It is the 17th book in the ‘This is…’ series and Sasek is visiting down under! This is Australia is a wonderful book to add to the classic travel series, first published in the ’70s, which Courtney posted about here!
In line with the later books in the series, the colours are slightly vintage and the images are retro and whimsical. And Sasek’s mode of travel to the land down under? Not in chains like the first British colonists, but on a Qantas big bird!! (which incidentally, ‘flies very well’, unlike the Australian penguin and emu!) I absolutely love these books — they introduce children to the people, customs and places of interest in cities around the world, captivating young readers with gorgeous illustrations and a witty narrative. I also think it’s fascinating to see each city from a 1960’s perspective. And…needless to say, in my family we just love the Aussie edition!
Available for worldwide delivery at Amazon
.
ps. Courtney, this is the perfect souvenir for your children and will remind them for years to come of their great Aussie adventure!!
- Sara
Sara in Melbourne
Jan 27, 2010
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I know it, you know it, kids can be hysterical. Sometimes they say things that make us laugh out loud, roll over the floor, wipe away our tears and then frantically reach for a pen and paper (or an Iphone, or computer, or whatever we have handy to make a note), as to not lose the thought and to make sure the quote will be treasured forever and ever and ever.
Well, as for me, I keep losing the strips of paper, and my email drafts and my Iphone are so overloaded with notes (and quotes) that I’d rather never look at it again. And, well, I’m just not so very organized I suppose.
Until I found out about My Quotable Kid — A Parents’ Journal of Unforgettable Quotes. It has very easy-to-use, cute pages where you can fill in the who/where/when and what, as to never forget the quote, and more importantly, to keep them all safely together in one place. I started my book this week and I’m very excited about it.
A great gift for girlfriends with children I think! Available through Amazon (UK
or US
).
xxx Esther
Esther in Amsterdam
Jan 27, 2010
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This adorable little West Village shop is a perfect place to go for kid’s haircuts – especially the very first one when most kids have the potential to totally flip out. Courtney wrote a post some time ago about a place called Tantrum which we visited during our stay in London and absolutely loved! Doodle Doo’s is its New York equivalent. The staff is beyond nice and when we went last week my daughters left not only with adorable new chic hairdos but also with a barrette, some sparkle hairspray and a lollipop. The premise is simple… place kid in car or boat seat… insert princess video… bribe with future delivery of treat… snip away. It just makes the whole experience a win win. They also have a wonderful selection of toys and children’s clothing for parents to browse while you wait and if you are up for it, it’s a block away from New York’s famed Magnolia Bakery.
-Dina
Dina in New York
Jan 26, 2010
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Before we embarked on our 30-day camping trip, my husband and I agreed it was either going to be the best idea we’ve ever had… or the worst. So far it’s been a bit of both! I think it takes some getting used to, and a bit of extra patience. But admittedly it seems to be getting better. We’re quickly getting used to this camping lifestyle and things like: wearing the same dirty outfit twice, using communal showers, sleeping like sardines in a tiny tin, cooking for five in a tiny kitchen, eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunch every day, cleaning out baby bottles with a hose, the scorching heat, the nasty insects, driving in unfamiliar territory with crying babies in the back… etc, etc.
All that aside, we are actually having a really wonderful time as a family, and we’ve seen some incredible sites already. Here are the highlights of the past 5 days… (more…)
Courtney in London
Jan 26, 2010
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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…)
Emilie in Paris
Jan 25, 2010
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I used to keep a picture in the front of my diary of an old-fashioned sweet shop. You know the kind: shelves stacked with glass jars brimming with brightly-coloured sweets. The Juliette Binoche in me always quite fancied being a ‘purveyor of splendid confectionery’. However these days there would be little point in me following this dream as Hope & Greenwood do it so perfectly.
They have stores in Dulwich & Covent Garden (which would be perfect if you happen to be taking a trip to Benjamin Pollocks as per my last post), but they are also sold in some pretty lovely other places: Liberty, Selfridges, Fortum & Mason (to name but a few) and of course you can buy them online from their site. I find the Miss Hope’s Jolly Mixture a very exciting treat and the Sugar free Gummy Bears a good one to ensure the children don’t bounce off the ceiling with too much sugar!
-Mo. x
Mo in London
Jan 25, 2010
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Like many households with children, we are the proud owner of an Ikea Bekvam step stool, which lives in our kitchen and is used all the time. It helps the kids reach the counter, it helps our Peruvian sitter to reach the upper cabinets (mounted extra high to accommodate tall Dutch genes), and it helps me to reach the upper, upper cabinets that even tall Dutch girls can’t reach!
A handy gadget, this Bekvam. It’s not, however, the most original piece of interior (hear the architect speaking?), and to be honest, mine is so much in need of a layer of paint that I hardly dare to display it in my kitchen!
Thankfully we now have the beautiful, modern, fresh, and well-designed Tess stool in the house. A lovely addition to our household! It’s being used in the bathroom to brush teeth, dragged to the kitchen when there’s a threat of a fight over the Bekvam, and used as a side table or stool where and whenever needed. (more…)
Esther in Amsterdam
Jan 24, 2010
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My children hit the Parisian nightclub scene for the first time yesterday — and had a blast. I took them to a kids party at a nightclub, organised by the Kids event organisers So Chic Kidz. It was called “Every Child is a Superhero”.
About 100 Superheros all got together to party the afternoon away, have their face painted, eat loads of bonbons and play games. It looked a little bit like a small people’s comic book convention considering 80% of the children were dressed up as Spiderman (or Speederman as he is known as over here) but it was a lot of fun, and there are many worse things to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon than teach my kids some moves on the dance floor…
Check out the website for updates on upcoming events!
- Emilie
Emilie in Paris
Jan 23, 2010
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Whoever is behind this show is a complete and total genius (and clearly on major drugs!) Yo Gabba Gabba is the most bizarre and entertaining thing that I have seen on TV in a long long time. I am hooked! I know most have you have probably seen the show at some point but have you ever sat down to really watch it??? It’s bananas!!! I love the songs — all of which sound like they are made up as they go along, the strange characters, and the total weirdness of it. The show also has great guest appearances –- like Jack Black, MGMT, and Biz Markie and they have a recurring segment that features excellent dance moves (which by the way serve as my cardio routine). Oh yeah, my kids really like it too. Guess that’s important to note.
-Dina
Dina in New York
Jan 22, 2010
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I grew up in a little farming village about 100 miles north of London and only made very rare trips to the ‘big smoke’ as a child. I remember one very special trip when my Godmother (literally one of the coolest people on the planet) brought me down for a WHOLE weekend in London for my 9th birthday. We saw a show and explored the city and I vividly remember stumbling across the most magical old-fashioned toyshop, which specialised in Toy Theatres.
Recently I had a reason to re-find that store, and the magic hasn’t left the place! Benjamin Pollocks is a delightfully old fashioned place (originally established in the 1880s) in the Covent Garden Piazza. I must warn you — it isn’t buggy friendly as you have to climb a narrow staircase to reach it and the shop is small and crammed to the rafters with toys, but worth the trip indeed. (more…)
Mo in London
Jan 22, 2010
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About 40 years ago, a young Dutch couple, Willem and Marieke Olsthoorn, started a children’s label called Oilily. Marieke had a unique talent for design, and Willem had an independent feel for business.
They gathered an unconventional bunch of people around them to help grow their brand, all driven by the same mentality as Marieke and Willem: to make exciting and surprising children’s clothing without following trends or expectations.
Oilily was the first children’s brand that used bright, happy colours, a mix of patterns and plenty of special details. They were also easy to wear and care for, so children could really play in the clothes and move around freely. The clothes were truly very different than anything that ever existed before.
Every child growing up in the Netherlands in the seventies and eighties knew Oilily, and possibly had one or more Oilily outfits. It became a true fashion I remember — Oilily was super hot!! I begged my mum for an Oilily coat, and the boys at school proudly wore their stonewashed jeans with colourful Oilily sweat shirts.
Before long, Oilily was picked up by the international stars. Jerry Hall and Michael Jackson dressed their children in Oilily, and remember Rudy Huxtable, the youngest daughter in the Cosby show? She wore Oilily almost exclusively. Oilily became big, a worldwide hype — I remember the adult fashion, the bags, the perfumes…
Both Marieke and Willem stapped out of the company at the end of the nineties, and the decline of the company slowly started. It lost the quality, the special touch. And in 2009 the credit crisis put an end to the fairy tale… Oilily went bankrupt.
I saw the empty Oilily shop, here on the corner of the PC Hooftstraat in Amsterdam, it looked so desolate, so sad…
Imagine my surprise when I visited the Kleine Fabriek recently (the trade fair for children’s labels here in Amsterdam) and I saw Oilily amongst the many stands! (more…)
Esther in Amsterdam
Jan 21, 2010
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One of the best presents my son received this Christmas is a box of TomTect, a contruction game I had never heard of before.
The box contains small pine boards (from renewable resources) and plastic crowbars which join the boards together– and that’s it! It’s so simple, so ingenious and so stylish!
My son jumped to it and started building immediately — a chair, an airplane… mostly simple things, but I just discovered that from the website you can download pdf instructions on how to build more complicated objects.
This game was invented by Tom van der Bruggen, a Dutch architect who moved to France and built a castle over a ruined farm. He is also the inventor of another contruction game called Kapla, which has been hugely successful in France.
My first impression of this toy could not be more favourable; it’s one of those toys that will last for ages and the perfect thing to get the dads involved too!
-Michela
Michela in Milan
Jan 21, 2010
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I am sure everyone has heard about the horrible, horrible situation in Haiti brought along by the earthquake.
We asked our friend Fionnuala, a Paris mum who adopted two kids from Haiti 2.5 years ago, to write about Haiti and the small charities that are currently doing their best to help alongside the big, international organizations.
Here’s her story:
When I told my kids I was going to send money to Haiti, their faces fell. “But Mama, “ my son said, “will we have enough left for us?”
Before you leap to conclusions about the little monsters I’m raising, let me add one thing. My six and seven year olds know what life is like in Haiti, and have some awareness of how much it will take to bring standards there anywhere near normal. Two and a half years ago, they lived in an orphanage in Port au Prince. Before that, they slept on the streets in one of the city’s worst slums.
(more…)
Emilie in Paris
Jan 20, 2010
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I have wanted to write a post on this for a while now as it is a topic that I unfortunately hear about way too often. Infertility is an issue that I have dealt with personally and continue to think about every single day of my life. To be honest, I don’t even know where to begin as there is just so much to talk about and I am sure you will hear a lot more from me on this. I thought I would just start with talking about some of the things that helped me get through the endurance contest of it all.
I kind of relate the whole experience to having, say, a panic attack or getting hit by a car… unless you have been there, it is hard to really tap into the emotional and physical toil of it all. Statistics say that 10% of the population is affected but to me, and it’s perhaps just the age demographic that I am in, the numbers seem even higher. Without going into too much of the background detail “infertility” is diagnosed as a “failure to conceive naturally within a year.” Some of the main reasons as to why so many women are affected are attributed to factors such as 1) age – women are putting off childbearing until later in life resulting in poorer egg quality, 2) a medical problem such as endometriosis or a male factor problem) or 3) it is simply “unexplained”. (more…)
Dina in New York
Jan 20, 2010
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We’ve just spent the past week in sunny Sydney, and it just flew by! It was difficult to try to see and do all the things on our list whilst trying to live the beachy, laid-back lifestyle that Sydney is known for. But we did our best. Sydney is amazing in this way — it’s a vibrant cosmopolitan city with so much to offer, yet it also has a very ’surfer dude’ beachy vibe which is really fun and refreshing. Everyone here is beautiful, the food is delicious, the shopping is very tempting, and there’s a noticeable buzz in the air. Maybe it’s because it’s summertime, or maybe it’s just Sydney. In any case, we love it here!
We’re staying in a really lovely guest house in Bondi Beach, and it has turned out to be the perfect place for us. We’ve even made some new friends who are staying here as well and who, coincidentally, are also from London! Such a small world.
Here is a re-cap of the past week…
(more…)
Courtney in London
Jan 19, 2010
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Lately, whenever I see an item of children’s clothing I like or a beautiful piece of children’s furniture I hanker after, more often than not, it comes from the same place — Oeuf NYC. Oeuf is spearheaded by a French/American husband & wife team who design all these beautiful items, always with the same principle in mind: to make something great without taking advantage of the environment and the people making it.
I recently got this beautiful little jumper (pictured) for my daughter from the fab web shop Zebre a Pois. She pretends that she can fly when she wears it and I love it because it is beautifully made and I do like to shop ethically when I can. Sure it comes at a price and it isn’t always possible, but great to do when I can…
- Emilie
Emilie in Paris
Jan 19, 2010
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After two children I felt I just couldn’t justify putting my third one in that same old car seat. For some reason (hormones?) I felt it should be new, clean and pristine, like the little baby who will be in it. I had already started working on convincing my husband that we really need to buy a new maxi cosi (he doesn’t automatically feel the same way about it as I do, so odd), until I came across the universal car seat covers from Hagou Originals. (more…)
Esther in Amsterdam
Jan 18, 2010
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My girls are all about playing “house” these days… so when I found this sling in a local kids store a few weeks ago I nearly passed out and died from the cuteness. I was never a “sling” person really, more of a Baby Bjorn gal myself, but the doll sling was just too cute to resist. When the girls put them on they instantly looked like two little hippie mothers on route to the local food co-op. I was almost expecting them to start swapping Quinoa recipes and stories about the joys of their home births in their apartment bathtubs (I am so going to get killed for this).
No offense to the “sling” wearers of course. I am totally kidding. I think they are cute on adults as well. I also found these adorable ones on Etsy from SnuggyBaby. So adorable!
-Dina
Dina in New York
Jan 18, 2010
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A little while ago I was asked by Ciao Bambino to guest write a post for them about my top ten favourite things to do with kids in Paris. They’re running a feature this week all about kids in Paris and have asked a few writers to contribute.
You can read my post on the Ciao Bambino blog here. Hope you like my ideas (it was really difficult to decide on ten!) and do let me know if you have any other favourite things to do and see in Paris!
- Emilie
Emilie in Paris
Jan 17, 2010
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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…)
Sara in Melbourne
Jan 16, 2010
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