photos by PHOTOSPIN

 Last night, a neighbor’s daughter knocked on our door. “Can she come out and play?” (I’m not sure she always remembers my daughter’s name). It was beautiful last night and both kids jumped at the chance.

“Go! Go!” Their dad said from the kitchen. So I grabbed my keys, my phone and headed outdoors. The park is just across the street from our house (I can see it from the upstairs window).

I only had a few minutes before I had to run an errand and I knew the kiddos would be disappointed (I had planned to take them with me). After they got settled playing, I walked back to the house to get ready for my errand.

“I need to go soon,” I told my husband. When I was ready I went to gather the kids and rebellion started. “NO! We want to play!”

I always feel my kids don’t get enough time outdoors. And on a rare, cool summertime evening, I didn’t want to take that away from them.

I suggested to my husband, “You know, they’d probably be find outside with their friend.”

But my husband disagreed and said he’d go out with the kids so they could stay and play.

No biggie, but it got me thinking. “Why can’t they be outside?” Ok, so maybe not the 3-year-old, but my son is nearly 6. I didn’t hesitate to run back to the house for a second, but would I be ok with them out there for, say 15-20 minutes?

I don’t know. Too many bells go off in my head. There is a street between our house and the park and quite frankly, the people in the neighborhood sometimes drive too fast.

And I don’t know all my neighbors. I mean, I know a lot of them. But the little girl they were playing with was outside by herself with no adult (I think she’s about 8 or 9).

A column ran in our paper this week by Rosa Brooks talked about this and about Free Range Kids, a Web site I’ve looked at often.

Read it. See how you feel.

And let me know what you’d do.

Branding for kiddos

My 3-year-old daughter asked me the other day for a “Hannah Montana” birthday. This came as a bit of a surprise because a) We don’t have cable. So I know she hasn’t watched the show with me; and b) her birthday is a long, long ways away.

Then at the store Tuesday night we were buying juice pouches (actually, flavored water) and she saw something, “I want the Hannah Montana juice.” Sure enough, there was a package of juice with some type of concert-looking character on the front (to be honest, I think it was another kid band, but not sure).

Kids are bombarded with character placement – promos are even on vegetables (have you seen the Dora branded bags of apples in the produce aisle? Or the Spider-Man toothpaste? Or the canned veggies with Sesame Street characters? Oh, I may be making that last one up.)

We don’t have cable, but I know my kids hear about these characters from their friends or cousins (HUGE Hannah Montana fans). I’m not against it – hey, I’m in the business of selling and understand advertising so branding is familiar to me. I’m just surprised my THREE YEAR OLD has caught on to this!

Did I buy it? Yup. And when you open the branded box, you  know what’s inside? Regular looking juice pouches.

The box went into the recycle bin. But at least my daughter is getting plenty of flavored water and staying hydrated this summer.

This week, school ends for thousands of students in the East Valley and their teachers.

As they prepare to say good-bye, parents may be want to say THANKS to the teachers with a gift, a card, a photo.

What do you plan to give?

I took the easy road and purchased coffee giftcards for both the teacher and the aide. I know they’ll enjoy it and that right now it’s a luxury.

But then I thought, I should have been more creative. Maybe a “summer is here” pack filled with sunscreen, a disposable camera, handmade picture frame, notebook to scribble ideas on, new pens, a paperback or two.

Or maybe I should have put a photo book together. I could include a list of activites the kids loved and sayings by my son and daughter.

Knowing my son’s teacher is from out of state, I could put together a ‘correspondence’ pack for him: notecards, pens, stamps, disposable camera.

I have given gifts throughout the year for the classroom, but fresh supplies will be needed in the fall: copy paper, crayons, glue sticks, index cards, scissors, etc. These are all items the teacher will not have to purchase himself.

 If I get ambitious enough tonight, I’ll try to put some of these ideas to work - and let my son create a card for his teacher. I just want to let him know - it’s been a great year!

I found a few online sources for ideas:

Family Fun, Great Schools, Creative Kids and PTA.

As I mentioned in my last writing, I a HUGE Stephenie Meyer fan. I checked her Web site today and there is a link to the movie trailer for “Twilight.” I thought I’d share for you moms of teens who enjoyed the book (or you moms who enjoyed it!).

As a mom, I have a few books memorized - “The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear” (and its Christmas version), “Thomas and the School Trip,” “Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?”

But I also manage to read a bit for myself. Most recently I finished Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper,” which still disturbs me because of its ending. I’m also a huge fantasy fan, having read all the Harry Potter books, several Cornelia Funke books and others.

And then, there’s Stephenie Meyer.

For anyone not familiar with the books by this author (though I don’t know how, she currently has THREE on the best-seller list published by this paper), she started just a few years ago with her first book, “Twilight” and most recently released her first book targeted for adults “The Host.” I’ll get to that after I finish the latest vampire novel.

I’m in a wonder about her from her background: A mom of three young boys who had a dream, wrote a book and now is a best-seller with a movie deal. How did she do it? (My co-worker told me, “She got off the couch and just did it.”) Oh, and Time magazine claims she may be the next J.K. Rowling. Did I mention she grew up in the Valley and still makes a home here?

I share this so other moms looking for other books to read beyond children’s fare may seek out new literature. Try them. You might like them. And pass on any recommendations as well! (Did I mention I’m an “X-Files” fan anxiously awaiting this summer’s release?

How do you connect with your family? For the past eight weeks, my 5-year-old son has been enrolled with a tutoring program in Chandler three times a week. But that means, three times a week, we eat in the car.Sometimes, I’ll pick up fast food. Sometimes, I’ll bring along snacks (and eat dinner when we get home). Yesterday, I “cooked” food in the microwave at work and brought it along.As beneficial as these tutoring sessions have been, I’ve worried cause we’re not having family dinner at home. In a few weeks the sessions will end, but then we start summer swimming lessons.In fact, dinner as a family around the table is a rarity at our house since I’ve returned to work full time. We manage to squeeze it in sometimes after tutoring, if the kids are hungry and daddy is home. But that’s at 8 o’clock in the evening.So lately, I’ve made breakfast the meal around the table. In the past, I’ve done chores or made lunches while the kids eat. But since we’ve given up sit-down time at dinner, I’ve made an effort to eat with them.It’s nice to have the connection time. We’ll go over the schedule for the day or talk about upcoming plans. And I certainly hope as busy as our summer appears to be, we can continue it.

It’s happened. My youngest has used a curse word – correctly even (no, I’m not proud of it, just pointing out the fact).

This weekend, my husband fell off a ladder while holding a nail gun (and there were four children in the room at the time). He tried to stabilize himself first and in the process a choice word (twice) came out of his mouth.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. But apparently, my 3-year-old grasped the concept of what was said.

So last night, when she was doing somersaults on the bed and rolled off the bed, guess what came out of her mouth!

I couldn’t believe it. Well, ok, I can. She’s a sponge when it comes to words. She soaks them up and tries them out at every turn (she loves the word “actually.”).

What could I do? I explained how we are not to use that word. “It’s a bad word,” I said.

So this morning, I said “Umm, let’s see.” And she said, “Mommy, that’s a bad word.”

Ok, so maybe she hasn’t totally grasped the concept.

Pony up the check.

And while you’re at it, double it.

The annual Salary.Com survey is out just in time for Mother’s Day. Since I work outside the home, I’ll give you that figure first: $68,405.

And I have two kids, so please double it!

That’s how much compensation I would earn if moms were paid the “market value” for their chores, including housekeeping, driving, running the household and caring for little ones.

Moms who care for their littles around the clock would earn $116,805.

Bring on the dough: I’m going on vacation!

Of course, what I’m paid is worth much more than that. I earn hugs and kisses and loves and cute little handprint-pictures sent home this week from school. I get to see them make their “firsts:” words, reading a book (my son did it by himself this week!), riding a bike, mastering a scooter.

 Sometimes, like any job, we run into battles. But we get through it because we’re family.

 And that is priceless.