Apple Print Pumpkins – Fast and Fun DIY Halloween Decorations

We just returned from a holiday in California and from the minute we arrived we were struck by how many of the houses already had their Halloween decorations up. The kids couldn’t get enough of all the ghosts and monsters hanging from people’s porches and the front yards decked out like crime scenes. It certainly made for fun walks around the neighbourhood. As soon as we got home to England we rushed straight to the greengrocers to pick out some pumpkins and set to making some decorations to add a little halloween spirit to the house. With only one day to go these apple print pumpkins turned out to be a perfect quick and easy halloween craft and an excellent distraction from our horrible jet lag.

To make the apple print pumpkins garland you will need:

-One apple
-orange paint
-plain paper
-string
-black felt tip pen
-letter stamps and ink (optional)

Slice the apple in half using a sharp knife and blot the surface dry with tissue. You will need a nice smooth surface to get a clean print. If the cut surface of the apple has bumps or dips then slice off another thin layer until you get it smooth. This part is best done by an adult.

Apply orange paint to the surface of the apple then press down firmly onto a piece of plain paper. You might need to apply extra pressure at the edges to get a clean outline. If the print leaves a few white patches don’t worry, it all adds to the effect. Repeat as many times as you like.

Once the prints have dried let your halloween creativity loose and draw on different pumpkin faces. No scooping, knife skills or mess involved just lots of fun drawing silly spooky faces. If you have letter stamps to hand you could also print out a halloween message onto some of the pumpkins in black ink. Next roughly cut out the apple print pumpkins, no need to be precise.

To assemble the garland take a long piece of string, pierce a hole through the top of each pumpkin and thread the string through each one. We tacked the edge of each pumpkin onto the next one with a tiny piece of blu tac so that they would lie flat against the wall. Now hang!

We loved this craft so much that we just kept making more. In fact we got so carried away that our garland ended up way too long, so now we have two! I can’t wait to bring them out next year and add more crazy pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Kate x

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On A Magical Do-Nothing Day, by Beatrice Alemagna

I am a big fan of Beatrice Alemagna and I have waited so patiently for her latest book, On a Magical Do-Nothing Day to be released here in the UK. I’ve written before of her book, The Marvellous Fluffy Squishy Itty Bitty and I have to say this latest picture book is just as magnificent!

Beatrice Alemagna’s work is perfection and, together with my girls, we always fall deeply into her books. On a Magical Do-Nothing Day, is a wonderfully absorbing story with such whimsical illustrations. It’s a super cosy read for these autumn days and most certainly captures the magic of the outdoors.

The story goes that the child and mother go on their annual cabin holiday while Dad is left at home working. The child is engrossed in the computer world until the mother takes and hides the device. Bored silly, the child decides to take a walk outside and it’s there that the real fun of the day begins!

I love the earthy palate of the pictures and in true Alemagna style a pop of neon shines through with such happiness. The woodland world which has been captured is so enchanting – it’s a true celebration of good childhood adventures. Every time I’ve read this with my girls I have a little tear in my eyes because Alemagna has captured the true meaning of being a child.

The book can be purchased in all good bookstores and online directly from the publishers Thames and Hudson here.

Enjoy!

Vanessa x

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Perfect Pumpkin Bread

If you want the very perfect baked version of Autumn, then this moist, colourful (I want to wear that colour!) pumpkin bread is for you. And as much as I love Autumn and all things apple, (apple pie, apple cake, apple turnovers, apple crisp, you get the idea), there is something about pumpkin that is warming, comforting, and soothing.

So, I went on a pumpkin bread recipe hunt, and without fail, one of my favourite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, did not disappoint. Her recipes are amazing! And this pumpkin bread (although one could argue it is more of a cake with its sugary top), is perfection.

Beatrice and I baked it together (with very few steps, it is very easy to make)! Then the next day we brought it with us for a picnic with Esther and her children who were in town. After hours of climbing trees, collecting leaves, and running around, they needed fuel and what better than this bread?  After slicing it up, the bread quickly disappeared into the mouths of all 8.5 of us — we think the baby enjoyed it too!… (yum) and we were soon devouring every last crumb. That is the seal of approval for baking success!

I made a few slight changes to the original recipe. Happy baking!

Bread Ingredients:

• • *1 15-ounce tin of organic pumpkin puree — you can roast and puree a pumpkin but tinned is the quicker option! (and it is not cheating )
  • ½ cup (115 grams) melted unsalted butter
  • 3 large eggs — room temperature
  • 1 2/3 (330 grams) cups granulated unbleached sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • Heaped ¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
  • Heaped ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Two pinches of ground cloves
  • 2 ¼ cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour

To Finish:

• 1 tablespoon (12 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C). Butter a 6-cup loaf pan (or two smaller ones).

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, butter, eggs and sugar until smooth. Sieve together  baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinanmon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves over batter and whisk until well-combined. Add flour and stir with a spoon, just until combined. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth the top. In a small cup, stir the topping ingredients together then sprinkle over top of batter before placing it in the oven.

Bake bread for 65 to 75 minutes turning the cake once half way thru the baking time for even colouring. Use a toothpick poked into all parts come out batter-free (both the top and center will want to hide pockets of uncooked batter).

Cool the bread completely in its pan, allowing the loose cinnamon sugar on top to adhere better. It creates a bark like layer of crunchy goodness.

Wrap in parchment paper, so the top stays crisp, or place in a tin. Enjoy with some butter (why not?) and a few slices of a tart and juicy apple. And I am sure you will have happy campers… we did!

Other Babyccino Autumnal Recipes to try:

Apple Pie

Corguette Muffins

Delicious Apple Muffins 

Enjoy!

Lara

xx

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Ten Favourite Posts from the Past Ten Years!

To celebrate our 10th birthday we’ve dug deep into the archives to find ten favourite posts from the last decade. Just looking back through the archives reminds me how diverse the topics are and also how many fun ideas we’ve shared. Here are ten of our favourites:

1. We loved reading all the comments in this post about how often you bathe your children. It was fascinating to read the cultural differences and opinions!

2. It was hard to choose from all the wonderful birthday party ideas, but Pim’s Lego-themed birthday party was such a great one with so many cute ideas from lego face juice glasses to balloons!

3. We loved this post from Emilie in which she asks if we women are our own worst enemy? She writes about how working mothers are criticised for neglecting their children and for putting work before family while stay-at-home mothers are criticised for not contributing to the finances of the family and for having an ‘easier’ life. It seems we can’t do anything right! Why do we put these pressures on ourselves and others? A beautifully written post and definitely a favourite.

4. It seems that foods and eating is a much-debated and sensitive topic amongst parents. But differences aside, it seems we all hope our children will be adventurous, healthy eaters. Esther shares her tried and tested tips for raising good eaters and we love these tips!

5. There are so many wonderful recipes from the past ten years and it was impossible to choose favourites, but in this post Esther shares not one but THREE of her go-to quiche recipes. And Esther is the master of the quiche, so…!

6. Esther has shared lots of sweet creative posts in The Little Things series, and we especially love one of the first posts where she shares how to make a child’s apron from a simple tea towel. Such a fun little sewing project with the cutest result (and look at little Ava!).

7. Emilie talks about her trilingual upbringing (French, German and English!) and shares some helpful tips for raising children to be bi-lingual. What a gift to give your children — the ability to speak and understand multiple languages!

8. This post where I shared my opinions about TV and electronics turned out to be more controversial than I expected — with lots of people weighing in with their own opinions. This is one of the things I love most about Babyccino — that we can celebrate our different parenting techniques by raising topics that lead to healthy discussions and debates.

9. We’ve shared so many wonderful craft projects over the years — just looking back at all of them makes me feel so inspired to be more crafty with my kids! In 2010 Esther shared how she made stick horses for Sara’s birthday party. I love this idea — both for a fun craft project as well as for birthday party entertainment.

10. I wrote this post about sleeping with your baby when Marlow was seven months old — the same age that Wilkie is now! I actually find it reassuring to read and think back to that time, and to know that Marlow eventually became a really good sleeper. It is a reminder to me to enjoy these sleepless nights with Wilkie because this phase passes quickly. I hope it makes others feel the same way too.

Do you have any favourite posts not mentioned above? We’d love to hear what posts have resonated with you. x

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Ten Questions with Courtney

In our week of interviews to celebrate our 10th Birthday, it’s Courtney’s turn to answer our ten questions…

1. Describe your ten-year-old self. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give that ten-year-old girl?

When I was ten I was the eldest of five kids — my baby brother, Spencer, had just been born. My sister and I used to pretend our baby brother was actually ours. My mom jokes that she only ever held him when he needed a feed and apart from that, we had him in our arms. We lived on a flower farm 15 minutes from the nearest town and spent our days running around outside. I dreamed of owning a horse and begged my parents every chance I had. (I finally got my own horse when I turned twelve). I was a tomboy and loved playing with my many boy cousins, riding bikes, climbing trees, etc. Growing up in a little farming town in a quite conservative family, I was also quite naïve. Going to University when I was 18 was a big eye opener for me!

If I could give that girl advice, I’d probably tell her to not take herself too seriously and to stop worrying about what other people think. It’s taken me a long time to figure out who I am and what makes me happy without worrying whether it appeals to everyone else.

(The photos above were taken when I was around 8 or 9. Unfortunately, my mom only kept my baby book updated until I was this age so I couldn’t find photos from when I was ten!) 

2. If you could have 10 extra minutes every morning, what would you do? Sleep in? Do yoga? Spend more time choosing an outfit?

I’d love 20 extra minutes to squeeze in a quick yoga session (with Nadia’s 20-minute yoga DVD), but I would settle for just ten minutes if I could get it.

3. You arrive to the school gates 10 minutes early to pick up your kids. You pick up your phone. What do you do (emails? Instagram? Pinterest? games?)?

For some reason, checking emails on my phone just gives me anxiety. I’d rather not look at my inbox and just deal with the emails when I’m in the right headspace and at my computer to read and respond to them. Instead, I would browse Instagram and check in on my friends and family. Either that or I’d FaceTime my sister!

4. You win the lotto of £10,000. How do you spend it?

I’d like to go back to Trancoso, Brazil. It was our favourite spot of all the places we visited in our round-the-world trip, and we’d love to return some day. Of course I’d bring Esther and Emilie and their families too. Because how fun would that be?!!

5. You have ten minutes to prepare a meal for your family. What do you make?

Our go-to super easy meal is a tuna pasta we perfected when we were in a campervan in Australia 8 years ago, and ever since we’ve called this meal ‘pasta alla campervan’. It’s a tomato sauce made with garlic, olive oil, tinned tomatoes, capers, olives and tuna. So easy and our kids devour it.

6. You have ten hours on an airplane ALL BY YOURSELF with a library of every movie and TV series ever released. What do you watch?

Oh my gosh, where do I even start? I’ve probably only watched five movies in the past 12 years since having kids. I have so much catching up to do. (Whenever movies come up in conversation with friends, you’d think I’ve been living in a dark hole for the past 12 years. Haha.) I’d probably go for the super cheesy romantic comedies, something I could never get Michael to watch with me. One of my favourite movies from my teenage years was a cowboy movie called ‘8 Seconds‘. Did anyone else have a crush on Luke Perry? I’d love to re-watch that movie for old time’s sake.

7. Aliens are invading your house and you have time to grab 10 items (not including people). What do you grab?

This is a tricky question because we left many of our favourite possessions and treasures from our travels in our little flat in London. We also have a couple boxes of favourite keepsakes and children’s artwork in my dad’s barn, so we don’t have very much here. Having moved across the world to Australia and having started over in many ways, I’ve really become unattached to possessions. But if aliens arrived and took over our house, I’d probably grab:
1. The photo albums and printed photos, including my own baby book my mom made for me.
2. My computer and the hard drive with all the digital photos
3. My wallet. (Boring answer, but we’d need to buy food!)
4. Our big basket of Schleich animals – we’ve spent so many years growing our collection and they’re really the kids’ favourite toys.
5. The custom papercut Emily Hogarth made for us after our travels last year.
6. Our paintings by our artist friend Jeff Kowatch.
7. The baby’s clothes. I have so many hand-me-downs from when Easton and Quin were babies, and they hold so many happy memories. (I have a pair of tiny shoes worn by all four of my big kids just waiting for Wilkie to fit into them.)
8. Our collection of children’s books. I always write on the inside cover of the books I give to the kids, so there are so many cute messages from the past 12 years and I’ve always hoped the kids would keep them and share them with their own kids.
9. Michael would probably grab all the houseplants – he wouldn’t trust the aliens to look after them correctly. Haha.
10. My phone (to call my friend Aimee and warn her that we were moving in with them!).

8. You can spend ten minutes with any famous person. Who would you pick?

I don’t know how famous she is, but I’d love to meet Ina May Gaskin. Her Guide to Childbirth changed the way I birthed my last two babies, and for that I am forever thankful. If I was lucky in that ten minutes, I’d get to witness a birth. (I think in my next life I’d like to come back as a midwife! How magical is the birth of a baby?!!!)

9. What is something about your current self that would surprise the person you were ten years ago?

Ten years ago Michael and I were living in a flat off Hampstead Heath in London with our two little boys. I always knew I wanted a big family, but would never have thought we’d end up with five kids — and five kids in the same girl-to-boy ratio of my own family growing up!  I also knew I wanted to live in Australia at some stage, so the fact that we’re now here in Byron Bay would not really surprise me, but it would make me so happy to know it would eventually happen.

10. What do you hope your life will look like ten years from now?

I’d be so content to think it would look a lot like it does now, albeit with older children (oh my gosh, it freaks me out to think I’ll have a 22-year-old in ten years!). For the first time in my life I am living somewhere where I could happily live forever, which is such a settling feeling… so I’d be so happy to think I’d still be here in Byron Bay with my family.

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Ten Questions with Emilie

It’s Emilie’s turn to answer our ten questions! I’m loving how practical her answers are in question number 7, and look how cute she was as a 10-year-old! Here are Emilie’s answers:

1. Describe your ten-year-old self. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give that ten-year-old girl?

When I was ten I had just started high school and was biking something like 7 kilometres with my friends to school — funny to think of that now. I was actually also very small, and as I was growing up in Germany, all the kids were huge compared to me so I made up for that by being cheeky and a little bit of a loud mouth. ; ) We lived in a village so we would spend all day in the nearby woods and fields playing in the summer or on the village pond skating in the winter. It was awesome. The little downside was that my mother was in and out of hospital with cancer at that time so my brother and I were very independent and helped out a lot at home. We were expected to cook and clean, and generally knew how to take care of ourselves.

I think they are three sayings I have learnt over the years: “start as you mean to go on”, “always treat others as you would like to be treated yourself” and “hold on tightly, let go lightly”. I think I have often repeated these to myself and used them as life guidelines. So I guess I would give these as advice to my 10-year-old self and I might have done some things differently…. but I am who I am because of the experiences I have had – so I guess it has all worked out in the end…

2. If you could have 10 extra minutes every morning, what would you do? Sleep in? Do yoga? Spend more time choosing an outfit?

Stay in bed with a coffee and a book. It is my ultimate luxury!

3. You arrive to the school gates 10 minutes early to pick up your kids. You pick up your phone. What do you do (emails? Instagram? Pinterest? games?)?

I quickly look at mails and make whatever is the most urgent phone call I need to make!

4. You win the lotto of £10,000. How do you spend it?

Travel, and just like Esther, take all of us on a little bit of a holiday to our surrogate home in Byron Bay!

5. You have ten minutes to prepare a meal for your family. What do you make?

Scrambled eggs, salad, cheese and bread.

6. You have ten hours on an airplane ALL BY YOURSELF with a library of every movie and TV series ever released. What do you watch?

I would watch every new movie that had come out lately, drama, comedy or documentary. I actually get super excited about being on a long flight just because of that. I still haven’t seen Big Little Lies!

7. Aliens are invading your house and you have time to grab 10 items (not including people). What do you grab?

Gosh this is hard as it really depends on the type of aliens invading my house!
1) my phone
2) my wallet
3) our passports (I am after all quite a practical person)
4) coats
5) books for everyone (we need to wait out the aliens)
6) blankets
7) pocket knives (I actually often have one of these in my handbag for picnics – my grandfather taught me that) – might me useful for an alien invasion
8) matches
9) a portable loudspeaker
10) a tent

8. You can spend ten minutes with any famous person. Who would you pick?

A friend of mine, Simon Kuper, just did an awesome interview with the author Judith Kerr, whose book “When Hitler Stole my Pink Bunny” and its sequels had a massive impact on me as a child as it was the first book I had ever read about the Holocaust. Growing up in Germany, that was big. I think a lot of people of my generation in Germany read that same book. She seems like such an interesting woman, with such a fascinating life, so I would love to spend 10 minutes with her.

9. What is something about your current self that would surprise the person you were ten years ago?

I don’t think I would ever believe that I would be living in Paris, having had all the experiences I have had! Life is so unpredictable!!

10. What do you hope your life will look like ten years from now?

I hope it is going to be full of adventures and experiences. By adventures I don’t only mean massive trips (though I do love those) but also adventures with everyone I love family and friends. I feel like they are going to be a very interesting 10 years. ; )

EnregistrerEnregistrer

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Sailing model boats on Conservatory Water in Central Park

My daughter began attending preschool earlier this fall, and to help celebrate this milestone I took her for a special outing on one of the last days before the school year started. She had admired the model boats sailing on Conservatory Water during past trips to Central Park, so we decided to try our hand and rent one to sail ourselves. It’s such a classic New York activity — boats have been sailed in the little pool along the east side of the park for more than 140 years — and it seemed the perfect way to spend a beautiful late summer morning.

Original plans for Central Park called for a reflecting pool alongside a glass conservatory, but cost overruns and budget cuts meant the Conservatory was never constructed and the little pond instead became a popular model boating spot modeled on similar ones seen in Paris by the park’s designers. The pond and its wind-driven boats feature in the beloved children’s book, Stuart Little, which I remember fondly from my childhood. The boating is serious business for adults too, however: members of the Central Park Model Yacht Club hold races on the pond every Saturday from 10am-1pm, with competition boats stored inside the Kerbs Boathouse during the week.

We rented a boat from the little kiosk just outside Kerbs Boathouse (currently $11 plus tax for 30 minutes) and received a brief lesson on the functions of the accompanying remote control. I was surprised to learn the boats don’t have motors and are powered solely by wind; the remote control allows you to manipulate the position of the rudder and the sail. Moving the boat so the sail was positioned to catch the slight breeze turned out to be a little challenging, especially for a 3-year-old, but she had fun holding the remote and toggling the controls, and was kind enough to give me a few turns. When we did manage to line everything up to ensure a good run (due more to luck than anything else!), it was exhilarating to watch our boat sprint across the water. We walked around the far side of the pond to meet it, pointing out the ducks who share the space and even finding a solitary turtle floating in the warm water at the pond’s surface. We turned the boat back around, on course for the boathouse once more. The view of the boathouse and the skyline along the east side of the park reflecting over the water made for one of those moments where New York seems irresistibly lovely, and I fell a little more in love with this amazing city. We celebrated with an ice cream after returning our boat, full of plans to come back and further hone our skills next summer.

A few further details:

• Weather permitting, the boating season runs from April-November. If the weather is questionable on the day you hope to go, it might be worth calling ahead (917-522-0054) to ensure the boats are still sailing.
• A cafe, run by the chain Le Pain Quotidien, can be found on the east side of the pond, with patio seating available. A second kiosk alongside the south side of the pond has ice cream.
• Restrooms can be found in the Kerbs Boathouse.
• Don’t miss the statue of Alice in Wonderland just north of the pond and the one of Hans Christian Andersen to the west of the pond, where fairy and folk tales from around the world are read each Saturday from 11-12 during the summer months (June-September).

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