Parks and Playgrounds, Sports Activities, Outdoor Activities, Rainy Day Activities, Events and Outings, Summer Camps, Spring Break Camps, Arts and Crafts, 4th of July, Beaches, Hiking, Picnics, Summer Activities, Zoos and Wildlife Centers, Enrichment, Parent-and-Child Classes, Gardening, Drop-in Activities, Snow Sports, Bicycling

The 7th annual Rock'n Blues by the Lake returns to support Novato's public schools this fall at Stafford Lake Park. This popular annual event takes place Saturday, September 26, from 10 am to 8 pm and features an all-star lineup on four stages that includes the B-52s (pictured) and American Idol's Blake Lewis, as well local favorite Tim Cain, the Beatles tribute band Rubber Souldiers, young musicians from Novato and San Marin High Schools, and more. It's a popular event for all ages, and proceeds go to support the arts and music in Novato's schools (which sorely need the money).

Other attractions include a carnival, jumpies, interactive Guitar Hero and X-Box games, food, beverages, a silent auction and raffle, and a magic show for children.

This fall, the work of legendary children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak will be on view at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum. The exhibition There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak is a major retrospective of over 100 works by Maurice Sendak, and features original watercolors and drawings from more than 40 of his books—including the groundbreaking Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen—as well as rare sketches, working materials, and interview footage.

There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak opens Tuesday, September 8, and runs through January 19, 2010.

The exhibition is organized by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, the world's only repository of Maurice Sendak's work. The exhibition allows both children and adults to gain a deeper understanding not only of Sendak's beloved characters and books but of the author himself, as well as explore the real-life people, places, and events that inspired many of the elements in his stories.

Marin Mommies is pleased to present a guest post by photographer Norm Levin, owner of Natural Portraits: Family and event photography as nature intended. He offers some valuable tips on photographing your children's soccer games (and any other sports activity). Read on to learn how to capture that perfect sports photo. You can visit Norm online at www.naturalportraits.smugmug.com

Where did the summer go?

It seems like yesterday that school was out and we were taking the little ones off on a family trip, or to camp, or swimming and baseball practices. As a parent with a camera, which eliminates practically no one, you’ve attempted with varying degrees of success to capture your child actively enjoying his or her outdoor pursuits.

Those cherished summer events are mostly behind us now, living on in our memories and stored on our digital devices.

If your refrigerator door is anything like ours, it’s already displaying your child’s fall soccer team assignment precariously held under a magnet. When the soccer season starts, which should be any minute now, you know you’ll be there digital camera in hand to get the photo goods. May the god of pixels be with you.

In case you missed or just didn't get enough of the Marin County Fair, you'll be happy to know that the 2009 Sonoma County Fair starts today at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, and runs through Sunday, August 9. It's worth checking out if you've never been: it's bigger and a lot different than Marin's smaller, more intimate fair, and has more of an agricultural focus, which is natural for a more rural county like Sonoma. The Sonoma County Fair also features a famous annual flower show, which is usually really worth seeing.

This year's theme is "The Fair Before Time", so there are plenty of dinosaur-themed attractions on hand, including three-dozen life-size dinosaur replicas sited througout the fair and Dinosaur Island, where aspiring paleontologists can dig for dinosaur skeletons, build volcanoes, and paint on a mural. Dinosaur identification, imitation, and look-alike contests will be held, and the flower show this year has been dubbed "The Garden that Time Forgot"! The Fair also holds a daily parade, which this year features two special guests: a 10-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rex and a 20-foot-long Stegosaurus.

Like many long-time Bay Area residents, I've always considered the San Francisco Zoo to be "The Zoo". For some reason, going to the Oakland Zoo in the East Bay city's Knowland Park never really crossed my mind. Recently, we'd heard some great things about the Oakland Zoo, so we decided to make the trip across the Richmond Bridge and check it out.

Located off Interstate 580 in the southeast part of Oakland, the Oakland Zoo is fairly small and compact, and easy for a family with small children to take in. It's pleasantly designed, too with an overall African theme to it. Many of the buildings have an African style to them and bear Swahili names. There's even an African village area with a replica of a tribal women's house.

Even though it's almost the end of July, there's still time for your kids to take in a late-summer camp session for fun and enrichment! Two camps offering late-summer sessions include San Anselmo's Le Petit Jardin French immersion program and Sausalito's Pine Point Cooking School.

Le Petit Jardin is a licensed preschool specializing in French language instruction for toddlers. Director Amber Smith-Lopata is now offering French immersion classes to grade school children in Marin. Students learn vocabulary and conversational skills through total language immersion in a small group setting. Hands-on learning activities include music, arts and crafts, games, reading, gardening, and occasional neighborhood outings. It's all totally in French, of course!

Those of us who subscribe to the dictum that you can never have too many local Trader Joe's grocery stores will be excited to hear that the long awaited Larkspur location opens this Friday, July 24, 2009. No longer will shoppers from central and southern Marin have to trudge all the way to the Trader Joe's in San Rafael's Montecito shopping center, where long lines and challenging parking are the norm (especially on weekends… ugh).

They'll have music, a ceremonial lei-cutting, and, of course, free samples. This is the third Trader Joe's location in Marin, along with the aforementioned San Rafael store and the one in Novato.

The new location, in case you haven't seen the store going in, is the Cost Plus Plaza shopping center on the Redwood Highway frontage road, in the space formerly occupied by Tower Records and a Crown Books clearance center. With Cost Plus World Market and BevMo! in the same shopping center, there certainly won't be any shortage of places to shop for wine and beer! Hopefully the increased traffic from Trader Joe's will be good for everyone's business in Cost Plus Plaza.

The popular Broadway musical Le Miserables will be performed by some of of Marin’s most talented young performers at the Marin Center’s Showcase Theater in San Rafael. Directed by Sharon Boucher, Le Miserables is presented by San Rafael Community Services, San Rafael Young Performers Theatre, Mill Valley Parks and Recreation, and Pied Piper Productions.

Featuring music by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables is an epic saga that sweeps through three turbulent decades in 19th-century France. It's also one of Broadway's longest running musicals.

The show runs from Thursday, July 23 through Sunday, July 26. Thursday and Friday shows: 7:30 pm; Saturday shows: 2 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday shows: 1 pm and 5 pm. Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door, and can be purchased through the Marin Center Box Office, (415) 499-6800.

Local artist Jennifer Richardson has just opened a new art studio in downtown Petaluma that offers children's art camps and art classes for adults, teens, and children. The new "For the Love of Art" studio, conveniently located a short drive from Marin at 600 Petaluma Boulevard South, is the perfect place for children, teens and adults to feel safe and allow their creativity to emerge with guidance from Jennifer.

In addition to offering summer art camp, Jennifer offers a Tuesday night (7–9 pm) Teen Art Night—a safe place for teens to come and hang out and foster their artistic skills and interests. Thursday night is Adult Art Night, which offers an artistic learning experience along with a glass of wine and great music. Also offered every Friday from 6–9 pm is Parent’s Night Out, where kids can come and join in educational art activities, have a bite to eat, and let Mom and Dad have an evening off.

Jennifer’s art studio also offers birthday parties. Art projects are the take-home gifts and the clean-up is taken care of.