Walking With President Obama Stroll on Wash DC Streets Surprises & Charms Average Citizens

Lifestyle

Last time I shared with you about the White House, it was a blogpost series all about my personal dream come true to see and experience the Presidential holiday decorations up close. The White House Holiday Social seems like a distant memory now, but in December 2013 I was among a handful of extremely fortunate women bloggers invited to spend the entire day inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the most famous address in America.

White House Holiday 2013, MommyBlogExpert.com

Pictured below: Among my own special treasures are this Bo cookie made by President and Mrs. Obama's pastry chef and a napkin from the White House event I attended during the holidays. Also shown is a box of Presidential M&Ms I've saved for many years that former President Bill Clinton gave to a friend who then gave to me.

White House Mementos, MommyBlogExpert.com

This afternoon, back in Los Angeles, I received a new email in my mailbox from the White House that I just have to share with MommyBlogExpert readers: a YouTube showing President Obama breaking with White House tradition and walking over to the Department of the Interior earlier this week. Boy were the every day locals, tourists and street vendors surprised when the President came up to them casually to chat. He even handed out several boxes of those coveted Presidential M&M boxes to some kids and hugged a particularly excited lady and then posed with her for a picture.

Definitely a YouTube worth watching for every American ...



After you've looked at this, tell me if you don't agree. President Barack Obama was absolutely charming, don't you think? He made so many people happy and changed their lives forever just by coming up to them and saying hi.

I look forward to hearing your reactions and comments.

FTC Disclosure:  Featured is an official White House YouTube filmed this week in Washington, DC. No payment or other compensation was exchanged in connection with this post and opinions are my own. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's home page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Strawberry Shortcake Kids Character Movie Launch Event Adds Fun to California Strawberry Festival

Movies

This is a sponsored post

by Norma Perez, Mother of 2
Mommy Blog Expert Blogger

Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

There's nothing like this anywhere for fun family entertainment. What a whirlwind day we had last weekend as guests of Twentieth Century Fox Studios to celebrate the latest children's DVD release Strawberry Shortcake - Fun Under the Sun. New release festivities couldn't have taken place on a sunnier May day, at a better location: the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard along the coast just an hour and a half north of Los Angeles.

Image provided by Twentieth Century Fox

Upon arrival with my husband, daughter Sarah Perez and her friend Lilly Alvarez at this annual outdoor festival for strawberry lovers, the kids immediately started looking for the iconic character inspired by that bright red berry that's reaching it's seasonal peak right now. Strawberry Shortcake's worldwide fame may have come long before my little girl's birth. Still, as a mommy, it is very important to me that she is a wholesome character I approve of without worrying about being a negative influence on children. 

L to R: Sarah & Lilly, Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

How fun it was, especially to watch Sarah and Lilly enjoying themselves all day long. When the girls had an opportunity to create a shortcake dessert of their own to eat, with succulent sweet strawberries on top of fluffy pound cake, their excitement was quite obvious. 

Image by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

As they approached the end of the build-your-own strawberry shortcake bar that Fox Home Entertainment hosted for us at their booth, nothing could be better than to be greeted by the smiling lady with whip cream in hand to finish off their strawberry sweet creations in delicious style.

Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

As if that wasn't enough of a treat for these little ladies who are partial to the color pink, strawberries, and of course both Strawberry Shortcake (the dessert) and Strawberry Shortcake the animated character that first was created in the 1980s when I was a girl myself. You should have seen these darling gals' eyes and smiles widen with glee as they discovered the real live Strawberry Shortcake character standing just outside the Fox Studios tent. There she was, sweet as can be, bubbly and gentle, with kids lined up to have a photo opportunity with their favorite character.

Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

When it was their turn to meet her, Strawberry Shortcake gave the giggling girls identical friendship bracelets. BFFs Lilly and Sarah couldn't have been more thrilled saying quite definitively, "We are never gonna take these off!"

Here I am with the girls, Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

To top everything, we enjoyed a day full of fresh air, complete with buying and eating the ripest, sweetest, most decadent strawberries imaginable. The festival grounds were packed with so much to see and do all day: rides, amusements, unique handmade arts and crafts as far as the eye could see and great music that was purely contagious. I wouldn't want to forget mentioning the incredible food, either. You have never seen things like Deep Fried Strawberries, Strawberry Nachos and lots of other unusual ways of eating these berries.

Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

A living green sidenote: A huge thumbs up to the festival organizers for the abundant disposable containers placed throughout the event venue aggressively promoting recycling. It's a great message to send to both adults and kids that we all need to do our part to protect our environment.

Meeting Strawberry Shortcake herself was a dream come true and will certainly create memories that last a lifetime. For sure this festival, which takes place here every May, was a wonderful family Southern California day trip I recommend to all. We definitely hope to return in the years to come.

Image by Norma Perez, MommyBlogExpert.com

All is good. Stay tuned. I look forward to sharing another MommyBlogExpert family adventure shortly. 

About Fox's New Strawberry Shortcake Release
Strawberry Shortcake - Fun Under the Sun was just released on DVD and Digital by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. In the latest adventure, Strawberry Shortcake joins Blueberry, Orange Blossom and her other friends in the quest for a tropical vacation. With English and Spanish subtitles, the 2014 title includes special features like a music video and printable color pages. The DVD has a 71 minute runtime, lists for $14.98 and is widely available instore and online. You can follow the Strawberry Shortcake fun on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

FTC Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post and MommyBlogExpert is a member of the Fox Home Entertainment Insider brand ambassador team. Fox provided MBE blogger Norma Perez with a family pack of Strawberry Festival tickets, a gas card, lunch and other perks to facilitate content and photography coverage for this #StrawberryFunfest #sscbloggers post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Ways Teens Giveup Privacy on Facebook - Social Media Data Mining Dangers Impact Kids

Parenting

How Teens Are Giving Away Their Privacy on Facebook

Are kids today really oversharing online? More and more experts are agreeing that teenagers are baring their souls on social media like never before -- with Facebook, in particular, being challenged about how it handles the personal data of our children. In fact, by now, just about every mom and dad has heard about multiple instances where the privacy of middle school and high school students (and too often, even younger kids) have been needlessly threatened.

Teens are being affected in record numbers, MommyBlogExpert.com

Stanford University computer science professor and online privacy expert Monica Lam has an important message for youth and their parents: Be careful about how you use Facebook because you may be giving away your privacy and empowering teen marketers without even knowing it. 

Mobile devices now an essential tool for teenagers, MommyBlogExpert.com

Lam has identified four ways activities on Facebook that can damage your privacy and even impact future college admissions and job prospects

1. GIVING UP RIGHTS TO PERSONAL CONTENT 
Facebook actually "owns" any family photos, messages, and unique ideas that you create and post on the site or via its app.

2. EMPOWERING MARKETERS BY "LIKING" THINGS 
With its "likes" functionality, Facebook allows marketers to target you based on the people and things you associate with yourself. Every time you like something, you are giving a bit of privacy away.

Adolescent girls & boys interact constantly via social media, MommyBlogExpert.com

3. SHARING INFORMATION ABOUT FRIENDS 
By using Facebook to login to other websites, you're unknowingly sharing much of your friends' private and valuable data with third parties (and your friends could be sharing your data, too).

4. TAKING QUIZZES THAT STORE PERSONAL PREFERENCES 
Any time you take a Facebook quiz, you're potentially making public a little bit more about yourself and your personal tendencies.

Dr. Monica Lam at Stanford, Image provided by Monica Lam, Ph.D.

About Monica Lam, Ph.D.
Dr. Lam has been a professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University since 1988. As an alternative to social networking and messaging services that store and monetize personal information, Lam has created the Omlet chat app which is available for free. This is a fun messaging app allowing teens and their parents to easily chat with friends, share photos, post videos, take quizzes, and express themselves without fear of their data being sold or breached.

FTC Disclosure:  Monica Lam provided most of the content for this post. However, no payment or other compensation was exchanged in connection with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's home page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.