A Day in Ricetown, a clever colour and activity book

A Day in Ricetown is one of the cutest and most creative colouring / activity books I have ever laid eyes on. Not surprising, maybe, since Noodoll Studio is a wonderful creative hub where the most adorable plush toys are created. There is something incredibly wantable about their Ricemonsters — you just want to collect them all!

A Day in Ricetown is cleverly designed around Noodoll Studio’s popular bookmark cards — cards that feature a removable paper bookmark of one of the characters. The book comes with six Ricemonster bookmarks included (plus a blank one to design your own) and on each page there are slots into which the bookmarks can be placed. This way, this activity book not only encourages the child to draw, to colour and to write, but also to create and to play. Clever!

xxx Esther

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Les Niçois – A Restaurant With Year-Round Vacay Vibes

  When friends meet up for brunch with the little ones on the weekends I have a regular rotation of kid-friendly joints I usually insist on. Les Niçois is high on that list. It has everything you could possibly dream of and more for weekend brunch with kids.

First off all it’s spacious, so you can roll up with your bikes, pousettes, and loads of all kinds including your kids and no one will give you side-eye. The menu is thoughtful and plentiful.  Les Niçois has  meat, fish, and veggie options to choose from for mains and then they bring lots of sides (salads, poached eggs, soup, etc), plus dessert, juice and cafe. The kids chose lasagne over the fish. They also went crazy for the side of “french fries”  which was actually panisse, chickpea sticks, a speciality from Nice. Les Niçois is the perfect place for an adult brunch that lasts a little too long made possible by the lower level where kids are looked after by a dedicated staff/weekend babysitters who keeps them entertained with coloring and games. There is also a petanque pit and a baby foot table (aka foosball), when the children need more action.

Les Niçois has also taken a new spot on my fav apero spots. After a long play-date at Square Gardette, the playground in front of the restaurant, we popped in here only to find the same welcoming and chill vibe. In the evenings they offer a menu of tapas (such as grilled octopus, ceviche, fried chicken, vegetables farci) and the children were still free to fun up and down the stairs to play petanque or color. While there was no dedicated staff manning the lower level we noticed the bartender occasionally popped down there to make sure the kids were alright.

The owner Luc Sananes who hails from Nice (hence the name) wanted a restaurant with a mediterranean vacay vibe and that is definitely what I feel every time I go there. Everyone is happy and the staff is laid back and they clearly love children. They aren’t scared of a little chaos so you can relax and enjoy that rosé.

Bisous xx, Ajiri

Les Niçois
7 Rue Lacharrière
75011 Paris
09 84 16 55 03

Opening Hours
Mon-Sat 12.00pm-2.00am
Sun 12.00pm-4.00pm

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Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

For its small geographical size, Amsterdam is home to an impressive number of museums and galleries, many of which are family friendly. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is located in the iconic Muesumplein (alongside the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum) and showcases a fine collection of modern and contemporary art.

The Stedelijk Museum is one of the quieter museums in Museumplein, hence more accomodating to families as you usually don’t need to line up or plan ahead too much for your visit. One of the nice things that sets the Stedelijk Museum apart though, is that it contains a small space dedicated to families – making it the perfect place to visit with children.

The ‘Family Lab’ is a fun and involved way to engage children with the art that they see and experience at the museum. The theme of this space is always intertwined with the main temporary exhibition – and the activities enable children to feel inspired and create something for themselves. At the time of this post there was a photography exhibition and the Family Lab was dedicated to portrait photography. A small photographer’s studio was set up so that families could place their phone on a tripod and practice taking a natural portrait within a studio setting. Inspirational quotes lined the walls of the lab, and portaiture books were available to add to the inspiration – such a unique experience for children!

Whenever you go rest assured there will be something creative to captivate you and your little ones. Connecting with art is so enriching for children, and modern art can really provide a more accessible experience.

The Stedelijk Museum shop is also worth a look-in while you are here. Alongside the typical art books, posters and postcards you can also find a beautifully curated selection of interior design pieces, children’s toys and books as well as many unique gifts and souvenirs. You can access the shop without a ticket.

Outside the museum is the open green space of Museumplein, with the stunning Rijksmuseum as your backdrop. Here, younger children can safely play without concern for cars or bicycles — there is also a playground nearer to the Rijksmuseum. The Stedelijk Museum and Museumplein serve as an easy yet rich cultural experience for the family that will no doubt leave a lasting impression.

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Museumplein 10, 1071 DJ
Tel: (0)20 5732 911

Opening Hours:

Daily 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm

Free admission to children and youth up to 18 years of age.

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Spinach and Ricotta Pie

I am just back from a beautiful long weekend in the northern part of Italy, in Liguria, famed for its pesto and vegetable pies and, not surprisingly — we ate like kings. There is something about the fresh products in Italy that seems to marry together perfectly, I never seem to be able to recreated the same thing once I am back in Paris. I do try though. ; )

The vegetable pies are especially incredible. The pastry is made with olive oil, not butter. This I still have yet to master, but the filling is slightly easier to recreate and does, at a pinch, work with normal short crust pastry or indeed a good store bought puff pastry for tarts. So here is my version of an Italian spinach and ricotta pie!

Ingredients:

-200 grams of spinach
-1 onion (chopped) and a handful of chopped parsley
-250 grams of ricotta
-2 eggs
-40 grams of grated parmesan
-a handful of uncooked round rice
-a good quality pie crust (through I am keen to try the one mentioned in this post)

Method:

Heat your oven to around 180°C.

Slowly fry the onion and the parsley until the onion is opaque. Add the spinach and let it wilt. Put it in a collander and, once it has cooled down, squeeze the water out. Chop the whole mixture and add to it the 2 eggs, the ricotta, the parmesan and the rice. The rice will cook in the pie and absorb the excess moisture of the vegetables (a friend of mine suggested adding pine nuts, which I am going to try next time I make this).

Roll out the crust and line a 30 cm quiche tin and fill it with the spinach/ ricotta filling. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Hope you enjoy it!

Emilie

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Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater

Nestled near the west side of Central Park, not far from the American Museum of Natural History and Belvedere Castle, sits a little wooden cottage. Scandinavian in design, it has high arched windows framed with beautifully carved elements, and wood weathered from seeing the turn of 140 New York summers and winters. Imported from Sweden in 1876 as Sweden’s exhibit for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, it was brought to New York and Central Park the following year by Fredrick Law Olmsted, one of the park’s designers. Since 1947 the cottage has been home to marionette productions, and today visiting the permanent theater there for a show is a delightful way to spend an hour.

Run by the City Parks Foundation, a nonprofit offering a range of programming in parks throughout New York City’s five boroughs, the productions at the theater today are a continuation of a “Marionette Touring Company” founded in 1939 by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. Much about a visit here feels like a charming step back in time from the busy pace of today’s modern world.

We went to the theater for the first time earlier this week, taking a break from a hot summer morning in the park to step inside the cottage, marveling at the marionettes from past performances suspended from the ceiling as decorations, and finding a seat on the simple wooden benches in the theater. The current performance, “The Princess, the Emperor, and the Duck,” runs through September and regales children with modern versions of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tales. Now set in Ethiopia (The Princess), China (The Emperor) and Central Park (the Duck), the short tales focus on lessons that are as central today as they were when originally written – stories that like the theater they’re performed in have stood the test of time.

From the moment the lights in the theater darkened until the curtains closed on the final scene, my daughter sat completely captivated by the performance. The marionettes engaged the children in the audience throughout the production, drawing them into the tales by asking questions and having them stand to stretch a bit. The hour-long performance passed quickly, and after it ended one of the marionettists came on stage to show one of the marionettes more closely, explaining how the numerous strings moved various parts of the puppet and demonstrating the techniques employed to produce different movements. Such fun to get a glimpse at how the marionettes work, and we can’t wait to come back for the next show.

Further details:

• Information on the current performance, including showtimes and ticket prices (currently $8 for children 18 months and older and $12 for adults), can be found on the City Parks Foundation website, which includes a link to purchase tickets online.
• The B and C subway lines stop at 81st St – Museum of Natural History, and the M79 bus stops at 81st Street and Central Park West. From there it’s about a 5 minute walk to the theater, and parking for bicycles and strollers is provided.
• Don’t miss the Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden, found directly to the east of the theater. Done in the English country style and planted with flowers and plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s writings, it’s a beautiful place to spend a few minutes. We brought our lunch and enjoyed it on one of the garden’s beautiful wooden benches.

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Summer Dotty Dungarees

I love dungarees on little children! They just look so sweet in them, trotting around with their little bellies sticking out in that bubbly outfit. Plus — I like the convenience. They don’t sag and one can get a lot of wear out of them thanks to the adjustable shoulder straps. OK, after potty training there is a short interval when they’re not the most convenient garments in the world, but as soon as they master the button, they’re back in dungarees as far as I’m concerned. : )

I took these photos of Casper and Ava on a warm spring day not too long ago. Casper is wearing the cropped seersucker summer dungarees by Dotty Dungarees. The perfect version of a short summer style of dungarees!

xxx Esther

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Make Your Own Sunscreen at Home!

I was playing with an idea of making a sunscreen at home for a while because I’m very picky when it comes to them: they first need to be mineral without nanoparticles and can’t have any perfumes and/or nasty chemicals in them — I even wrote a post a while ago about it. And when I found this amazing recipe I decided to finally give it a go. I recommend reading the whole article — it’s super informative.

I made this sunscreen more than a month ago already but I really wanted to give it a good test drive first before sharing the recipe. I must say I absolutely love it. It smells nice and spreads really well. And most importantly — it really, really works!

There are a few differences compared to store-bought sunscreen you should know about though:
– you need to apply it generously (!) and often (about every hour)
– it will make your skin look white at first but after rubbing it for a while it is going to dissolve and lose the white appearance
– this cream doesn’t contain toxic ingredients that make it waterproof and although it contains beeswax that helps it stay on in the water, it still washes off so you need to reapply it generously as soon as you come out of water!

This cream is about SPF 20 or higher.

The ingredients you’ll need to make about 235 ml suncreen:
-90g coconut oil
-65g carrier oil (I used a mix of jojoba, olive and hemp oil)
-28.5 beeswax
-27.5 Mango Butter (the original recipe says shea butter but I used mango)
-40g Non-nano and Uncoated (!) Zinc Oxide
-½ tsp Vitamin E

The procedure is very easy:
Place all the ingredients, except for the zinc oxide in a glass bowl and melt them slowly by placing the bowl over a pot of simmering water. After everything is completely melted, remove the bowl and be careful not to get any water in to the mixture.
Now very slowly add the zinc oxide and whisk like you never whisked before. And then some more! For about 5 minutes.
Now pour the cream into container of your choice and leave it to set up for at least an hour or so.

I used the reusable GoToob and GoTubb Containers from Humangear and I love them! The first ones are squeezable tubes made of soft silicone that is BPA free and even FDA food-safeand they don’t drip and are so easy to fill, use and clean (besides the flip cap all parts are dishwasher safe). They can also be easily labeled. Perfect for travel.

The GoTubb’s are just as safe (also made of food-safe and BPA-free materials) and can be opened with only one hand. These are not water-proof though, so I use them only at home.

**

You can read more from Polona on her blog Baby Jungle or visit her online boutique Baby Jungle shop!

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Cherry Pit Whipped Cream

We adore cherries! And we can seriously eat a lot of them (punnets and punnets in fact) in our house. So when we came across a super easy recipe for cherry pit whipped cream, well, we absolutely had to try it. It consists of ‘leftover’ cherry pits sitting in a bowl of cream overnight. Then you strain the pits, and whip the cream. It is so delicious, so simple, easy to make with the youngest of chefs, and delicious! I love the subtle flavour of the milky and fluffy cherry cream. I can imagine it on the top of (future) summer fruit pies, morning pancakes, or on a cup of an indulgent hot cocoa… Or on top of more cherries! But even more than the yummy taste of the cream, I get a lot of satisfaction from repurposing the pits which ordinarily serve little purpose, and end up in the compost bin. Who doesn’t like reuse?

And as I began to read more about it, I guess cherry pits should be given more credit. They can be even be made into tea, or mascerated into limeades and more. But we will enjoy ours cold steeped, in an infusion of cream. It creates such a pretty soft pink and tastes nutty.  So next time you have a bowl full of cherries, save those pits, don’t throw them away.

Simple instructions:

1. Mix one cup organic whipping cream to one handful of unwashed cherry pits (meaty bits are fine, they add to the flavour).
2. Store in the fridge overnight.
3. Strain the cherry pits out, and throw the pits away.
4. Whip the cream until it is fluffy (it seems to whip faster than other cream, so keep an eye on it). We didn’t add sugar, try it without it, it was sweet enough to us.
5. Enjoy the luxurious cherry cream as an accessory to your desert or all on its own.

A delicious treat for the family. Enjoy!
Lara xx

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Belvedere Castle, Central Park

The most challenging part of a visit to Central Park might be deciding how you want to spend your time. Beyond the green space visible from the park’s perimeters — the shaded walkways, expansive lawns, rock outcroppings, and lakes — Central Park provides space for a number of family-friendly attractions and diversions. The carefully architected landscape of the park means these features are rarely obvious until you come upon them, and to my mind there’s no more enchanting surprise than Belvedere Castle. The flag-flying turret emerges out of the trees as you approach, and before you know it you’re standing high atop Vista Rock at the base of the castle’s stone walls.

Designed by Calvert Vaux, one of two designers of Central Park, the fanciful structure’s intended purpose didn’t originally extend beyond being pleasing to look at and offering lovely views of the park. Today the views remain, but the castle also houses one of Central Park’s five visitor centers as well as the equipment that records New York City’s official weather information.

Once inside the main entrance of the castle, a narrow stone staircases spirals up to one of two upper levels. Make your way to the very top and step outside for commanding views of Central Park. To the north, the Great Lawn stretches out, ringed by baseball diamonds. Right below you’ll see Turtle Pond (see if you can spot any of the five species of turtles swimming or sunning!) and the Delacorte Theater, home of Free Shakespeare in the Park, a summer tradition in New York. The view to the south stretches over the treetops of the Ramble, one of the wildest parts of Central Park and the perfect place to leave the city behind and feel completely immersed in nature. Above you is the turret, and containing instruments designed to record wind speed and direction and temperature (rainfall/snowfall are recorded just south of the castle).

In addition to the views, the castle can be great fun for kids with active imaginations. To them you’re in a real castle, looking out over not Central Park, but your kingdom. It’s not a pond you see below you, but a moat. My daughter loved imagining dragons lurking at every turn, and we left talking about knights and horses and fairy tales. A little slice of magic, right in the middle of the park and the city. Happy exploring!

Details:

• Visiting the castle is free, and it’s open 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
• There are not restrooms at the castle, but you can find them nearby at the Delacorte Theater.
• Free guided walks the landscape surrounding the castle for families with children aged 5+ are scheduled throughout the year. Check the events calendar, and look for “Discovery Walks for Families: Belvedere’s Kingdom”
• The castle is a short walk from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the east side of the park and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater on the west side of the park, both of which I’ve written about previously.

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