As I was looking for eco-friendly ideas for birthday party games and favors, I found this great blog post on the website ecochildsplay.com.

I love this mom's ideas on low impact birthday parties and thought I would share here :

In our family, summer time is a full of birthday party celebrations. If your experiences are like mine, your children have attended some extravagant birthday parties that leave a heavy footprint on the Earth. Large blowup, bouncing jump rooms, corporate character disposable dinnerware, paper hats that don’t even last until the end of the party, dollar store junk for party favors, balloons and excessive decorations, etc. seem to be the norm in children’s birthday parties. For my children’s birthdays, I am always looking for ways to lighten our impact during these grand occasions, while giving them the special celebration they desire. Below are a few suggestions for lightening the impact of your child’s birthday celebration.

1. Use digital invites: By creating your own digital invitations, you can email them to your friends and family and reduce the amount of paper involved in the celebration. You may need to print a few invitations to mail for those families not connected to the web, but this will still lighten the impact. A homemade invite also becomes a keepsake to document the day, and you won’t be supporting the corporate characters targeted at children. You will also save time and money by creating your own digital birthday invitations.

2. Pick a natural location for the party: By hosting your party in a natural location, such as a beach or park, you will be combating nature deficit disorder and eliminating the need for jumping rooms, extravagant decorations, etc. Every year, we have our party on a neighbor’s beach. The river provides the entertainment and increases our attendance of distant friends who look forward to a day of river fun in the mountain sun! Also, if the party is located away from your home, you are less likely to go overboard with party favors, decorations, etc., as you will have to pack it in and pack it out of the location.

3. Use reusable plates, napkins, utensils, cups, etc.: I am always amazed at how much garbage is created from even a small birthday party. By using reusable plates, utensils, etc., you are lightening your party’s impact greatly, as well as teaching your children an important lesson about disposables. The clean up after the party will be greater if you use reusables; however, the benefits to the planet certainly outweigh a little of your time. If you must use disposable products, look for paper products that are made with recycled, post-consumer materials and corn plastic utensils that are compostable.

4. Provide natural, eco-friendly party favors: One of the things I dread about my daughter attending her friends’ birthday parties is dollar store, plastic junk and candy she receives as party favors. If you feel compelled to give out party favors, look for items that will not be easily tossed into the landfill and won’t break within a day. Crystals, polished rocks, geodes, etc. make wonderful party favors children’s cherish, and these natural items will contribute to children dramatic play at home. Several natural toy stores also carry party favors. These toys may be more expensive, but when placed in the larger picture of sustainability and climate change, the cost is irrelevant. Better yet, forego the party favors all together.

5. Serve a vegan, chocolate cake: Whether you make your own cake or buy one, think about the ingredients used in the cake and how you could improve this aspect of the birthday tradition. We are lucky to live near a bakery that makes the best vegan, chocolate cake filled with raspberry sauce. They will even make the cake with our own garden grown, organic raspberries. There are many great recipes available online for vegan cakes.

6. Make gifts optional: If your kids are like mine, they already have too many toys! The birthday party can be another contributor to this problem, and if you are like me and detest plastic toys, your child will inevitably receive annoying toys that you do not like. By making gifts optional, you will prevent families frohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifm feeling compelled to buy anything just to attend the party, and your child will not receive a gross amount of junk. Children already receive many gifts from their families, so eliminating a few toys from their friends will not impact the joy of their birthday. You could also request used toys and books or no gifts at all.

There are many ways you can lighten the impact of your child’s birthday, as well as teach them a valuable lesson in sustainability, conservation, etc. You can still have themed birthday parties without all of the commercial products associated with them, by asking families to wear homemade costumes, make your own decorations, etc. Keep it simple, and everyone will enjoy the celebration more, while doing a little bit to save the Earth from climate change.

In my search for ideas for eco friendly games and party favors for my son's upcoming birthday party, I found this great blog post on the website ecochildsplay.com.

I love this mom's ideas and thought I would share her great ideas on our blog.

In our family, summer time is a full of birthday party celebrations. If your experiences are like mine, your children have attended some extravagant birthday parties that leave a heavy footprint on the Earth. Large blowup, bouncing jump rooms, corporate character disposable dinnerware, paper hats that don’t even last until the end of the party, dollar store junk for party favors, balloons and excessive decorations, etc. seem to be the norm in children’s birthday parties. For my children’s birthdays, I am always looking for ways to lighten our impact during these grand occasions, while giving them the special celebration they desire. Below are a few suggestions for lightening the impact of your child’s birthday celebration.

1. Use digital invites: By creating your own digital invitations, you can email them to your friends and family and reduce the amount of paper involved in the celebration. You may need to print a few invitations to mail for those families not connected to the web, but this will still lighten the impact. A homemade invite also becomes a keepsake to document the day, and you won’t be supporting the corporate characters targeted at children. You will also save time and money by creating your own digital birthday invitations.

2. Pick a natural location for the party: By hosting your party in a natural location, such as a beach or park, you will be combating nature deficit disorder and eliminating the need for jumping rooms, extravagant decorations, etc. Every year, we have our party on a neighbor’s beach. The river provides the entertainment and increases our attendance of distant friends who look forward to a day of river fun in the mountain sun! Also, if the party is located away from your home, you are less likely to go overboard with party favors, decorations, etc., as you will have to pack it in and pack it out of the location.

3. Use reusable plates, napkins, utensils, cups, etc.: I am always amazed at how much garbage is created from even a small birthday party. By using reusable plates, utensils, etc., you are lightening your party’s impact greatly, as well as teaching your children an important lesson about disposables. The clean up after the party will be greater if you use reusables; however, the benefits to the planet certainly outweigh a little of your time. If you must use disposable products, look for paper products that are made with recycled, post-consumer materials and corn plastic utensils that are compostable.

4. Provide natural, eco-friendly party favors: One of the things I dread about my daughter attending her friends’ birthday parties is dollar store, plastic junk and candy she receives as party favors. If you feel compelled to give out party favors, look for items that will not be easily tossed into the landfill and won’t break within a day. Crystals, polished rocks, geodes, etc. make wonderful party favors children’s cherish, and these natural items will contribute to children dramatic play at home. Several natural toy stores also carry party favors. These toys may be more expensive, but when placed in the larger picture of sustainability and climate change, the cost is irrelevant. Better yet, forego the party favors all together.

5. Serve a vegan, chocolate cake: Whether you make your own cake or buy one, think about the ingredients used in the cake and how you could improve this aspect of the birthday tradition. We are lucky to live near a bakery that makes the best vegan, chocolate cake filled with raspberry sauce. They will even make the cake with our own garden grown, organic raspberries. There are many great recipes available online for vegan cakes.

6. Make gifts optional: If your kids are like mine, they already have too many toys! The birthday party can be another contributor to this problem, and if you are like me and detest plastic toys, your child will inevitably receive annoying toys that you do not like. By making gifts optional, you will prevent families frohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifm feeling compelled to buy anything just to attend the party, and your child will not receive a gross amount of junk. Children already receive many gifts from their families, so eliminating a few toys from their friends will not impact the joy of their birthday. You could also request used toys and books or no gifts at all.

There are many ways you can lighten the impact of your child’s birthday, as well as teach them a valuable lesson in sustainability, conservation, etc. You can still have themed birthday parties without all of the commercial products associated with them, by asking families to wear homemade costumes, make your own decorations, etc. Keep it simple, and everyone will enjoy the celebration more, while doing a little bit to save the Earth from climate change.

 The Environmental Discovery Center of Sonoma County offers multi-sensory, hands-on activities for people of all ages. Rotating exhibits focus on a different aspect of the natural resources of Sonoma County.

 Center's Features

• Nature Trails
• Outdoor Amphitheater
• Storytelling Cavern
• Science Activities
• Technology Tent - interactive computer games
• Theater - Educational videos

For more information,check out their website

 SOLAR FAIR

 Saturday June 20

11-6 pm

Finley Center, Santa Rosa

http://www.solarsonomacounty.com/

We have been checking Craigslist and Ebay for a bike for Noah but haven't had any luck. So today we peaked into a local bike shop to check prices.....I was surprised that most were over $200. which is not in our budget right now.

Then I remembered about Santa Rosa's Community Bikes store.

We found a great 20" Trek bike in perfect condition that they will tune up and add training wheels to, for $60. In addition to the great deal, we are also keeping a bike out of the landfill and not adding to the waste of more new raw materials that would be used to make a new bike.

I would recommend anyone in the market for an adult bike, kid's bike (they even had princess and Ariel bikes for little girls), unicycles, tandem bikes (yes.... they had it all) to check out Community Bikes in Santa Rosa.

Noah is very happy with his "new to him" bike and we are even more happy for the green choice Community Bikes gave us the opportunity to make.

ALSO, if you have a bike that you would like to donate, they will take it, fix it up and sell to someone else. The money made from the sale will go to their great cause of keeping bikes out of the landfill and encouraging biking more and driving less. 

NEED A NEW-TO-YOU BIKE?

Community Bikes is a non-profit collaborative that promotes driving less, biking, repair and reuse. We support these programs by refurbishing and selling good quality bikes and parts donated by individuals and local agencies. Our inventory varies week to week - road bikes, mountain bikes and everything in between. Please come by or visit us on Craigslist! Volunteers and donations welcome. COMMUNITY BIKES 4009 Sebastopol Rd, Santa Rosa One block south of Highway 12 and one block east of Wright/Fulton Rd & Joe Rodota Trail; Halfway between Sebastopol and downtown Santa Rosa Sunday, 1-5pm and Thursday, 5-9pm A project of LITE Initiatives www.liteinit.org, 707 579-5811 

I'm so excited about this! We are getting a wine barrel to collect rain water.  There is a gutter that leaks water onto the path to our kitchen door, so were going to fix that by collecting the water instead.

As for planting, right now just flowers and hopfully anything that deers and other animals won't eat.  We have no grass on the property. So nice cause then we don't have to use the electric lawn mower which we are letting my parents borrow for now.

We have natural A/C - TREES!!!!!  When we were having that heat wave a few weeks ago it was 104 outside and a cool 84 inside.

There is also lots of windows so no need to turn any lights on during the day.

We don't have a garbage disposal. Well, unless you count the cat that lives outside.  I hope to compost, but have to figure out where and keep it animal safe.

We are on well water and have a septic system. The well water is yellow. We have a filter, but the water still tastes gross. I know it's not green, but we are buying water for now.  When we moved in the owners had the well inspected and it needs to be fixed/replaced.  So for now we are drinking bottled water to stay safe until it gets fixed.  With the septic system, we really have to watch what goes down the drain now.  I'm using organic soap for the dishes and clothes.

I'm so proud of myself. The other day when I went food shopping, I brought all 10 of my reusable bags and used them.  Now I just need to remember to bring them all again.

And since today is "Bike to work day" Dan road his bike to work today! Woo Hoo!!!  We also have some nice walking trails, so I don't have to drive somewhere to go walking.

Since this is public, if you want to know where we are now, please e-mail me. Thank you!

Very cool new web site I just discovered featuring local businesses:

http://scgc.golocal.coop/

I was just reading the "Santa Rosa Recycling News" and there was an article about responsible electronic waste recycling.  I started looking at some information online and came across the "60 Minutes" story that aired in November about what REALLY happens to some to the e-waste we think we are recycling.  It's really worth taking a look at, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n&tag=mncol;txt

Here is a delicious summer recipe that is healthy and tasty.

quinoa salad with mangoes and curry dressing

1 1/2 cups quinoa
2 large mangoes cut up in small pieces
1 jalapeno seeded and diced (less if you don't like spicy)
3 scallions thinly sliced
1/3 cup roasted almonds

boil 3 cups water, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and quinoa. lower heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes
drain
add everything else above to quinoa

Curry dressing:
1 garlic clove minced
2 Tablespoons yogurt, mayo or sour cream
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
5 T olive oil
2 T chopped cilantro

Mix all above together and add to quinoa mix above

 I heard about this on NPR and thought I would pass it on.....

I am happy to hear that "green" is going mainstream. There are some down sides to greening mass production that's done overseas ( as you will hear when you listen to this story), but I am still happy to hear about the direction we are slowly heading in.

  Zoe&Zac, the new "green" shoe collection from Payless Shoes, hit shelves last week on Monday, April 13. The collection offers shoes featuring organic cotton canvas, hemp, linen, EVA (non-PVC) foam beds, recycled rubber and water-based glues.

The entire collection for women and girls is offered at a budget friendly price of under $30. The packaging is also eco-smart and uses 100 percent recycled shoe boxes printed with soy-based inks.

Also, for every Zoe&Zac item bought, Payless will contribute $1 to The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Campaign.

EARTH DAY ON THE GREENWAY

Celebrate  Earth Day’s 40^th birthday on the Prince Memorial Greenway with a clean up of Santa Rosa Creek.  The restored creek flowing through the heart of downtown provides a home for river otter, kingfishers, egrets, and steelhead trout as well as parks, public art, and recreation along the six mile creek trail.

Date: Saturday April 25

Time: 9:00 – noon

Location: Olive Park footbridge near the Vineyard Creek Hotel on West 3rd St.

Noah and I will be going to help out at this event. 

We hope you can join us for this great opportunity to introduce our children to the idea of  community service and environmental responsibility.

http://ebfarm.com/aboutus/SustainYourselfSustainThePlanet/index.aspx

What is everyone planting this year? And how?

We are going to try zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce. We are doing it all in pots on the patio.

You?

On Friday, March 20th, 2009, 23 third graders will join First Lady Michelle Obama on the South Lawn of the White House to break ground on an 1100 square foot kitchen garden that will provide food for family dinners and formal dinners. 

According to the New York Times:

The Obamas’ garden will have 55 varieties of vegetables grown from organic seedlings started at the executive mansion’s greenhouses.

And better still:

 Almost the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs. Obama said laughing.

For more information go to

http://kitchengardeners.org/

I thought this was really beautiful and thought provoking.  Hope you enjoy.