For my trip to DC, Jon lent me the Travelpro luggage I bought him for Christmas (since my options were either too big or too small). And now I need to continue to borrow Jon's or buy my own! This luggage is compact (though it features expansion opportunity), awesomely lightweight, and features 360 degree wheels that make it easy to navigate through the airport and into those tight bathroom stalls. Travelpro makes bigger sizes too, but I recommend staying small; the less space you have, the less unnecessary stuff you'll pack!

Want more Friday Finds? Check out: ridiculously awesome pants, parachute cord crafts, and Where Is The Cake?

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you've enjoyed a great week! I've felt a little scattered since it's been a short one for me. I'm looking forward to recalibrating this weekend with Jon and the girls (and perhaps putting the final decorative layer on this unicorn!). If you're looking for something fun to do over the weekend, here are 14 options for you via the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

1. It’s never too early for good fitness. (Boston)

2. Celebrate Purim! (Boston)

3. Get behind the camera and learn the basics of filmmaking. (Boston)

4. BSO family concert. (Boston)

5. A puppet presentation of Aesop’s Fables. (Brookline)

6. Put a Little Groove in your Saturday morning. (Brookline)

7. Ever wonder what it would be like to walk with dinosaurs? (Cambridge)

8. Spend your Saturday at the sugar shack. (Ipswich)

9. Sculpture park snowshoe tour. (Lincoln)

10. Baby it’s cold outside, but not too cold to learn about summer camp! (Sharon)

11. Maple days. (Sturbridge)

12. Musical postcards, around the world with music. (Westborough)

13. Build a feathered friend a bluebird house. (Worcester)

14. Nature play and free admission to Ecotarium. (Worcester)

Image credit: Boston Children’s Museum

Have an event you'd like to submit for editorial consideration? Please e-mail the event description + URL to Christine at editor{@}bostonmamas.com. For guaranteed event exposure, place an advertisement.

I know it's tough to fathom since it's 12 degrees out right now, but remember how balmy it was last weekend? The rapidly melting snow banks coupled with the Marimekko event left me hungry for spring! If you're ever in a grouchy mood, just walk into Marimekko and your happy neurons will start firing; it's pure rainbow awesomeness. Don’t believe me? Check out the evidence below:

The spring/summer runway show was awesome thanks to my blogging friends and their adorable kids. Audrey showed how well Marimekko dresses go with leggings and flats. Her son Henry looked adorable in stripes + critters (and dragon face paint).

Casey shared that this was her first time in a dress since prom! She looked amazing and I love that she integrated her style with black sneakers. Her daughter Riley (with an awesome unicorn on her face...girl after my own heart) was simply adorable in Marimekko leggings, long sleeved tee, and tank dress.

Sharon looked awesomely elegant in this dot dress. Her son Bennett (he was such an adorable ham!) rocked the layers, with a striped collared shirt topped with a gorilla tee.

I love how chic and modern Sharon's geometric print is; she dressed this look up with peep toe pumps. Her daughter Sienna looked so cute in leggings, a tee, and my favorite of Marimekko's raincoats for kids. Also, Sienna's red glitter shoes were to die for!

Here's a shot of the moms, which I insisted on because usually we're busy taking pictures of our kids and aren't in the photos. These ladies make the internet such a good place!

Also, I love this photo with Audrey. Audrey is one of the first people I met after I started blogging; she's pure generosity and kindness. Her family is amazing and I often joke that I'm totally crashing their next family gathering.

Thank you Zac of Zac Wolf Photography for these amazing photos! And also, have you heard of The Danger Booth? Zac and Becca are the brains behind this operation and their booth set up at the event was the funnest. thing. ever. I want to hire them for all my parties! These photo booth shots are hilarious; the booth was touch screen so the kids were able to operate it themself and go nuts.

And finally, as someone who has an awful lot of black, white, and cream in her wardrobe (I tend to infuse color via accessories), wearing that insanely awesome Tasma dress was a fun way to step out of my comfort zone and wear the rainbow. Subsequently, I thought it would be fun to close by sharing a rainbow assortment of Marimekko offerings. So cute! And I love that their wares span clothing, accessories, household, and tech! (Names of items are underneath the image.)

Murina t-shirt | Converse Mustakottarainen | Media makeup bag | Sukellus bathing suit | Pitkähiha long sleeved t-shirt | Päärynä coffee cup | Kurjenpolvi pillow sham | Sääpäiväkirja plate | Ärrän raincoat | Hennika sham| Räsymatto apron | Telmiä pajamas | Kaivo phone case | Kaivo scarf

Image credits: product shots via Marimekko; all other photos courtesy of Zac Wolf Photography

Friends, I'm completely bleary eyed after a whirlwind couple of days in Washington, D.C., followed by what very well may be the worst night of sleep in the history of my universe (Vi is sick and woke up every hour...aagggh). However, my (somewhat cloudy) mind is still spinning over the events of the last couple of days and I wanted to take a moment to share something with you.

I was in Washington for a ONE Moms board meeting and to participate in the ONE Power Summit, an incredible event that gathered 200+ impassioned volunteers from across the country for briefings and training to lobby for meetings on the Hill. There were so many people that I couldn't fit everyone in the frame from the very back of the room:

I will admit; my initial, reflexive reaction to the word "lobbyist" isn't usually the most positive, thanks to corruption reported in the news and portrayed in movies and books. But my perspective on that word shifted this week. As many of you may know, I believe in the power of making your voice heard and the power of small actions to help move the needle. Yesterday, I lobbied for bringing energy to Africa via the Electrify Africa Act + prioritizing funding for global development programs such as GAVI (which provides lifesaving vaccinations and immunizations for children) -- the feeling of assembling with a crowd of  volunteers passionate about a mission was truly electrifying. While at the offices of Senator Markey and Senator Warren I was not only moved by how engaged their staffers were in hearing from ONE advocates (of which there are 40,000 in Massachusetts -- FIST BUMP!), but also by how many constituent calls the front desk was fielding (yes, there are real people waiting for your call and answering the phones!).

Why am I telling you this? Because I want to remind you of the power of your voice. And how much your state representatives actually do want to hear from you. And how important it is to teach your kids that their voices matter too. Whether it's attending a rally (the Mother's Out Front rally I attended a few weeks back was incredible), writing a letter to local administration (Laurel and I have done this several times, both to issue thanks and constructive comments), taking 2 seconds to sign a digital petition (like this one in support of smallholder farmers in Africa), sharing with your loved ones about something you care about (like the FashionABLE Genet scarves shown above), or placing a call to your Representative or Senator (I now plan on doing this more), SPEAK UP. As I departed the Hill for Union Station I was overwhelmed by emotion. I couldn't stop looking back at the Capitol Building, thinking, we are so lucky to have the freedom to speak up. And that more than ever, even when -- especially when -- problems seem large and intractable, we've got to exercise that freedom and make our voices heard.

Image credits: thumbnail sticker by ONE.org; Genet scarf photo by Liz Gumbinner; remaining images by Christine Koh

There was a show that started in 1984, when I was my daughter's age, called Puttin' On the Hits. I still remember when Alan Fawcett would announce how many points had been given for originality, appearance and lip synch. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llt7h8lc5iA] 

Yes, in the eighties we didn't even require actual singing talent on our competition shows. 

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My daughter made us watch the premiere of The Voice last night. I actually looked up the bios of some of the singers and was surprised to see how hard they had already worked, how far they had already come, but they still needed help to break out of their echo chambers. It seems insane to me that someone who can sing that well was still relatively unknown until last night. Which then made me think how much talent there is floating around in the world and how with each year more babies are born and more technology is created to make creating and sharing easier and easier and easier until there is so much of it I wonder how anyone will ever find my voice in the heap. And how will I find yours?

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As I was watching The Voice, I remembered Puttin' on the Hits and thought about how much higher the bar is now for talent shows. Then I thought about the Olympics and how someone, maybe Bob Costas, said years and years ago full seconds separated the gold, silver and bronze medalist bobsled times and now hundredths of a second decide who the world will celebrate.

Hundredths of a second. 

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As the opportunities to create and speed up and achieve increase exponentially, so does the competition. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that as I evaluate my own appearance, originality and lip synch. There is so much talent in the world, so many stories, all increasing exponentially by the minute.

This weekend I cashed in a Christmas gift from my husband: two wonderful tickets to the Indigo Girls with the Kansas City symphony. I took my sister, of course. I heard The Wood Song, which I had hoped to hear. The Indigo Girls with their layered two-part harmony is the perfect accompaniment to a multi-layered symphony, and really I wish for every singer to have such an opportunity to be accompanied by classically trained musicians. It must truly be amazing.

But beyond their talent, I was struck, as I always am, by their songwriting. Both Emily and Amy featured a song they had written recently while they just happened to be thinking about dying blackbirds and the macabre nature of children's nursery rhymes or the intersection of prayer rugs and tanks. That someone could be that aware and also that talented both musically and literally really blows my mind.

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Today my daughter was afflicted with existential angst, as is occurring more and more in her tenth year of life. She asks me what to do when she is sad for no reason, and I don't know how to explain what to do when one realizes the rotation of the earth and all the animals that fell extinct before us. It's easier to wait for a commercial break. But there are some of us unfortunate ones who sense the underpinnings of all that came before. So I just tell her to breathe, and something about hormones. I'll tell her the rest when she's old enough to know.

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Tonight I watched a special on Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Seeing where they are now is enough. Really, seeing where any of us ends up is enough. We should worry more about where we end up.

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Today I had to put myself in time-out. I'd had enough of being made fun of for any number of various things, and looking forward to another week of single parenthood without Beloved with the temperatures falling sub-zero just pissed me the fuck off. I'm tired of winter, and I'm tired of parenting and working alone, and I'm tired of pretending like it doesn't matter because I'm super-cool. I'm not. I'm married, and single parenthood sucks, and I didn't sign up for this. But this is the new economy, and we should all be happy we have jobs.

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The moon is really beautiful tonight. So there's that. And maybe that is enough.

Happy Sunday all; I hope you've enjoyed a wonderful February vacation and thanks to everyone who came out to the Marimekko event yesterday. It was so much fun and I'll be posting a wrap soon! Meanwhile, I'm dropping the Weekly Blueprint early since I'll be in meetings all day with ONE tomorrow. Enjoy the roundup and good luck to all getting back into the routine tomorrow!

February 24: Multi-cultural art and seek. (Canton)

February 26: Visit the story throne for fairy tales and crafts. (Concord)

February 26: Fill your day with art and play. (Lincoln)

February 26: Sip some sap straight from the tree. (Lincoln)

February 26: Just what we all need in the middle of winter...a beach party! (Sharon)

February 27: Adult and teen book discussion: Letters to a Young Scientist. (Acton)

February 27 + 28: A puppet presentation of Aesop’s Fables. (Brookline)

February 28: Uncover the inner workings of everyday electronics. (Acton)

February 28: Polar bear day at the bookstore. (Cambridge)

February 28: It’s a maple moo mix up! (Lincoln)

Image credit: DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park

Have an event you'd like to submit for editorial consideration? Please e-mail the event description + URL to Christine at editor{@}bostonmamas.com. For guaranteed event exposure, place an advertisement.

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a wonderful break! We've been a bit scattered, and while I've enjoyed a week off from making school lunches, I'm also looking forward to getting back to a routine next week! But before we get there, there's plenty of fun to be had via this Weekend Roundup (I hope we'll meet tomorrow!); also check out the February vacation roundup for continued programming:

1. Celebrate National Engineering Week in the Lego Zone. (Acton)

2. Splash’N Boots, Canadian children’s group of the year. (Arlington)

3. Fireside winter tales and crafts. (Attleboro)

4. A musical open house. (Boston)

5. What’s better than sustainable projects? (Boston)

6. Engineering everywhere! (Boston)

7. Super cool wheelchairs and bicycles at this adaptive sports demonstration. (Boston)

8. Ben Rudnick show supporting Cradles to Crayons. (Boston)

9. Transform your imagination. (Boston)

10. The Tanglewood Marionettes present Sleeping Beauty. (Brookline)

11. Come meet me for fashion, fun, and cupcakes this weekend! (Cambridge)

12. Explore the Ice Age up close. (Cambridge)

13. Teddy Bear tea in the historic Brooke Hall. (Concord)

14. All things slimy and scaly. (Mattapan)

15. Oh yum! Maple sugaring season is kicking off. (Topsfield)

16. Hey, there’s enough of it on the ground. May as well try snowshoeing. (Worcester)

Image credit: Coolidge Corner Theatre

Have an event you'd like to submit for editorial consideration? Please e-mail the event description + URL to Christine at editor{@}bostonmamas.com. For guaranteed event exposure, place an advertisement.