The Lily Pad

The Bailey Baio Angel Foundation® Stride Rite® and BopStarBaby
invite you to the very first…

“Celebrity Baby Yard Sale”

Saturday, May 30th from 8:00AM – 4:00PM
in the Garden at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel
12825 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City, California
Phone 800.821.8511/818.769.4700

There will be lots of wonderful new and almost-new children’s products – including clothing, accessories, toys, and home décor – all at excellent prices! Proceeds will go toward sustaining children and families affected by life-threatening metabolic disorders (including GA1 and other organic acidemia)! Click here for more information.

Have some time off this Memorial Day? Here are a few fun & inspiring springtime posts for you from around the blogosphere:

• Wonder @ Mommin’ It Up
• Icy Fresh “Squeezed” OJ @ Flipflops & Applesauce

• Simple Bandana Dress Tutorial @ Joy’s Hope

• Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes @ Joy the Baker

• Spring Cleaning: Tips & Techniques @ Simple Mom

• It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful: The eBook @ The Nesting Place

• Sun Safety~ Is Your Sunscreen Putting You In Danger? @ Gidget Goes Home

Happy reading as we’re about to spring into summer!

Do you ever feel inundated with plastic toys?  I know I do.  Sometimes it’s hard to find for our kids the simple, more environmentally-friendly type of toys that we had growing up.  Try finding a metal toy pot/pan set or simple wooden blocks and you’ll see what I mean.  Non-toxic (and by that I primarily mean non-plastic) toys exist, but they are often hard-to-find and/or hard-to-afford.  Thankfully, we have the internet to help us find these sort of items.

But it can also be hard to know how to teach our children how to live a greener life.  By far, the best way to do this is by modeling a sustainable lifestyle for them, but sometimes it helps to be more specific and practical with kids, too.

Here are a few ideas for going green with your kids without breaking the bank:

1. Get Crafty. Babies and toddlers will love to play with a few balls of yarn or some fabric that you might have lying around. When they’re a little older, you can even teach them to knit, like Amanda Soule does in her book, The Creative Family .

2. Think Simply. Sometimes the best toys come from things lying around the house.  We all know how much fun a cardboard box can be for a little one. I once made a shaker toy out of a toilet paper roll and some beans, and covered it with duct tape – my daughter loved it!

3. Go Outside! Living in San Diego county provides the benefit of great weather.  Go outside with your kids to play in the yard, at the park, or at the beach. Instead of the cheap plastic toys (which will probably break or may get chewed up by a curious pet), round up a few items from your kitchen (think empty cottage cheese or yogurt containers) or garage that could be used for sand toys.  You could even go on a nature walk and inspect the plants you find.

4. Plant a Garden. There’s no better way to teach your kids about living a more sustainable life then by showing them how to grow their own food. You can even start small with a few pots and some herbs.  I recently planted a few seeds and let my toddler help me scoop the organic potting soil into an egg-crate in which I planted the seeds.  I want to start teaching her even at a young age how growing our own food saves fossil fuels that are normally used up to bring food to our grocery stores.

If you have more kid-friendly green ideas, please share them in the comments!

From New York to London, Patricia Ann Designs' products are are a hit with celebrity kids!

For all of you that have been wanting to know more about who's behind Patricia Ann Designs, here is a post from none other than Shelley Bostrom, co-owner and founder of PAD! Kelley, our graphic designer and one of our blog contributors, posed this question to Shelley…