As any good librarian knows (and I’m a good librarian!), some of the best adventures are reading ones. You get to stay safe in one place while getting the thrill of following fictional or historical characters as they climb mountains, race boats, face insurmountable challenges, get into scrapes and then get out again. This summer we invite you to all of the Tulsa City-County Library’s 24 locations – and the bookmobile – to start a reading adventure. You’ll also earn great prizes and coupons for food and local recreation. Here are just a few titles to get you and your child ready for a wonderf ..read more

The Oklahoma Center for the Book in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries coordinates the My Favorite Book statewide writing competition for students in fourth through 12th grades. Students are asked to write a letter to the author of a favorite book, book series, short story or essay and explain how the literature or one of the characters impacted their life. Cash prizes are awarded to the first-, second- and third-place winner in each level, and first-place winners select their school library or public library to receive a $1,000 cash prize. Evelyn Johnson, a sixth-grader at Riverfield Count ..read more

For frosty family fun and entertainment, the newly introduced WeStreet Ice Center is the coolest place to spend time this summer! The premier entertainment and dining complex offers much more than just an ice day. With a grand opening in March of this year, the recently developed space is a revitalization of the old Macy’s Department Store at Promenade Mall, in Midtown Tulsa. The result is 140,000 square feet of dining and entertainment, a cutting-edge concept that offers two NHL regulation hockey rinks, exceptional eats at Puck’s Sports Bar and Grill, a hockey pro shop, multiple game simulat ..read more

As school ends and summer begins, siblings may be getting a little too much together time, creating normal conflicts that annoy even the most patient parents. There’s lots of useful information on what you can do to avoid sibling rivalry and resentment, but are there specific things you shouldn’t do or say? Let’s consider what the experts suggest: Don’t compare The first and most important thing is not to compare your kids. Whenever you draw a comparison, one kid inevitably comes up on top and the other at the bottom, even if that was never your intention. Comparisons, says Karen Stephens, au ..read more

In 2014, Johnny Stack, a freshman at a Colorado high school, was introduced to marijuana.  He had scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his SAT, and he was involved in cross-country, karate, and piano. Johnny was described as a very happy kid who always had a smile on his face. His family warned him of the brain damage marijuana could cause, but he continued to use, mostly by vaping. In 2018, after he graduated from high school with honors, Johnny attended Colorado State University, but became suicidal and withdrew from the university.  After being sober for several months, Jo ..read more

We invited our readers to nominate someone they know to be honored as an Amazing Mom. We had so many great entries – it was a pleasure and an inspiration to read all the stories shared by so many of you. In fact, there were so many wonderful entries that we chose five finalists in addition to our winner. Winner: Patricia Pineda, nominated by her daughter, Dayann Pineda Photo by Makenzie Howard Photography Patricia Pineda, aka my mother, is the most amazing mother and person in the world. I look up to her so much; she is a great role model, parent, daughter and friend. My mom has a big heart ..read more

From teen mom to securing a supporting role in a modern family musical at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center this month, Patricia Pineda is one amazing mom! Patricia was nominated in TulsaKids’ Amazing Moms contest by her daughter, Dayann, who had some very special words about her mother, whom she describes as her “biggest cheerleader.” Besides being a supportive mom to two daughters, Patricia is a U.S. Navy Veteran and a recent college graduate. But there have been times when Patricia struggled as a single mom, battling depression and homelessness, and she will never forget being in that place ..read more

Some recipes we grew up eating we would rather forget. Mystery casseroles, questionable meatloaf, strange gelatin salads and Hamburger Helper can take a seat. For me, growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, my mom cooked a lot of dry baked chicken and baked potatoes, with SnackWell’s devil’s food cake cookies for dessert. But not all the food we grew up eating was bad! Sometimes we find ourselves nostalgic for the food our parents and grandparents made us. Let’s revisit some of those recipes to see which are worth making for our kids today. Poppy Seed Chicken This one is just as good as I remembered ..read more

You will find no lack of advice for ways to celebrate the mothers in your life this May. There’s the classic breakfast in bed, the ever-popular bouquet of flowers and, of course, the “Oh no. It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow” set of lavender-scented bath products from CVS. Gifts, celebrations and acts of kindness (and their reception) are as varied as the women you mean to honor. Though it may seem daunting, you will have to divine what you know of mom/wife/grandmother and find something that will be appealing to her. With that disclaimer, I would like to submit a suggestion on behalf of my fellow m ..read more

April 30 is National Bubble Tea Day, so I thought it would be fun to put together a list of places to buy boba tea in Tulsa. Here’s a brief history of Taiwanese Bubble Tea Culture: tealeaves.com/pages/bubble-tea-origins. I didn’t realize bubble tea was such a new drink, originating in the 1980s! Milk tea, of course, has been around longer. Joss and I have been trying to visit boba shops around Tulsa over the past year. He first got excited about the drink when we went to Pinkeasy on Cherry Street in August 2022 (now Pinkitzel). Pinkitzel is not the most affordable place to buy boba. Plus, the ..read more