Here’s hoping there are more treats than tricks in your goodie bag!

Leave me comments with your Halloween costumes! I am sure our creative KIWI readers have some awesome costumes. I am dressed up as a black cat today. You can see my picture in my Cre8Buzz profile.

Also- what are you giving out for candy at your door? I am giving out some healthy granola bars and Stacy’s pita chips!

And now a couple of Halloween related quotes to get you into the “spirit” of things!

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween Night.”- Steve Almond

Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to. -Richard Harris Barham
“Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do. I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat. No thank you.’”- Rita Rudner

So, HAPPY HALLOWEEN from all of us at KIWI!

Who doesn’t love Build-A-Bears? I know I do. (I have one and I’m 23! And look how cute that ghost is!). They are so cute and it’s wonderful that kids (and adults) can create their own stuffed animal friends– pick exactly which animal, what clothes it should wear, and even give it a name with a birth certificate.

KIWI loves companies like Build-A-Bear, ones that encourage a child’s imagination. We love it even more when they give back to the community and to the Earth– that’s why this fuzzy friend is our pick of the week, this week. In honor of Build-A-Bear’s 10th Birthday, aka their “Year of Friendship,” they planned an extensive party– full of giving back! Among their plans are their “Stuffed With Hugs” and “Huggable Heroes” programs. “Stuffed With Hugs” invites kids to make bears to donate to children’s organizations– for free! “Huggable Heroes” works to encourage children to give back to their communities.

Our favorite part is that this adorable company is going to plant more than 280,000 trees in celebration of their 10th birthday! The first 10,000 trees were planted in Apache and Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona on October 16. These trees are a result of the “Friendship Forrest” campaign held in the workshops in the US, UK and Canada where guests were asked to donate a tree in honor of a friend or family member.

So thank you beary, beary much Build-A-Bear!

I would like to send a huge congratulations to our own Dr. Greene who made it into the New York Times! (Fancy, huh?)

First reported in KIWI Magazine as his column in our March/April issue, Dr. Greene’s “My Organic Prescription” can be found on KIWI’s website right here. In the article, Dr. Greene gives his top ten foods to eat organically. Click here to read NY Times “Five Easy Ways to Go Organic” featuring the one and only Dr. Greene! For more information on Dr. Greene and his new book Raising Baby Green (a must read for parents- old and new!), click on over to his website.

It was so exciting today to get the new American Girl catalog and to see that AMG has finally added an Asian doll to their line of historical dolls! It’s been a bone of contention for many of us adoptive parents that American Girl did not feature an Asian doll with corresponding books as they do with other ethnicities.

As anyone with little girls knows, American Girl dolls and books are extremely popular and are powerful in influencing young girls. Now, American Girl brings us Ivy Ling. She’s Julie Albright’s best friend and their story takes place in the ‘70’s. One of the books even celebrates Chinese New Year. Okay, so Ivy isn’t the “star” of the story, but I’m happy with this first step and think that other parents will be too.

So, thanks American Girl from everyone with an Asian daughter. Ivy will surely be on Maylee’s holiday wish list!

Note: I write this as Maylee heads out for an American Girl party. She’s leaving with catalog in hand, excited to share the news with her friends!
—Maxine Wolf,

Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble!

-The witches in MacBeth by William Shakespeare

We love when the good is pointed out- that’s part of our job here at KIWI. With so much bad news from day to day, good news is sometimes hard to come by. That is why I choose Forbes.com’s Top 15 Green States for this week’s pick.

Using a scoring system of 50 based on carbon dioxide emissions per capita (or “carbon footprints”), strong policies to promote energy efficiency and high air quality and the amount of green buildings with the LEED certifications. There are some surprises on the list, like New Jersey, usually jokingly referred to as the “armpit of America.” (KIWI is based in NJ and NY, so we’re pretty thrilled! Both of our states made it into the top 10. :))

THE TOP 15 ARE:

1. Vermont
2. Oregon
3. Washington
4. Hawaii
5. Maryland
6. Connecticut
7. New Jersey
8. Rhode Island
9. New York
10. Arizona
11. Massachusetts
12. Idaho (pictured above)
13. Colorado
14. California
15. Minnesota

We would like to thank Forbes for such a great list! Also a huge congratulations to the states for their rankings and their efforts to save energy and the environment.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully Harry. You’re not a bad person. You’re a very good person, who bad things have happened to. You understand? Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We have all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the power we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”

- Sirius Black in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (movie).

The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of. He’s just gotta pick this pumpkin patch. He’s just gotta! Look around. You can see that there’ not a sign of hypocrisy anywhere. Nothing but sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see. - Linus from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

GOOD GRIEF! It’s that time of year again. Time for pumpkin flavored everything– from pies to ice cream to cheesecake to, well shampoo! Everyone loves pumpkin around Halloween and Thanksgiving, whether it’s for carving or eating. It’s the perfect fall symbol. Just seeing a pumpkin makes you feel the autumn chill and reach for your favorite scarf.

Pumpkin picking is a fun fall activity, as well. What we don’t want is the pesticides sprayed on those fields to be on our children’s hands or in our pies (I know I don’t!). Do you want to know where the organic pumpkins are in your area? (I know I do!)

A very handy website is localharvest.org. All you have to do is plug in what you want (like organic pumpkins) and your zip code and it shows you all the places to get them in your area. You can search farmer’s markets, family farms and even restaurants.

And I’m pretty sure the Great Pumpkin would pick an organic pumpkin patch ;-).

Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he’s really in trouble. =)
- Dennis Larson

green school /grEn skül / n. a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.

I personally love growing trend of green schools. I wish they were this environmentally friendly when I was in school! Public and private schools are finding that going green isn’t just great for the children and the environment, it’s great for their budgets. On average, green schools save $100,000 per year – enough to hire two new teachers, buy 500 new computers or purchase 5,000 new textbooks (!!!).

How do I know this? Thanks to this great new site from the US Green Building Council, Green Schools, the information on why and how to build a green schools is only a click away. Their vision is to have all green schools within a generation (yay!).

We are cheering super, super loud over here at KIWI. We love that there is a movement for schools to go green. We are even doing our own part with the KIWI Crusaders Award (you can still apply until December 31st!). The Green Schools site even has a “Take Action” part of their site, where you can join your local green school campaign, learn how communities are taking action, and connect with other green school supporters.

So, click on over and start joining, learning and connecting with green schools!

Looking for ways to save money? Buying organic and natural can get a little pricey, especially if you are just making the switch. That’s why we offer our KiwiCuts to all of our readers and online friends. For our exclusive discounts, just click on over to KiwiCuts Online.

If you’re looking for discounts on grocery products, I just discovered Health E-Savers. Health E-savers is a website that “provides valuable printable coupons from all natural brands for food, groceries, natural remedies, natural beauty, nutritional supplements and pets.” The best part? They email the coupons right to your inbox. Lovely! (Perfect for us glued to our computers and our email.) No more clipping coupons, it’s printing coupons now. All you have to do is specify what categories and brands you prefer and your email address—it’s that simple. So, head on over and start saving.

A few months ago, my children and I went to the supermarket to pick up a few things. As we walked the aisles and stocked our shopping cart, we discussed the different items we passed. My son, who is severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, looked at a large plastic container on the shelf and said, “What are those?” I was surprised that he didn’t recognize the peanuts in the box. Sure, he had seen drawings of peanuts in books, but he had never seen them up close and personal. I immediately realized a major flaw in my plan to keep him safe…by keeping him away from peanuts, he was unable to recognize the food that he must avoid!

He then asked, “What’s in that bag?” I answered, “Those are almonds.” His answer? “Oh, I can eat those. They aren’t nuts.” Again…I was forced to face the fact that in my focused desire to keep him safe, I had not given him the tools to protect himself. Sure, I taught him the words “peanut” and “tree nut”, but cashew, pecan, almond…how could I expect my 4-year old to avoid foods he didn’t recognize as a danger? Unlike walnut and hazelnut, there is nothing about the word “pistachio” that would alert him to the risk.

My lesson: As much as I want to keep my son away from the foods that put his health and safety at risk, it is also my job to teach him to protect himself. Though at 4, he has teachers, counselors, siblings and, of course, his parents keeping an eye on him, he must begin taking on some responsibility to advocate for himself. Knowledge is power…and I want my son to have as much power as possible. Because the day will come when he doesn’t have his mother or his teacher looking over his shoulder, and the responsibility to make decisions about what he will and will not eat will rest solely on his shoulders.

So, to empower my son, I picked up every bag of nuts on the shelf: from peanuts to pine nuts, walnuts to pistachios. We talked about almond butter and Cracker Jacks; we looked at bags of trail mix and dried fruit; we discussed how some popcorn might be popped in peanut oil and how some brownies have walnuts in them. Not the most fascinating of conversations for a child, but educational nonetheless…and quite necessary. I know it will take more conversations such as these to alert him to all of the potential dangers out there, and the likelihood is that we won’t ever cover then all. But every talk we have will further prepare him to navigate the food maze on his own. And though I will always want to protect him, I know it is my job to make sure he can protect himself. Fingers crossed…

Written by Robin Davison, MPH, JD
Founder of STAT KIDS (www.statkids.com)

I spent this past weekend in the lovely city of Chicago at the Naturally Healthy Children’s Expo. I met lots of great, new (and some seasoned) green parents and, of course, adorable kids! We gave away lots of magazines and KIWI Care Packages. It was a great time. There are many reasons, like the NHCE, why the Windy City is our Pick of the Week.

• City Hall has a 20,300-square-foot rooftop garden.
• The city has 2.5 million-square-feet of green roofs planned or already in use.
• They host a Green Festival. Next year’s fest is in May!
• On the city’s website, has a Center for Green Technology that is set up to help business and home owners learn about green technology.
• Chicago’s Green City Market, the Windy City’s sustainable farmer’s market.
• Chicago’s architecture is getting a green makeover.
• They even have a guide for building green roofs!

Need we say more? Chicago is a great city, but when you add in their green initiatives, it really soars!
Chicago’s City Hall before the garden (pictured above).
Chicago’s City Hall after its great green makeover.

The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. The end product of child raising is not the child but the parent.

~Frank Pittman, Man Enough

In honor of baseball playoffs, a little inspiration from one of the greats.

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
Hank Aaron

October is the beginning of fall and the time of ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. It is also “International I Walk to School Month.” In this month, 42 countries will participate in the month dedicated to walking to school– wow!

Why? The meaning of this month varies in each community. Some communities focus on the development of healthy habits, like the exercise walking to school allows. Other communities choose to focus on the environmental friendliness of walking to school.

Below is a list from www.iwalktoschool.org of activities to celebrate the wonderful act of walking to school.

Examples of Walk to School activities:

• Designate “Walking Wednesdays” to encourage walking one day a week and potentially extend the event to a month or a year-long activity
• Develop walking themes for each day of the week: bright, highly visible colors day, “walking hat” day, bring a healthy lunch day, etc.
• Set up a competition with awards for the classes with the most walkers
• Offer an option to students who ride the bus or carpool to walk once they arrive at school.
• Organize a walking school bus from nearby neighborhoods. For information on how, visit www.walkingschoolbus.org
• Plan a school-wide event to recognize the day such as a picnic, an assembly, an awards ceremony or a pizza party for the class with the most walkers
• Fill the month with activities throughout the day that pertain to staying physically fit, eating healthy and caring for the environment.

Check out their website for more information and how to get involved.