A few days ago Momtrends celebrated the back-to-school season with a fun event in NYC. Located at Freshmade NYC, a cooking school for kids that offers healthy and fun meal options as well as birthday parties. Featuring brands lifestyle brands for moms and kids and premium back-to-school selections, Momtrends gathered the top NYC influencers for a night of fun and work.

The event kicked-off with a casual mix and mingling between the brands and editors where they had the chance to test out Learn with Homer, a ground breaking new learn-to-read app for the iPad (more on this in a complete review next week), experience some amazing mini-makeovers from Avon and sample treats from Magnum Ice Cream, Funny Face and Freshmade NYC.

Bloggers and editors then enjoyed a casual presentation where they gathered tons of tips and insight into these brands for their own publications. Cara Buffalino-Silman and Thomas Stevens, founder of Freshmade NYC, spoke first about cooking with kids and noted that it starts by getting children involved in the planning such as with making lunches, meal planning and going grocery shopping together. They also suggested to give kids real food snacks, recreate leftovers, and to serve flavored fruit waters instead of juice.

We then heard from Funny Face Cranberries about their dried cranberries that are a great way to swap out raisins. We sampled some delicious oatmeal cranberry cookies, and the product line also includes fun flavors like Choo Choo Cherry, Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry, Goofy Grape, and Freckle Face Strawberry that would be a delicious addition to any lunch box.

Next up was Avon, a company that we at Momtrends love to test out. An Avon makeup artist was on-hand to talk about the essentials for quick and easy looks for moms with some of his tips being to always have an eyeliner on-hand and different lipsticks that can effortlessly change up your look without having to change your outfit. Nicole also spoke about Avon's BB Cream aka mom's best friend that can even out your skin while also providing sunscreen- and you can't beat the price tag at only $8 bucks a tube!

Nicole then spoke about Ebates and how she and several bloggers (Gina of Mommy Posh, Jenna of Lunch Pails & Lipstick, Nancy of The Mama Maven and Linda of NYC Single Mom) were given a challenge to spend $300 using eBates. As a website devoted to a website devoted to online cash back shopping, these bloggers were able to shop at some of their favorite online stores (Nordstrom, Amazon, Lord & Taylor and Old Navy) where they will later receive 5% back from these purchases!

We then heard from Nicole about some of her favorite kids' fashions for back-to-school featuring brands like Appaman and Stella McCartney. These brands are not only cute for kids, they also feature high-quality materials that are designed to last! She also spoke about the skinny denim trend for kids and to style boys' by incorporating color.

We also learned more how to stay organized thanks to the stylish and functional products from Office Candy. Their cute and sassy products are great for moms and bloggers as they help us to keep all of our important papers in one. Some of our favorites from their current line includes their Leather File Totes, Chinoiserie File Folder and the Desktop Sticky Note Set in City Chic. Check out our bloggers with their incredible giveaways from Office Candy!

To complete the presentations, we heard from Tina Huber, co-founder of Mad Pax who spoke about how this unique line literally started from nothing. This grew to include on a line of fashion-forward, trendy and fun backpacks for kids and adults that includes bubbles, blocks and spikes for the ultimate in back-to-school cool.

A night filled with learning about brands, developing new story ideas and networking, the Momtrends Back-to-School style event, like all of our events, offered brands, bloggers and marketers a mix between fun and productivity. Until next time...

Thank you to our amazing sponsors:
Freshmade NYC
Avon
Funny Face
Learn with Homer
Office Candy
Magnum Ice Cream
Ebates
Appaman
Stella McCartney
Kidfresh
Knot Genie
Cabot
Mad Pax
Nuttzo
Jenny Craig

This was a sponsored event put on by the Momtrends event team.

Are you a brand, editor or writer in the NYC area? To find out how to get involved or invited to a Momtrends event, email Sherri (at) momtrends (dot) com.