knacks from their family members - maybe a package of socks, maybe a bundle of those silly bandz (which are so "out", by the way), maybe a new kids' magazine, maybe a bag of their favorite dried fruit, maybe a new notebook, maybe a bunch of stickers.

In a recent care package, they received a stack of new camisoles and frilly underthings, among the items for my older [11.5yo] daughter were a couple of bras, full out cupped with double-hook closures in the back.  A couple of years back, when my daughter was bra curious, we picked out a couple of short cami numbers, pullover type of sports-bra looking things.  "Trainers" perhaps one would call them, but I really thought of them as half-camisoles.  (wondering where to get your daughter fit for a bra?  here are a few suggestions.)

Anyway, I have to admit: when I saw that someone else had given my first-born, my eldest daughter, her "first bra", I felt miffed.  I mean, should *I* be the one to go pick one out for her, buy it for her?  Isn't it a right of passage, stepping from childhood to teenagehood, from girlhood to womanhood?  Or a small step?

I am reminded of an episode of Parenthood, when a boy's mom's new boyfriend offers to take the boy to a football game.  His dad, however, wasn't keen on the idea of someone else - especially his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend - taking his son to his first football game.

There are "firsts" and there are special moments that ought to be shared between parent and child, or perhaps I am just nostalgic about it.  Among the things I feel that only mama should do: buy a girl her first bra, have a first alcoholic beverage with their child (whether it be at 21 or before), give baby his first bath, teach the tyke how to ride a bike, take him for her first hair cut ...  what other "firsts"?  I am sure there are more.  What are yours?  Is it a big deal or no?

We all have plenty of traditions for Mother's Day: spending the day pedaling with other women, running with other women. We have hopes & wishes and even more Mama Day thoughts.

I am very fortunate to have my own mama in my life, and I am even more fortunate to now live within a quick drive of my mama, for the first time in almost 20 years.  And, so, for the first time in my life as a mama, I find myself trying to reinvent my mother's day traditions, not as a mother, but as my mother's daughter.

This will be my 11th year as a mother, and there are some strong traditions that have developed over the years.  My husband is excellent at helping and guiding the kids in helping to make the day special for me, and it always starts with a homemade breakfast in bed.  I feel like a queen having my coffee delivered to me, nice and piping hot, prepared without me even having to open my eyes or rise from slumber.  There are many other traditions for me/us: no doing dishes/laundry/chores, and an active family activity of my choice, whether it be a bike ride or hike or walk around a new neighborhood.

Well, this year, I am planning something for my mama, and I am actually also including her mama, as well as her sister, and my daughters.  Four generations of mamas & daughters head out for manicures en masse, a real treat for us all.

In talking with my mother's sister, who has lived with her mother (my grandmother) all her life, she lamented how her mother's days have never been about her as a mother, they have always been in celebration of her mother and her mother-in-law, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but .....

For you, what comes first: celebrating as a mother or as a daughter?

In honor of Mother's Day, Redbeacon is giving away a free house cleaning (yes, again!) valued at $200! Check out our giveaway tab for the details and to enter.

Everyone's talking about it, so why don't we?  What do you think of Time's new cover?  Are you an extended breastfeeder?  What does this image say to you?  

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. Check PDX Kids Calendar for other ideas for kid-friendly activities, and the urbanMamas calendar page.  And happy Mother's Day!

Celebrate National Public Garden Day at the Leach Botanical Gardens on Friday from 9 to 7.  Take a stroll and learn more about the garden and what's in it.  Free!

It’s Book Fan Friday at Powell’s Cedar Hills on Friday at 4:30.  Book Fan Friday is a workshop for kids 10 to 18 years old who love to write. This month, Heather Vogel Frederick (Once upon a Toad) leads a discussion on The Magic of a Good Book Club, finding and growing the perfect story and the perfect summer book club.  Free!

The Ezra Weiss Quartet - a jazz ensemble - is playing at the last Family Friday Concert of the season at the Community Music Center.  Friday at 7:15.  Free, with a $5-15 suggested donation.

This Friday at 7:30 take a night walk at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, one of the few urban refuges in the country.  Preregistration required.  Free!

The Festival of the Birds is on Saturday from 9 to 3 at Sellwood Park.  Enjoy walks, kid-friendly activities, musicians and other bird-related activities.  Free!

There's free admission to the Washington County Museum this Saturday from 10 to 2.  Among the entertainment is Emmy Blue Enchantments, a storyteller we've heard amazing things about.  Free! 

How does a dinosaur child celebrate his birthday?  Find out at A Dinosaur’s Birthday at the Central library with storytelling and a craft project.  Saturday from 2 to 3.  Free!

The Sixth Annual St. Johns Bizarre is this Saturday from 10 to 7.  Enjoy music, street performers, vendors, food, and kids art activities.  Free!

Summer is here!  Portland Sunday Parkways is gearing up this Sunday from 11-4!  Explore Northeast Portland as portions of it are closed to traffic, and enjoy food, entertainment, and other fun.  Free! 

The last You Who Family Frolic of the season is this Sunday beginning at 1.  The featured performer is Laura Veirs and the Tumble Bees.  At the Kennedy School.  $5 kids, $10 adults. 

Aaron Nigel Smith of Between the Lions plays a free show at the Troutdale Library on Sunday at 2.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

I did not begin to love Maurice Sendak when I had boys, three of them, all just as wild as Max. I loved him, as most of you did, long before that. I could recite the entire text of Where the Wild Things Are even without the pictures, probably. It's like poetry; it's like Bible verses.

But there is something else. Before I had my boys, before they were very old, I did not really understand it; I felt the mother was hasty and rather too punishing. Surely: if you're going to give in and give him dinner anyway, why send him to bed? Why call him 'Wild Thing'? I shook my head.

As I grew as a parent, I had compassion not just for the boy but for the mother, too. The lucid, elegaic movie based so loosely on the book showed me that mother and tore me up even more and, I felt, explored the true nature of this parent/child relationship: imperfect (as we all are) and intense and marked with the rich internal life and tendency toward emotional overload and explosion as my own boys, and my relationships with them, are. There is that love that overwhelms and then buzzes into absolute impatience. But it is true even across the years and weeks and days and into the monstrous internal struggles or rumpuses with which our children might be rocked. It remains.

And my love will remain for this book and Maurice's true sight into a child's heart. He died today. I will miss him.

If you've written your own tribute to Sendak, please link to it in the comments or send me a note!

This week -- May 7 through 11 -- is Teacher Appreciation Week. (Some schools might have celebrated last week; one of my boys' schools did, due to confusion about what "first week in May" meant.) I really appreciate what parents at Bridger have done, coordinating muffin baking for the teachers' breakfast one day and other fun events. And a big bouquet of lilacs was enough to make one group of teachers' Monday; I highly suggest such a simple, pretty, great-smelling gift (and there are lots of overgrown lilacs in alleys and parking strips... don't they deserve their chance to shine?). Calendula and lavender are going bonkers in front yards right now, and they make a beautiful bouquet. My seven-year-old's teacher is a huge fan of dark chocolate, so I'll pick up a few extra bars of my favorite at People's (it's even on sale this week): Equal Exchange Panama.

We've got a great round-up of teacher's favorite gifts here (from the winter holidays; obviously there will be more options now!). I'd love to hear about innovative and simple ideas like muffin baking and a potluck lunch for teachers hosted by the PTA. And this is your official reminder! Remember that teachers tell us over and over again that their favorite gifts are simple notes of appreciation. Remember, too, that this is a good time to pull your teacher aside and learn a little something about him so that you'll be able to tailor the perfect token of your gratitude for their dedication. Don't forget about the administrators, librarians, art teachers, and the like.

And, since we're also talking about whether teachers will keep their jobs this year (as we seem to do so often) -- though we can thank Sam Adams for proposing to provide cash to keep from the worst cuts Portland Public Schools was planning for next year (thank you Sam! maybe we should send him muffins too) -- Teacher Appreciation Week will be ending with a very large rally and march called "Get Upset!" to protest continued "austerity," shall we say, in school budgets. It's starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, in the Rose Quarter.

Every year I try to schedule a family trip back to the Midwest to visit family. For the past few years, we have been able to coordinate the trip so that my two older boys spend a few weeks with our families without our presence. It's worked out well, but this year, scheduling this has been challenging unless my boys fly solo.

I've been exploring the possibility of my the boys (ages 7 and 9) flying unaccompanied, giving them 1-2 weeks with our families before the rest of us make the road trip halfway across the country. Gulp! I've talked with them at great lengths about this possibility. Both seemed to be open to the adventure especially since they'd have each other.  As I was searching for fares last night, I found something reasonable enough to purchase.  Exciting, right? When I shared the news, I was met with mixed emotions. The older one was excited, and his younger brother was well, hesitant. Apprehensive. Probably a bit scared. I completely understand. I had regrets. Maybe I jumped the gun. With the trip a few months away, I'm hoping that I have some time to ease his and my own anxiety. Have your kids traveled unaccompanied? What has been your experience? Any words of wisdom?

Tonight is the Supermoon! Evidently, every once in a while, the moon comes extra close to the earth in its elliptical orbit, and that closest point coincides with a full moon -- it will be closest within a few minutes of the "official moon phase" of its fullness. This makes the moon appear 16% bigger and 30% brighter (or thereabouts) than usual.

(Or, according to National Geographic, "Due to the moon's egg-shaped orbit, there are times when our natural satellite is at perigee—its closest to Earth—and at apogee, its farthest." Hand that off to your high school-aged kids for SAT study.)

Our immediate neighborhood is terrible for moongazing; we're at a flat part west of a very steep hill, so that by the time the moon appears over the apartment building roof to the east of us, it's lost much of its enormity. Also: apartment building roofs do not make for lovely backdrops.

My favorite views of the moon have all been serendipitous; there is an amazing vantage point at the intersection of 39th/Cesar E. Chavez Blvd and Hawthorne, where you can often see the moon slink up behind Mt. Tabor, hanging low and spectacular over the bank (I know. Such romance!).  I've also seen a stunner at the intersection of SE Market and 77th, getting ready to come down the hill to Bridger school. I'm sure the southeast approach to Mt. Tabor, from 73rd Ave, would also be a great place.

Any favorites? Have you watched the moon somewhere stunning? (and if you see it tonight, post pictures! Please!)

Head over to the giveaway tab to enter to win a gift certificate to H₅O Bistro & Bar to enjoy two glasses of Oregon wine and a cheese plate! Date night anyone?!

"You made my day!" said the woman at the doctor's office, grinning. I'd brought Monroe with me, carrying a little jar of simple flowers from my garden, tied with twine. I needed a tetanus shot and it was May Day and I was overcome on April 30 with a sudden urge to Do It.

We started with the next-door neighbor and we went bonkers; several neighbors on our block, including a few we've never met. The receptionists at the doctor's office. Truman's teacher. A friend. Drunk on our gratuitous gifting, my two younger boys ran away from two of the houses in full giggle and victory. "This is the best May Day EVER!" said Monroe (and the only one we've ever celebrated, making it a low bar).

It was such a joy to me, even more than the recipients of our random secret gifting. It was so easy; picking a few of the volunteer flowers and tulips from our yard, fill in with mint and herbs, put in old canning jars, tie with kitchen twine and a little May Day greeting, deliver as quietly as possible. To see the faces light up -- not just of the recipients, but my boys in victory after our "missions" -- was a thrill. So much fun, in fact, that I might do it again before next May 1.

Have you celebrated May Day the old-fashioned way? If you haven't, have you found unexpected joy in some simple and secret act of small generosity? Any other ideas? I need another mission.