Meghan Rose
Before becoming a parent, Meghan Rose worked at pioneering internet companies like AOL, eToys.com, and eBay. After having twins, she shifted her focus to literacy, co-authoring Home is Where the Books Are (Choice Literacy, 2013) and launching LitforKids.com. Now based in Los Angeles, Meghan is all about finding fun things to do with kids. Please send her ALL your ideas and suggestions for national parenting and travel articles, or drop a note just say hi: meghan@mommypoppins.com
Latest posts by Meghan
Summer is coming (after one looooonnnnngggg school year) and kids really deserve a treat. Your Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook feeds are packed with incredible-looking sweets, but are they just eye candy? Or are they a treat for the tummy as well?
We sought out the very best, most amazingly outrageous, over-the-top desserts around Los Angeles, and taste-tested them with kids to discover if they are as good as they look on the gram. We picked the most insanely awesome treats in LA to see if they held up—and these made the cut. These delicious desserts are all a perfect end-of-school treat, a we-survived-this-year celebration, or even a birthday cake replacement. From taco ice creams to towering candy wigs, dive into the most impressive sweets in LA.
These leave-in conditioners and detangling sprays are a key pro-parent hack for no-more-tears!
Leave-in conditioner has become a year-round, must-have product in our household. It is crucial to taming the tears for any long-haired kids after swimming or in early mornings when rushing to get hair brushed before school. My bathroom is littered with multiple bottles of hair detangler sprays, and now I'm happy to share the five products that finally brought peace to our marathon combing sessions.
We also have epic battles about great sunscreen in our house. So I went and got expert opinions on the best reef-safe sunscreens for kids and babies, and now we have tangle-free hair and protected skin every morning. Whew.
You know how they say, “You don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone?” Well, we SoCal denizens actually did. We knew we had the best theme parks, all within an easy drive. We took kids for birthdays, soaked up the atmosphere on holidays, and waved our annual passes around like keys to a magical kingdom. When all the amusement parks closed last year, we knew what we were missing.
But now all the amusement parks have reopened, and many of them have spent the past year building and creating. From the new Avengers Campus at Disneyland to the new Lego Movie World at Legoland (and everything in between), here’s what’s new at SoCal theme parks in 2021.
For a long time in LA, ice cream cones meant a $1 Thrifty cone in a weird shape at the local Rite Aid. I’m not knocking it—people who grew up here love them, and now as a mom, I appreciate the ubiquitousness and price. But gourmet, it isn’t. Then good ice cream began to appear; imports like Salt & Straw and Jeni’s, and homegrown favorites like McConnell’s and Sweet Rose. Some of the very best of the local shops are small-batch and freshly churned (or soft-served) mom-and-pop stores. So, if you wanted to try, say the fabulousness that is Ginger’s Divine Ice Creams, you had to trek to their sole location in Culver City.
No more! Ginger’s heard the pleas from the east, and just this month opened a new spot Mid-City. It’s long been a favorite of mine, and I couldn’t wait to check out the new store, and see if it’s just as good as the original. My kids came along to play taste testers. Here’s what we found...
One of the things my family has missed most this past year has been visiting our favorite local library. It’s where kids can play when it’s too hot to go outside. It’s where the whole family can enjoy a free storytime that was guaranteed to be age-appropriate (turns out, librarians know books!). It’s where parents can pick up a steady supply of new books. Books to read at bedtime, books to read together, books for kids to read to themselves, and books parents could curl up with after a long day.
Sure, LA’s libraries compensated with curbside pickup, virtual events, and even dial-a-story offerings, but it just wasn't the same. Finally, many LA public libraries are ready to open their doors. So check out when you and your kids can book it to the library...
Bagels are the best, especially when you have little kids to feed. Plain, inexpensive, portable—perfect. Teething tots can gnaw on a plain one for hours. Picky eaters will devour one toasted with butter. Adventurous eaters might opt for an exotic flavor, paired with an equally daring flavor of schmear. And parents can get an everything bagel loaded with luxurious lox and salty capers. The only problem is, LA used to be a bagel wasteland.
The key here is “used to be.” Several shops have popped up in the last few years, determined to fill that bagel-shaped hole in the LA culinary landscape. And now no less an authority than the New York Times has declared that LA makes better bagels than New York. Look no further: here’s where you can get the best bagels in town.
A lot of things have changed in the last year. Many shops and restaurants have closed, a few new things have opened. But only one thing completely disappeared: LACMA. Okay, technically the museum is still there. It’s even opening up again on April 1. But the main buildings (the Bing Theater, along with the Ahmanson and Hammer buildings and the Art of the Americas building) have all vanished.
I recently visited to see what’s happening at Hancock Park and learned that while a vast majority of the art is in storage, there are actually lots of reasons to visit the LACMA campus—including outside art, inside art, scientists at work, cocktails in the courtyard, and a whole new museum. Read on to find out why a family trip to LACMA should be in the cards this (or any!) weekend.
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