Jennifer Marino Walters

Earth Day is April 22! That means now is a great time to talk to kids about the importance of helping to save our planet. Luckily, there are so many little things even the youngest kids can do to help, from conserving water and energy to recycling and reusing. Here are 10 ideas: Turn off …

Having grown up in Southern California, my husband has very fond memories of visiting the La Brea Tar Pits as a child. He couldn’t wait to take our twin boys there, but we’ve held off for fear that they were too young. Well, we finally decided to visit last week (the boys turn 3 in …

With Earth Day coming up next month (April 22), it’s a great time to think about helping your kids connect with nature. To support that effort, you might want to join wildlifenation.org, an online community launched in January by the National Wildlife Federation. The aim of Wildlife Nation is to connect people with each other …

We recently took our twin boys to the movie theater for the first time to see Disney’s Frozen. They had just turned 2 1/2. We’d toyed with the idea for months, but were unsure whether the boys were ready to sit through an entire movie in a dark theater. Ultimately, we decided to take a …

Are you pregnant? Congratulations! If you’ve already started shopping for maternity clothes, you know that they can be pretty expensive—especially since you’ll only be wearing them for a few months. Luckily, there are several tricks that can help you wear non-maternity clothes longer into your pregnancy. Here are five of them: 1. Buy looser tops. Since …

If you’ve started the preschool search for your child, you know how daunting and confusing the task can be. To help you get started, here are 10 things to look for as you start touring preschools. 1) A balanced curriculum: A good preschool has a well-planned curriculum that promotes social, emotional, physical, language, and cognitive …

Babies are a blessing, but they are also expensive! You could save a ton of money by cloth diapering your baby and by breastfeeding, which is the healthiest feeding option for little ones. But if disposable diapers are more your style and you can’t or choose not to breastfeed, here are some tips for saving …

Got a little airplane lover? You don’t need to spend money on tickets to an airplane museum. Here are five cool places across the country where you can watch planes take off and land—right above your heads—for free! Just pack a picnic and enjoy! Gravelly Point Park, Arlington, VA: This gorgeous park on the Potomac …

The day you’ve been dreading has arrived: You put your toddler down for his afternoon nap and he screams, cries, sings, and does pretty much everything but sleep. You try again the next day, and the next—and still no sleep. So you wonder: is he ready to give up his nap for good? Maybe not. Only about …

Thinking of visiting Long Beach, CA? Here are our five favorite family-friendly things to do there! Aquarium of the Pacific: This aquarium, open 9 am to 6 pm daily (except Christmas Day and during the weekend of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 11-13, 2014) is Southern California’s largest aquarium. It displays more than 11,000 …

When my family and I moved to Southern California last summer so that my husband could complete a yearlong fellowship, we knew we had to get bicycles to ride along the gorgeous beachfront bike paths. The question was, how could we take our 2-year-old twins along for the ride? Options abound for toting toddlers on …

Does your child like to draw the same character over and over again? Consider turning that character into a special toy for him or her! Vancouver mom and artist Wendy Tsao creates soft toys based on children’s drawings via her business, Child’s Own Studio (childsown.com). She created the business in 2007 after making a soft …