Help make your kids' snacking a nutritionally smart strategy! Nutritionist Amber Wilson, MS, RD, offers some tips on healthy alternatives to junk food.

Michelle Obama and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver have embarked on a mission to improve the health of our children. While we wait for a nutrition makeover of school lunches, there’s no better time to look at what our kids are eating outside of school. According to a study published in the March issue of Health Affairs, snacking accounts for 27 percent of children’s daily calories. The 30,000 children surveyed in the study snacked an average of three times per day on candy, chips and other junk food, and this unhealthy snacking added almost 600 calories each day to the children’s diets. But all it takes is a little bit of planning and creativity to make snack time both healthy and fun for your kids.

Snacking, when done smartly, is a good strategy for children because they have small stomachs and are unable to eat large meals at one time. Healthy snacks give kids energy between meals, and also help to focus attention and regulate mood. Focus on fruits and vegetables, lean protein and whole grains when choosing snacks for your kids and limit their consumption of sugary, high-fat junk food. Look through your pantry and throw out the cookies, chips, candy and soda.

Rarely do couples sit down with each other after they marry to agree on a new set of guidelines for how to manage and talk about money as a couple. Add a child to the mix, and what seemed like small differences in spending and saving become amplified and a major source of tension in the relationship.

No one likes to fight about money, so why does it happen? Most often, it is caused by a communication breakdown and lack of understanding about one another’s past relationship with money. If left unchecked, financial pressures can become too big to handle. The reality is that money is one of the top reasons for divorce.

Instead of focusing on the past and mistakes already made, couples can break the cycle by following the steps below to ensure that they have a non-judgmental platform on which to build a positive financial dialogue for the family.

Marin Mommies presents another guest article by Marin parent coach, infant/toddler sleep researcher, and family therapist Angelique Millette. She works throughout the Bay Area and across the country supporting families and helping them meet life's challenges. You can learn more about her and her services at www.angeliquemillette.com.

So your baby has colic or reflux. Or your baby fights sleep, is fussy, and high-needs. You are not alone! Research shows that early on, up to 25 to 35% of babies may have a more difficult time with sleeping. Possible reasons include digestive issues like reflux, when babies food may come back up just as they are going down to sleep or as they are sleeping. Also, temperament has been shown to play a role in how babies settle to sleep. Difficult-to-soothe or high-needs babies may need a lot more parent help to go from active play or alert time to sleep time. These babies may be very curious and alert and may simply need more "wind down" time in order to fall asleep. And for some babies, they may have more difficulty regulating sleep. These can be colic babies or colic/reflux babies but also some premature babies and babies who may have had medical interventions or procedures at/around birth or early postpartum. For these babies, sleep may present a real challenge. Because sleep cycles and patterns develop over time and with parents help, these babies are going to need a lot more help and time to regulate settling to sleep and sleep patterns.

One of our favorite places for a family outdoor outing is Point Reyes National Seashore, and it's a favorite with many other families in Marin, too. Guest author Stacey Padrick-Thompson writes about her recent hike on Tomales Point Trail.

My husband and 3-1/2 year old daughter recently hiked a section of the Tomales Point Trail at the northern tip of Point Reyes. Just the drive there is itself worth the time, especially while the hills are still green and wildflowers still blooming (the best flowers are in April and May). At points on our drive, with beauty surprising us around each bend in the road—gorgeous hills cascading down into the ocean, cows, sheep, and horses lazily grazing on the lush green grass, and birds soaring above, and then below, us as we crested the hills in our car—I was swept back to driving the Ring of Kerry in Ireland.

Get ready to dance in the aisles at the Marin Symphony Family Concert, taking place on Saturday, May 8 at 3 pm in the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium at Marin Center in San Rafael. The theme of this family-friendly concert is “Once Upon a Symphony”. The great poems, tales, and stories of childhood come to musical life in this one-hour concert introducing children to the sights and sounds of orchestral music. KDFC radio host Hoyt Smith narrates a program featuring Ravel’s Ma Mere L’Oie (Mother Goose), Dukas’ setting of Goethe’s poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, excepts from the Harry Potter film scores by John Williams, plus much more. The symphony's traditional "instrument petting zoo" follows.

If you haven’t been to one of the Marin Symphony’s Family Concerts yet, you really owe it to yourself to check one out. We've attended them and had a great time. As an added bonus, they were able to try out orchestra instruments at the "instrument petting zoo" in the Marin Center’s Redwood Foyer after the concert, which was really neat.

Looking to build strength, tone muscle, and improve aerobic fitness in an outdoor setting, all while helping raise money to fight breast cancer? Fitpink is a Marin-based organization that provides “all outdoors” small-group training for women who are looking to get fit and help a great cause.

Fitpink was founded by Novato resident Ian Tonks, who was inspired by his passion for fitness and interest in women’s causes. A native of England, Ian holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from the University of Northumbria and an MBA in strategic leadership from Dominican University of California. He has more than 20 years of professional experience as a leader in youth sports programming, development, and fundraising, and has worked with athletes in several professional sports leagues, including Major League Soccer and the NFL.

Before becoming a mom, most women have a relatively unlimited amount of time to take care of themselves, whether it is leisurely shopping for new clothes or spending a few hours at the gym on the weekend.

When you become a parent, time becomes a lot more valuable and scarce. As a mom, you have also taken on a new role as your family’s ambassador, the official head and authorized representative of your family, and should feel and look the role! Of course, you have a lot less time to take care of yourself because you are busy taking care of everyone else. Even when you do find the time, you may not feel like you have money to spend on yourself.

Novato has gone through something of a supermarket renaissance in the past couple years, which have seen the opening of the big new Safeway near Hamilton as well as the upscale Paradise Foods in the Pacheco Plaza shopping center just across the freeway. The newest kid on the grocery store block is the long-awaited Whole Foods Market, which opened last Thursday at the Millworks on Grant Avenue in Novato's Old Town. If our recent experience there is any indication, Whole Foods is definitely poised to give its fellow markets a run for their money.

The 40,000-square-foot store is much bigger than its sister stores in Mill Valley and San Rafael, and far more pleasant to shop at, too. We've been there a few times since it opened, and have so far experienced no parking challenges or long lines, which was certainly not the case when the new Safeway opened in the summer of 2008. As one has come to expect from Whole Foods, the store features lots of organic produce, a bakery (try the pretzel bread!), full service meat and seafood counters, a deli, a Straus Creamery frozen yogurt bar, a coffee bar, a burrito counter, a sushi stand, a salad bar, plenty of prepared foods, and more. Many of the foods in stock come from local farmers and producers, and there's a board outside the main entrance that tells you where things come from.

Ever wondered if a fitness boot camp is the right way for you to get in shape? Marin fitness expert and owner of Novato Adventure Boot Camp Carlos Payte explains what it's all about in this guest article.

"What is Novato Adventure Boot Camp and how could I possibly be helped by it?” That is one of many questions that people think as they hear the name, see the bright-orange-and-red SUV heading down the streets of Novato, hear the buzz around town, or quietly observe as they walk their dogs past one of our locations in Novato. Americans seem to constantly be looking for better, more efficient, more fun, and more challenging ways to get into better shape.

We all know the familiar rush to join a new gym (or renew that old dusty membership card) after the holidays. We all know the promises to ourselves, the new commitments, and the dedication that we really WILL stick to it this time around. The fact is that most of us don’t stick to our commitments when it relates to taking care of ourselves. We have work, families, friends, volunteerism, and just that one last committee at school we promised to sit on during these tough times for our schools and kids.