Carrots, radishes, salad and rocket are best sewn in the full ground (outside). If you don’t have a garden or balcony, you can also easily grow these vegetables on your window sill. Just one word of advice (we keep doing this wrong!) — don’t sew the seeds too close together, or the carrots, radishes etc don’t have room to grow! Plain salad and rocket are also super easy to grow (even in the windowsill), and you can keep cutting their leaves for a long time.

Of course we set the children to work immediately. They love gardening! Obviously the small scale of our vegetable garden-to-be will far from feed our entire family, but it’s a real pleasure to harvest our own grows, little as it may be, and it’s educational for the children. Here are some really fun ideas for gardening with kids:

Sara received this super cute Gardening Giftbox (from French brand Moulin Roty) as a gift and it comes filled with little pots, compost, seeds, a watering can and gardening tools — all packed in an adorable little suitcase. So cool! Sara and her friend spent hours working in the garden, preparing the soil, sewing their seeds, watering the plants, etc.

I got some bags of seeds at the Balcony Gardener. These bags are really pretty and also make gorgeous gifts (I just ordered a few more of them!). They also sell beautiful quality kid’s sized gardening tools which we love.

Finally, if you live in the Netherlands or Belgium (or speak Dutch), this little Moestuinkabouterpakket is such fun and so very, very cute. It comes with seeds, bags to sew them in, labels, a little book about the garden gnomes that will help you to look after the seedlings (provided you make sure their hat and coat is hanging ready for them to wear!).

xxx Esther

One of the great things about living in the Netherlands is that you’re never far from the beach. Dutch beaches are wide and sandy and perfect for wintery, windy walks, but even better to enjoy on a sunny summer day — what’s better than playing in the sand for hours and hours? Even I still like to build a good sand castle! Besides the obligatory buckets and spades, these fantastic Monkey Print Sandals found at the new web boutique Sweet Pea will also provide hours of beach fun this summer. My son has already tested them out endlessly on our wooden living room floor, he sounded like the perfect clog-wearing little Dutchman but thankfully no foot-stamps were left. I can already imagine the fun he will have at the beach pretending to be a little monkey!

xxx Esther

xxx Esther

PS Photo of Pim (4) skating on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam over the weekend.

The bell tent we took last weekend was in a different league altogether and I don’t think I can ever go back to a small tent. My friend Russell had it left over from a film shoot (here is actually a clip featuring our tent!). It was super easy to put up and soo roomy and cosy! I thought we were being wildly original, but these tents are now hugely popular with the Brits and were all over the festival camp ground.

I am seriously thinking of getting one. It would be perfect to pitch up in a garden for the summer, or go for a comfortable camping trip with the whole family. I am even thinking it could work as a spare guest room in the garden, when lots of people come to visit!

Gosh, I wish I had invented something as simple and successful as the Mini Micro Scooter! City kids everywhere are riding them, and no wonder why: finally they can keep up with the faster pace of grown-ups without becoming exhausted, and have a fun ride too! The Mini Micro scooters come in really fun and funky colours (you can personalise different elements of the scooter), but best of all, there are little clip-on back-packs available that are brilliant for little snacks, or for all the little treasures children gather on a trip to the park (feathers, stones, acorns etc.). So clever!

xxx Esther

xxx Esther

P.S. Photo of Sara during her exam.

We’re all big fans of the Micro Steps here at Babyccino (I think we all have them for our children) — Mo was the last one to rave about them here. So, about time to understand what the kids are talking about and try out the grown-up Micro White myself! And… although a little bit scary at first (I could hardly keep up with my kids) I did quite enjoy myself! It’s still a bit cold here in Amsterdam, but I’m thinking I will use mine loads as soon as it gets a bit warmer — such a great way to keep in shape and a welcome change from the (here in Amsterdam) ubiquitous bicycle!

xxx Esther

As children are starting to break up from nurseries, kindergartens and schools for the Christmas holidays, a typical London holiday attraction to visit is Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We went last weekend and whilst crazy busy I was really impressed with the fairground — lots of really beautiful old-fashioned fairground rides, mixed up with more crazy modern ones.  Also there is Zippo’s circus and an ice-rink and of course a German Christmas Market to browse around.

Jamie Oliver even has a presence there (for those of you who don’t know Jamie — he is the UK’s culinary cheeky chappy).  He has taken over the band stand to offer some proper outdoor winter cuisine — Jamie’s Fabulous Feasts offers hot pork rolls, polenta chips and much much more, all of which looked delicious.

But the best bit of Jamie’s presence was the ‘decorate your own gingerbread man’ bit, set up for children.  For £5 my son and I gave it a go.  We got a naked man and tree and an egg box filled with various decorations — dolly mixture sweets, white and milk chocolate buttons, cranberries, apricots, dessicated coconut  and an icing tube (to act as glue).  We had a lot of fun jazzing our biscuits up and I have to admit, when we finally felt we had admired them enough, they tasted pretty good too.

Winter Wonderland is open in London’s Hyde Park until the 4th January.

I picked my son up from his kindergarten today and these were hanging on the trees outside — what a ‘cool’ (get it?) idea! Yesterday, the children had chosen leaves and set them on plates covered in water with a loop of string hanging over the edge.  Overnight the ice had frozen into these beautiful baubles to hang on the tree. So I think I have found something positive to come out of the freezing temperatures we’re having here!

-Mo. x

As I write this, it is snowing heavily outside my window! Winter is really here and it’s cold! Thankfully I stocked up on snow gear from Polarn O. Pyret this year — my kids are staying toasty warm. Their collection of outerwear is superb — wind-proof, waterproof, and with added details like fleece linings, thermal insulation, inner sleeve cuffs with thumb-holes, and reflector detailing on everything. Trust the Swedish to do it well.

Polarn O. Pyret has recently launched in the USA, and they just opened a shop in Greenwich, CT (just outside NYC). They also, of course, have locations across London (Oxford Street, Brent Cross and Westfield) — I’m just waiting for them to launch a UK webshop!

-Courtney

For this theme week I asked my son, Elias, what his favourite toy is. Elias is 3 (nearly 4) and so it will come as no surprise to most mums with a 3 (nearly 4)-year-old boy that he answered, “my scooter”. Elias loves his blue Micro scooter and goes everywhere on it.  A boring trip to the shops can be turned into an exciting adventure if his scooter comes too.

However, the unoriginality of this choice brings me to tell you about another of Elias’s favourite toys (if it can be called that). Elias likes his ’stuff’ — everyday he carries around with him 3 – 4 random objects and can not be with out these ‘things’, whether they are tied to him in some fashion or stuffed in his pockets or in his back-pack.  He is lost without them, he goes to bed with them and they are always the first things he asks for the next morning.

I did find the whole ‘thing’ obsession a little strange for a while, but now I love it about him — all his ‘things’ form so many ideas for games and imaginative play throughout his day. So what are his typical ‘things’? Well I just checked his pockets (see picture for proof) — this is what I found:

• A length of orange string (from my present-wrapping drawer)
• An LED light on a key-ring
• A small carabiner clip which has a tape-measure in it
• An old pedometer
• The rope part from his Playmobil police helicopter
• A packet of sugar from a cafe

It is amazing how many stories and games he devises with his daily artillery and even though the ’stuff’ gets refreshed occasionally, it is always made up of ‘cheap as chips’ bits and bobs and random finds (I didn’t even know we owned a pedometer!).

It’s technically still summer here in Amsterdam but in reality it’s been autumn at its worst these last few weeks. Crazy! The one advantage of autumn (the only one, really) is that there are loads of cool things falling from the trees, like for instance pine cones, which are fun to gather on a forest walk. And from which one can create very cool creatures like these pink hedgehogs. In the past we’ve made acorn men and chestnut chaps too. Fun!

xxx Esther

For stockists of Nutcase and Little Nutty in the USA and Canada, click here; for Europe click here and for Australia, click here. For everywhere else in the world, see here.

- Sara

I was so excited to come across Tykes on Trails — guided trail walks for youngsters to learn about local flora and fauna. I signed up for a program at nearby Temescal Canyon Park and it was such a fun activity. After a non-strenuous, sweet little hike, we came home with stories to tell about shamrocks seen through a magnifying glass, acorns that fell from a tree, rocks you could skip across a stream, and a treasured lizard tattoo for my son. (I got a butterfly). Our walk leader gave us a plant clipping in a wet strip of paper towel, ready to put in water by the kitchen window until it grew some roots. This hands-on learning is such a great experience for kids. They LOVE it and the leaders are incredibly knowledgeable and able to keep the attention of the little explorers. As the walk leader says, the kids are in training to be “nature spies.” How cool?!

x Kaela

A playhouse that is portable, practically indestructible and NOT made of plastic! I’m so excited by this new discovery! Isn’t it great? New Zealand architect, Robin Hannah, set about constructing a nifty slot-together version for her kids way back in the ’70s and well … fast forward and she’s kindly decided to not only repeat the design for her lucky grandchildren, but also to make it available to us! The best part? The Phoyo is made made of sustainably grown pine so it’ll last more than one generation (which means technically I can classify this type of plaything as an ‘investment’ — should my plastic-loving husband question the viability of the new purchase!)

On a practical level, the Phoyo comes with a clear varnish or you can receive it bare sanded so that you and the kids can jazz it up with your own bespoke design. I must say though, I kind of like it au natural. Oh and one more thing — aside from the fantastic utility of being completely screw/nail free, the clever six piece set simply flat packs away when not needed. Perfect! For dogs too I would imagine…

- Sara

The hours and hours of fun we have had (me included), not just jumping but reading, playing cars, throwing balls, picnics, performances… drying my washing and airing out my blankets — even taking our pillows out for a spot of stargazing. For my daughter it doubles as her ‘clubhouse’. For my son it is his batman cave. For me it is a padded cell to place my kids when I am in dire need of peace and quiet. All this has well and truly compensated for my view (or lack thereof). But really the best aspect of all is that it is a great and fun source of exercise for the whole family (apparently every muscle gets a go).

While traditional trampolines use big with exposed springs just begging to catch your hair (or worse), the Springfree trampoline uses no springs at all but rather a series of flexible fibre glass rods located safely below the jumping surface. The same applies to the framework which is also below the bouncing mat and out of harm’s way. And while some traditional trampolines might include a net to stop you falling on to the ground, the net is usually supported by a series of rigid poles that hurt just as much when you crash into them. Not so the Springfree trampoline, with its unique, impact-absorbing “FlexiNet”.

The Springfree trampoline was so innovative it won an Australian International Design Award (AIDA) in the Sport and Leisure category early last year. We have had ours for 3 years now and touch wood, no impact injuries. A little bit of squabbling over who goes first but that’s about it. It is on the pricey side but I can’t recommend it highly enough — really, the best investment we ever made.

For more details and worldwide stockists, please see here.

-Sara

- Emilie

Like most little boys, my son wanted one of these four-wheelers for himself after he first laid eyes on some local skaters enjoying their rides. We went through several superhero-themed “kid” skateboards only to come to the conclusion that they were practically disposable due to poor quality and cheap materials, not to mention the absence of any decent performance. I realized that this was an activity not soon to be outgrown, (most of my friends’ husbands are still proud owners of at LEAST one) and decided it was time to step it up a few notches for something with staying power. I turned to Arbor Collective.  I loved the sleek design and use of natural wood. I also happily discovered that on top of incredible aesthetics, performance and craftsmanship, Arbor is committed to creating products in the most environmentally responsible way possible and the owners fully stand behind every snowboard and skateboard they make. They use ecologically based alternatives to harmful chemicals, water-based finishes and recycled materials to produce impressive skateboards in a huge variety of shapes and sizes with designs by featured artists (this mini Pocket Rocket is the choice for my eldest). Arbor Collective has a sweet little showroom in Venice with friendly, helpful staff, and their website tells you about other places you can purchase their products. Have fun!

x Kaela

The Argonaute at the Parc de la Villette: The Argonaute is a 1950’s submarine that was taken out of commission in the ’80s and is now moored in the Parc de la Villette, right beside the Cité des Sciences, Paris’ science museum. It is fascinating. The submarine has been kept exactly the way it was and you get a real feeling of what it was like to live and work in such a confined space. The motors are completely exposed and the audio tour (available in several different languages), describes the life on a submarine really well.

Dinosaur exhibition at the Grand Palais: All the boys I know are going wild about the Dinosaur exhibition at the Grand Palais. The exhibition is not too big to be overwhelming but it is a great way to get to know this species that fascinates so many boys. The animated models are VERY realistic, so small children might be slightly scared. Children discover how dinosaurs lived and ate and there is even a replica of a dinosaur poo (somehow poo never fails to get a rise out of the under-18 crowd).

Play area at the Parc de Belleville: This play area is our favourite place to go at the moment. It has been built specifically for city kids to get them to use their imagination and get to know their physical capabilities better. It is such an unsual structure that every kid interprets differently: for some it is a boat, for some a village, for some a jungle and for some just a great place to let go of some steam.

- Emilie

Once you reach the “public view deck” of this little unassuming airpot, voilà – you have front row seats to take-offs and landings! My son was enthralled and totally mesmerized each time a little prop plane or private jet would arrive or take to the sky – or even just start to taxi on the runway.

The viewing deck has little benches where you can refuel the kiddos during and in between the action with snacks or a picnic. There’s also a little gift shop with airplane models to-go for your little pilot-wannabe, as well as clean bathrooms (always a plus in my book). If the viewing and ooh-ing and aah-ing aren’t enough to exhaust your tyke, there are actually a couple of cute parks on either side of the airfield.

On a side note for adults, there are some fabulous restaurants in the airport (check the website) as well as nearby art studios – a community of artists and exhibition spaces located right across the street. Happy landing!

xKaela