I hope those of you who have followed along in the past will come and find me at my new home. I’m even dropping the LaLaGirl moniker! (Although so many folks call me LaLa, even in real life, that I’ll never stop answering to it!) You can find my current writing at Housewife Hellraiser.

If you read through RSS, here is the new feed: Housewife Hellraiser RSS Feed

Thanks for playing along all these years – for all the comments, the advice, the laughs and love – but hey, it’s not ending! In fact, I’m writing more than ever. Please join me!

-LaLa

Possibly Related

• August 1, 2012 -- I am not at BlogHer.
• June 15, 2012 -- Another blogger.
• September 17, 2011 -- Boot Camp.
• January 3, 2011 -- Whoa, look at that.
• January 19, 2010 -- Interesting!

We went to see The Fresh Beat Band Live at the 1stBank Center up in Broomfield. It was such a fun little show! Honestly, I think at 9 and 7, my girls were a bit on the old side for the show – but they are so into music, singing, and dancing, that I knew they’d have a great time. And they did! I really wish I could have taken them to see this show when they were around 4 or 5, though. The entire audience was full of excited, twirling, dancing little girls – they were so thrilled to be there, and having so much fun just dancing in the aisles. Watching the audience was almost as much fun as watching the show.

The performers were great, too! They were so friendly and animated, and really played to their young crowd. Most of the show was audience participation, and I think our favorite part was when they kicked a half dozen ginormous inflatable balls out into the crowd, for everyone to bat back and forth. And of course, the KISS-like confetti cannon at the end was a wonderful touch.

I’m so glad we went. This was a GREAT show, and I’ve been singing Fresh Beat Band songs in my head since we left!

Disclosure: My girls and I received complimentary tickets in exchange for promoting the show.

Random LaLa Goodness

• May 23, 2008 -- Road Trip!
• January 31, 2007 -- Giraffe! Giraffe!
• August 24, 2008 -- Funny Daddy Video!
• July 17, 2007 -- I want my NyQuil!
• October 11, 2006 -- We are dorks.

P.S. I’m voting today!

Random LaLa Goodness

• October 21, 2010 -- Yo Gabba Gabba Live in Denver – Ticket Giveaway!
• October 29, 2007 -- Music Monday – Halloween Edition!
• April 13, 2010 -- Pick Punch – Make your own guitar picks!
• October 24, 2007 -- Aww, BlogHer LOVES me!
• May 1, 2007 -- Rabbit, Rabbit.

comic courtesy The Doghouse Diaries

I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone. I love it, because…well, what’s not to love? (Besides the fact that I can’t see websites built with Flash – really, Apple, we STILL can’t see Flash? Really? Okay. Thanks for the shitty maps, though.) I love having my calendar, email, and camera right in my pocket and I especially love playing crossword puzzles in waiting rooms instead of reading ancient magazines.

I hate it, because I can’t ever seem to put the damned thing DOWN. I almost wish I had a second phone that just worked as, y’know, A PHONE, so that I could receive calls from my hubby but still actually get things done. It seems like I can’t ever disconnect myself from Facebook and Instagram, and it’s almost embarrassing. And talk about a point of contention between my husband and me – he hates it when people are glued to their phones anyway, and gets especially testy when he’s trying to hold my attention and I’m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. We smartphone users are some rude motherfuckers, that’s for sure. And don’t try to act like you’re not one of them. You know you are.

As much as I love having a little world of information right in my pocket and at my fingertips, I recognize the how dangerously addicting it is having a smartphone. If a grown-ass woman like myself can’t go to sleep at night without surreptitiously playing Draw Something under the covers, how can any of us expect our children to be able to handle the responsibility of having a smartphone? The answer is: we can’t. Which is why my kids will never have one, until they are old enough to sign up for their very own data plan.

I have heard story after story after story – from parents I know personally – about kids who have gotten into mischief using a smartphone/iTouch. Much of it involves breaking rules about playing video games after hours or downloading apps without permission, but much more of it has been about chatting with potentially dangerous people or being bullied by other kids via social media. It happens – ALL THE TIME.

A few weeks ago, my 4th grader was at a sleepover where one of the girls had an iTouch. They were chatting via Facetime with a classmate of theirs, when things started to get ugly. The girls started to get uncomfortable with what was being said in some recorded videos and forwarded a couple of them to me. Let me tell you, I was freakin’ STUNNED. I know girls can be catty, petty, even dare I say BITCHY, beginning at a young age. But my jaw literally fell open when I saw what this ten-year-old girl was saying to my daughter’s friend. I couldn’t get that ten-year-old’s mom on the phone fast enough, and guess what? She was just as floored by all of it as I was. I won’t forget her crushed expression and the tears in her eyes as she dragged her kid over in her pajamas to apologize. I am sure she assumed her daughter was just playing Fruit Ninja and having nice little conversations with her friends about Justin Bieber. We all would like to think our kids are angelic, but…yeah, no. Kids are sneaky! My kids, your kids – pretty much ALL KIDS. If you give them this technology, which WE can’t even handle, well…what do you THINK is going to happen?

I heard a story today from a friend that was damned disturbing, and unfortunately all too common. Evidently, my friend’s colleague discovered that her PRETEEN daughter had been communicating with a stranger in his twenties via a chat app called Omegle. This is an app designed specifically for chatting with strangers – something we try to steer our children away from every day of their lives – and a child was wrapped up in it, even going so far as to send pictures of herself to this creep. The girl’s mother got law enforcement involved, who told her that this guy was essentially grooming the girl for a future encounter. This is the sort of thing that scares the hell out of me. I know we’d all like to believe that our kids would be smarter – would be safer – would never fall prey to someone intending to hurt them – but God forbid we’re wrong.

My kids continue to ask for phones for birthdays and Christmas, and I continue to laugh and tell them no way. My opinion, and keep in mind that I’m a little jaded from the cell phone shenanigans my oldest pulled during her early teens: little kids do not need cell phones! There is no place my kids are going to be where there aren’t ADULTS AROUND. If they need to call me, A PHONE IS AVAILABLE. When they get to the age where they’re away from adults for any substantial length of time – say, walking home from middle school – then we’ll talk about getting a phone. But I guarantee you that phone will be the kind that makes calls and sends texts ONLY, and we’ll be policing that shit like crazy. Hell, my oldest is SEVENTEEN and her (very basic) phone shuts down at 11 p.m. and doesn’t turn back on until 6:30 a.m. Parental controls. Look into it. Every carrier offers it. And, pardon my cranky old lady attitude, but – kids should be riding bikes and drawing with sidewalk chalk, not texting. They’re little for like, FIVE MINUTES, you guys. Let them be little kids.

I know not everyone shares my opinion – LOTS of my kids’ friends have phones already, or iTouches, or even iPhones! And I’m not judging anyone for it, I promise. You do what works for YOU and your family. (Also, I’m a cheap bastard!) I’m just saying, don’t assume that your kids are responsible enough to handle the temptation of what is instantly available, when WE can’t even set our phones down for five minutes. Be snoopy! Poke around! Don’t let them set a password. Make sure they’re following the rules you lay down.

Let me know what you think – do your kids use Smartphones? What do you think is an appropriate age for a child to get a phone?

Possibly Related

• February 22, 2012 -- Lofty goals.
• February 9, 2011 -- This is why I hate having kids in my bed.
• December 15, 2010 -- Teens and Texting – Interview with my Teenager
• December 1, 2010 -- Teens and Texting, revisited…
• October 13, 2010 -- Texting and Driving

I am still scrubbing fake blood out of my nails from doing Kayley’s and Shelby’s makeup yesterday! Yet another Zombie Crawl I didn’t actually get to attend – oh well, the teenagers make cuter zombies anyway!

Edit: Westword has a great photo gallery right here!

Possibly Related

• September 21, 2012 -- Halloween Fun with Steve Spangler Science
• November 21, 2011 -- Seminar for Denver Autism Parents
• October 11, 2011 -- Pumpkin day!
• March 25, 2011 -- A first for us – Disney on Ice!
• October 21, 2010 -- Yo Gabba Gabba Live in Denver – Ticket Giveaway!

I have found so many fabulous ideas for kids’ parties online. Pinterest has turned out to be the muse for creative moms all across the internet lands, it seems like. When my twin girls had their birthday party early this year, we did a fun photobooth with props, based on an idea I found online. It was a huge hit. Here are some great tips.

Via: Party Pail

Random LaLa Goodness

• January 6, 2012 -- Peanut Buttah Cookies – 6/366
• August 9, 2007 -- Pee-Wee!
• March 12, 2009 -- It still feels like Monday!
• December 13, 2007 -- Mediocrity is mandatory.
• November 30, 2006 -- How cold is it?

The Fresh Beat Band debuted in 2009 and is now in its third season on Nickelodeon. The Fresh Beat Band centers on four best friends – Kiki, Shout, Marina and Twist – in a band who love to sing and dance. In each episode, preschoolers sing and dance along as they help The Fresh Beat Band solve everyday challenges.

Buy tickets online!

Random LaLa Goodness

• June 28, 2006 -- Yawn!
• July 14, 2007 -- Nikki the…sorceress?
• June 4, 2007 -- The petting zoo awaits.
• February 22, 2007 -- Yippee!
• November 21, 2005 -- The Mom Salon

Before I show you all the amazeballs stuff Steve and his staff of rockstar science geeks have dreamed up, I MUST share this short video with you. This is my husband trying out a balloon of what I can only describe as reverse-helium. It’s called sulfur hexafluoride, and I can’t tell you the science behind it, but it makes your voice unnaturally deep – and it sure did entertain a table full of giggly women! Can I get my hands on some of this? I think it would be excellent at parties. I’m just saying.

After the Darth Vader-esque icebreaker, we had a blast doing lots of hands-on experiments resulting in some pretty creepy, Halloween-appropriate stuff! First of all, Julie instructed us to place our hands in a towel-obscured container, reminiscent of the spaghetti-as-veins-in-a-bowl stuff you may remember from Halloween parties as a child. We all reached into the cold liquid to find slippery, squishy little balls – just like I imagine a big bowl of eyeballs would probably feel! When we were all appropriately squicked out, Julie asked us to remove the towels and take a look at what we just touched – and imagine our freakin’ SHOCK to see bins of clear water! ::cue Scooby Doo music:: What we were actually feeling was Jelly Marbles – tiny little orbs that grow hundreds of times their size when soaked in liquid, and since they have the same index refraction as water, they pretty much completely disappear when submerged in it. Super cool.

Continuing with the creepy squishy things, we went on to our next activity – Atomic Insta-Worms! This stuff was a blast. A tiny spoonful of “worm activator” stirred into water, then a squirt of Atomic Worm Goo – and, voila. Like the name promises, instant, creepy-as-hell, brightly colored worms! These glow crazy under a black light, too!

We also got to check out heat-sensitive color changing worms, too. And for Halloween, they’ve taken Insta-Worms to the next level with Vampire Veins, which are a sickly green color on the outside and a blood-like red on the inside, and Atomic Slime, which just about destroyed my sensory-impaired hubby. ::shudder:: So gross. Science is cool. And it turns a table of adults into a bunch of 5th graders in a hurry, let me tell ya.

Here’s one more vid of Melissa and Sarah trying out their monster voices for Halloween!

Check out Steve Spangler Science on Facebook and Twitter, and visit their website at http://stevespangler.com to find lots of the stuff I mentioned here. Some of the brand new Halloween items aren’t yet available, but I think they will be in the days to come! We had such a blast. Many thanks to Steve, Julie, and of course our friend Susan Wells for hosting such a fabulous blogger playdate!

Possibly Related

• October 21, 2012 -- Zombie Crawl
• November 21, 2011 -- Seminar for Denver Autism Parents
• October 11, 2011 -- Pumpkin day!
• March 25, 2011 -- A first for us – Disney on Ice!
• October 21, 2010 -- Yo Gabba Gabba Live in Denver – Ticket Giveaway!

Random LaLa Goodness

• March 30, 2009 -- Womb to Bloom
• May 12, 2007 -- Random Kid Cuteness.
• March 6, 2007 -- Head. Hurts.
• March 16, 2007 -- Already the weekend!
• October 26, 2006 -- Halloween Tips

When I started blogging, back in April of THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND ::cue Conan O’Brien bit:: my little girl Kayley was in PRESCHOOL. Y’all have watched her grow up, and those of you who have remained loyal readers through the years have watched me grow up, too.

Well, nothing so far has made me feel as old as seeing my baby get her drivers license! Yes, that’s Kayley, all smiles in her cute little car, heading out of here for another fun day of senior year. Yep.

Time just flies.

Random LaLa Goodness

• March 20, 2006 -- Money Origami!
• May 17, 2007 -- Pretty!
• June 15, 2012 -- Another blogger.
• June 22, 2009 -- Bring on Summer.
• June 12, 2007 -- Big talkin’ Pablo!