Want a fun outing that your kids will REALLY love? How about a tour of some of the best candy stores in New York City? The Lower East Side is chock full of unique and fun candy stores and you can hit them all in one day for a super treat on Valentines Day or any day you want to be the bestest parent EVER! Find your inner child, turn off that parenting voice and have fun going crazy for candy with your kids, if only for one day.

Before we get to the links, I want to announce the winner of our Valentine's Day Giveaway. Alysia and her family will be enjoying a sweet dinner four four delivered to their home thanks to Susie's Supper Club. Congrats!

Any family with more than one child will hear the cry “You love him/her more!” often enough to switch our parent guilt into overdrive.  Turns out, you don’t have to worry so much.  The information on that good news, as well as Google's new tool to reduce your energy bill, Macy’s Valentine’s Day snafu, the Holy Grail of giveaways, and sharing breast milk...after the clickity click click.

The other day we wrote about sharing Valentines Day with your children with a Valentines Day living room picnic dinner. In this post we're sharing an idea that lets you turn your children into the sweetest Valentine I can imagine receiving. It's a super easy project you can do in minutes using adorable vintage Valentine images and your even more adorable little sweetheart. Check it out.

How do you handle an ill-behaved, nose-picking younger brother? If anybody should know it's Edwina Spoonapple, a girl from Paw Paw Michigan who performs a musical advice column from her garage. Such is the set-up of the DR2 Kids Theater's production of Dear Edwina. The situation reminds me of my favorite Judy Blume stories from childhood and the storytelling of Dear Edwina is just as vivid and fun as those books are. Add the terrific music and you have the best of childrens' theater.

Our new 2009 Summer Camp Guide is up with over 70 New York City Day Camps, Suburban Day Camps, Sleep Away Camps, and Camp Services. Whether you're looking for a program for your preschooler for a couple of days a week, a week-long program to explore a special interest like science, the arts or a favorite sport, looking to stay in the city, or bus them out for some country air every day, or even a great sleep-away camp, we've got lots of great camps for you to choose from. Check it out.

Over the weekend a few things crossed my mind.  Primarily, at nine years late, should I completely abandon the idea of getting my wedding gift thank-you cards written?  The answer I’ve come to is yes.  Yes I am a shmuck, and yes I should give up the guilt.  But then I ran into this website that has the very coolest stationary and back story (which I’m guessing is fiction?  I hope?) And I really love the cards.  Maybe I’m digging these enough to send out the nine-year late cards?  Naaaaah.  But I will pick some up for future use, for I am older and wiser and more socially apt.   

After finding this treasure, I also found out that the way my husband parents our child is not completely wrong, I found out how to deal with my son being bullied, I found out some simple tricks I can use to pretend I’m awesome in the kitchen, and I continued to mourn Lux Interior.  Wanna see?

Yes, keeping the romance alive with your spouse is important even after you have kids, sometimes more so. But, I've never been a big fan of the forced romance of Valentine's Day. We love celebrating Valentine's Day with our kids, who get much more pleasure out of chocolates and flowers than I ever have.

Our tradition starts the night before when my husband cuts paper hearts out of construction paper and sprinkles them all over my daughter's bed and bedroom floor while she sleeps so that she wakes up to a sea of love. And the day concludes with the four of us enjoying a candlelit picnic of delicacies spread out on the floor of our living room. Again, our kids love the romance and I think we have our own kind of romantic moment from being a young family all happy together.

Plan your own romantic Valentines Day dinner for four at home and make it even more magical by not having to lift a finger. Susie's Supper Club is a new service that will deliver a complete dinner ready to heat up and serve. Not only is the food delicious, but it is much healthier than restaurant food, made from organic ingredients purchased from local farms practicing sustainable farming.

Do you have a parenting story to tell?  Click to find out how to share your story and possibly have it reenacted by Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines.  Also:  where to share your secrets and read other peoples', stuff we already knew now backed up by science, new information on Breast Cancer and don’t miss this year’s award winning books. Do it!