Toby B

Toby is our uber-busy events editor for Mommy Poppins LA. Feel free to email Toby about events for our LA area calendar.

Latest posts by Toby

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Garden Concerts, Toy Story Shakespeare, and Surf Fest

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 08/01/2019 - 12:18pm

International Surf Festival. Photo by Joel Gitelson courtesy of the festival

Can you believe it's August already? The summer's almost over. Last call for school break fun, cause we'll be back in school before you know it!

Oh, hey, look at that: the Actors' Gang free summer Shakespeare for kids is starting up this weekend. The Gang is doing a Toy Story-tinged Tempest, such stuff as dreams are made of. Nothing like your kids quoting Shakespeare when they go back to school, which they will be doing shortly because the summer is practically over...

Oh, hey, look at that: the Ventura County Fair is starting up this weekend. Nothing says summer like funnel cakes, carnival rides, and pig races. And then the summer is over for most intents and purposes, so maybe we should all be buying ski garb and looking into Christmas trees.

Oh, hey, look at that: The Getty Garden Concerts for Kids are starting up this weekend. It isn't summer until the Garden Concerts have started, I'll tell you that. Elena Moon Park and Friends celebrate folk and children's music from all over East Asia. With songs in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Tibetan, Taiwanese, Spanish, and English, you can dance or chill on the Getty Center Lawn to this family favorite. And then after that you can turn in your swim fins and sunscreen, because the summer is just about over...

Oh, hey, look at that: there are sharks in the water. I say "summer"; you say "run for your lives"! Where are those swim fins when you need 'em...?

Oh hey, look at that: Midsummer Scream is this weekend, offering spine tingling chills as you prep for the most ghoulish time of year... okay, now that one, it maybe does mean summer is over. But not before we enjoy this most spooky of weekends.

Keep reading for our best picks for what is, spookily enough, another awesome summer weekend.

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Sandcastles, Dragon Boats, Crawfish, and Salsa

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/25/2019 - 12:44am

The Love Long Beach Festival spreads the magic of Long Beach. Photo courtesy of the festival

It's that time of year again. We're just happily going about our middle of summer business, doing sandy things and beachy things (long beachy things). We're going into the water (but don't go into the water!) And have you checked the temps? It's kinda warm—that's a sure sign of summer. And yet...

And yet. Another quick check of the calendar tells us that we are at the end of July. The end. Which may have been midsummer once upon a time ago, but is a mere few weeks before the start of—what now?—the 19/20 school year. Back to school, you say?

And yet. If summer is coming to a close, why is there so much of it still going on? Why is there so much of it yet to begin? Why are we having the summertime time of our lives??? Perhaps there's still some summer in us yet!

Keep reading for our most summery picks yet!

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Apollo 11, Delicious Go Little Tokyo, Comic Con

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:16am

Cayton Children's Museum. Photo by Matthew Tucciarone

It's one small step for Mom... one giant leap for the whole family as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon. We look to the skies. We look to the skies some more. We look to the simulated skies. We look to the skies the way they did in the olden times... on a TV screen.

The commemoration reminds us of the boundless possibilities of all we can accomplish. We can get free lollipops and ice cream, and play for half the price. We can watch in awe (and no small degree of jealousy) as the population of Los Angeles decreases by half and San Diego's simultaneously increases by the same measure. (Must be magic.) Despite adversity, we can boldly go where no one has gone before.

Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars. So whenever you feel alone, just remember: those kings will always be there to guide you and so will Mommy Poppins.

Take one small step... to keep reading for our most stellar picks for this weekend's fun.

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Orange County Fair, Kidspace Birthday, and Mud Mania

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/11/2019 - 6:36am

Mud Mania! Photo courtesy of Rancho Los Cerritos

Congratulations! You are the winner of one mint-condition, limited edition, superior quality weekend. Your prize includes a County Fair, manic mud, free outdoor theatre (day and night), children's museums new and celebrating, and big worldly fun. And talk about stellar: the excitement for the Apollo 11 anniversary is starting to ramp up: to infinity and the moon!

If winning is your style, Mommy Poppins is ready to go one further. Not to give anything away, but we are. Giving things away. ALL. SUMMER. LONG. This week we are offering up Boredom Busters, which you would only need in the unlikely event that your offspring claim to have nothing to do. You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, Mum? (If so you really should enter.)

Spin the wheel (or keep reading) to luck onto our most winning picks for the weekend...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Griffith Park Shakespeare, Day of the Ancestors, & Cayton Opening

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 06/27/2019 - 5:00am

Tug of War, watermelon-style! Photo courtesy of The Watermelon Festival

I can see you're a little confused. Strange things are afoot, and then even stranger ones. The night sky is going boom boom boom, and there's pretty colors everywhere. But while we are no doubt a country filled with patriots, this is not the time we celebrate our independence.

Perhaps this is a dry run, a practice session for all the liberty festing to come. Or perhaps it's all a comedy of errors, some kind of he said/ she said, but he was really a she farce.

Regardless, I know this: pirates and mermaids are invading Long Beach, cats are invading Pasadena, and it's watermelon mayhem in Lake View Terrace. The Cayton is opening in its new home at Santa Monica Place. People are taking to the streets, and they are colorful, and they are crafting. This weekend is a gem; it's magical, and we are winning.

Keep reading for our best, if somewhat strange, picks for this weekend.

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Pier 360, Discover Marina del Rey, Summer Solstice

Submitted by Toby B on Wed, 06/19/2019 - 8:12pm

Summerfest! Photo courtesy of the City of Fountain Valley

Here it is folks: summer all legitimate and official-like—not just that the kids are home from school, but the actual sun being at its greatest distance from Earth’s celestial equator, full-on summer solstice, resulting in our longest day of the year. That's the most daylight hours to be filled by our beloved little ones, who are home from school and demanding our attention. All is good. Especially if someone has any idea what to do with the precious angels.

Oh, look at that! It's us, your pals at Mommy Poppins, here with a calendar full of ways to entertain your sweet mini-beings. We've got you covered in the summer kicking off on land and sea and space (museum). We have seals and Star Wars, sanitation and Shakespeare, a free fan frenzy, and Fullerton flight.

If a fork can be a toy and that guy from Grey's Anatomy can sing, then surely there is something on our calendar that will keep your kid from being "bored, Mom."

Right? Right? (Please someone tell me I am right.)

Keep reading to find the events that will spare you and your offspring from a summer-long pit of nothing to do...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Wooden Boats, Fun-A-Palooza, REDCAT, Playhouse Block Party

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 06/06/2019 - 1:28am

Kids Run the Bases. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Angels

Can you feel that? That's summer getting ready to pop. Whether or not summer break has started for you personally is moot; if it hasn't it will soon, and enough Angelenos are in flipflops-and-beachbags mode that, on average, we are all on vacation anyway.

So how are you kicking off your summer break, which may or may not have started yet? You could be competing in the Special Olympics Summer Games (or cheering on the exceptional athletes who are). You could be winning a Tony (or cheering on the talented performers who are). You could be winning an award from the PBS SoCal Kids Writers contest (or cheering on the talented writers who are). You could be rounding the bases at Angels Stadium. You really could. If you're under 13. Otherwise, you can (checks notes) cheer on the kids who can. Remember: they also win who only stand and cheer.

More summer series are starting this weekend, and everyone is in a partying mood. We have kid-centric movies, free videogame play, wooden boats, cardboard cars, hard-shelled heroes, a fun-a-palooza, sweet, sweet treats, oceans, fish, cartoons, dance, and sanitation. Summer 2019 is go for launch!

Keep reading to get this summer started...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Lummis Day, Nick Gabaldon, and The Great Big Day of Play

Submitted by Toby B on Wed, 05/29/2019 - 11:11pm

If we had had confidence that there was nothing to do this weekend, we would have said so. But we did not. Because there isn't not. By which we mean to say there is. Lots to do this weekend. As full a calendar you're likely to see, to be surpassed only by next week's, and the one after that.

You may have heard tell that there was no illusion, no construction of golf greens, but the facts will show that there was and there are. We've laid it all out for you. We are not afraid to make waves. Or to surf them. If you want to know the facts of this coming weekend, check out the preponderance of events that can be found on our daily events calendar (conveniently sorted chronologically). The truth is out there if you're just willing to read.

Of course, it's not our job to tell you what to do with your kids. You are the parents. You make those choices. And if your (correct) choice is to take them to a free outdoor concert at Pasadena City Hall that celebrates music that made the leap from Broadway to Hollywood, well all we can say then is bravo, encore, well done. Are you teaching your kids to put the steam in punk? You've turned this parenting thing into an art! Can we expect to see you at The Great Big Day of Play (of which Mommy Poppins is a humble media partner)? Well, then, cross out whatever picture is in the dictionary next to awesome parent, because your fresh-faced visage is what belongs there.

Keep reading for our unredacted account of this weekend's worthiest picks...