Roberta B

Roberta

Years spent at Nickelodeon prepared Roberta to launch Mommy Poppins' Los Angeles branch. She served as LA Editor for GoCityKids, National Editor for ParentsConnect, and Editor for NickMom. After two years as Mommy Poppins' LA Editor, Roberta became Editor-in-Chief at Mommy Poppins - which works out well for her son, who enjoys his role as Chief Guinea Pig for all things fun in LA and beyond.

Latest posts by Roberta

March GoList: Best Things To Do with LA and OC Kids This Month

Submitted by Roberta B on Fri, 03/01/2019 - 3:21pm

Our picks for March are in! It's a busy month, with St. Patrick's Day, Purim, the arrival of spring, and migrating whales and swallows; no wonder there's an hour to switch off at the end of the month. Now is your chance to plan ahead for these annual favorites picked from the many activities on our March daily events calendar, and snag tickets in advance. Easter politely holds off til mid-April this year, though some egg-themed events get an early start. Plus the wonderful Butterfly Pavilion at the Natural History Museum returns mid-March.

Click through to the full listings, and you can automatically add them to your personal calendar. And if you don't already receive our weekday and weekend events newsletters, you might want to subscribe before spring break sneaks up on you.

25 Things To Do in Venice Beach with Kids

Submitted by Roberta B on Fri, 02/15/2019 - 10:54pm

Venice, California is about as unlike Venice, Italy as two cities could be, but the Bohemian beachside community has nonetheless acquired nearly as much fame as its namesake. Both Venices can boast canals, beach, and some larger-than-life parties, but LA's famous seaside tourist attraction replaces old world charm with funkadelic grunge, opera with karaoke, and gondoliers with bodybuilders.

Sandwiched between Santa Monica and Marina del Rey, Venice may be small but has its own distinct personality. And the 25 kid-pleasing activites below are good for a few days' worth of fun in the sun, Venice style.

15 Best Indoor Birthday Party Ideas for LA Kids

Submitted by Roberta B on Tue, 02/12/2019 - 5:26pm

There is a special kind of stress—both emotional and financial—that planning a birthday party can cause if you have kids born between the months of November and March. Oh sure, everyone struggles with the great birthday party question, but those moms who gave birth in LA in August are pretty safe claiming a corner of a public park or throwing down some blankets on the beach. If you have a December baby, you may have tried that, but at some point probably cried "Never again!" LA might not have a proper winter, but it has a proper Indoor Birthday Party season, if only for the sanity of the parents. Allow us to share some of our favorite options for entertaining the masses without stressing about the weather.

These 8 Trampoline Parks Offer LA & OC Kids Wall-to-wall Jumping

Submitted by Roberta B on Sun, 02/10/2019 - 11:37pm

Bounce and repeat. What else do we need to say? Big kids, little kids, they all like to jump. Even Mom and Dad can occasionally enjoy trampoline time (though they might just prefer the trampoline park below that offers massage chairs on the sidelines). Bring a pack of kids for a birthday party, and they'll all sleep well afterwards; bring an antsy one on a rainy day, and watch the mood change for the better. Note that the 8 jumping gyms below can get seriously rambunctuous, but most offer special times or areas for toddlers and preschoolers. And if there's a stuntkid in your family, these are definitely addresses you need to know.

10 Traditional Outdoor Summer Camps for LA Kids

Submitted by Roberta B on Fri, 02/01/2019 - 4:29pm

Los Angeles is blessed with a whole bunch of summer camps (just check our camp guide and directory). Parents with kids who are driven to spend their summers focusing on their music, their art, their particular sport, science, or even cooking have all the options they could wish.

But sometimes summer needs to be about good old-fashioned swing-on-a-rope, splash-in-a-pool type fun. Sometimes what our kids really need is to spend a couple of weeks in the fresh air doing things that won't necessarily fill a college application, but sure will fill a memory book. For those types of summers, we offer 10 great summer day camps in the Los Angeles area that are all about playing outdoors.

February GoList: Best Things To Do with LA Kids

Submitted by Roberta B on Fri, 02/01/2019 - 6:06am

February is a time to appreciate where we live perhaps more than any other—not simply because of the opportunity to celebrate the valentines, presidents, parades, and whales below, but also because we live in a place where we can ski if we want to without ever having to move our cars out of the way of snowplows. Our hearts go out to our friends and family in other states, of course; they really should come to visit. We'll use our weekend event roundups, our 100 Things List, and this February GoList to show them a good time, while they escape that winter thing they're all suffering from.

All of the cooler-than-cool activities below are on our daily events calendar, but a little extra notice helps to make sure your kids don't miss out. Click through to the full listings so that you can automatically add them to your calendar. Happy February!

Where To See Whales in LA: Whale Watching Cruises, Festivals, and Viewpoints

Submitted by Roberta B on Wed, 01/16/2019 - 2:50pm

Winter is prime whale watching season in Southern California, and there are several ways to spy on the giant mammals as they pass through on their 6,000-mile quest for Mexican romance. Each year, between December and April, roughly 20,000 Pacific gray whales migrate past our beaches, and March brings particularly high traffic because that's when the underwater procession starts to turn around. Pregnant, south-bound she-whales still trying to make it to Baja before the contractions start are blasted past by upwardly mobile young he-whales, finished with romance and headed for an appointment in the Arctic Circle. All that toing and froing is the inspiration for many a whale cruise and festival. With a little luck and clear skies, even a hike or sand sledding can turn into a whale watching activity.

17 Free Indoor Activities for a Rainy Day in LA

Submitted by Roberta B on Sun, 01/13/2019 - 4:26pm

There is no limit to what a family can do outdoors in Los Angeles, and our clichéd weather makes enjoying these activities possible most days of the year. But on the occasional day when the mercury drops below 50 degrees—or when water falls perplexingly from the sky—we need a back-up plan. Indoor activities are sprinkled throughout our bucket list of 100 Things To Do with LA Kids Before They Grow Up, but wouldn't it be handy to have one list of totally free things to do with kids indoors? We thought so, too!

Roberta B

Roberta

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