The Laurie Berkner Band Blog

New Shows Announced!

We're excited to announce a bunch of new live shows!  Come celebrate with us!

Tickets for the Easton, PA show are on sale now!

Pre-sale tickets for Wilkes-Barre go on sale tomorrow morning (fans on the mailing list are eligible for pre-sale tickets - to sign up for the next pre-sale, click here!)

Saturday April 9, 2011
The Laurie Berkner Band Live in Easton, PA
The State Theatre, 2:00pm 
see details >

Saturday May 21, 2011
Live in Wilkes Barre, PA
Kirby Center, 2:00pm 
see details >

Friday July 1, 2011
Live in Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens, 6:00pm 
see details >

Saturday September 17, 2011
Live in Baltimore, MD
Pier Six Pavilion, 11:00am 
see details >

Saturday September 24, 2011
Live in Canton, MA
Life is Good Festival
see details >

Sunday September 25, 2011
Live in Canton, MA
Life is Good Festival
see details >

 

The Funny Things Your Kids Say (Again!)

Thanks to our Facebook Fans for leaving some these comments - check them out on Facebook for MANY more!

Karol Lorenz

My three-year-old son: "Mommy, let me smell you...you smell like hugging." (I get a big hug.) Daddy asks, "What do I smell like, buddy?" His response: "Like broccoli."

Eileen Miller Wilson

my daughter is autistic and non-verbal, but.....she brought me a box of baggies out of a kitchen drawer, which displayed a picture of the ziplock with strawberries in it, pointed at the strawberries and said "dis" (this) Molly Kate, 10yrs DS/ASD

Martie Amerson-Warren

After playing outside my 7 year old daughter Haley came inside and said "Whew!! I'm sweatting like a hamburger!!"-LOL!!

Mardi Steinitz O'Connor

My husband came home from work and asked our 3 year old if he liked wearing big boy underwear for the first time, his response was "No, they're too casual".

Bernadette Vidal ‎

5 y.o. was coloring a My Little Pony page. She reached for the red crayon, and colored it's eye red. "Someone took a picture of this pony, it got red eye, and they didn't photoshop it."

Catina Closson

My 6 month old was sitting on my lap facing me and my 6 year old was sitting on me side-saddle. My 6 month old leaned forward and tried to bite the button on my shirt in the chest area, and my 6 year old without missing a beat said, "Sissy, it's been too long. All that milk in there is expired."

Leslie Fields Oleschuk

In the car, on the way home from school, my 4 year old son said, "Mommy, my mouth is awesome." I said, "why is that?" He replied, " Because of all the words I can say and songs I can sing." :)

Shannon White Knowles

While driving through the campus of our local college my 5 year old watched a student drop a milk carton and leave the litter on the ground. My daughter then said to me, "That is not very responsible. That is littering. She looks like a grown up, but I don't think she really is". I thought is was such a true statement on many levels.

Providence Show

We had a wonderful time in Providence, RI this past weekend.  We received some of your great suggestions on Facebook for things to do in Providence - thank you so much for your great ideas, it made us feel very welcome!

It was a bit cold outside, but we had a nice time walking around and checking out some of the sights.  Bobby went to college in Providence, so he had a fun time revisiting some of his old haunts and telling everyone about how things have changed.

The show was very fun, and we loved looking at all the cool party outfits and animals you brought! 

Thanks so much for coming to the show, and we hope to see those of you who weren't able to make it at another show!

If you have photos or videos, please send them our way ([email protected]).  Please let us know if it's okay for us to post them online!

New Media

As you may have heard, we are in the process of creating a brand new website!

In preparation for the Spring launch, we've been updating our YouTube, Flickr, and Mobile App to make information more accessible and fun!

Today, we created a new way to watch videos on our YouTube page - our videos are now organized in Playlists by the following categories:

• Fan Videos
• Music Videos
• Live Show Videos and Bootlegs
• Behind the Scenes/Activities Videos
• Your Musical Nightlight Webcasts

You can also check out our Flickr page, which will be continuously updated to add new photos, also arranged by categories!

Have our mobile app (search "Laurie Berkner" on your smartphone)? Check out new songs and photos!

Here's a sneak peak of how the Playlists will work on our website:

 

Thank You!

I want to say a huge Thank You to everybody who wrote in to say happy birthday. When I opened up the page today I was truly blown away by all of your warm thoughts and wishes. What a wonderful gift! It has been so fun to do our Birthday Party concerts and celebrate the kids who come to our shows. Now I get to enjoy the feeling of being celebrated by you. Thanks again, I'm lucky to have you all as fans.

Love,

Laurie

Quick Recycling Craft

We asked our Facebook Fanpage for some quick and fun ideas for crafts that recycle old materials - and the ideas are inspiring, fun, and very entertaining!

Check out our Fanpage for more great ideas!

Marlena Taylor Beltrame

Take a water bottle, fill it with water, put all kinds of things inside, buttons, marbles, glitter, whatever, GLUE the cap on, and hand it to a child, they are amazing and entertain for a long time. Also if you mix water and cornstarch together, it makes fun slime type stuff, turns back into powder when it dries

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Jenifer Tolman Sims

Cut the bottom off a plastic soda bottle (single size or larger) put a nylon stocking over the large opening. Pull the stocking up enough to be tight across the open bottom end then use a rubber band to secure in place. Voila a million bub...ble blower! It will either make millions of tiny bubbles or a blowing foam depending on how tight the weave is on the stocking. You can use an old margarine container or similar to hold your bubble solution or a pie plate for a larger bubble blower. If you want your bubble solution to have super bubble power add a little glycerin to your bubble solution.

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Dana Gordon

Not exactly a craft but I have taken a large box and turned it into an "Oven" and then used old containers cleaned out (Oatmeal, egg carton, Empty honey containers etc to play kitchen). We also use egg cartons to hold paints in. The foam ones are great because you can wash them out.

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Tracy Cooper

Tie long ribbons to shower curtain rings or anything roundand kids can hold on to them as they dance to LBB songs!

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Karri Cross

When I finish a crocheting project, instead of throwing out the bits of loose yarn that get trimmed off, if they are 6-8 inches, the kids and I use them for stringing cheerios or fruit loops. They get the same fine motor practice they would get with beads; and I don't have to dive across the table every time they stick one on their mouths! Tie a knot in the ends and they make great bracelets; and very convenient take-and-go snacks for the car too! :-)

Greening the Office: Almost There!

We are almost there!

Yesterday, we tallied up our "green points" by taking a survey that gives points for every earth-friendly step we take in running the office.  Our goal is to reach "Gold Certification" - a total of 200 "green points".

Some things that give us these points are:

• Changing our lightbulbs to CFL's
• Installing sink aerators to use less water
• Reusing materials as craft supplies, etc (see past blogs about this)
• Recycling everything we can't reuse
• Purchasing "carbon credits" to offset our carbon use when traveling and shipping items
• Using certified "green vendors" for all of our merchandise (Did you know our t-shirts are 100% Organic and Fair Trade, our shaky eggs are made from a  sustainable fast-regrowth wood, and our posters are printed on 100% recycled paper using soy ink?)
• Printing double-sided
• Installing a filtered water system to cut our bottled water usage
• And much more!

After the assessment, we were thrilled to see we've reached almost 400 points!  We can't wait to make it official - our Green Consultant, Michele, is busy finishing up the paperwork (which is mostly happening online to reduce the use of ACTUAL paper).

We hope to be certified as a Green Company in the next month or so!

Laurie's Birthday Sale!

It's the Ides of March, which means today is Laurie's Birthday!

Laurie is spending much of her special day recording music for the new DVD - a pretty fun way to spend a birthday!

Laurie wanted to send her birthday wishes to all of you - so we're having a sale in our online store for the rest of the month of March!  Check it out - vintage t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, and hoodies for just $2-$4!

You can get 60% off of lots of fun LBB gear!

We hope you enjoy it!

We're Having a Sale!

In honor of Laurie's birthday (on March 15th), we are having an online sale!

Check out our Online Store for great products like t-shirts, CD's, DVD's, shaky eggs, posters, reusable shopping bags, hats, and much more!

Right now, receive 60% off selected items!

Happy Birthday!

Kindiefest 2011

We're happy to announce that both Laurie and our publicist, Sarah Rosen, will be panelists at this year's Kindiefest, which is held in Brooklyn from April 29th-May 1st.

Kindiefest is a family music conference where Kindie artists get together to discuss ways to improve the business and fun of entertaining for kids and families.

Laurie will be speaking on a panel called "Building a Brand for your Band", and Sarah will be speaking at two panels, "Social Networking and Fan Devlopment When Your Audience Can't Type Yet", and "PR: A General Guide - Mentor Session".

We're excited about attending - we can't wait to learn more about improving the band.  If you have any suggestions/questions/ideas, please shoot us an e-mail and let us know!