The Elephant Parade
I happened to be in the heart of London, on Oxford Street, the other day when I came across some wonderful painted elephants at Selfridges. As I continued my stroll through town I saw more and more … on Bond Street, in Green Park — what were they all about?
London has become home to The Elephant Parade. During May and June, 250 colourfully painted elephants will be dotted around the capital to shine a spotlight on the plight of the endangered Asian elephant. The campaign is from the charity Elephant Family, whose aim is to try and protect the elephant’s habitat which is increasingly threatened by human expansion.
The elephants here in the capital have each been painted by an artist or celebrity and together they make up London’s largest outdoor art event on record (with an estimated 25 million people viewing them over the next weeks). (more…)
Ships Ahoy! See-Saw Swing from Haba
We got this fantastic Ships See-Saw Swing
There are several places to purchase it online, or if you’re in Los Angeles, check it out at The Acorn Store in Santa Monica. This is my go-to spot for creative and wooden toys – great for gifts!
xKaela
Pedal Power
Having recently returned from one of my all-time favorite cities in the world, as well as Esther’s stomping ground — Amsterdam, I now have a serious case of bicycle-itis. The whole bicycle culture over there is just completely enchanting to me. Visions of every age using the power of the pedal as the main form of transportation, unlike Los Angeles, where the smallest of errands usually entails a full car load up. Not only that, but the bikes in Amsterdam are works of art as far as I’m concerned. My husband and I would duck into any bike shop we’d come across and excitedly “choose” which style ride we needed to have in our possession back in the States. My kids couldn’t get enough of piling into a cargo bike and away we’d go! And not only does bike riding appeal to my “green” side, it appeals to my “fun” side and totally takes me back to my childhood and the feeling of freedom that goes along with riding a bike. The geography of L.A. makes it highly unlikely (i.e. only in my dreams) to become a bicycle driven city, but that does not mean we can’t have our own little slice of the Dutch life. Thanks to the super friendly brother duo, Adam and Josef Bray-Ali, owners of Flying Pigeon LA, we Angelenos now have direct access to the SUVs of bicycle family fun. (more…)
Pick your own
May is here — we can officially start the count-down to Summer (which I have been doing since 1st Jan but now the goal is in sight!). With May comes the start of some of my favourite Summer activities (eating outside, picnics, French cricket, boules, paddling in pools to name but a few). The best of these has to be ‘picking your own’. The very brilliant Garsons Farm in Esher (Surrey) opens up for ‘pick your own’ this month and the season continues until October. Over the next 6 months there will be 42 different crops, in a total of 106 different varieties, available for picking. Whether you are in the mood for gooseberries or cucumbers, cherries or cabbages, Garsons can accommodate (seasonally dependent of course). It is such a fun day out — all the kids getting their own punnets and picking which crop to collect… with the occasional cheeky fruit ’scrumped’ (picked and eaten) on the way round the fields. (more…)
Metrotwin
I was recently approached by Metrotwin to do a guest-list for them of my favourite places in London with kids. I said “hey! I can do one better than that — I can ask our fabulous Babyccino NY contributor (Dina to you and me) to do a NY list too”. They were very excited.
You see Metrotwin is a site powered by British Airways to offer reviews of all the best things to do in the London and NYC. It is a fabulous resource if you happen to be travelling to or even if you live in either of the cities.
You can check out the Babyccino Kids London Address Book here and the NY address book here.
Enjoy! Mo.x
For the little budding gardener
Considering how gardening helps children learn about the cycle of life and about time, patience, nature, and cause and effect… I can’t think of a better gift for a child than this mini greenhouse by HaPe. Not to mention the cool design — it is made of birch plywood and bamboo and cleverly designed to allow gardeners to open the rooftop for planting and watering. Two sliding doors offer a second access to four double-walled, fully functional plastic trays that can be filled with earth and seeds. It is pretty fantastic! I have ordered one for my daughter for her birthday — a real step up from the pint milk containers and fast-to-sprout seeds she has been tending to. A little garden of her own to love and nurture!
Incidentally, HaPe International is the maker of a great line of all natural bamboo games that were developed by designers, teachers, and technicians from over 15 different nations. It is the world’s first collection of bamboo toys. (more…)
Re-live the 17th century in Rembrandt’s House
Last weekend we did something unexpectedly fabulous: we took the children to Rembrandt’s House. Rembrandt, as you might know, was a very famous Dutch painter who lived from 1607 till 1669. From 1625 onwards he lived in Amsterdam. For a big part of his live he was very rich, already well known in his time, and he lived in a beautiful house that is amazingly well conserved and restored and can be visited today.
I didn’t really know what to expect with two little children, but they were SO impressed. Our daughter (4 yrs) listened to her own audio tour, aimed especially at kids, and I can say that at the end of our visit she could give me specific information that I didn’t pick up myself.
If you’re in Amsterdam and want to combine some culture with history and a fun family activity, the Rembrandthuis comes recommended. There’s no restaurant, but walking down to the Staalstraat takes less than 5 minutes and you’ll find Pucinni, with great coffee, good sandwiches and amazing cakes. In the same street you’ll find cute kids gift shop Beestenwinkel, my favourite grown-up gift shop Klevering (that happens to stock some really lovely kids items as well), and a bit up the road there’s Droog Design, a showcase of the famous Dutch design group.
xxx Esther
Top things to do in Melbourne (part 1)
With a steady stream of visiting friends over the Christmas holidays, and many with young children, we have been busy! Whilst we treated them to the hedonistic pleasures of the Aussie beach culture, we also spent a great deal of time indoors appreciating the ‘higher arts’. This can be tricky with young kids in tow, especially those who are jet-lagged and tantrum prone, but Melbourne has some fabulous museums and galleries, several of which are especially wonderful for children. Here are my top 3.
1. Melbourne Museum – This fabulous museum, located on the northern border of the Carlton Gardens behind the Royal Exhibition Building, is futuristic and interactive and connects architecture and nature – in the middle of the museum, you can walk through a forest! The Children’s Gallery is designed for children 3 to 8 but I would think it would delight even the younger toddler. The children’s exhibition, entitled 1,2,3 Grow, explores the many ways things, including humans, grow. Activities, children’s art, stories, an indoor sandpit with fossils beneath the sand which children are encouraged to discover, a kids puppet theatre and an outside play/picnic area including games such as skittles for the whole family, are just some of the attractions. It doesn’t matter how often we visit (we try to put our membership to good use after all) my children are always stimulated and engaged. Young children particularly love the insect section and the Forest gallery. Click here for more details. (more…)
Kew Gardens
When the girls asked me to write for Babyccino one of my first ideas for a post was Kew Gardens. We got to know the Royal Botanical Gardens when we moved down South and immediately became members. We now go every couple of weeks and still love it just as much — it is such a great place for kids.
Apart from being a huge space to run around with fascinating trees, flowers and plants, there is also a dedicated indoor children’s area called Climbers and Creepers. All the zones have an educational element relating to plants and their habitat and have been so cleverly thought out to cater for a really wide age group (quoted as age 3 – 9 but there are great touchy-feely bits too which are good for babies).
On the other side of the gardens is the Treetop walkway (designed by the architects of The London Eye) which is 18 metres up in the air and 200 metres around — giving you an opportunity to see the tops of the trees and those who inhabit them. At ground level there is a tunnel with an exhibit giving insight to what happens under the trees (good for any bug and creepy-crawly enthusiasts!). (more…)
Cool things to do in Sydney… with kids!
It was lovely to meet Courtney recently as she began her big adventure along Australia’s east coast. It’s funny the feelings it stirred in me. I really wanted her to have a good time in Sydney. And I wanted her to love my neighbourhood of Bondi as much as I do. So I sent her off a quick list of things to do with children, and I thought it might be useful for anyone else visiting Sydney.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive and is skewed to areas near where I live. So I’d love to know your suggestions if you live locally.
Nielsen Park, Vaucluse – a Harbour pool that is kid-friendly with the most amazing view of the Harbour Bridge while you swim. There is a kiosk where you can get takeaway food, a café or you can just take a picnic. There are a few walks in this area too. There’s loads of great advice on this blog – Family Fun Sydney too.
Watson’s Bay – you can get ferries here to the city or just enjoy the park and wander around the streets which have the cutest cottages – used to be a fishing village although now highly coveted for real estate so everything is made over. But still has lots of charm. You can eat with your family at the pub there – Doyles or get takeaway fish n chips. (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…)
Hobby Horses by Dobbin and Drum
I love traditional toys that allow my children to use their imaginations — toys that inspire their creative play. I also love toys that look great in my home. (Hey, I haven’t earned the title ‘toy snob’ from my friends for nothing!) Enter Dobbin and Drum’s hobby horses. Just gorgeous. They are made from 100% natural fabrics — Australian hardwood dowel, leather trim and are filled with the highest quality 100% lightweight pure Australian merino wool. Now these hobby horses are no ordinary run of the mill horses, they are of heirloom quality and completely and lovingly hand-made. In a world of electronic toys and high tech gadgets, I am proud to say my children love their hobby horses and they regularly feature in their creative play. To be honest, they also make the odd appearance when they are fighting….
Dobbin and Drum are a small Australian company that produce a select range of natural fibre quality crafted toys — toys with ’soul and substance”. For the full range of hobby horses (including the fabulous unicorns and dragons) and for stockist information, refer to their website. Despite being a little tricky to wrap (I always end up resorting to just a ribbon) they make the perfect gift for a young child.
P.S. I can also recommend Dobbin and Drum’s teepee’s and drums — the very best I have seen.
- Sara
Call mum
I took the kids the other night to a fun park filled to the brim with people, and it occured to me how easy it would be to lose them in the crowd. Especially the eldest, whose birthday we were celebrating, and who was running around like an excited little puppy with her friend. That is when the friend’s dad had a stroke of genius: he simply wrote our mobile numbers on their arms with a pen and instructed the kids that, if they ever got lost, they should go up to one of the booths to a person in a uniform and ask them to call the number on their arm. The kids completely got it, and would have known what to do in the case of getting lost! So simple, why had I never thought of that?! (I am sure most of you had, I just wanted to write a post about it, in case you were a bit clueless, like me.) (more…)
Collingwood Children’s Farm
Nestled in a bend of the Yarra River, amongst the river red gum and paperbark trees (a very typical Australian setting!) is the Collingwood Children’s Farm…. a little slice of country life right in the heart of Melbourne, only 4 kilometres from the CBD. It’s a magical place for city children (and adults) and an absolute favorite with family and friends.
Here, children can get up close and personal with all the typical farmyard animals and immerse themselves in farm chores. They can get their hands dirty milking the cows, bottle feeding the lambs, waddling with the ducks, patting the rabbits, feeding grass to the horses and all the while marvel at the sight and smell of the pigs. They can also look for eggs — a great way to teach them that eggs and milk don’t come out of cartons (as I am lead to believe some ‘other’ children think is the case… not mine, of course! ) (more…)
Richmond Park
Richmond Park is the largest royal park in London, covering 2,500 acres of land and has been a Royal Park since Edward I (1272 – 1307). There are around 650 deer that roam free and stand elegantly among the ferns, blending in to the landscape, which is why it is sometimes known as ‘The Deer Park’. We’re very lucky, as we live a stone’s throw away from the park and go almost daily. So I have some favourite places to mention…
We often park up at Pembroke Lodge* (a lovely canteen/tea-room which used to be the residence of our Prime Minister, Lord John Russell in 1847), and from there walk north to King Henry VIII’s mound, where on a clear day you can see 12 miles to St. Paul’s Cathedral! Or we head east across the road to the ponds. *Note: Pembroke Lodge tends to bring out freshly made (warm!) scones at around 3pm daily, served with cream and jam. There is nothing nicer than a sweet-treat after a bout of fresh air, I find. (more…)
The best things in Melbourne are…free!
Actually, it is the best things in life that are free! A cliché but oh, so true. In a quest to live more simply and to try and instill this truth in my children, I have been trying to entertain them these term holidays with ‘nature inspired’ activities and simple pleasures. Homemade picnics in the garden, collecting pebbles and leaves to paint, walking rather than driving, and so forth.
Now in doing so I am learning 3 things – one, my children know a lot more about recycling than I do, even my 4-year-old (for this I have their school to thank!). Two, my kids are quite happy living more ‘simply’; they have much more of a respect for and interest in nature and their planet than I ever had, which I am ashamed to admit but of which I am so, so proud (and which I am determined to keep fostering as I learn too, with them). And three, that in Melbourne you can treat your children to the most beautiful nature attractions without needing to pay for the pleasure as you do with so many other activities – they are ‘free’, indeed just as they should be, for everyone to enjoy.
One of the best of these in my opinion is the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens. (more…)
Inspirational Ideas
Yes, simple ideas are often the best and two of the places I go for them are the blogs of illustrator, interior designer and all-round creative Antonia Pesenti and Brooke Reynolds from Inchmark Journal. Antonia once did a post on painting with water on concrete, and often I think of it because it’s simple, easy and completely un-messy. Likewise I really enjoy the books Brooke shares on her blog and her craft and cooking projects too. Well worth a look.
-Natalie
Neuilly Swimming Pool
The summer is almost over, and we are trying to use every available ray of sunshine before the leaves start falling off the trees and the cool weather starts creeping up on us. Last weekend we headed off to the swimming pool and the aim was to go swimming outside and nothing was going to stop us!
Turns out swimming outside in Paris is actually not that difficult. All we had to do is jump on the line 1 metro (the fastest metro in Paris) and jump out in the very chic Parisian suburb of Neuilly. The public pool there has an outdoor area, a sun lawn, a toddler paddling pool and, to everyone’s great excitement: a big waterslide. It is great to go with kids — enough to keep them entertained for a few hours and not too much to bring on a sensory overload. The swimming pool does tend to get a bit crowed so I would recommend going earlier rather than later in the day. (more…)
Paris Plage
It is that time of year again here in Paris: the right bank of the Seine has been taken over by lounge chairs, palm trees, sun and sand.
If you happen to be in Paris for the month of August (most Parisians have left for the country and the city is spookily quiet) Paris Plage is the place to be. It has something for everyone: bars, a swimming pool and a great play area.
If you go in the mornings the “beach” is relatively quiet, even on the weekends, and it is a perfect place for kids to get rid of some excess energy. This year the place to be for kids is the area around the pont de Sully at the eastern edge of the beach.
The other area of Paris Plage around the basin de la Villette is great too, there is even a sailboat you can rent! I loved the idea of sailing around a canal in the middle of Paris, but so apparently do a lot of people so it is completely overbooked. If you have kids from 6 years upwards, there are some fantastic little pedalos that they can peddle around in, in a supervised area of the canal.
All of this has been sponsored by the Mairie of Paris so almost all the attractions are free!
- Emilie
L’Isle-Adam
I have always wanted to live by the beach but have actually never succeeded. I think I am destined to beach holiday destinations as opposed to being able to live close to it.
My kids seem to love the beach as much as I do, so we were all very, very excited to discover a beach about one hour away from Paris in the middle of the country!
The river beach in the picturesque little town of Ville d’Adam actually doubles up as the local community pool and is a perfect escape from a hot and sticky day in Paris. You can jump on a direct train from the gare du Nord and be in the water approx. 50 mins later, as the beach is about a 5 minute walk from the station.
The girls had a ball — there is a pretty big sandy area, and we put our towels down by a massive kid’s paddling pool. There is a huge Olympic sized swimming pool built in the ’20s for more ambitious parents, but, for my part, I was very happy building sand castles and splashing around in the shallow pool. If your kids do get bored of playing in the sand, there is a huge bouncy castle area for all ages and two big water slides. (more…)
