Best OfKnow someone that should be featured in our Best Of section? Nominate them! Please send to mail to:
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or use the contact us page.Thanks! BEST OF: MOMS AND DADS WHO ROCK!  | Kristina Schmidt is a realtor with Houlihan Lawrence (www.teamyoutrust.com<http://www.teamyoutrust.com/>) and balances her real estate career and yoga teaching with chasing after 1 year old Angelica Marie. Angelica is her first child with Aaron Schmidt, her husband, who is an environmental planner and the town arborist for all of Greenburgh. The family lives in Tarrytown, as both Kristina and Aaron grew up together in Irvington. The couple were "only friends" for 15 years and re-connected 2 years ago over facebook as Kristina lived in Manhattan working on Wall Street, and Aaron worked and lived in Westchester. After their long friendship things moved quickly as they married, bought a condo and had a baby all within within a year! In her free time Kristina enjoys family vacations in Disney, practicing yoga, spending time with her daughter's playgroup including the monthly "Moms Night Out", and planning events including A Tree Grows In Westchester. She likes to focus on being "green" and loves being back in the community of Westchester with its tree lines streets, sprawling parks and the beautiful sunsets they offer. Professionally, for Kristina the transition from Finance to Real Estate has been seamless and is the career path is a "perfect fit". Partnering up with seasoned agent Danielle Ishkanian who also has young children, they formed The Team You Trust. The two provide excellent client coverage and "enjoy making real estate transactions enjoyable" at the same time as they nurture their growing families. The support of other moms and families is paramount, so please reach out to them when considering your next real estate transaction. Contact:
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mailto:
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> and visit www.teamyoutrust.com<http://www.teamyoutrust.com> |
| We congratulate Nikki Baxendale, originally from the UK, but a resident of the US for over 10 years. Now a resident of Irvington, together with her husband Mark, they have a very loud house with a 2 year old son, Hudson, and twin girls, Chloe and Lily, now 1. Mark is a senior exec at Toys R US and Nikki is VP of design for a Manhattan based fashion company. Nikk also has 2 companies in the photographic field which specialize in family and children's photography. Examples of her work can be viewed at the following sites www.nikkibaxendalephotography.com and www.pixelationfoto.com |
 | Sarah Welch is the co-founder and Chief Dreamer of Buttoned Up (www.GetButtonedUp.com), a company dedicated to helping busy people get organized sanely. She identifies herself as a "yo-yo organizer" who was able to stop the yo-yoing once she embrace the notion that there was no such thing as being perfectly organized. Sarah and her husband, Gardiner, also a successful entrepreneur, live in Dobbs Ferry with their sons William and Lachlan. She shares, "Once you let go of the quest to become 'perfectly organized,' it's amazing how much easier (and fun) it is to get and stay organized."
Sarah is a seasoned entrepreneur who is used to juggling two or more jobs and a million details at once so she can make ends meet and chase her dreams. Over the years she has learned that the secret to getting it all done is…well…not to try! Instead she focuses on maintaining momentum on all fronts with the help of the 80/20 rule (and a good sense of humor helps quite a bit too).
Prior to co-founding Buttoned Up, Sarah was a New York advertising agency executive and entrepreneur. She managed client relationships and studied what makes people tick at J. Walter Thompson, Ammirati Puris Lintas, and M&C Saatchi, then struck out on her own as a marketing consultant in 2000. She has worked with a long list of big brand marketers, including Kellogg, Unilever, MSN, General Motors, Gap, and Bank of America. In addition to Buttoned Up, Inc., she co-founded Mindset Media, a growing Internet media company. Sarah has a BS from Georgetown.
Sarah and her husband, Gardiner, also a successful entrepreneur, live in Dobbs Ferry with their sons William and Lachlan. She shares, “Once you let go of the quest to become ‘perfectly organized,’ it’s amazing how much easier (and fun) it is to get and stay organized.”
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Daniel is a partner at Frendel, Brown and Weissman CPAs in Manhattan. A native of Long Island, he puts up with being recognized in Westchester as Clara and Emma's dad. A fan of the Jets, Islanders and the Yankees, and Argentinan soccer, Dan always finds time to enjoy singing songs from Wonder Pets and Gabba with his daughters and loves to share his ice cream with them too! <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> |
 | Adrian Shotton is a super awesome dad who rocks out to Led Zeppelin with his 2& 1/2 year old while letting mummy get some extra zzzz's on the weekends. He is also well known for his 'creations' for Anabelle, such as the 'Walkulator mark 1, and most recently the 'cardboard dollhouse for Anabelle's SUPERFRIENDS!' By day, Adrian works as the SVP of software development for Fidessa, a company that designs software for Wall Street banks. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> Thanks to Adrian for building the website & teaching mommy and her biz partner Arin how to navigate some tough software. |
 | Jennifer Holiday and Howard Grossman have been living in Hastings since late 2001. Like so many, they moved from the city with their then almost two year daughter. Eight years later, they have a house, a second child, and two home businesses. RivertownsGuide.com, http://www.rivertownsguide.com, which launched in February 2009, is the most comprehensive local area resource for the Rivertowns. The Guide is complete with local events, shows, entertainment, and the best listings for restaurants, shops, museums, theaters, kids activities and birthday party venues, etc., in the area. They not only conceived, built, and designed the site, but they also maintain it with hourly updates. Jennifer and Howard have also been working with a wide range of small businesses, corporations, nonprofits, and individuals to help shape both their message and presentation.With extensive experience in Marketing and Design, they have developed promotional materials, websites, and,identities & logos. They have lent their creative talents to many local projects including RiverArts Studio Tour, Take Me to the River, Jazz & Blues Festival, Dobbs Ferry Festa, Aquefest, Toast!, and others. In January 2010, they are officially launching their Design and Marketing Firm under the name 744 Creative, http://www.744creative.com. Examples of their work can be found at their various websites:RivertownsGuide.com: http://www.rivertownsguide.com744 Creative: http://www.744creative.com12E Design (Publishing Industry Design Work) http://12edesign.com/
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Sara and Doug Schneider live in Dobbs Ferry with their boys Max (6.5 years old), Gus (3 years old) and dog Clover. By day Sara is the digital media director at an independent PR firm that specializes in business books and authors, and on nights and weekends she’s the owner of Sara Bakes Cakes, which specializes in one-of-a-kind cake and cupcake designs for both children and adults. A graduate of The Institute of Culinary Education, Sara has a passion for making desserts with wholesome ingredients that taste as good as they look.
Doug is the Director of Photography at the Benchmark Education Company in Pelham and has a flourishing freelance photography business, specializing in family portraits, events and food. He's also the drummer for the Rivertowns-based rock band, Greetings From Anywhere.
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| Elina Furman is a recent arrival on the Dobbs Ferry scene with her husband Jay and 20-month old son, Julian. While she has only been here a few months, she is already in love with everything about the Rivertowns, from the amazing river views to the incredible restaurants to the down-to-earth and creative people she meets. As the author of over 20 books on such topics as female commitment phobia, adult children living with their parents and relationships, and has appeared as a lifestyle expert on such shows as The Today Show and Good Morning America. While working as a writer, she also got her feet wet in new media, having worked as Editorial Director for such websites as Seventeen Magazine Online and WomansDay.com. She started Mamaista.com (the chic little daily for moms) with her sister Leah in 2009. Mamaista is a free daily e-mail newsletter and website that delivers the coolest, most useful products and services for babies, tykes, tots and moms. Most recently, she has relaunched her writing career, penning parenting articles for such publications as Babble.com, Playground Observer magazine, Pregnancy magazine and is working on a story about how the Rivertowns are the new Brooklyn. If you have thoughts on this latest topic or would like to be interviewed, please email her at
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. To learn more about Mamaista daily newsletter and sign up for the daily emails, visit www.Mamaista.com. |
| Heather Berns Cloutman lives in Dobbs Ferry with her husband Andrew and two year old daughter, Alexandra. Heather is an accomplished physical therapist who has published text book chapters and magazine articles in her field. She began work as a pediatric physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. After seven years of experience, she opened up her own private office in Irvington called New Beginnings Physical Therapy. New Beginnings offers one-to-one attention in a supportive and child-safe setting. The gym is private and has clean, up to date equiptment. She provides a full range of physical therapy and rehabilitation services for pediatric patients with a wide variety of dianoses including: torticollis, developmental delay, orthopedic injuries, cerebral palsy, hypotonia and Down Syndrome. Her husband Andrew, also a physical therapist, has an office in the same building. His practice, Rivertown Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation focuses on teenagers and adults with a variety of physical therapy needs. |
| Aimee Saposnick has been living in Hartsdale with her husband and 2 sons, Charlie 3.5 years old and Daniel 9 months old for 4 years. She have been practicing dentistry for 9 years. Over a year ago, she bought a practice from a retiring pediatric dentist in white plains. She is a board certified pediatric dentist specializing in the oral health care of infants, toddlers, children, adolescents and children with special health care needs. She is on staff at Westchester medical center and St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. Aimee taught residents at St. Barnabas for the past 4 years ( not currently doing so, scheduled to go back to teaching at westchester medical center in September). Lately, Aimee has been spending a lot of time going to preschools and day care talking about brushing and how to prevent cavities. Click HERE for more deets on Aimee's practice |
 | A native of Yorktown Heights, NY, Kim Force and her husband Christian moved to Yonkers four years ago after after 2-year stints in Belmont, MA and Riverdale, NY. Prior to that, Kim had spent many years of living in Manhattan and working in the music industry. As a city girl, she spent her nights and weekends singing in bands. Kim continued this busy lifestyle of work and play until the birth of her son Tycho in late 2007. In 2008, she finally made the decision to put the long commute and the hectic job behind her, but she didn't sacrifice the rock 'n roll. Channeling her energy into a new life as a SAHM, Kim now performs all over the New York area as the lead singer of the band Slick Trixie. Whether she's kicking back at playgroup or belting out tunes at a local concert, Kim works on proving that motherhood and coolness are not mutually exclusive and that rocking all night isn't just for babies! You can check out Kim's band here |
Gwenn, husband Simon and son Ethan | Gwenn Saiman Speak has been a Dobbs Ferry resident for 5 years. When she became a first time SAHM after 3 years of working long hours in the city, she had virtually no clue what activities were available to her family. When a classmate of hers had just founded a web franchise of community newsletters, Macaroni Kids, (and another friend and classmate became the publisher of the Chappaqua edition) Gwenn decided to take over for Dobbs Ferry. Over time, Gwenn partnered with Esther Feldbaum, the Ardsley Publisher-Mom and the result is a well edited, focused and easy to peruse newsletter that is relevant to families with children of all ages in the Westchester Rivertowns The weekly newsletters feature articles, tips, crafts and a calendar for activities in Southern Westchester. Gwenn and her son Ethan are active park goers and class takers as well, and Gwenn enjoys reviewing many of the activities they participate in so that she can share what she has learned with her readers.
Future plans for Macaroni Kids include a new "community corner" feature with little known facts about the towns, recreation, services etc
You can check out Gwenn's hard work at :
http://westchester-rivertowns.macaronikid.com/
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