Category: Family

Sacramento Public Library boasts big web redesign

The Sacramento Public Library’s website got a big facelift today and is looking pretty hot. The new design by local firm PMC is a big step up from SPL’s former ’90s era design.

I’m loving the big showoffy Locations pages and the responsive design (the layout modifies itself in mobile browsers instead of forcing you to squint). The catalog section of the site does not appear changed, but it had already gone through a recent change.

What do you think? Will you finally break down and read a book now, doofus?

Mustard Seed Spin supports homeless kids

This weekend the Mustard Seed Spin will have hundreds of riders touring the American River Parkway. The ride, which has been around since 2005, raises money (100% of rider fees) for the Mustard Seed School, a school for the children of homeless families run by the Catholic organization Loaves & Fishes.

Online registration is closed but it looks like you can still register at REI or on the day of the event, which is Sunday at 11:00 AM at William Pond Recreation Area. I’ll be there, either as a rider or handing out water and protein goo.

The Harvest is in at Colonial Heights Library – Photos

I visited Colonial Heights Library with my family on Saturday, and we and several other families were treated to a hands-on visit to the library’s Demonstration Garden, which in the rear of the property. Though the garden is not typically open to the public, staff do regularly open the back doors to allow patrons to enjoy the garden. In addition, the garden is part of a “Read & Feed” program to highlight planting and nurturing of crops as well as nutrition and literacy.

On this particular visit we got to help harvest some cherry tomatoes! I have posted a few photos after the break… Continue reading “The Harvest is in at Colonial Heights Library – Photos”

Last chance to enjoy City pools this summer

The City pools are gearing up to close for the season but there is still time to enjoy them before then. From the City Aquatics page:

  • Bertha Henschel Play Pool, Clunie & Pannell Meadowview Pools are open through Labor Day weekend.
  • Tahoe Pool is open through Sat. 8/25.
  • McClatchy Park and Sim Pools are open through Aug. 26.

My family and I have quite enjoyed being able to go to Tahoe Pool this year again. The staff is awesome, the facility is great and the vibe is always really nice even though there are always swarms of unsupervised tweens.

Let’s hope that this gem is open again next year!

Sac Library has LHS kids’ science kits with free passes

With school around the corner you may be looking for fun science projects to do with the kids, either to supplement the science/tech curriculum or to actually have one. Obviously the Sacramento Public Library is a great place to start, and its offering got even better recently with the addition of these “Check Out Science” kits from Lawrence Hall of Science.

Each kit includes a “Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading” book, a full activity notecard, and a “Check Out Science” observation notebook that is your child’s to keep. And another awesome thing about these kits is that they come with one free kids’ pass to Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Continue reading “Sac Library has LHS kids’ science kits with free passes”

McKinley Park Playground rebuild begins


from the City of Sacramento web site

The bad news over the weekend of an arsonist (allegedly) destroying the playground at McKinley park is giving way to hopeful news of fundraising already beginning on a replacement. City Council member Steve Cohn has established a charity fund, and Sac Press’s Melissa Corker has details on how you can help contribute. Continue reading “McKinley Park Playground rebuild begins”

Cheap kids movies this summer!

Every year I forget to mention the great deals on kids movies at Regal Theaters. In the last few weeks it has not been hot enough to make being indoors in the late morning into much of a thing, but it appears the heat is coming at last, so taking a matinee movie suddenly sounds appealing.

Most of the Regal theaters in the area, including the screens at Market Square and Natomas Marketplace (a great place to see a movie, if you don’t go mad from the parking), have a selection of family movies for $1 every Tuesday and Wednesday. The always crystal clear “portion of proceeds” goes to the Will Rogers Institute.

Continue reading “Cheap kids movies this summer!”

McClatchy Library getting more space! (By getting rid of books)

Yeah, it doesn’t look like this anymore.

The Sacramento Public Library branches are all closed today for staff furloughs, which is tough when the hours are already pretty terrible. Trying to find a branch open near you after business hours is like trying to find swim trunks once Summer has already started (amirite?). Wednesday night, though, the family and I visited McClatchy Library, the only central city branch open past business hours on that day.

At the moment the branch looks less like a library and more like the house of a book-loving couple (with a really pretty house). The pleasantly (IMHO) cramped quarters are less cramped these days, because almost all the books are stored on wall shelves with only 2 freestanding shelves. We saw an excited young patron park her bike out back, stroll through the branch for about 10 seconds before storming out, muttering something like “Not even worth it!”. Continue reading “McClatchy Library getting more space! (By getting rid of books)”

Neighborhood Assoc. saves Tahoe Park pool

Some excellent news came this week for Tahoe Park residents — and for anyone else who has enjoyed the park’s public pool. An effort by the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association was successful in reopening Tahoe Park Pool for the 2012 season! TPNA was able to secure donations by the Sierra Health Foundation and local representatives Councilmember Kevin McCarty and County Supervisor Phil Serna and will be able to run the pool June 19th through August 25th from 2-6 PM Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Not only is it now open but it will have hours after business hours on Weekdays? I couldn’t ask for more. I don’t know about you but I am really looking forward to Saturday late afternoons at the Tahoe Park Pool.

The pool has been shuttered for more than a year since being shut down by the City’s Parks and Rec department, so the TPNA is organizing a cleanup of the building (using NextDoor.com, because we’re plugged in like that).

Hooray for citizen activism!

Day trip: Chico [PHOTOS]

To follow up on my post about locations to watch the annular eclipse, we decided on a trip up to Chico since we had never been. The destination was the Chico Community Observatory, an outdoor observation deck in the city’s Bidwell Park. While we didn’t make it to the observatory, we did have great fun in Chico and primarily at the amazing Bidwell Park.

Last weekend happened to be Commencement weekend at CSU Chico, but Sunday late morning when we arrived there were no large crowds, much to our relief. There were small family groups out celebrating their grads which made it a really pleasant atmosphere, though I get the feeling Chico is a pretty friendly place for the most part. We had a picnic lunch at the Children’s Playground near Bidwell Mansion after an aborted attempt to picnic at the City Plaza splashground, which had a “creepy homeless dude” vibe as a result of being populated by creepy homeless dudes sitting and watching children frolic in the fountain. No judging.

Continue reading “Day trip: Chico [PHOTOS]”