BOOKS
'Everyone Eats' by Julia Kuo, a cute book for toddlers
We've recently added the cute book, 'Everyone Eats', to Wilkie's book basket in his bedroom, and it's quickly become a bedtime favourite. It's a cute and simple book, featuring different groups of animals on each page and the foods they eat: rabbits eat carrots, deer eat lettuce, bears eat honey, etc. Not only does Wilkie love ...
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OUT OF TOWN
Coastal Morro Bay and Avila Farms in San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo County is located, more or less, in the center of the California coastline. It's mostly known for Hearst Castle, which was a private residence for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947. Hearst Castle is now open to the public and a popular destination for visitors. You may have heard ...
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PLAY
Noah's Arc at the Skirball Cultural Center
Noah's Arc at the Skirball Cultural Center is located in the Santa Monica Mountains, close to the Getty Center. It's an interactive "playground" themed after the story of Noah's Arc, where children become part of the experience by bringing the story to life themselves! Children can climb, operate and pretend play on the large vessel ...
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SEE
A day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is another one of the many perks of living along the Los Angeles coast. It’s undoubtably a magical place and educational experience for children and adults. In other words, if you are contemplating a visit -- make plans immediately! There are more than 50 exhibits with over ...
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BOOKS
'Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth', a brilliant book by Nicola Davies
How many living things are there on Earth? LOTS! Our new favourite book, Lots: the Diversity of Life on Earth, elegantly illustrates how magnificent earth is, and impresses upon each reader how essential it is to respect our planet -- now! Did you know that there are 5,000 kinds of microbes in just one teaspoon of ...
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SEE
American Museum of Natural History
Many of New York's most famous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, line the east side of Central Park along 5th Avenue, a stretch often referred to as Museum Mile. But crossing the park to Manhattan's Upper West Side to visit the American Museum of Natural History is a high ...
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FUN
Simple Blocks in Confetti Colours
We received these colourful blocks from a thoughtful friend as a recent birthday gift, and they are really fun to play with! Normally I prefer toys in neutral colours and natural materials, but sometimes it is refreshing to mix it up, and a friend with a good eye for design and style is a ...
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SEE
Bronx Zoo
Each of New York's five boroughs has a zoo to call its own, but the city's flagship zoo, the Bronx Zoo, is not only the largest in New York, but also the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States and among the largest zoos in the world. It is part of a system of four zoos and one ...
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SEE
The Zoo of Barcelona
Although I have a love hate relationship with zoos, I can still remember the feeling I would get when my parents would tell me that we were going to the Zoo. A sudden surge of excitement would come over me, and it wouldn't go away until several days after having been to the zoo. ...
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PLACES TO VISIT
Feather Down Farms: a weekend stay on a farm
A couple of weeks back, we picked up the children from school on a Friday afternoon and drove all the way to the very south of Belgium. Reason for our trip was a weekend stay at a Feather Down farm, or in other words, we were going 'glamping' on a real working farm. Feather Down is a concept that originated in ...
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PARENTING
Kittens!
Over the Christmas holiday, we got a call from some good friends here in the neighbourhood with a rather strange but lovely question: they recently had gotten two kittens to extend their family of four, but now it turned out that the dad had developed an allergy for cats. So would we want to adopt their ...
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BOOKS
There's a Bear on my Chair, by Ross Collins
There's a Bear on my Chair has very clearly become a favourite of Florence's. She's carried it everywhere this past week and I love it when I hear her shout, "Mama there's a bear on my chair", when she's playing in her bedroom. Ross Collins has created such an amusing story about a bear who sits ...
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FOR MUMS
Growing up with animals
I grew up in the country side, and my dad was the local country vet. I was always surrounded by animals; we had dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, a pig, sometimes we even had cows. And, lucky me, I was always allowed to have my own pony. When I left my parents ...
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BOOKS
Silver Jungle Books
If you didn't know the name of Lisa Jones, you'd recognise the style of her studio's illustrations -- influenced by 1950's design they are wonderfully vibrant and optomistic. And now Lisa and her partner Edward Underwood have collaborated with Joanna Skipwith of Silver Jungle Books to produce 2 delightful little books about animals for little ...
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BOOKS
Read and Wonder storybooks
When packing for our trip I knew I had to pack children's books -- we couldn't go a whole three months without them, no matter how heavy they made our suitcases! So I decided to pack books that were relevant to our travels -- books about nature, animals, sea creatures, etc. Over the years we've ...
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LONDON
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 ...
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NEW YORK CITY GUIDE
Turtle Back Zoo -- Who Knew?!
This past weekend we did a Saturday field trip to New Jersey to a place called Turtle Back Zoo. A quick 14 mile drive from lower Manhattan, the large 15-acre zoo has over 850 animals and it was a truly incredible place to spend the afternoon. Not only was I blown away by the huge ...
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LONDON
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 ...
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MILAN
Natural History Museum
Last Sunday we spent the perfect winter day visiting the Natural History Museum. We met there quite late in the morning, with another family with two children. We first toured the ground floor where the main attractions for children are the skeletons and reproduction of dinosaurs; there is a life-size triceratops that is really impressive. ...
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LONDON CITY GUIDE
Kentish Town City Farm
I grew up on a farm so the idea of a "city farm" seemed a bit silly to me. "Surely it couldn't be great. How can there be enough space in the middle of a city to house all those animals?" I thought there would be a few chickens, ducks (pigeons, probably) and maybe a ...
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