Scootering with style
It takes something special for me to want to buy it in the way of kids’ toys. Don’t get me wrong. Little C doesn’t live a deprived existence — it’s more a matter that he plays with the washing basket and items in the utensil drawer more than his actual toys.
However, at Christmas he got two tricycles (mad, I know) — one from my mum and one from an aunt. And he LOVES them. So as he will be turning two in June I’d love to get him one of these Kiddimoto. Yes, they’re not cheap but I figure he’s going to get many years’ use. And I’ve got quite a few months to start saving. They’ve just become available in Australia, and here’s the UK website.
- Natalie
Felafel
I was sitting beside a Lebanese guy at a wedding this weekend and he could not help raving about the wonderful food from his country and the Mediterranean area in general. Since then I have not stopped thinking about great Mediterranean dishes. Don’t forget: eating a Meditarrenean diet apparently makes you live longer…
So this afternoon my daughter and I got busy and made up a dinner’s worth of felafel, which we had not eaten for the longest time.
Felafel are perfect for kids, easy to eat and perfect to accompany lots of different salads. They are very simple and a huge amount of fun to make. (I told my daughter that we were going to be making little round balls out of a sticky play dough-type substance and she was completely enthused by this.)
Above all, felafel tastes absolutely delicious and gets devoured at high speed here at our place…
Here’s the recipe: (more…)
Battersea Park
Weekends are always for adventures and when we stumbled from our cosy little burrow last summer into Battersea Park we hit upon treasure. The Park is situated just south of the river between the Albert and the Chelsea Bridge. We drove and parked up at one of the many car-parks around the park. We got all of our paraphernalia out of the car: buggy, 2 children, nappy-bag … (you know the drill) and hoped that the trip was worthwhile. We were aiming for the children’s zoo that we had heard about, but before even getting there we saw a boy driving around the park lanes in a cross between a bike and a go-kart. Then we saw 5 or 6 more children come flashing past in similar vehicles — there was no way that coincidence could have situated 6 recumbent bike owners on this one park path? It turns out Battersea Park is one of only two parks in London (Dulwich being the other) where London Recumbents hires bikes, trikes, tandems and various other bike-like contraptions (hiring starts at Easter and goes through until the end of Summer). It looks like so much fun, and in fact Time Out called it “the best family biking this side of Amsterdam” — it must be good, hey Esther? (more…)
The rainy season
When we planned our big road trip up Australia’s eastern coast we knew that it was going to be Queensland’s rainy season. Naively, we thought we might encounter a few afternoon thunderstorms or possibly a day or two of rain. We had no idea just how much rain we would see. Since crossing the border of New South Wales into Queensland it has rained all day every day. And the rain is fierce here – we’re talking serious rainfall. It has rained so much that we have had to make 2-hour detours because entire highways have been under water. The rain is, of course, good for the rain forests in this area, but it has totally dampened our spirits. Not to mention, it’s put a kibosh on our plans of visiting some of Australia’s most famous islands and beaches. We made it all the way up to the (apparently) beautiful Whitsunday Islands only to sit in our campervan and watch the rain fall. Boring. (Can you sense my growing frustration?!)
Alright, I’ll stop complaining. I’m sure all the Australians are sitting at home saying “I could have told you so!” And, to be fair, we have done some pretty cool things in the past couple weeks despite the rain. Here are the highlights…
New Years Resolution 1 of 999,999
This year I am getting organized! And this year, unlike the last few years, I am really serious. I totally triple swear.
While I have never been a “Type A” person and have always led a life of total chaos behind the scenes, I have finally hit a breaking point. My girls are turning four next month and I have yet to put together a single photo album or memory book. I have everything from sonogram pictures to photos of their 3rd birthday party in the same box stashed in my closet. I have amassed piles of all of the cute clothing that they outgrew because I simply can’t let go of the memories. And that is just their stuff — let’s not even begin to talk about mine.
The other day I stumbled upon the book One Year to an Organized Life which seemed heaven sent. I have tried to organize in vain before but it seems that the piles always get bigger and the work is never done. The more I try — the worse it becomes. I always wind up feeling defeated and run out of steam. I did have someone help me with my closet last year but that was just a starting point. In a perfect world I would just love to always put my keys in the same place, have a streamlined file cabinet, and stop constantly looking for my cell phone in my bag… but most importantly, I want to have the memories of my girls growing put in order. (more…)
Some old Valentine favourites
Courtney gave us her recipe for sugar cookies a while ago, and it’s truly great. What else to make for Valentines Day than these beautiful, yummy, pink and red hearts? I’m surely making a batch today so the glazing will be perfectly dry tomorrow.
If you’re in the mood for a laugh, let me remind you of the ‘romantic evening‘ my husband and I hoped for two years ago. If you’re planning something similar for tomorrow, make sure you won’t be disturbed!
And do you remember the heart-shaped paper clips that we used to make as children and Michela wrote about last year? I think my daughter would love to make some to decorate her drawings…
xxx Esther
Easy and Sweet Valentines Decoration
If you have a sewing machine, this Valentines decoration is easily made, and my kids really liked the project!
Just potato-stamp hearts on paper; I used recycled paper but you can use any sort really, even newspaper. No need to be perfect here, my 2-year-old had quite some production going. Let the paint dry and cut the hearts out. Again, slightly outside the outline of the stamp is fine, my 4-year-old girl was perfectly capable of doing it all herself! How typical for this age…
My machine had black thread in it and I didn’t bother changing it. I think it actually looks quite nice like this. Make sure to leave some thread at the ends for attaching!
My daughter’s bed looked lovely instantaneously! (The wallpaper bird is from Inke, more about that later.)
xxx Esther
P.S. Inspiration for this project came from Maya*Made
A quick Valentine’s treat
Seriously — so so so quick. Done in 15 minutes before dashing out of the house to kindergarten. The classic chocolate-crispy-cake but Valentined-up with mini marshmallows and the most adorable heart sprinkles from Etsy-shop Hey Yo-Yo (which I love for all things cake & kitsch). We dolloped our mixture into pretty pink paisley cases for our playdate in the afternoon, and then into mini-cases to fit inside this very pink heart tin from Paperchase (pictured) as a Valentine’s present for my son’s beau. Yes, my son is in love! His name is Elias and he has aptly fallen in in love with a girl called Grace — anyone who knows the store in Primrose Hill will appreciate his brand loyalty.
To make you need: 100g milk chocolate and 60g golden syrup (or 3 Mars bars work nicely), 75g unsalted butter, between 75 to 100g rice-crispies cereal, a handful or so of mini-marshmallows and some heart decorations. If you can’t get sprinkles then any heart sweets could work, or even love-hearts (I love their messages).
Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter over boiling water. When melted stir until smooth and remove from the heat. Add rice-crispies and stir, then add the marshmallows and stir again. Spoon into cases and decorate with hearts. Leave for a couple of hours to cool and set or put into the fridge to speed up the setting process. Yum!
-Mo. x
Suga Candy Kitchen
With Valentine’s Day approaching I am thinking that a trip to the Suga Candy Kitchen might be on the cards. This lolly shop is my kids’ version of heaven. What can be more exciting, more mesmerizing than handmade, delicious rock candy made right before your eyes (to be honest, I can think of many things but my kids, I’m sure, they can’t!). The lolliologists (highly trained lolly makers… really… I’m not kidding) stretch, pull and twist the hot molten candy, then chop it into jewel-sized bites. Yum! Fresh from the cooling slab they then generously hand out samples, and if you want to you can personalize your lollies with names or cute messages like ‘I love you’ and ‘you are sweet’ and ‘be mine’.
Oh….in case you were wondering, here in Australia we call a piece of what is called candy in the States, or sweets in the UK, as ’lollies’.
It is a fun place to go and I seriously defy anyone, sugar devotee or otherwise, to leave without having bought a bag or jar of some type of hard rock confection… A great Valentine’s treat for the children or a loved one. For more mouth watering details and Suga Candy Kitchen locations click here.
- Sara
Sweet, from Sweden: adorable onesies from Sture & Lisa
This little gem landed on my doormat yesterday — perfectly in time to post about for Valentines!
Sture & Lisa is a Swedish brand that manufactures trendy and fresh baby basics, with that funky style that is oh-so-typical for Swedish design. All made from 100% eco and fairtrade cotton and printed with low-impact ink, these onesies are safe for your baby as well as for the environment.
Through Musjes.com — they ship internationally.
xxx Esther
Meri Meri Cupcake Kits
How cute are these cupcake kits!!!! What a simple solution to make you look like a baking rock star! Meri Meri has something for just about every occasion and the quality is just beautiful. Now that the coldest months are rolling into the city I like doing cooking projects in the afternoon to deal with those often painfully long hours between the “end-of-school” and the “start-of-dinner”. There are tons of other really adorable and creative things on the website as well — invitations, thank you cards and notepads. And speaking of cupcakes… I want one.
-Dina
Valentine’s Cards
I sat down to talk to my 3-year-old son about Valentine’s Day this weekend. I’m big on grabbing any opportunity for a celebration, and a day that celebrates love — I’m in! So I explained that Valentine’s Day is the day when you tell the people that you love that they are special to you and one way to do that is to send them a card. We then decided to create a list of people he loved — it was long! So we had a LOT of cards to make. Luckily I had a relatively easy idea up my sleeve that even a 3-year-old boy could get into for long enough to make quite a few.
The idea is to cut out hearts and butterflies from coloured paper (using the old trick of folding the paper in half first to get symmetrical shapes) and let the kids decorate in any which way they choose. (more…)
Sophia Dress by Pink Chicken
I have two girls who are great sleepers and long may it continue. There is another side to this coin though: as I have mentioned before they are impossible to get up on school mornings, and their grumpiness is legendary….
Getting them dressed and out of the door on time is a such nightmare that I have resorted to the following: I have started putting them to bed at night in a pair of leggings and a long-sleeved t-shirt so in the mornings I only need to pop a tunic over their head and voila — I have saved 15 very valuable minutes and a huge amount of my sanity!
There are some great tunic style dresses out there… Take the Sophia Dress by Pink Chicken which I got from the great e-shop Umberleaf! It really would not look out of place in my wardrobe. It’s made out of beautiful blue chambray cotton with a lovely little embroidery around the collar. Super cute and easy to wear — long live the leggings and tunic look!
- Emilie
A Hearty Breakfast for Valentine’s Day!
With Valentine’s Day approaching soon, I couldn’t resist purchasing this amazingly cool heart shaped frying pan. I’m not yet sure whether I’ll serve the pancakes or the eggs, or maybe both… But I’m positive my family will love them (and me)!
I got mine from this shop here in the Netherlands, but it’s — among other places — also available from this UK website.
xxx Esther
Love Poems
I have to confess that I don’t usually do anything on Valentine’s Day. Many Australians cynically call it “Hallmark Day” — it’s pretty much seen as a commercial exercise. However, I am a romantic. So I thought I’d share a story about one of the best “gifts” I ever received…
One day I was sitting in a cafe waiting for my boyfriend to arrive. All of a sudden a man sat in the chair opposite and started talking to me. I was a little confused about what was happening. Perhaps he had mistaken me for someone else. Or maybe he was a little mad. But little by little I started to recognise the words he was speaking. They were from one of my favourite poems by American poet Frank O’ Hara. Now this was really weird. And then I realised. My boyfriend had been up to this mini performance. I started looking around for him. Sure enough: at the end of the poem he came into view. Smiling a big gummy grin. And I couldn’t stop laughing. All this, for me?
Yes, love can be grand. And has nothing to do with money – he asked an actor friend to recite the poem to me! I hope this inspires you… or your loved ones.
- Natalie
Delicious pasta — even when camping!
Cooking nutritious meals in a campervan in no easy feat. First, the kitchen is tiny, the utensils are very basic, and there is no oven. Secondly, it’s already hot and sticky in the van, so you don’t feel like cooking anything. So, for the sake of our sanity we’ve learned to keep it simple. We’ve made this pasta twice in the past two weeks, and it is so easy to make and yet really good. The only sign of it being a camp meal is the plastic dishware we’re eating it on! It is delicious, and the kids love it.
Another bonus of this pasta is that you can pretty much rely on your pantry cupboards (canned tomatoes, canned tuna, pasta, olive oil, etc.) You’ll only need a handful of fresh basil and parsley.
Here is the recipe: (more…)
Moving house (with children) — 10 tips
We experienced again that moving house with a family is not an overnight job — it’s like giving birth, you sort of forget how painful it actually is! The new house is very nice though, and room by room it’s slowly coming together.
Here are some tips that I have found helpful for before, during and after the move:
1. Take measurements (including ceiling heights) of the new place before the move and make a basic plan of what furniture should go where. Think about how you will get bigger pieces into the new house — is the doorway big enough? And the stairwell? Does it fit through the windows, maybe?
2. Clearly label the boxes. It should be extremely clear to what room what box should go — don’t worry too much about the content. Your kids can help label / decorate the boxes!
3. Don’t overload boxes with heavy items (books), they will be too hard to handle and they will only break. Keep inserts of drawers together: dump them in a ziplock bag, in the new house you can easily dump them in the drawer again. Only bother wrapping breakable pieces and keep them in a separate, clearly labeled box.
4. Keep handbags, laptops, telephones, passports, jewelry and other small valuables together and move them in your own car. Also keep a box with power cables, extension cables, router for internet connection and a couple of table lights with you. And the tool box!
5. Pack a suitcase with overnight essentials for your family, toilet paper, clean bedding for the beds and some towels. Make the beds in the new house as soon as possible, chances are high you’ll be too exhausted later! (more…)
Half Dot Brooklyn
My youngest daughter is 22 months old, and really starting to assert her independence. Her main war cry at the moment is “WALK” every time she sees the buggy appear. I really don’t get it — she could be sitting comfortably in a buggy but instead she wants to exhaust her little legs stumbling down Parisian pavements! All part of growing I guess…
The problem with pushchairs is that you cannot put a kid in a long coat in them. The straps squish them and the coat rides up and they look so uncomfortable. Which is why I love her little cape from Half-Dot Brooklyn, a lovely little new brand that is, as the name suggests, based in Brooklyn. The cape is super practical, it is easy to put on and keeps her nice and cozy. She really looks like a little version of Sherlock Holmes in it — very cute.
- Emilie
Our favourite travel game — Djeco Bingo
Just our luck — we’ve driven into a cyclone storm here on the eastern coast of Queensland! It has rained every day for the past five days… which is seriously NO fun when you’re living in a tiny campervan and you have three kids with pent-up energy!
Thankfully we brought loads of colouring books, cards and travel games with us, which we have now played about 100 times! Our favourite is this travel bingo game by Djeco because it’s so easy even the 2-year-old can play!
The concept is easy — everyone takes a puzzle board, empties out the six pieces (6 different animals), and then takes turns spinning the wheel to try to fill their puzzle back up! The first one with a completed puzzle wins! Fun!
-Courtney
