Bring your girls out in their fanciest Nancy clothes for some fun activities and fancy snacks. Hosted by the Learning Express stores in Plano and Frisco, you and your girls will have a great time! Pre-registration required, $10 per child. More details below in image.

EveryOne’s A Star Premier Night

Wed, August 20, 2008

5pm – 9pm

200 Fitness Court, Coppell, TX

Contact Phone: 972.471.2345

This fun-filled, family-oriented event is designed to show off the new programs and excitement happening at the place where we grow stars, because, “EveryOne’s a Star at Everybody Fits.”
The event, “EveryOne’s A Star Premier” will highlight new programs, bigger stars and more ways to find the star within each child. From Hip Hop to Tumbling, Acting to Singing, find your hidden star within our walls. Whether you want to be on stage or just learn to drive to see the stars at the movies, we have it all at EveryBody Fits.
EveryBody Fits will be shining with new programs, classes, and talent. Come for activities and performances by all programs, including Texas Dreams Gymnastics, NTA Taekwondo, the dance studio, Texas Theatre Academy, Play for Sport Fitness, and Kid Fit, our new fitness and conditioning program designed just for kids.

Meet the US Gymnastic National Team and 2008 US Olympic Training Team member Chelsea Davis.

Find out more about Cathryn Sullivan’s Acting for Film which has nurtured such stars as Cody Linley (Hoot), Demi Lovato (Camp Rock), and Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) – (all three just named as TV’s Next Teen Idols) – and Madison Pettis (Game Plan). Prospective and current students come from throughout the state and Dallas area.
There will be food, contests, prizes, karaoke, auditions, a photo booth and you might just see a couple of stars. The night will also kick off the Tyson Fitness Challenge, with proceeds benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network.

Before kids, it was easier for me to escape the heat. Park in the garage, drive to an air conditioned office, park in the garage, drive home to my air conditioning at the end of the day. Unfortunately, kids’ energy levels only seem to go up in the summer (no school! 14 hours of sunlight!). So what’s a parent to do?

Well, here are some ideas for making the most of this last month of summer vacation, without burning temperatures – or money.

For Free

You all are likely making as frequent trips to the soft play area at the mall (The Shops at Willow Bend, Stonebriar Centre, and Vista Ridge Mall all have good options) and the library as my family is. And, If you’re not taking advantage of these two obvious options – you should go! I don’t know if all libraries keep their air conditioning as refreshingly cool as Parr Public Library in Plano, but it is certainly a nice place to cool your heels. Your tax dollars are already paying for the AC there, so might as well use it. But if you feel, like me, that you’ve exhausted those options by this point in the summer, here are some other ideas:

Set up a sprinkler in your backyard. Where I grew up, no one had swimming pools, so we learned how to get creative with the garden hose (no, I’m not going to launch into how I had to walk to school uphill both ways barefoot in the snow – or scorching heat, I guess would be more appropriate). You don’t even have to buy a fancy Disney-character shaped sprinkler head that creates some elaborate design with the water. I’ve learned from experience that my 3-year old’s favorite way to get wet is for me to spray him with the hose. Or, turn on your lawn sprinklers and pile the kids in the wagon and pull them around in the yard. They’ll have a blast.

Play an indoor game with the family. We just discovered a new one that has been providing hours of entertainment – albeit more for me, my Mom, and my sister and nieces who’ve been visiting from out of town, though my 3-year old enjoys the resulting pictures. Inspired by the book by Jack Prelutsky, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant: And Other Poems, we’ve been creating what he calls “Scranimals”, which requires you to think of ways to combine an inanimate object (like an umbrella) with an animal whose first letters/sounds are the same as the last few letters of the inanimate object (like elephant to umbrella) to create a new creature – an Umbrellaphant. Once you create the description, try drawing the picture. It’s a hoot! We’ve been dreaming up things like “ottomanatee”, “brushrimp”, and “watchicken” and then laughing out loud at our resulting pictures – especially because none of us are great artists.

Organize your closet with the kids. What?!? If you do this with your kids it will take forever!!! Well, I’ve decided that while tasks like these take three times as long to do with the kids participating, I actually get them done faster because I don’t put off tackling them week after week until I can fit it into nap-time or those 2 hours in the evening while the kids are asleep and I’m still up. The kids and I actually filled two boxes yesterday from my closet that we’ll give to charity – well, one and a half, because the kids are still “playing” with some of the shoes and clothes that will go into the last box. Talk about great dress up fun! And, we had a great learning opportunity yesterday as well about giving to those in need. All done in the air conditioning. Score!

Do a craft with your kids. Crafting doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. While you may not be overwhelmed with the beauty of the macaroni necklace your daughter makes, remember how proud you were of the one you first made! There are a lot of great ideas out there, and here are two of my favorite sites. First, Family Fun (http://familyfun.go.com) has tons of ideas and the glitz/ease of use you would expect from their owner, Disney. Second, more “mom & pop” but very creative, The Idea Box (www.theideabox.com).

For $1 or less

Grab a cool drink at Sonic. I admit it, I’m a Sonic junkie. When I lived overseas, there were two things I continually craved – Kellogg’s Pop Tarts and Sonic Cherry Limeades. But while, Pop-Tarts can be mailed – and were – I had to suck it up until I got home for my drink fix. If you go between 2-4pm (their “happy hour”), you can get a large Cherry Limeade for $.96.

Add a popsicle to your backyard fun. My favorite continues to be the Schwan’s Orange Sherbet Push-Em pop, which is sold for $11.99 for a pack of 24 (50 cents each!). An “orange pop”, as we called them when I was growing up, really means summer to me. Rachel, if you’re reading this, thanks for introducing me to this summer staple way back when!

Catch a $1 Movie playing at one of these area theaters: Studio Movie Grill, AMC Movie Theaters, or Cinemark. This week in the surrounding area, you could pick from Ice Age 2, Shrek, RugRats in Paris, Veggie Tales: Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, and Surf’s Up. Click any of the sites above to find what’s playing close to you on which day.

For $5 or less

Create a sandbox play area for your kids. Combined with the garden hose idea for free, your kids can have a fun afternoon getting extremely gritty and then washing off with the hose. Play sand can be found at any hardware store (generally around $5 for 50 lbs or so) and even if you don’t have a sandbox, you can probably find a cardboard box in your garage (just don’t get it too wet with the hose, otherwise your box of sand will end up being a pile of sand in your yard).

Go to an indoor play area. If you are lucky enough to live near Going Bonkers in Lewisville, you can take your kids to blow off some steam without getting extremely steamy. Their prices are $2.50 for kids 2 and under, $5 for kids age 3-18, and $1 for adults. I had the privilege of spending time with their General Manager yesterday and found out they will be opening a new location in the Allen/McKinney area just off Highway 121 by the end of the year. Can’t wait!

For $10 or less

Go to an outdoor water play area. We are so fortunate to have great public facilities made available for reasonable prices through our Parks & Recs organizations. Those of you who’ve read my blog before know I’ve been extolling the virtues of the Tom Muehlenbeck Center in Plano. The word is starting to get out; I’ve been there about 5 times in the past 2 weeks and have seen it get busier. Even so, it’s great fun for adults and kids of all ages. I’ve also been hearing wonderful things about the Frisco Athletic Center aquatic area.

“I have seen the future – and it is Frisco!”

I thought, GREAT! Finally the North Dallas suburbs are getting some positive press from the hyper-critical Dallas denizens. Before getting excited, I should have paid more attention to the full caption, which was: “The Invisibles / I have seen the future – and it is Frisco.” To save you all the time of reading the full article, the author (quite wittily, by the way) argues that when they look for people to populate outer-space, they will come to Frisco, because these are the people who have no sense of place: “You will need a race of people who have been toughened up to life in Nowheresville. People whose idea of a meaningful landmark is Starbucks. People for whom an address is a code registered with Mail Boxes Etc. People from Frisco!”

There are many facts the author points out that I can’t argue with – yes, our neighborhoods tend to look a bit alike….yes, we have a lot of franchised retail places….yes, our physical environment can be a bit generic and mass-produced. There are even more Starbucks per capita in Frisco than in Seattle. (It’s true – I did the math.) Before I actually moved to Plano, I had sworn I would never move to Plano. OK, OK….so I was a bit hypocritical: I lived in Dallas – a place with no soul – and judged Plano as a place with no soul. Ha ha.

Then I had kids. Suddenly, convenience trumped trees.

So, Dallas Observer, while I agree with you that people in Frisco (and Plano, and Carrollton, and McKinney, and Allen, and Coppell, and Flower Mound, and Grapevine, and Southlake, and other Dallas suburbs) are just the sort you would want to count on to colonize new places due to our resilience and willpower, the problem is:

We Won’t Go, because you can’t beat what we’ve got here.

While our physical environment may not be the most naturally beautiful (although anyone who’s been to McKinney would disagree), we have the most amenities and conveniences around. Now that I’ve lived in Plano (your “suburban fringe, the nowhere of Dallas”) for three years, let me share with you just why I think the Dallas suburbs are the best things going.

1. Financially friendly.

The hard financial data agrees, you really can’t do better than those of us living in Texas. Our cost of living indexes at 92.7 to the national average (at 100), and while gas prices might be pinching our wallets, our economy is still healthier than most other parts of the country right now. Texas as a state was awarded 13 of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in Money Magazine’s 2008 List. 10 of those cities – all of them suburbs, by the way – were in the Dallas area: McKinney, Carrollton, Richardson, Allen, Denton, Euless, Lewisville, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie. That means the Dallas area alone has more Top 100 cities than any other STATE, since Minnesota and New Jersey were both behind Texas with 9 cities each on the list. My only complaint is that they should have included Plano on the list as well….surely an oversight since they included all the cities that border Plano – whoops, excluding Dallas.

2. The weather

OK, I am writing this on one of the hottest days of the year (102 degrees), yet still I put weather high on the list. Yes, it’s hot. That’s what pools are for. And, thankfully, they are plentiful up here in the ‘burbs, whether in your own backyard, a neighbor’s, in your community, or at any of the swank new parks & recs facilities we have, like the Tom Muehlenbeck Center in Plano. We average 232 days of sunshine a year! And winter? Well, that’s when you might have to pull out a jacket – but not very often.

3. Kid-friendly

The reason we moved to the ‘burbs in the first place – to have a family – turned out to be even more compelling than we had ever dreamed. We live in West Plano, and within 3 miles of my house, we have my children’s pediatrician, dentist, a hospital, 3 emergency clinics, their pre-school, Kiddin’ Around Playcare, the soft play area at Willow Bend Mall, The Little Gym, Young Chef’s Academy, numerous martial arts and dance studios, the Tom Muehlenbeck Center, Cool Cuts 4 Kids, and any shopping venue you could possibly want. When our kids get old enough, we’ll have their sports parks, exemplary public schools (or private, should we choose that route), and lots of bike -friendly streets to explore. And who wants to go see the Rangers when you’ve got the Frisco RoughRiders at Dr. Pepper Ballpark? And if that’s not enough to keep you busy, you can go to the FC Dallas soccer games at Pizza Hut Park.

4. The adult conveniences

When we moved north, we figured we’d have to give up the fun adult activities we’d enjoyed before kids. OK, those of you who know me….stop laughing. I have to ‘fess up, Jim and I are not the wild, outgoing types. (We did meet at the Inwood Lounge, but that was a total fluke.) But, if we were the night-life kinda people, we could find lots to do in the ‘burbs! The Shops at Legacy has some great bars (or so they seemed when we drove by and saw all the “pretty” people getting out of their cars), and restaurants abound. So do spas, nail salons and any number of places to get beautiful.

5. 20′ ceilings

We traded in the character of our Love Field-area redo, with its painted brick, shutters, wood floors, front porch, 50′ live oak tree, for …. a red brick box in Plano, that actually looks exactly like another red brick box down the street except my brick is a little maroon and theirs is a little pink. But – I have high ceilings, 3.5 baths, a master down, and a 3 car garage. My live oak is maybe 18′ high – but it will grow! And in the meantime, I can enjoy my high ceilings, big closets, and whirlpool tub.

6. Easy parking

Being a Mom means driving – a lot. So, I happen to really appreciate the big parking spaces that the new retail areas offer. Anyone who has tried to park a mini-van at Snider Plaza, Highland Park Village, or the Inwood Village knows that takes concentration beyond what most Moms can manage, especially when one kid is crying for a dropped sippy cup and another is kicking the back of your seat with his feet. Now I pull in with hardly a thought into the Costco, SuperTarget, or other parking lots. And Ikea even has family-designated parking! (Something more retailers should take note of, by the way.)

7. Easily accessible playdates and babysitters

We knew there would be a lot of kids in the ‘burbs (obviously), but had no idea how many. Maybe we got lucky, but on our street alone, we already know 3 other kids that will be in my older son’s grade in school. And another by-product of the public schools being so great is that we also have a lot of available babysitters, just in our neighborhood alone.

8. Historical downtowns are flourishing.

Anyone who has been to beautiful downtown McKinney knows it is a true gem of history and natural beauty, with restored buildings housing cute antique shops, boutiques, wineries, and restaurants. Downtown Grapevine is also a great place to explore, and Plano’s downtown is blossoming as well. Other downtown areas, like Old Town Lewisville and Carrollton have active groups working to preserve their historical landmarks. Even Frisco’s historical downtown area, which I will admit does not have as many historically significant buildings as some of the others, is in revitalization with passionate groups dedicated to preserving its charm.

9. Natural beauty is just a short drive away.

I am one of the lucky ones who can bike-ride to Arbor Hills Nature Preserve when I want some natural beauty. Other lucky ones in the Dallas suburbs might even be living within view of Grapevine Lake, Lake Lewisville, or Lake Ray Hubbard. While others of us may live in areas with more, how did the Observer phrase it?…”manufactured” beauty, many of these developments have landscaped their way to stunning – especially after the trees grow.

10. Friendships are waiting.

One of the wonderful things we’ve found about moving to the Dallas suburbs is that a lot of other neighbors are new to the area as well. We’ve made a lot of wonderful friends just in the two years we’ve been in Plano…only a handful of which have lived in the DFW area for more than a few years.

I’ve had friends who have moved to more established cities with less population growth that have had a hard time finding friends because friendships are already solidified, which sometimes makes it harder to become a part of the circle.

This picture is actually of my Bunco group – whom I LOVE! – and provides a testament to what great friendships can be developed in the ‘burbs.

So, Dallas Observer, I disagree that the suburbs are the “wasteland” you characterize them as. From my vantage point, they’re a great place to grow kids, friendships, and …. trees.

We’re blushing.

Our inexperience in the world of fall season sports was revealed when we chose the topic for last week: What’s the best way to set your kid up in fall sports? You seasoned “soccer Moms” out there must have thought – ha ha! You’re asking this question in JULY???? That’s a question to be asked in June – or May – or, by gosh, even April! Well, we have learned a LOT in a week about the ins and outs, and let’s just say this is a lot more complicated than when we were kids ourselves. Now we’re ready to share the best ideas back with our Mom community.

While the steps below are going to sound daunting even to the most social, organized, and outgoing of you, we do have some good news: the first time is the hardest. Once you find a sport, a league, and a team you are comfortable with, the sports organizations are great about keeping you up to speed on all the dates to remember, registration processes, etc. But the implication is clear: Make the first time count.

So, those of you who have kids turning 3 or 4 in the next year, pay attention. Or, if your kid (or you!) didn’t have fun in sports the last time you tried, maybe reconsider doing the following and trying again. Here’s your step by step approach to making the most of the season.

Step One: Decide which city league your child will participate in.

Some cities make it easy for you – e.g., Frisco will not allow any child that does not reside within its boundaries to play in its league. Others are open, like Plano, which for a small increase in fee allows any non-Plano ISD resident to sign up. You will most likely play in the league of the city where you live for convenience reasons, so check it first. Links to some of the most popular sites are below.

Step Two: Determine when your child can start playing.

Cities differ as to when they will allow children to begin playing. The earliest we saw in our exploration was Age 3 by Sept 1 (Plano, Flower Mound), but most leagues don’t start until Age 4 by July 31 (Frisco, Allen, McKinney, Grapevine/Southlake, Lewisville, Carrollton). And there are no exceptions made; all of the cities require a copy of a birth certificate when you sign up for the first time.

Step Three: Figure out what sport you want to play – whoops, we mean the one your child – wants to play.

Just like professional sports seasons have stretched to the point you can at different times of year find football, basketball, and hockey on TV on the same night, so have kids sports. Fall season sports no longer means soccer or football….it can mean t-ball/baseball, softball, volleyball, cheerleading, basketball, etc. This means you will likely need to decide between sports….unless your child has infinite energy and you have infinite time to shuttle him/her between sports practices, games, etc.

When choosing, keep in mind that the sport your child plays is going to be the sport you will be playing with your child for at least the next few months. This is why it makes a lot of sense to us (and other Moms that wrote in) to pick a sport you will enjoy playing with your child. Most cities make this easy early on and only offer certain options for younger kids, and some are more limited in their sports selections.

Step Four: Recruit your team.

Wait! What, you say?? Recruit your team? Isn’t the Sports Association supposed to do that for us? You may not like to hear this, ladies, but from we can tell, it’s true. Joining as a team (or at least as a partial team) with coach (see Step 5) is a key success factor for how well your child (and you) will enjoy the season. This is intuitive as well: by the time your child is old enough to sign up for a league, they have started actually playing with other kids (not just engaging in the toddler / early pre-school “parallel play”). If they are getting to see their friends during the week and on Saturday, they are more likely to want to play. And you already know the parents, so are more comfortable, too.

We had several comments from Moms that agree reinforced the importance of this:

“The first year my daughter played, we did the lottery. They said they would match us to other kids in our elementary school, but it didn’t end up that way for whatever reason. We sat out the next season and then the following year when she was in elementary school and we knew more people, we found a team that already existed and we joined with them. It was a lot more fun because she already knew the kids and we knew the parents.” (Monica)

“We did sign up with friends. I think you can put one or 2 people you would like to play with or a particular coach you would like to have.” (Susan)

Step Five: Recruit your coach.

Just as, if not more, important for your team experience is to have a coach that is aligned with your goals for the team. Hopefully, if you’ve created at least a partial team, you know some of the parents already and a coach will emerge from that pool to take on the responsibility. It’s probably a good idea to discuss goals first with your team-mates parents early on (e.g., how many practices a week? is it OK to miss practices? will everyone get to play?).

“The coach has a huge impact on the team experience. There is a lot of decisions left up to him (or her). Basically the schedule gets set early in the season by the sports association, but other than that, the coach picks practice days/times, who plays when, basically everything.” (Jennifer)

Step Six: Recruit a team mom.

Having a great team mom is really important. This is the person who will communicate about practices, game times, snack duty, etc. If you are organized and like to plan- or are married to the coach (according to one of our Moms) – this might be a job for you to take on.

“We had a team mom that was married to the coach of the team one year and it was the best. She knew everything that was going on and kept everyone up to speed via email. It really helped us plan around the practices and games.” (Elizabeth)

Step Seven: Sign Up Online.

Yet again, a great advantage of the internet: online sign ups which can make it easier on everyone.

“From my experience, it’s been a great advantage to find the forms online and have them filled out prior to showing up at registration (for T-ball, coach prep baseball and now soccer). Luckily, we play in the Aubrey Area Youth Sports Association and they are organized and online well in advance of each season. Each time, I’ve been in and out – no hassle!” (Ginny)

There you have it, ladies. The mysteries of fall season sports, solved for you by Moms Out Loud. Below are links to the major area sports associations, with the registration deadline for their fall Soccer sign ups (please check their web-sites for other sports). Have a great time!

Plano: Online registration began on June 11th and ends on August 15th.

Frisco: Online registration closed on June 19th. In person registration closes on July 25th. The waiting list opens on July 26th.

McKinney: Registration is currently closed, but the waiting list is open.

Allen: Online registration began on May 2nd and closes on July 30th.

Coppell: Mail-in registration is closed. Online and in person registration ends on August 5th.

Grapevine/Southlake: Registration closed on July 19th. Waiting list registration opened on July 20th.

Lewisville: U5-U10 late registration fee of $50 is applied after July 1st and after July 15th for U11-U19.

Carrollton: Registration closed on July 15th. Late online registration is available.