Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites - Kids Kaleidoscope

SHRINERS HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN - LA STARS AT ECOLUXE LOUNGE PRE-OSCARS CELEBRATION

The Beverly Hilton Hotel EcoLuxe Lounge in the Stardust Penthouse was buzzing with excitment as VIPs and celebrities joined in the Celebration of the upcoming 88th Oscar Awards.

A bevy of eco-friendly brands joined in at the one day pre-Oscars event, where guests had fun in the photo booth provided by Shriners Hospital for Children - Los Angeles in the hopes to bring awareness for their new upcoming hospital facility opening in 2017 in Pasadena. Modern Oats gifted for the breakfast crowd, La Croix Sparkling Water provided great tastes, infused with fruit flavors. Live music was spun by "Vanderpump Rules" star DJ Mike Shay, and Sweet bites served up at the Candy Vixen Custom Candy Buffet were delicious. Fete Today served guests wonderful complimentary wine tastings, and full bottle give-a-ways, while IT cosmetics gave attendees make-up touch ups and samples of their super make-up products. Sugar and Bronzed by Courtney Claghorn applied airbrush tanning to VIPs and Burnetie Shoes presented eco-friendly shoes. Amy Radzik jewelry was wonderful. Armani Wells had Man Glam items and Jamaican Tourist Board shared great travel information and Jamaican coffee. Chariot Travelware had great luggage for jetseters to enjoy.

Alice Chung, Co Founder of Solar Puff the recently chosen solar lantern of the UN's Development Agenda Summit was giftsing her SolarPuffs sustainable solar lanterns, and John Paul Pet products were Gift Bag sponsors.

Guests included Adina porter, Carly Steel, Frank Stallone, Gilles Marini, James Kennedy, Jamie Brewer, Janelle Evans, Johnny Wujek, Lawrence Zarian, Max Vanderpump NickyWhelan, Pandora Vandrpump, Rob Steinberg, Sam Larsen and more.

ECOLUXE LOUNGE is a luxury experience created by Debbie Durkin, Los Angeles' leading sustainable TV/Film Product Placement Producer that connects causes and luxury brands, aligning them with celebrities and media.

This was a wondful and fun pre-Oscar event. Compliments to Debbie Durkin and her staff on a fantastic job.

The Official ScratchJr Book
New book from the creators of ScratchJr makes
programming fun for kids ages 5-7

It may seem hard to believe but even 5-year-olds canlearn to program—even before they learn to read and write—and many want to. Fortunately, No Starch Press, publisher of the best-selling introductory programming books for kids, has teamed up with the creators of ScratchJr to release a new book designed to make that promise a reality—The Official ScratchJr Book (No Starch Press, $19.95, 160pp., Nov. 2015).

Scratch, the older sibling of ScratchJr, is the de facto standard for introducing kids to programming, with more than 8 million users registered on their website. Designed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a block-based programming language—kids connect blocks of code to program interactive stories, games, and animations. The process is fun and makes programming immediately accessible to any beginner.

But Scratch wasn't designed for the youngest of kids, and that's where ScratchJr comes in. The result of a partnership between MIT and Tufts University, ScratchJr is a simplified version of Scratch aimed at introducing computer science concepts to pre-readers. Released in July of last year, ScratchJr is available as a free mobile app for any Apple or Android tablet and already has 1 million users.

The Official ScratchJr Book extends the ScratchJr app with hands-on coding activities and patient step-by-step instructions that make it easy for anyone (even those with no programming experience) to teach young brainiacs to program. Each activity in the book includes core math and literacy concepts, tips for grown-ups, and suggestions for creative challenges to take the learning further.

According to ScratchJr co-creator Marina Umaschi Bers (director of the DevTech Research Group at Tufts University), "Children aren't just learning to code with The Official ScratchJr Book; they are coding to learn." Co-creator Mitchel Resnick (head of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT) adds, "The projects you can make with ScratchJr are limited only by imagination. If a child can dream it, she can program it."

Healthy, tasty food that the whole family can enjoy. All recipes are taste-tested by kids, as well as friends and parents.

A cookbook devleoped to help parents of children with diabetes provide delicious kid-friendly foof that the whole family can eat.

More than 125 great recipes to enjoy that are so simple a kid can make them. Some tastes include BLT wraps and Turkey-Mozza Burgers. US $24.95, Canada $19.19.