I was looking for the perfect entertainment for my son's 2nd birthday party and I didn't want to…read morehire the usual balloon artist or bouncy house. I saw the blue blocks at some shopping malls and parks (not only in US but other countries) and my son loves it so I knew it would be perfect for my party since I had a limited space as well. I looked online and found very few people in US who works with the blue blocks and luckily one of the people was Becky in Orange County. How lucky! She was very professional and attentive to all my messages concerning my event. All kids enjoyed the blue blocks and they had to use their imagination to build whatever they want and it kept them really busy all afternoon!! Perfect!! We just put the blocks in my garage and voila! It became a simple, safe, educative and fun playground. I highly recommend OC Imagination.

My daughter had seen these at an outdoor shopping mall and just loved them. We rented these for her…read more3rd birthday party to entertain the kids and they loved it! Such a great safe way to keep them entertained while also allowing them to learn and nicely play together. Absolutely love these for events. Rebecca was great with communication, on time, helpful, flexible and accommodating! Highly recommend for any kids friendly event

So after a great cup of coffee and a pleasant hike along the back bay of Newport we found this…read morelittle gem with the cutest trails and nature center with waterfalls, native plants for sale and a total escape from the city. If your looking for a tranquil spot to refresh or just a quiet place to walk or maybe a place to bring younger ones to experience what orange county was like...then make this your next adventure.

We went this weekend and it was what the kids are calling very mid. We were under the impression…read morethe butterfly garden would be a more prominent thing and it kinda fell flat. The staff was non-existent to ask for help and the gift shop was closed. We made the best of it. If you're looking for somewhere to wander on a warm day, I'd suggest here.

This is My second attempt at starting an aquarium. My Husband had a 50-gallon fresh water tank back…read morein the day which I loved to watch the fish - very hypnotic & fascinating, swimming to & fro - but when He leveled up I had to let His fishy friends go too (the maintenance requirements were too overwhelming for Me then). My first recent try was to go the traditional route - heater, filter, bottles of water conditioner & beneficial bacteria, etc. etc. - when I unexpectedly happened upon an eye-opening You-Tube vid about the Walstad method (less homework & a more natural environment, the way God intended). So I returned all that other gear & am starting from scratch. Fernando eased My initial anxiety arriving as a total tank newbie, and gave Me a tour of the various low-maintenance plants I could start My nitrogen cycling with. Nolan - the Captain of this aquarium supplies ship - answered every one of My questions with patience & grace, did not talk down to Me or make Me feel stupid, and I left feeling happily hopeful that I might actually be successful in creating a fish-friendly safe & healthy environment. I am already envisioning My future fishy tenants, plus a snail & a sucker fish or two. Wish Me luck!! :-)

First off I just read Samantha M's review and I'm flabbergasted - this is the CLEANEST pet store in…read moreOC and most definitely there is ZERO smell. I've been to tongs, 8888, etc, trust me Nolan's is super clean. I came here for plants, they have a very large selection!!! My first time here was a few days ago - I got Hornwort, bolbitus, and dwarf water lettuce. They were all thriving. Hornwort fluffy and full! Also Thursday's is 25% off plants !! I came again today and brought a friend and she was also so happy we stayed there for like an hour just looking at everything. They have multiple rooms and a lot of tanks. The store seems small but it's not ; there's a lot of variety of fish, plants, and shrimp. Today there were red root floaters, one of the employees actually grew them - they were so healthy and super red I had to buy 3 cups !! I got more dwarf water lettuce bc my axolotl loved hanging in the roots. Staff today was super nice and helpful. There were 2 guys. It was extremely busy when I came like 10 people and they were helping everyone collaboratively. I hate when an employee only focuses on 1 customer who takes forever thinking and observing and there's a ton of ppl waiting. It wasn't like that here, the guy would answer a question and move on to another client. Also when the guy was fishing out some shrimp he was still talking to other customers and answering questions. I loved the vibe here. I will def be returning!!!!!

Really cute small park near Balboa and Fashion island. There is one patio area with a couple of…read moretables and two play areas, one for small kids and one for big kids. The restrooms are on the other side of the park. The restrooms are a bit far from the play area, but were very clean. There's a small area where there are some statues. It's almost like a miniature Japanese garden area. There's one large grass area for soccer. Overall, nice small park. The only con would be if someone had a party here, it would pretty much take up the entire park because it's so small.

Cute, fairly big park with an amazing view of CdM (Corona del Mar) and an ocean 'breeze' befitting…read morean albatros. There's a large grassy area w/ soccer goals. 2 play structures, for different age groups. Clean, public park style restrooms. Park your car in the street along the park.

I feel a little bit bad not giving this beautiful park five stars, but I'll make my reasons clear…read morebelow. Still, compared to most parks of this size in the US, this is probably a five-star park. And yet. Wow. I just can't believe Newport Beach had the foresight and wisdom to allow this little plot of prime real estate to be a wonderful park for the entire community to use rather than some multimillionaire's hillside estate. When I came and took my photos, I only explored the southern side of the park, which is separated from the northern side by a steeper part of the hill and some shrubbery. It's easy enough to get from one side of the park to the other, but from the bottom, where I started, I couldn't tell there was another half of the park. Most of the southern side is on a hillside that steepens as you walk away from Carnation Avenue. In addition to small grass areas, there are a playground, some picnic tables, and only a few shade trees. Those trees are important, though, because when the weather is beautiful and there's not a cloud in the sky like when I came in August, you probably don't want to be totally exposed. I had walked here from where I parked about three-quarters-of-a-mile away. When I drove back, I noticed on my GPS that the park continued, so I turned left onto 1st Avenue, and who knew? Begonia Park is actually named after Begonia Avenue, which is its northern/western border. This northern part of the park comprises a much larger, flatter grassy area. However, the only trees up here are at the very eastern corner of the park, so again, if you're picnicking on the grass up here, bring something to shade yourself with. At the westernmost corner of the walkable part of the upper park, there are two benches that face the ocean. There was a man sitting at one, so I didn't get out of my car to try the benches, but I could tell that they have a lovely ocean view. These benches are definitely five stars. My quibbles with Begonia Park may be minor, but if the City of Newport Beach fixed them, I'd gladly re-review and bring this rating up to five stars. The first problem is a big one. Despite Bayside Drive being a fairly busy street and despite the fact that two separate concrete walkways go right up to Carnation Avenue right across from Begonia Park's own concrete path to the playground, there are no marked crosswalks at or near the corner of Bayside & Carnation. This just feels like feckless indifference on the part of city planners. In addition to crosswalks, there should be those blinking yellow lights that flash when people are in the crosswalks. The top half of the park has a lovely view, and I like all the open space, but there should be more shade trees and especially benches all around the edges of the park, not just right where the best view is.

Lovely spot to picnic. Kind of tucked out of the way, so always easy to park along the, ha, well,…read morepark. Umm... one thing that I'd like to see? Bathrooms. Bit challenging to "hold it" if you're having a leisurely picnic, curled up with a good book, or catching up with a friend. Sometimes you just don't want to get up and leave the moment. Nice views from the top of the park. 2022: 60/100

Child Creativity Lab is somewhere where kids can build and create crafts and mixed media sculptures…read morewith re-purposed items and have the best time doing it. Child Creativity Lab takes donated every day items (Lego pieces, empty prescription containers, bottle caps, buttons, wine corks, new popsicle sticks as well as excess items from various companies (excess fabric, plastic bottles, paint, pins, tacks, glue, zippers, etc.) and they put them together in a package so that kids can assemble them them and create a figure like a robot or animal out of all the parts. Before COVID they used to have in house workshops, but now they take the party out to the kids in city community centers, schools, etc. My friend planned a service event here so I came over to help out for a couple of hours. All the parts for the project were laid out at various stations and we went down like an assembly line and filled bags with the items to create a project-in-a-bag for each child. If I was a kid in elementary school receiving a project bag like this to put together with other classmates, I would be totally stoked. If you are interested in donating common household items for them to use, give them a call to see what they do and don't take. You can also arrange to do a service event here with your organization, they have people come in every week to help out. We need more places like this in all communities!

What a wonderful resource for anyone working with children!…read more Great staffing, easy to work with. Highly recommend if you are looking for STEAM ideas and materials.

Whenever my neice is in town we love taking her to a "princess experience". We've done Bippity…read moreBoppity Boop at Disney. And Tea for Tots at Morning Lavender. They were all fun. But this was the best for both the parents and kids. Unlike Disney, the family members can all watch, and for an extra fee, Mommies can also participate by becoming a mermaid too. It was also more interactive than either of the other two experiences, because our niece got one on one time with her mermaid host, and got to have tea time and a Photoshoot. The adults also have a nice lounge area, where you can have lattes or some bubbly, if you choose. We appreciated that they considered the adults in the experience. Overall, we highly recommend this experience.

We attended this pop-up event with our two toddlers, ages 3 and 2, who were incredibly excited to…read morebecome "mermaids." Unfortunately, the experience was very underwhelming. The makeover consisted of a small amount of eyeshadow, a few face gems, and photos taken with a low-quality photo booth setup that were sent to our phones. As parents, we're happy to pay for experiences that bring our children joy, so the cost itself wasn't the issue. My main concern is with the hair application. The extension braids were attached improperly on both of my daughters using a single bead attached to a very small section of hair. This created significant tension from the weight of the braid and resulted in visible bald spots on both children afterward. Children's hair is much more delicate than adult hair, and techniques that place excessive tension on the scalp should be avoided. There are safer methods for attaching braids to children's hair, such as incorporating more hair into the attachment or braiding the extension into the natural hair rather than suspending the entire weight from a tiny section. I believe this demonstrates a lack of proper training and care when working with children's hair. Parents should be aware of the potential risk of hair damage before booking this experience. While my daughters enjoyed the mermaid theme, I was extremely disappointed to see damage to their hair as a result.