Family Fun Day at Westfield Santa Anita

If you went down to Thursday you were in for a big surprise, what with the snoring bears, hungry caterpillars and Twinkle, replete with a shock of luminous orange hair.

“Can I hear a really big bear snore?” begged Twinkle to an audience of attentive children during a lively rendition of “The Bear Snored On.” After a lackluster group snore the first time round she seemed much happier with their second effort: “That’s really good. Now, how about a growl?”

With an hour of children’s activities--including readings, snacks and crafts-- provided by Westfield free of charge to everyone, every other Thursday, its Family Fun Days have proved to be a real success. And this week's was no exception, with organizers believing that Thursday’s crowd was their largest yet.

“It’s fabulous. Kids love it, parents love it,” said Lisa Littles, shopping concierge at Westfield. Littles added that during the month of July they will be holding a Family Fun Day every Thursday, as opposed to every other, alternating between Twinkle and Friends and The Teenie Tones.

With the snoring bear having finally woken up, Twinkle moved onto the “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” a heart-warming tale chronicling one little caterpillar’s journey to become a butterfly, before the second half of the hour was given to decorating and painting small wooden bird houses that the children could then take home with them.

“It’s very creative, it’s very educational, and I think it’s a good idea overall for the children,” said Jessica Gunawan, from Arcadia, who was there with her son, Noah, and her niece, Faviola. Gunawan only stumbled across the event by chance on a routine visit to the mall for ice-cream, but she was impressed that Westfield was organizing these events for free--as were many other parents.

An Arcadian resident and a regular attendee, Carmit appreciated how it gave her son Adam, a part-time pre-schooler, something to do without it punishing her pocket. “I love it, absolutely love it, and the best part is that it’s free, F-R-E-E, because it’s so expensive nowadays, what with gas and everything.”

With these family days proving so popular, Westfield is putting on a number of events over the next few months in order to help parents entertain the kids, now that the summer holidays have finally arrived.

According to Joy Lucas, marketing coordinator, Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing is coming on July 16, and will be giving away prizes such as tickets to Shrek The Musical, while on Wednesday nights, beginning July 13, they start showing outdoor movie screenings as part of their Family Flicks season; the first being, coincidentally, Shrek.

Thursday, however, was all about lazy bears and greedy caterpillars, and as the arts and crafts table was being packed away, Twinkle sat down with a couple of children who had arrived too late to hear the earlier readings.

“How about you give me a bear snore?” she said, shaking her head. “Now, how about a really big bear snore.”

The kids played along, fully realizing this day was anything but a snore.