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: 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...

Memorial Day Weekend for LA Kids: Greeks, Scots, Star Wars, and Fireworks

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 05/23/2019 - 1:37am

Children line the parade route at the annual La Cañada Memorial Weekend Fiesta Days event. Photo by Diandra Jay courtesy of County of Los Angeles Fire Department

First and foremost, Memorial Day is about the members of the armed forces who gave their lives in our nation’s service. Their sacrifice is unimaginable, our debt to them beyond measure. To those lost, and to those who serve our nation and all it stands for, we salute you.

The weekend is not all somber reflection; Memorial Day also means a long weekend, and the unofficial start of summer. Festival is the word of the day: throughout the Southland folks gather to enjoy yummies and winged wonders, and to celebrate different cultures (including Greek, Scottish, and Topangan). Discovery Cube opens new exhibits that explore the different sides of super powers. (It's just science.) The Aquarium of the Pacific opens a new wing that encourages us all to be super heroes for the ocean.

And, of course, Memorial Day weekend closes with tributes to our fallen heroes. Ceremonies are being held at the Nixon Presidential Library, in Burbank and Canoga Park, and at Woodlawn and Forest Lawn Cemeteries.

Read on for some of our favorite picks for this three-day holiday weekend...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Strawberries, JPL, Museums of the Arroyo, and Bugs

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 05/16/2019 - 12:32am

Photo courtesy of California Strawberry Festival

One of the things I have learned as a parent is not to give too many options when presenting a choice. It's "do you want waffles or French toast?" not "choose from any potential foodstuff consumed by man or beast." Well, this weekend is a full-menu, free-for-all-at-the-mega-mart, you-name-it-you-can-have-it kind of weekend. This weekend, your options are all the things.

First up is the open house at JPL, doorway to the stars and window on the origins of the universe (though if you don't already have tickets you're probably not getting in). For your number one choice this weekend, go under the sea to Hollywood, for a Gleeful live-to-screen performance of a Disney classic. Also first up is the Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Fest, the pickingest pick there is (that's a pick pun). Your other first choice is the Bug Fair at the Natural History Museum, because if there is one truism about moms, it is that we love bugs. (And trash, we love that too!)

You can edumacate your offspring on science, literature, and history, then learn 'em about art and opera and long ago things. You can tour the Southland by land, by sea, or by Cozy Coupe.

And, like all first choice weekends, your best pick is anything that involves play, fun, frivolity, and festivity. (And because we're moms: cleaning up after yourselves.)

Wondering what your other first choices are? Keep reading for our choicest picks for the weekend, all tied up in a bow...

Mother's Day Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Fire Service Day, Rocket Launch, and Gibbons

Submitted by Toby B on Wed, 05/08/2019 - 11:00pm

Learn some new dance moves with Debbie Allen. Photo courtesy of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

It's Mother's Day, and Momma wants something good. Something unique. Maybe something handmade. Most likely something handmade.

For the record, Momma is well-rounded. She likes apes, and she likes butterflies. She likes gardens. She likes big cars; she likes fast skates. She likes firemen and men in tiaras. She likes to drink the tea.

Momma likes rockets in flight and stars on ice. She likes getting in free and being treated like the queen she is.

But mostly she likes spending time with her kids. We get one weekend to call our own, Mommas; make it count!

Keep reading for our best suggestions for a Mother of a weekend!

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Free Comic Books, Cinco de Mayo, YALLWEST, and Obama Boulevard!

Submitted by Toby B on Wed, 05/01/2019 - 10:35pm

Rancho Days Fiesta is a long-standing tradition at Heritage Hill Historical Park. Photo courtesy of OC Parks

We've got all the words this weekend. Santa Monica becomes the center of the YA universe with YALLWEST, a free festival populated by YA authors and the fans who read them.

If you like, we've got the pictures too! Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, which means there are funny books and superhero epics with your name on 'em. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, in which case reading a comic book counts as like, 100,000 books or something.

And if you're into numbers, ain't none better than cinco. Cinco de Mayo, that is. No one does Cinco like Los Angeles, with celebrations of Not Mexican Independence Day happening at the Citadel, in Venice, in San Clemente and Monterey Park, and of course Downtown, with the one on Olvera Street being a big draw. May the 5th be with you!

Keep reading for... just keep reading. Doesn't matter what you read! Word!...

School Start & End Dates: 2019-2020 Academic Year Calendars for LA County Schools

Submitted by Toby B on Fri, 04/26/2019 - 12:58am

NOTE: California public schools are performing distance learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Whether they will open again or resort to summer school is up in the air. Below is the 2019-2002 LAUSD school calendar. Or click if you are looking for the 2020-2021 LAUSD school calendars.

Summer vacation ain't what it used to be. The majority of SoCal school districts now opt for an August start date, with vanishingly few stragglers sticking with the old-school, post-Labor Day start. And beware assuming that school starts and finishes roughly when it did last year, because schedules seem to change all the time. 2020 is a leap year, and that extra day may impact the school calendar as well.

This year Alhambra is first out of the gate, leading the back-to-school race with a pool-party-pooper start date of August 9; but in a radical change of course, Torrance goes from last man standing to a late August start. Hermosa Beach is now the only district on our list with a September start date, with classes beginning on September 5.

Wondering where your district fits in, and how much time you have left for these 50 Free Things To Do in Summer? Bookmark our list below with start and finish dates for the 2019-2020 school year all over LA County. And if what you read makes you wonder about what other school options are available to you, maybe our school guide can help.

Toby B

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