Star Wars Ice Sabers Cookbook Kit

• $24.99
• Chronicle Books

May the popsicles be with you! Or, even better, these molds you can use to make sweet, cold ice saber treats this summer. It's accompanied by a cookbook with 30 recipes.

A friend of mine recently inherited some money that she is considering spending on furnishing her home. However, she wants to make an investment that will last, hopefully even beyond her lifetime. But can you really choose furniture now your kids will want to inherit in 30, 40, 50 years? And how?

Name: Julian, 3
Location: Medford Lakes, NJ

Like many his age, Julian just loves cars. In order to save money as well as personalize it, we made the party a hybrid of imagery from the movie Cars and automobiles in general.

Cribs are often passed down from sibling to sibling, or within extended families, and it seems crazy to buy a new one if a secondhand one is perfectly solid and safe. But how do you make a crib that might be a little tired or outdated seem fresh and new? Here are five nurseries that made secondhand cribs work with style.

My Dad painted my bedroom once. One wall was all bumpy with the ghost of old wallpaper, and as he was painting over what should have been sanded, a huge bubble formed. For fun: he popped it. The outline of that bubble remained above my bed for the next 5 years. We all love my Dad, but we also all know how terrible he is at painting. Thankfully, there are some amazingly skilled painter-dads out there. Here is some of their best work!

Name: Eleanor and Oliver
Location: Southport, CT

When we moved to the suburbs from New York City (boo), our kids started sharing a bedroom. As spacious as this room is, it's been tricky to get the layout right because of two low windows and a bathroom door.

Looking for a good "dad" book? You won't have to look far as this area of publishing is flourishing. From first-hand accounts of fatherhood to humorous looks at the experience to books brimming with things to make, I've rounded up some new selections and some oldies but goodies.

We're surveying some of the coolest guys we know about life as a modern dad.

Name: Andy Ward, Book editor, Random House; intern, Dinner: A Love Story
Kids: Phoebe (11) & Abby (9)
Location: Dobbs Ferry, NY
Find me online: Do twitter accounts expire if you don’t use them?

1. A parenting trick that works for me and not for my wife: On weekends, I go for a long run and my daughters ride alongside me, on bikes, and as we go, they open up about their lives in ways that are really unguarded and sweet – and very helpful in the intelligence-gathering department. Which sounds ominous, but isn’t. The more deeply we know them, the better parents we can be.

2. A myth about modern dads: That, by some quirk of DNA, we are incapable of arranging our daughters’ hair into a proper freaking ponytail. 

Piggyback Rider

• $89
• Magic Beans

Kids reach a certain age when they're too big for a stroller yet there are occasions when they'd really like a ride or to see a little higher like at a parade. This rider only weighs 3 lbs and rolls into the size of a towel.