Meghan Rose

A mom of twins, Meghan and her family live in Los Angeles and love to explore the city, as well as the world at large together. As national editor, please send her ALL your correction requests and pitches on national parenting subjects and travel at meghan@mommypoppins.com.

Latest posts by Meghan

Halloween Tickets on Sale Now in Los Angeles: Hurry, Some are Selling Out Already!

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 10:49am

Head to Haunt O'Ween for a wild walk through pumpkin land. Photo courtesy of the event, via Facebook

Honestly, the kids just started school, and I haven't made our plans yet (note to self: do that today) for a quick getaway or day trip for Labor Day weekend. I am not ready for Halloween! But, with pumpkin spice lattes at coffee shops, Pumpkin Spice Oreos in the stores, and my kids already planning Halloween costumes, I think it's time to start planning. Especially since Disneyland has already announced that Oogie Boogie is fully sold out for 2022... So, I took a look at which beloved Los Angeles Halloween events and attractions are already on sale—almost all of them—so we can all snag some tickets before everything sells out.

From fun for the whole family at Haunt O' Ween to the big kid scares at Haunted Hayride, here are the best Halloween events you just might want to get tickets for today. Keep tabs on all the Halloween fun as it is announced in our Los Angeles Halloween Fun and Activities Guide.

Resort Passes and Daily Pool Rentals Near You: Family Resort Daycations for Everyone

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Thu, 08/18/2022 - 12:12pm

Rent a gorgeous backyard pool like this for your family for an hour or a day. Photo courtesy of Swimply

Swimply and Resort Pass solve the problem for those of us who dream of having a private backyard pool or membership to a swanky private pool but don’t have unlimited funds with resort passes and daily pool rentals.

Pools by the hour? Yes, please. This summer has been blisteringly, blazingly hot. It’s also been a year when many public pools have been shut down due to a lack of lifeguards or filled to capacity early in the day. Private swim club memberships either cost big bucks or sold out of memberships well before summer started. That’s where Swimply and Resort Pass come in. Swimply is a new(ish) app that allows anyone to rent out private pools by the hour. It’s basically the Airbnb of private pools. And Resort Pass is a program that allows you to purchase day passes to private hotel pools, without having to rent a room.

Genius. Read on for how to book your own pool day online, in an instant. If you're looking for a bigger getaway, like at one of the best family resorts with water parks check out our Guide to Family-Friendly Resorts and Hotels.

35 Things To Do in Los Angeles Before School Starts: Ack! School Is Starting

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Fri, 08/05/2022 - 10:11am

Kidspace Campout brings a camping adventure to the city. Photo courtesy of the Museum

Quick: It’s time to shoehorn all these last favorite things to do in Los Angeles before school starts up!

Is it me, or did this summer go by extra fast? I feel like we didn’t get to do half of our usual summer traditions, and now school is about to start. Hopefully, you at least got in a few day trips, visited a few beach towns, and got to go swimming in a lake or two. But perhaps you haven’t made it on as many outings this summer? There are some really cool museum exhibits (like Emotions at Play with Pixar’s Inside Out at the Discovery Cube) and shows for kids (The Actor’s Gang Shakespeare in the park is back in Culver City!) that truly should not be missed—and they won’t be here when the next school vacation rolls around. And they’re easy to squeeze in between your Target run for notebooks, last-minute doctor’s appointments, and one more run for ice cream…

Check out more end-of-summer fun in our Summer Activities Guide for Los Angeles Kids. And if school is starting soon for your family, our Back-to-School Guide has pretty much everything you need.

Ultimate Road Trip Planner: How to Have the Perfect Family Road Trip

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Thu, 08/04/2022 - 9:23am

Involve kids in planning and packing, and don't forget to bring things like balls and bikes for physical activity breaks!

Road trips are seared into American culture as a family rite of passage, but planning and taking road trips has sure changed since I was a kid. I remember sticking my head out the hand-crank window to keep cool—no AC in our car!, playing road trip games like counting license plates, eating road trip snacks like granola bars, and pulling over so my parents could plot routes on their folding maps. Now family road trips means multiple devices for in-car entertainment, snackle boxes, and tricked-out Airbnbs.

From fun road trip games to tasty road trip snacks to podcasts the whole family will love, we’ve got everything you need to plan the perfect family road trip right here. And if you don’t know where to go, that’s not a problem! Wherever your starting point, we’ve got some fabulous ideas, complete with exactly where to stop and what to see along the way.

Los Angeles Day Camps Still Available for Summer 2022

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 11:32am

Hands-on fun with friends. Photo courtesy of RAZ Summer Camp with Art for Kids

Just because summer is already underway doesn't mean you've missed the summer camp bus. The day camps and weekly camps below not only have space available, but you can book them with an easy click right from our Los Angeles Events and Activities Calendar's Camps & Classes section. Find in-person summer camps, drop-in classes, and online summer programs, too. Signing up for camp couldn't be easier!

For more summer camp ideas, including everything from dance summer camps to art summer camps, check out our Los Angeles Summer Camp Guide and Summer Camp Directory.

Mommy Poppins Launches in Miami and the San Francisco Bay Area

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Sun, 07/10/2022 - 1:36pm

Things like having a children's museum with a view like this make it easy to leave your heart in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the Bay Area Discovery Museum

Did you start to go a little stir crazy in your city during the past few years? Everyone here at Mommy Poppins felt a bit housebound, and got excited talking about the places we couldn't wait to visit with our kids. A couple of places kept coming up, one on each coast. These are cities we've played in, dreamed about, and maybe even left our hearts in, just a little bit. So, we got to work and now we can announce that Mommy Poppins San Francisco Bay Area and Miami are here!

Our two new sites join our growing family of cities that includes NYC, Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester, Connecticut, DC, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Orlando, and Atlanta. Also expanding: the cool things you can do on our site. We recently redesigned our search pages with a cleaner, easier-to-use design and new functionality. You can now find camps and classes on your local calendar of events and even buy tickets directly from our website — if an event has a red "Book It" tag, you can purchase tickets immediately, with no added fees.

In short, we've been busy...

What’s New: Best Openings and Attractions for Kids and Families Spring 2022

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Thu, 05/26/2022 - 12:30pm

Rise NY is a breathtaking simulated aerial tour of NYC. Photo courtesy of Rise NY

Discover the best openings and attractions for kids this spring: these are perfect ideas for family summer travel!

Is the world getting back to normal? Is there a normal anymore? These questions are frankly too much to contemplate as school wraps up and parents are desperately trying to finalize non-refundable summer camp and family travel plans. But one thing we can say for sure is that big things are opening again, and there's probably something new and exciting wherever you happen to live or plan to travel to this summer. From a new amusement park for tots in San Diego to a new way to go skating at Rockefeller Center in NYC, here are the highlights of the best things that have opened recently for kids and families.

If you are planning a family trip this summer, we've got plenty of reviews, resources, and ideas in our Family Travel Guide. And if you're staying home, we rounded up a cool 100 fun activities on our Ultimate Summer Bucket List.

Cherry Picking near Los Angeles with Kids: Favorite Family Farms in the Leona Valley

Submitted by Meghan Rose on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 10:34am

Picking your own makes them taste extra sweet. Photo courtesy of Villa del Sol

Of course you can go cherry picking near Los Angeles—SoCal is the fruit basket of the country!

You've been strawberry picking with your kids, and everyone has visited a local farm to pick a pumpkin from the patch in person. But have you ever gone cherry picking? Cherries do best in the high desert, and there are several pick-your-own cherry orchards in the Leona Valley, near Palmdale. It's a pretty ride into high desert horse country, and when you get there, kids can not only go cherry picking, but also pick other stone fruits and enjoy some time on the farm.