My Strange Family

[kristrange]

Adventure Playground in Berkeley

Adventure Playground in Berkeley via @mystrangefam

Adventure Playground in Berkeley, this scrap junkyard turned playground can be found on the marina waterfront in Berkeley. The adventure playground model, sometimes referred to as a “junk playground,” is to provide children with the resources to build and create without restrictions. The available tools include saws, hammers, workbenches, and nails, but the kids must perform tasks to earn these…

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[kristrange]

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary “The Secret Garden” Gateway Theatre in San Francisco

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary “The Secret Garden” Gateway Theatre in San Francisco @42ndStMoon via @mystrangefam

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row. Photo by Ben Krantz Studios Almost a week later and my kids and I are still humming the tunes from 42nd Street Moon’s rendition of “The Secret Garden” playing at the Gateway Theatre in San Francisco, now till December 24th. Even though “The Secret Garden” is a classic…

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[kristrange]

LEGO, LEGOLAND, LEGO LIVE

LEGO, LEGOLAND, LEGO LIVE @Lego_Group #LEGOLIVENYC via @mystrangefam

Are your kids LEGO obsessed like my seven year old? Guess what 99% of his birthday presents were? LEGO’S, and he will happily build them all within the week and then ask for more. Even though LEGO has been around for 85 years, they are still just as popular today as they were when I was a kid, and when my parents were kids. Whenever we visit family in Southern California the kids request to go to…

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[kristrange]

Prescribing sunshine and compliment with yellow

Prescribing sunshine and compliment with yellow via @mystrangefam #colorfactoryco

Seeing this giant yellow room at the Color Factory in San Francisco, instantly transported me back to my childhood. I couldn’t wait to jump right in, and after a few minutes I was sweaty from chasing after the kids, and trying to save them from drowning in happiness. This massive ball pit is filled with over 200,000 yellow balls and is 3 and a half feet deep. I am happy to report that no kid was…

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[kristrange]

The Wonder Sound is sight to see

The Wonder Sound is sight to see via @mystrangefam

The Wonder Sound is a work of art by Wes Sam-Bruce, that you physically enter into and discover. Drawing influence from tree houses, empowered neighborhoods, canyons at night, and sacred plants. The Wonder Sound is sight to see children explore. After crawling through a labyrinth of dark rooms, and small nooks I went through one last curtain to find lilStrange making music, from thousands of…

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[kristrange]

Disney Wonder NEW Oceaneers Kid's Club and Lab

Disney Wonder NEW Oceaneers Kid's Club and Lab via @mystranfefam #DisneySMMC

In late 2016 Disney refurbished their Disney Wonder cruise ship, to update and add Tiana’s Place, a new restaurant, an AquaLab at the pool, Frozen at the Walt Disney Theater, additional bars and entertainment in the adult district, plus so much more. But, the number one thing my kids were most excited to experience on the updated Disney Wonder, was the NEW Oceaneers Kid’s Club and Lab, a massive…

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[kristrange]

Fletcher Cove Beach Park

Fletcher Cove Beach Park via @mystrangefam

Growing up in Southern California we used to go to the beach all of the time, but mostly on the weekends and for the whole day. So my beach memories are of very crowded beaches, getting sand kicked on all my stuff and always wanting to leave after a few hours. Now that we have the luxury to go to the beach midweek, and a few hours at a time, my appreciation has changed. This is the dream beach of…

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[kristrange]

Meet your favorite celebrity authors at Barnes & Noble

Meet your favorite celebrity authors at Barnes & Noble via @mystrangefam #BNAuthorEvent

We are currently in the process of moving across country, so I am in full on purge mode. If I haven’t used something in the past fours years its getting thrown in the trash or donated. However, one evening I came across a box full of physical books (that were never unpacked from our last move) and a box full of books is super heavy. Not the most practical things to cart from apartment to house,…

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[kristrange]

Fully stocked felt bodega by Lucy Sparrow

Fully stocked felt bodega by Lucy Sparrow @sewyoursoul via @mystrangefam

New York never ceases to amaze me, so when I heard there is a fully stocked felt bodega at The Standard, High Line, I knew we had to check out this colorful art installation. 8’till late, a fully stocked felt convenience store created by Lucy Sparrow, one of the UK’s most exciting and original artists. Her practice is quirky yet subversive, luring the audience in with her soft, tactile, colorful…

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[kristrange]

My budding photographer

My budding photographer via @mystrangefam

Before my son had his own camera, he would always hijack my phone. I got tired of deleting hundreds of blurry pictures of the floor and the top half of his face from my phone, so his own camera was a great way to solve this problem. He now has free-rage to take photos of whatever he would like, and continues to get better at his craft. I still find blurry photos and “selfies” (see last photo in…

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[kristrange]

Protect Like a Mother with Lysol

Protect Like a Mother with #Lysol #ad via @mystrangefam

Across the animal kingdom, there is something universal and primal about a mother’s instinct to protect. Different species demonstrate amazing feats to protect their young… including human mothers. I’m working with Lysol to celebrate a mother’s natural protective instinct, honoring that a mother’s first priority is always the safety of her children – weather she is a lion, tiger, bear or a…

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[kristrange]

Grug and the Rainbow

Grug and the Rainbow @NewVictory via @mystrangefam

Four years ago my son saw his first show at the New Victory Theater and it was Grug! So I was excited for lilStrange to get to see a show staring Grug for herself too. The experience was just as amazing for her, and now both of my kids are fans of Grug. Grug began his life as the top of Burrawang tree. Resembling a small, striped haystack with feet and a nose, he is fascinated by the world around…

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[kristrange]

Cough Relief with Vicks VapoRub

Cough Relief with Vicks VapoRub via @mystrangefam #vaporubrelief #ad

//ads.blogherads.com/bh/28/283/283931/campaigns/25/2544/2544731/x90.js Dry air, especially common in the winter, can irritate a cough. These winter coughs are the worst at night because they can be sleep-wreckers. The key is to soothe your ticklish throat before you go to bed or while you are sleeping. According to WebMd, most kids aged 3-6 years old (the age range of my kids) need on average…

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[kristrange]

Teletubbies take New York, celebrating 20 years of Big Hugs!

@TeletubbiesUSA take New York, celebrating 20 years of big hugs! via @mystrangefam #Teletubbies20 #ad

10 years ago, Mayor Bloomberg presented the Teletubbies with the keys to NYC. Now they are back, celebrating their 20th anniversary and the upcoming second season of the new Teletubbies, designed to appeal to today’s tech savvy toddlers. To mark the occasion, Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po went on a four stop tour around NYC, to many of the cities most iconic locations. Ironically enough the…

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[kristrange]

Easter events in NYC

Easter events in NYC via @mystrangefam

Soon enough Easter will be here, and below are a few fun and interactive happenings around NYC for Easter. Skating Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny takes a spin on the ice with children visiting Rock Center.  An Easter tradition at The Rink at Rockefeller Center, families can skate with the Easter Bunny beneath Midtown New York architecture and bronze gilded statue Prometheus.  The Easter Bunny…

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[kristrange]

The Way Back Home at The New Victory Theater

The Way Back Home @NewVictory via @mystrangefam

“The Way Back Home” is a completely wordless production, done with puppets in a black-box stage, at The New Victory Theater. Based on the picture book with the same title by Oliver Jeffers, the story glorifies a child’s imagination in play. In this childlike fantasy, a boy finds an airplane and takes it out for a ride—to the moon, where it runs out of fuel. Just as his flashlight grows dim, a…

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[kristrange]

Do you want to build a snowman?

Do you want to build a snowman? via @mystrangefam

Walking home from school my son decided to walk in the snow versus the nicely shoveled sidewalk. This snow is so disgusting and not soft at all, mostly big chunks of ice dusted in city soot. He is also sporting one glove because he has lost every other glove, and no way am I buying him anymore this late in the season. Walking home from school @growingupcultured decided to walk in the snow versus…

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