Toby B

Toby is our uber-busy events editor for Mommy Poppins LA. Feel free to email Toby about events for our LA area calendar.

Latest posts by Toby

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Hollywood CicLAvia, Wings over Camarillo, Tacos, & Rocket Fever

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 12:01am

Photo of Azuma Kotobuki Kai Dance Group courtesy of Nisei Week Japanese Festival

Things are about to change around here. Say goodbye to the nonstop fiesta filled with concerts, festivals, and movies. A huge chunk of kids in the LA area are going back to school sometime in the next week, and that means ...{checks notes} ...a continuation of the nonstop fiesta filled with concerts, festivals, and movies. Huh. Go figure.

This weekend, for instance: you can go full Little Tokyo at the closing weekend of the Nisei Week, with a gyoza eating contest and the Rubik's Cube Open. You can chow down on BBQ and tacos. You can take flight, soaring through the skies, or reaching for the space just beyond that.

There's lots of music making and moving pictures.There may even be a chance to learn something as well, but we will call it entertainment. No need to put up a stink. It's just a typical weekend round these parts. Now that school is starting.

Keep reading for our not any different, totally back-to-school best picks for the weekend

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Elephant Day, DOGust, and Natsumatsuri

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 08/08/2019 - 3:54am

Moved to move at Playa Vista's concert in the park. Photo courtesy of Playa Vista

Let's talk about the elephant in the room. No, not the start of the school year: I mean the weekend festivities in Griffith Park. The LA Zoo is celebrating the pachyderm, and shedding light on the majestic beast's situation in the wild. It's the once-a-year chance to go behind the scenes and see how the "Ele" half lives.

They say an elephant never forgets. But you know who does forget? A kid who's been out of school too long. Luckily, the 2019/2020 academic year is fast approaching, with some kids returning to school as early as next week. Time to get a move on if you have any unrealized summer plans, like perhaps attending a county fair. (Both the OC and Ventura County fairs end this weekend, as do several of the summer concert series.)

You might be seeing double; it's really quite incredibles, this sorta summer, sorta schooltime, way out, out of this world. There's so much going on my brain is exploding. Or maybe that's just the fireworks.

Keep reading for our most elephantine list of picks for this pre-school weekend.

Santa Monica's Cayton Children's Museum Is a Game Changer!

Submitted by Toby B on Fri, 08/02/2019 - 4:54am

The long-awaited Cayton Children's Museum opened its doors at Santa Monica Place Mall, moving from its former incarnation as the much loved Zimmer Children's Museum in the middle of the city. While we looked forward to this new museum with great anticipation, we had to wonder: could anything warm our hearts the way the Zimmer did? Spoiler! The Cayton is up to the job!

Keep reading to find out what you can expect on a visit to the Cayton...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Garden Concerts, Toy Story Shakespeare, and Surf Fest

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 08/01/2019 - 12:18pm

International Surf Festival. Photo by Joel Gitelson courtesy of the festival

Can you believe it's August already? The summer's almost over. Last call for school break fun, cause we'll be back in school before you know it!

Oh, hey, look at that: the Actors' Gang free summer Shakespeare for kids is starting up this weekend. The Gang is doing a Toy Story-tinged Tempest, such stuff as dreams are made of. Nothing like your kids quoting Shakespeare when they go back to school, which they will be doing shortly because the summer is practically over...

Oh, hey, look at that: the Ventura County Fair is starting up this weekend. Nothing says summer like funnel cakes, carnival rides, and pig races. And then the summer is over for most intents and purposes, so maybe we should all be buying ski garb and looking into Christmas trees.

Oh, hey, look at that: The Getty Garden Concerts for Kids are starting up this weekend. It isn't summer until the Garden Concerts have started, I'll tell you that. Elena Moon Park and Friends celebrate folk and children's music from all over East Asia. With songs in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Tibetan, Taiwanese, Spanish, and English, you can dance or chill on the Getty Center Lawn to this family favorite. And then after that you can turn in your swim fins and sunscreen, because the summer is just about over...

Oh, hey, look at that: there are sharks in the water. I say "summer"; you say "run for your lives"! Where are those swim fins when you need 'em...?

Oh hey, look at that: Midsummer Scream is this weekend, offering spine tingling chills as you prep for the most ghoulish time of year... okay, now that one, it maybe does mean summer is over. But not before we enjoy this most spooky of weekends.

Keep reading for our best picks for what is, spookily enough, another awesome summer weekend.

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Sandcastles, Dragon Boats, Crawfish, and Salsa

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/25/2019 - 12:44am

The Love Long Beach Festival spreads the magic of Long Beach. Photo courtesy of the festival

It's that time of year again. We're just happily going about our middle of summer business, doing sandy things and beachy things (long beachy things). We're going into the water (but don't go into the water!) And have you checked the temps? It's kinda warm—that's a sure sign of summer. And yet...

And yet. Another quick check of the calendar tells us that we are at the end of July. The end. Which may have been midsummer once upon a time ago, but is a mere few weeks before the start of—what now?—the 19/20 school year. Back to school, you say?

And yet. If summer is coming to a close, why is there so much of it still going on? Why is there so much of it yet to begin? Why are we having the summertime time of our lives??? Perhaps there's still some summer in us yet!

Keep reading for our most summery picks yet!

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Apollo 11, Delicious Go Little Tokyo, Comic Con

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:16am

Cayton Children's Museum. Photo by Matthew Tucciarone

It's one small step for Mom... one giant leap for the whole family as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon. We look to the skies. We look to the skies some more. We look to the simulated skies. We look to the skies the way they did in the olden times... on a TV screen.

The commemoration reminds us of the boundless possibilities of all we can accomplish. We can get free lollipops and ice cream, and play for half the price. We can watch in awe (and no small degree of jealousy) as the population of Los Angeles decreases by half and San Diego's simultaneously increases by the same measure. (Must be magic.) Despite adversity, we can boldly go where no one has gone before.

Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars. So whenever you feel alone, just remember: those kings will always be there to guide you and so will Mommy Poppins.

Take one small step... to keep reading for our most stellar picks for this weekend's fun.

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Orange County Fair, Kidspace Birthday, and Mud Mania

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 07/11/2019 - 6:36am

Mud Mania! Photo courtesy of Rancho Los Cerritos

Congratulations! You are the winner of one mint-condition, limited edition, superior quality weekend. Your prize includes a County Fair, manic mud, free outdoor theatre (day and night), children's museums new and celebrating, and big worldly fun. And talk about stellar: the excitement for the Apollo 11 anniversary is starting to ramp up: to infinity and the moon!

If winning is your style, Mommy Poppins is ready to go one further. Not to give anything away, but we are. Giving things away. ALL. SUMMER. LONG. This week we are offering up Boredom Busters, which you would only need in the unlikely event that your offspring claim to have nothing to do. You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, Mum? (If so you really should enter.)

Spin the wheel (or keep reading) to luck onto our most winning picks for the weekend...

Weekend Fun for LA Kids: Griffith Park Shakespeare, Day of the Ancestors, & Cayton Opening

Submitted by Toby B on Thu, 06/27/2019 - 5:00am

Tug of War, watermelon-style! Photo courtesy of The Watermelon Festival

I can see you're a little confused. Strange things are afoot, and then even stranger ones. The night sky is going boom boom boom, and there's pretty colors everywhere. But while we are no doubt a country filled with patriots, this is not the time we celebrate our independence.

Perhaps this is a dry run, a practice session for all the liberty festing to come. Or perhaps it's all a comedy of errors, some kind of he said/ she said, but he was really a she farce.

Regardless, I know this: pirates and mermaids are invading Long Beach, cats are invading Pasadena, and it's watermelon mayhem in Lake View Terrace. The Cayton is opening in its new home at Santa Monica Place. People are taking to the streets, and they are colorful, and they are crafting. This weekend is a gem; it's magical, and we are winning.

Keep reading for our best, if somewhat strange, picks for this weekend.