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During these uncertain times, it’s important to find creative and safe fun for your family. However, after so many months of pandemic conditions, it’s easy to run out of ideas. Our family found one more source of fun by creating a cozy outdoor Hollywood experience in the comfort of our backyard.
Here is a safe way to host your own backyard movie night and turn any outdoor space, no matter what size, into a home theater. Cover all your bases with the following products and suggestions. Your kids will enjoy it so much, you might even be able to sneak in a documentary!
Assemble the equipment
The most important technical element for your outdoor theater is the projector, on which you can spend anywhere from $69 to $1,600.
A projector is a more effective outdoor viewing device than your TV, since your television is likely too small. It also needs to be plugged into a wall outlet and can be difficult to move outside and keep stable in an outdoor setting. Make sure you choose a projector of the proper size. You want one small enough that you’ll be able to move it outside.
Other important considerations when choosing your projector include its resolution, brightness and speakers. Many projectors take a high-resolution image and compress it into a lower quality one. If you want true HD content, you should choose a higher-end projector. Another factor in picture quality is brightness. The brighter your projector, the brighter and clearer the image that will appear on your screen. Keep in mind that the farther away the projector is from the wall, the larger the image will appear on screen.
Another important basic element is the media player, with prices ranging from $24.99- $1,099. If your Wi-Fi signal reaches your backyard, you can use a media player the size of a thumb drive that will just plug directly into your projector. If your Wi-Fi signal can’t reach your yard, you can try downloading movies and playing them directly from your laptop. You will likely need an HDMI adapter to connect the laptop to the projector. You can also play your movies on a DVD or Blu-ray player. You’ll just need to buy the proper cables to connect your media player to the projector.
The next technical element is your screen. At the low end cost of the spectrum, hanging a bright white sheet (costing as little as $11) is pretty much the easiest and most affordable solution. Just tie a wire or sturdy rope between two poles, trees or other structural supports, and use two clips to hang the sheet. Finish off by securing the sheet to the ground with some weighted objects to avoid it blowing in the wind and—viola!
At the more expensive end of the spectrum, purchasing an actual screen with a sturdy frame and ground stakes will give you the clearest image out of whatever projector you choose. These can cost as much as $600. You can also get a large blowup screen, but you are going to have to do some blowup work before each movie.
The final basic elements include speakers and extension power cords. Many projectors have speakers built in, but they won’t provide the best or loudest sound quality. For the noise to really travel, you’ll want to use the projector’s analog output and either a 3.5-mm-to-3.5-mm stereo cable or a 3.5-mm-to-RCA cable to connect a soundbar or a Bluetooth speaker, which can cost from around $40 to $1,750. You will also likely need an extension cord for your outdoor theater unless you luck out and you have an outlet close to where your projector will go. Cords and cables can cost $12-$65.
When shopping for our home theater equipment, we set price alerts for what we needed on www.price.com. We splurged on picture and sound and wound up using a white sheet to start our endeavor.
Add atmosphere
Setting up some good lighting will help create a welcoming ambiance for your outdoor theater. Use string lights, lanterns and flameless LED candles to add atmosphere. These are ideal since you want your lighting to be dim enough that you can keep the screen in clear view.
You can also provide glowsticks to amp up the fun factor for your kids. Consider setting up walkway lights or supplying flashlights to help keep everyone from stepping on any of the equipment.
Amp up the lounge factor
Give yourself and the kids something to lounge around on for the evening. Folding chairs and camping chairs work well if you’re arranging the seating on a hard surface. If you’ve got plastic chairs, consider draping them with something like plush towels. You could also set out blankets, pillows and beanbags on the grass. Whatever you’ve got for seating, you just want it to be a comfortable environment since you’ll be seated for a couple of hours.
Consider comfort
To really elevate everyone’s comfort level, simply add a basket of blankets, because warm blankets will go a million miles. This is a great way to make your outdoor theater feel special. We splurge on UGG blankets. Just give everyone their own blanket, and I promise you’ll hear no complaints. If necessary, provide citronella candles and bug repellant to keep insect visitors at bay.
Have fun with food
A makeshift concession stand is the cherry on top of your theater under the stars. Serve all the traditional refreshments to make it feel like a real movie theater: individual bags of popcorn, candy and sodas. Add a fun little place to put them, such as an old wheelbarrow, just to make the food stand out.
And there you have it. With a little investment of cash and creativity, your family is ready for lights, camera, action!
Margot Black is a storyteller with more than 15 years of experience, an L.A.-based traveler, wife and mom.
by Christina Elston
Want to make cooking with your family easier and more fun? Set yourself up like a restaurant kitchen, says Peter Tulaney, L.A. dad of two and head chef and founder of The WEHO Sausage Co.
Tulaney, who spent 10 years as a child psychologist, started making sausage at home after receiving a Kitchen Aid standing mixer (with sausage attachments) as a gift. He shared his creations with friends and began getting requests to cater parties and other events, creating a side business that stole his heart.
After almost two years, he made the change. “The difference between my daily routine as a clinician and having a party with someone was too much to ignore,” says Tulaney. “So, I decided that I would take a couple years to become a better food person and start to break down my practice.” And that’s just what he did. Tulaney left psychology, leased space in a commercial kitchen in Downtown L.A. and launched WEHO as a full-time catering business.
The company grew, catering events and corporate lunches before the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to business as usual. WEHO went from 15-20 weekly catering deliveries to zero.
Fortunately, Tulaney had other irons in the fire. He had been in talks with Citizen Public Market, the Culver City food hall that opened its doors in November. While the sausage is still processed in the Downtown kitchen, the food served at the market is all made on site. They are open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday for takeout. The menu includes sandwiches with hamburger, sausage (pork, chicken and lamb) and veggie patties, fries, salads and charcuterie. There are also dishes for weekend brunch.
With a day’s notice, you can also order packs of uncooked, frozen sausage patties (which Tulaney points out can be broken up and used loose) for pickup at Citizen Public Market or the WEHO facility Downtown. It’s exactly what you’d use in this recipe, which Tulaney says harkens back to his childhood. “I’m from Bay Ridge Brooklyn, and my mom cooked every single meal that I ate growing up,” he says. “This is just the style of food we ate.” Everyone loves pasta and the dish is inexpensive and quick to make. “The whole thing, start to finish, takes place in less than 20 minutes and that includes boiling water,” says Tulaney.
As a chef, former child psychologist and father to daughters ages 5 and 7, Tulaney says cooking with kids can be fun for all if it’s well organized. “The way a commercial kitchen operates is not hard to reproduce if you’re doing it with your family,” he says, explaining that restaurant kitchens have an executive chef, some support chefs and some prep chefs. “Those jobs are broken down into levels of responsibility and technique and understanding, and you can do the exact same things with your kids if you choose age-appropriate tasks for them to do. My little one can crack eggs, and my older one is able to use a measuring cup.”
He has written this recipe to take advantage of this division of labor.
It’s also pretty flexible. “If you don’t like broccolini or broccoli rabe, you can use florets or you can use cauliflower or you could use cherry tomatoes or you could use red onion,” Tulaney says. Just put a pot of water on the stove and follow the rest of the instructions while it comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, and you’ll have dinner within half an hour.
Serves 4
4 cups dried penne pasta
Sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces loose Italian pork sausage (preferably from WEHO Sausage Co.)
1 bunch broccolini, washed and trimmed
4 cloves garlic
1 lemon, cut in half
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving
Adults: Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large stock pot and add a handy pinch of salt. Start this first – the trick is to finish everything else while the water is coming to a boil.
Kids: Measure out 4 cups of dry penne pasta and put it off to the side, so it is ready when the water is boiling.
Adults: Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan (the largest one you have, as it will have to hold everything). Add the ground sausage. With a wooden spoon, break up sausage into small pieces and stir until nice and brown, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Kids: Break open a head of garlic and chose the 4 biggest cloves. The bold may even attempt to peel the garlic, discarding any skins.
Adults: When the sausage is brown, transfer it to a bowl, keeping as much of the oil (and flavor from the sausage) as possible in the pan. We will not be adding any more.
Kids: With adult supervision, add the garlic cloves to the oil in the pan. (If you like garlic a lot, an adult can chop the garlic first.) Move the garlic around with the wooden spoon until some color forms on the garlic, then drop in all of the broccolini. Add a tiny pinch of salt (since the oil is already flavored with the sausage). Carefully squeeze every last drop of juice from the lemon right on top of the broccolini and cover the pan.
Adults and kids: By this time the water should be boiling. Add the dried pasta to the water. Stir the broccolini a bit.
Adults: Add the browned sausage back into the sauté pan. Strain the pasta, reserving very little water in the pasta pot. Add the strained pasta directly into the sauté pan and stir.
Serve with the Parmesan cheese.
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One of our favorite childhood memories is looking through toy catalogs and circling the ones we loved and hoped would arrive wrapped with a big bow. Flipping through the pages and dreaming about each item was a big part of the whole holiday experience – the anticipation of something wonderful. We want to give you that feeling again with our Jingle Holiday Gift Guide. We have been busy all year testing and evaluating to bring you this wonderful collection featuring more than 250 award-winning toys, games, books, family music and other unique finds. NAPPA Awards has been celebrating the best in family products for 30 years. This year’s selection includes products with positive messages of kindness, inclusion and community – products that celebrate diversity and uniqueness. This year, watching those smiles on our kids’ faces when they rip open their holiday gifts will be even more special. Happy Gifting!
Here’s what you’ll find inside:
by Christina Elston
Samantha Barnes used to teach cooking classes to kids all over L.A., offering after-school enrichment programs, summer camps and weekend parties through her company Kitchen Kid. Years before the coronavirus pandemic, she decided to bring her lessons into home kitchens instead. “Really, the most important place to learn to cook is your home, and it’s a really powerful activity for families to do together,” Barnes says. Seven years ago, she created Raddish Kids, a cooking club that ships monthly kits and recipes to families across the country.
Barnes is a former middle-school teacher with a 10½-year-old daughter (a vegetarian and baking enthusiast) and an 8½-year-old son (lover of sloppy Joes and banana bread), so she’s got some great tips for bringing kids into the kitchen. Her first is not to try to hurry your cooking projects. “Make sure you have enough time,” she says. “Cooking takes time, and when you’re baking it takes even longer.”
Another great tip is to let kids practice essential skills before you tackle a recipe. “It took me years before I’d let my kids measure into muffin cups, because half the batter would be in between the cups,” admits Barnes, whose kids help her test Raddish recipes. She suggests filling a liquid measuring cup with water and letting your kids get a feel for pouring with that before you tackle this cupcake recipe. “Once you get that skill, you can do cupcakes and muffins and all sorts of things,” she says. You can also let your kids put on oven mitts and practice moving pans in and out of a cold oven to give them confidence.
To keep kitchen mess to a minimum, put a sheet of wax paper over your counter before the kids measure ingredients. Wrap up with a big sink full of soapy water and let your kids scrub the dishes.
For families that might be missing some of their usual holiday traditions this season, Barnes recommends creating a new food tradition. “Food is so inextricably linked with memory, that’s a great way for kids to develop their own personal food story for when they are older and have their own family,” she says. Barnes will be enjoying the usual Christmas Eve raclette (similar to a fondue), Christmas Day posole and New Year’s Eve “fancy food” hors d’oeuvres with her family. Maybe your kids would like baking these adorable cupcakes. “When they are put together,” she says, “it really does look like a cute little mug of hot cocoa.”
Hot Cocoa Cupcakes from Raddish Kids
For the cupcakes
¾ cup flour
½ cup cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup sugar
¼ cup canola oil
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping
¾ cup butter, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7-ounce jar marshmallow fluff
2 tablespoons milk
12 mini candy canes
¾ cup mini marshmallows
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Crack the egg into a large bowl. Throw away the shells and wash your hands.
Add the sugar, oil, milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the egg. Whisk until combined.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Whisk until smooth.
Transfer the batter to a liquid measuring cup and fill the muffin cups evenly with batter.
Bake the cupcakes for 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make marshmallow frosting. With an electric hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until creamy.
Add the full jar of marshmallow fluff and 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat the frosting until it is smooth.
Use a butter knife to spread frosting on top of each cupcake.
Top the frosted cupcakes with mini marshmallows.
Set one candy cane on the side of each cupcake to create a “handle.” Taste and share!
by NAPPA Awards Team
We have great new NAPPA Award winners to share with you – something for every interest.
Get ready for an adventure with the Let’s Roam App, great for curious kids and families. Explore like never before as you take on riddles, trivia, and photo challenges. The in-home educational scavenger hunts come in seven selectable-themes that transform your home into a world of creativity. Outdoor scavenger hunt tours allow families to discover any city, learning its history, and seeing remarkable sites. Every hunt comes with downloadable photos and built-in memory-making technology. $12.99, ages 3+.
TutorMe is an online tutoring platform for individual learners that provides 24/7 live, on-demand support in 300+ subjects with qualified tutors. Using their personalized approach, TutorMe helps students regardless of ability, resource, skill level or age not only improve academically but also gain support so they never feel lost. Prices vary, ages K-higher education.
Duolingo ABC is a free app that teaches children how to read. Developed by learning experts, the app includes over 300 fun, bite-sized lessons building on prior lessons and guides children on a step-by-step path to reading. Duolingo ABC is aligned with Common Core standards and is based on recommendations by the National Reading Panel. Ages 3-6.
Get up and dance with Growing Up Great, an eleven song musical CD for children created during the pandemic. The songs are energetic and filled with sweet reminders about being kind. $9.99, ages 2-6.
“To Awaken the Sun” is an album of classical music recorded to take music into public schools, with CD sales benefiting the Oklahoma Foster Youth. An acclaimed cellist, Remy-Schumacher has created this album that is predominately instrumental – beautiful for all ages. $15.
The Seaper Powers Connecting to Animals album is all about our connection to animals, making friends, and how important it is to accept people for their differences. Sing along to Tropical House sounds, Reggae Beats, Calypso Rhythms, Jazzy notes and colorful vocals. $8.99, ages 4-17.
In KidZ expands children’s knowledge of different countries and customs through fun memorable experiences. Chocked full of activities and games, kids will be able to share details about a country without having to get on a plane or get out their passport. Both the America box and Diwali box include interactive learning items, like language flashcards, puzzles, books, games, flags and more. 50/monthly or $49/per box, ages 2-11.
Loop Lab STEM Subscriptions are created by the folks at Mad Science to bring science enrichment home. Each box has a different theme and step-by-step instructions. $32.99/per box, ages 8-12.
MindLabs Energy and Circuits is a magical STEM learning tool for children that combines a digital app, physical cards and augmented reality in a fun and exciting approach to learning core science concepts. $24.95, ages 8-11.
Bring a miniature ecosystem home with Froggy’s Lair BioShere. Each one-gallon tank comes with bioactive sand, colored gravel, a piece of living bamboo and 2 African Dwarf Frogs. All you have to do is change water every three months and feed these swimming, hopping frogs two times per week. $69.95, ages 5+.
Orbital Velocity is a space-themed numerical strategy board game where players are rocket scientists. Game focuses on math, physics, and AI, introducing kids to the concept of decreasing orbital velocity (explained in the rulebook) and gross vs fine acceleration. $19.99, ages 10+.
For more product reviews, visit nappaawards.com
by NAPPA Awards Team
Having a baby is a magical, special time. But it’s also a time of sleepless nights, endless laundry and new responsibilities. It’s amazing how everything changes – our emotions, our relationships and all the stuff we now need. We know this process well. For 30 years, we have been testing and evaluating family products to bring you the very best. We are thrilled to share this year’s Bundle: Baby, Toddler and New Mom Gift Guide.
The guide is filled with more than 100 gift ideas. Take a look inside where you’ll find perfect gifts for moms — everything from cozy robes to pregnancy earbuds. You’ll also find unique and plush gifts, items for your home and car, plus baby essentials like monitors, bottles, strollers, skin care products, high chairs and more. And of course – toys! Lots of fun and colorful items to engage babies and toddlers’ natural sense of curiosity and exploration.
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While back-to-school will definitely be different this year, it’s important to make it as exciting and normal as we can for our kids, whether they are heading back to a physical campus, distance learning, pods or a hybrid of some kind. These recent NAPPA Award winners provide a great way to get the school spirit going.
Provide an uplifting daily message for your kiddos with these adorable Washaway Lunch Box Notes that will completely disappear each night! These personalized peel-and-stick labels will adhere to the outside of your kid’s lunch container every morning so you can write them a daily message. Once you’re done with it, the label will disintegrate quickly in water, whether you wash the lunch box by hand or in the dishwasher – no soaking or scrubbing required. Available in 8 adorable designs. $17.
Don’t pay a fortune on store-bought crustless sandwiches. Instead use your creativity and healthy ingredients to create fun snacks and meals. BWICHED Sandwich Cutter and Sealer by Savoychef is changing the way we eat a sandwich by creating a tool to make it more enjoyable. $17.99.
Get organized with Classroom Lineup Floor Decals and Classroom Name Tags from Mabel Label’s. The durable, non-slip floor stickers are a fun and useful addition to any classroom, whether you need to guide students where they should line up or where to sit. The strong material will adhere to most floors, including low pile carpet. Classroom Floor Decals are easy to apply, wipeable and removable when you’re finished with them. Available in 8 design choices and a wide variety of color options. $18.
The class name labels can be customized with up to 30 kids’ names so that teachers or parents can label individual items around the classroom or study area like kids’ cubbies, shelves, bins and more. The labels are super-durable and waterproof but are also removable at the end of the school year. Classroom Name Tags are a great tool for keeping students’ items organized and separated this school year and they help curb the spread of germs in the classroom Available in a wide array of color choices. $18.
The Easy Up Reusable Multi-Purpose Utility Hooks are super handy anywhere — at home or in the classroom. Infinitely versatile and made out of high-quality plastic, free from phthalates and BPA. Because of the arch shape and the gripping pins these hooks can be squeezed and released in any corner between wall and ceiling and easily removed without leaving noticeable marks, allowing for hassle-free hanging. $15.95
This Pink Unicorn Backpack by JOJOOKIDS is bright and fun and features 3 easy-access compartments, 2 side elastic pockets for water bottles and adjustable padded shoulder straps. Great for kindergarten or elementary school. $35.
The Obersee Preschool Sparkle Backpack collection has a simple yet stylish design, perfect for kids who love glitter and glam. Features zippered insulated front pocket to keep lunch and snacks cool and a side pocket to hold a water bottle or thermos. Comes in 8 vibrant colors and make a grate tote for gymnasts, ballerinas, soccer players, and cheerleaders. The small, compact size is easy to carry for younger kids. $34.99.
For more product reviews visit nappaawards.com
by Christina Elston
It’s probably been a while since you actually sent your kids off (as in out of the house) to school. All signs indicate that it could be a while longer until you do, but any school day, even a day of distance learning, should start with the right breakfast fuel.
In 2015, Catherine McCord realized that wasn’t happening at her house. That’s a surprise, since she is the mom behind Weelicious, a website devoted to simple and healthy recipes for the whole family. Her son, the oldest of her three kids, was experiencing unexplained headaches, nausea and fatigue. McCord eventually identified breakfast as the culprit. The family was eating a super-healthy diet the rest of the day, but in the morning, she was letting the kids have the pancakes, waffles and toast they requested.
She realized that these foods weren’t giving her son what he needed to start his day. Smoothies became the family’s new breakfast, her son’s health problems disappeared and McCord wrote “The Smoothie Project,” a cookbook with almost 100 smoothie recipes to fuel healthy eating.
“The idea is that all the smoothies have fruit and vegetable and protein, and that they’re keeping you full and energized,” says McCord. “Having a smoothie a day means you’re replacing a meal that might not be as good for you.”
To get your family in the smoothie-a-day habit, McCord’s book proposes a 28-day plan: Have a smoothie for one meal a day for 28 days and you’ll notice a difference in your body, she says. “Then you have two paths. You can have mac and cheese or chocolate ice cream later in the day and feel less guilty because you know you had a good meal already, or you can feel so good that you want to keep the feeling going, and you’ll make better choices,” says McCord.
The book has smoothies to suit every flavor preference, including coffee- and chocolate-based smoothies, tropical, berry heavy and seasonal options. There are also chapters to help simplify smoothie making, a bit about blenders, nutritional information and a thorough guide to the types of “super boost” ingredients you’ll find in the supplement aisle at Gelson’s. “There’s something for everyone, depending on your flavor preference and what you’re trying to get done in your body,” says McCord.
Through the online community McCord built using #smoothieproject, she has heard how smoothies have helped parents with picky eaters, parents trying to minimize their kids’ processed-food intake, people trying to lose weight and even senior citizens. One Potato, McCord’s family meal-subscription service, recently added smoothie kits to its menu of options.
Want a taste of what it’s all about? All you need is a blender (a high-powered one, if possible, and McCord suggests borrowing a friend’s rather than buying one if you’re just getting started).
A great gateway is this Blueberry Cherry Lemon smoothie, which McCord says is an “antioxidant bomb” with tons of nutrition and flavor.
Serves one
¾ cup (111 grams) frozen blueberries
¼ cup (38 grams) frozen cherries, pitted
¼ lemon (with peel and pith), seeds removed
2 tablespoons coconut yogurt
1⁄8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon hemp seeds
1 tablespoon honey or blue agave
¾ cup (180 milliliters) almond milk or milk of choice
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!
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