Coquette Maman

Cirque Du Soleil TOTEM: Special Holiday Family Four Pack

As a special holiday treat, you can now see Cirque du Soleil's new TOTEM show in San Francisco for up to a 40% discount with their Family 4 Pack. It's a fantastic show this time around and a perfect gift for your friends or loved ones this holiday season. See my review of the TOTEM show here.

Purchase your Family 4 Pack online.

Design Your Nursery Online with Room to Bloom

Uber Stylist and mom Rachel Zoe helps Fisher Price and Sherman Williams kick off their Room To Bloom online nursery design tool. I wish I had this when planning for Chloe's room. I love that you can try on pain colors and patterns on the wall as well as see the layout of your room complete with some of those essential toys such as a playmat or swing that always ends up taking up space.

I also love the videos on the site by Stacey Crew, mom of two and professional organizer, on how to organize your nursery for small spaces. Sure the site and the tool does it's work selling you Fischer Price goods. One of my issues is that you aren't able to move around the furniture pieces. But overall with all the helpful how-to videos and tips, this site does give you a better way to visualize how things will look and offer you a way to see the paint colors in action. If you are planning your nursery, check out the Room to Bloom tool for yourself!

Book Review: Candy 1 to 20

I'm still on a sugar high from all the Halloween candy I've been eating (both leftovers and candy from my daughter, Chloe's stash). Who knew candy could also be educational too? Candy 1 to 20 ($8.99 at Amazon) by Laurie Wolf, Pam Abrams, and Bruce Wolf (published by Chronicle Books) is a simple numbers board book that helps teach children to count using clever layouts of candy. I've been working with Chloe on her counting, especially when it starts to get confusing for her around twelve through ninteen. She'll often forget those higher up numbers or mix them up, so we take our time with those pages and slowly count each little candy that makes up the number shape.

The candies featured in this book are all so colorful and iconic, it's fun to also name off kinds of candy as well as favorite colors. Chloe knows that green gummy bears are mama's favorite so she'll count out how many green ones she sees for number 13.

The photos are simply gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to lick all four of the lollypops that make up number 4? This seemingly simple book is a really engaging tool to teach your kids how to count.

Cirque du Soleil TOTEM Review

A week ago, I had the special chance to enjoy Cirque Du Soleil's new show, TOTEM on opening night. I've been going to Cirque Du Soleil pretty regularly whenever they are in SF for the last eight years. As much as I have enjoyed each show every time, TOTEM by far is my favorite! I loved the design of the stage and the digital projection that created a realistic element that transition nicely from beach or the sea. It was hypnotic and seamless. It kept me wondering what it would morph into next. You can catch glimpses of it in the video above.

TOTEM added fantastic modern elements to the program that really set it apart from shows before. The costumes (loved the glow-in-the dark neon acrobats), the music and choreography, as well as the digital set brought it completely into the future. The show also feels more upbeat than the last show (the bug one), making it a great event to take the kids.

Don't miss the chance to see the show in its limited run in San Francisco. Click here to purchase your tickets online and get 20% off! (Prices for adults depending on seating level are $56.50-$90.50, while children ages 2-12 are $42.25 to $66.50.)

Note: Show tickets were courtesy of Cirque Du Soleil.