Liz Gumbinner

Not all of us will be able to focus on every moment of the red carpet entrances (kids needing dinner), the Oscars monologue (kid needs to use the bathroom), or even the one award you've been waiting for all night (kids have to go to bed)…

When people ask me about any tech "wows" I might have caught at the NY International Toy Fair this week, honestly there were a few but not tons. However the first thing I'm excited about is the upcoming Anki OVERDRIVE , and it's killing …

At Toy Fair this week, I was totally entranced by the Light Stax Electric Light Blocks , sort of a Lite Brite-LEGO mashup that you just can't stop playing with. They stack on a USB or DC-powered base (or use batteries if you like needles…

From the everything old is new again files, may we present the Wooden Boombox ? It's actually a Bluetooth speaker, but on the outside, it's a brilliant hat tip to the old school boombox of my misspent 80's youth. Only better. because thi…

With 8 bit making a comeback (thanks, Minecraft ) and pixels starting to appear everywhere as a "new" art technique, it's not surprising to see them make their way from our desktops to our countertops and beyond. I'm seeing them on all s…

With an average of 300 emoji reportedly tweeted each second, it's time to give into our graphical language overlords; our long-standing means of written communication has officially reverted back to the days of hieroglyphics and cave dra…

I recently learned a tip: Waking up and beginning your day looking at Facebook and Twitter can start you off on the wrong foot. Between the political fighting, the depressing news, the spam and the trolling...yeah. Not necessarily the fi…

One day we'll be telling our kids, "back in my day, the headphones were black! And we liked it!" And they'll look at us like we were crazy, thanks to companies like Sweden's UrbanEars which presents the most gorgeous colors each year. Th…

If your kids are as obsessed with Minecraft as mine, you will laugh like I did when I saw this Minecraft Valentines t-shirt . Not laughing? Give it a sec. Take your time. You'll get it. The raglan tee is just available in men's and women…

At the CES show this month, there was a lot of buzz in my social feeds around a new technology from Sleep Number Bed made just for kids called SleepIQ Kids that launches later in 2015. Looking more closely at the myriad tweets, it seems …

While my NYC school kids are home today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I know that sadly, it's still not recognized nationally the way we recognize, say, the mythology of Columbus Day. (I'll refrain from going off on that one.) …

At the 2015 CES show there was one press event that was awfully loud, and to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do at 9pm with East Coast jet lag was try on a pair of headphones and subject my eardrums to the pounding bass of some tec…

If 2014 was the year that we really started seeing widespread efforts to get more girls engaged in STEM interests, 2015 could be the year that it becomes so common, we can take it for granted. But...not yet. So we continue to be excited …

It's been a whole year since we discovered unlicensed Plastic Surgery Barbie apps for kids that made wonder what the freaking heck is wrong with people, and now, hooray! Here comes another series of games to file under Kids Games That Ma…

I have some great news about TripIt , the lifesaving, can't-live-without-it travel itinerary app that I recommend to everyone I know. In fact, it just saved me $300 a ticket on our trip to Las Vegas for CES last week, thanks to an auto-a…

I'm patting myself on the back for finally sitting down this weekend and sending out the thank you notes for holiday gifts that, yeah, I probably should have sent a bit earlier. But then, it was the holidays! I'm a busy working parent! I…

This week at the International CES, I was honored to sit down with Andrea Smith of MommyTech TV (link coming soon!) and share some of my favorite products for families that I had seen at the show early on. I knew exactly what I wanted my…

I've been in Las Vegas for the last few days at the International Consumer Electronics Show, and even though the show doesn't officially start until today, we've already been privy to some amazing CES 2015 press previews that I assure yo…

Well wasn't I delighted when I went to update all my out-of-date apps (another resolution), and clicked on Aviary in the App store (also in Google Play for Android ) which is one of my very favorite free photo editing apps. It was then t…

Last year, Nicole put together this wonderfully helpful post on how to take better holiday pictures of the family, and it's definitely worth another look today. At least if you think you might come across, oh, one or two photo opps of th…

I think a subscription to TripIt Pro is a fantastic last-minute gift for any frequent traveler. In fact, an alert from them recently helped me score a $300 refund (!) when an airfare I had purchased dropped significantly. So yeah. That s…

While we love finding cool gifts for kids under $15 that don't seem like stocking stuffers, there's something to be said for finding actual awesome stocking stuffers that won't break the bank either. It's not easy though when you've got …

As a frequent traveler, I've come to terms with the fact that I carry a big pouch around with way too many cords, accessories, portable chargers , and backups to the portable chargers. Even so, I'm always looking for ways to lighten the …

Every year for a looong time now I've looked forward to the annual Simpsons holiday intro that takes seasonal themes and runs with them, hilariously. This year's sequence does not disappoint--a Christmas (or Hanukkah?) miracle in itself …