Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in portland, OR

Best sweet treats around town

June 30, 2009

The Fourth of July weekend is almost upon us and the weather is supposed to heat up! If you're looking for some yummy desserts for your holiday celebrations and want to avoid heating up your kitchen by baking pies or cakes, take a trip to one of these local, independent shops (BUY LOCAL!) Bon appetit and try to stay cool!

Cupcake Jones (307 nw 10th ave) This sweet shop in Portland's Pearl district offers unusual treats with flavors like: Orange Creamsicle, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Pumpkin Pie. Eat lunch at Whole Foods first or spend the afternoon pouring over books in the children's reading room at Powell's. Come to Cupcake Jones for doggie cupcakes, rBST free dairy, and locally sourced ingredients when possible. Kudos to this business for donating leftovers to a homeless agency. (Justify your cupcake consumption by seeing it as supporting a business who gives back.)

Saint Cupcake (two locations:407 nw 17th ave @ flanders or 3300 se belmont @ 33rd) My daughter and I love to take a special trip to Saint Cupcake to pick out a selection of teeny, tiny cupcakes. Choose from dots (mini bite-sized cakes, perfect for teddybear tea parties) or regular sized. The lemon berry (available only in summer) is my absolute favorite, but selections like the Fat Elvis (banana fudge chocolate chip) or Red Velvet (delish!) are fun too. They will be closing early on Saturday to celebrate the 4th but check with them for Americana-themed mini cakes! (Hit the Avalon and Laughing Planet to make a day out of it)


Voodoo Donut (1501 ne davis, portland or 22 sw third ave) This is a fun place to bring out of town visitors, although be warned some donuts may be NSFCOUR (Not Safe for Kids or Uptight Relatives). The menu offers crazy treats like the Grape Ape, the Dirty Snowball, and vegan donuts (yes, you too may indulge in the glaze without any forbidden ingredients). How about a last minute wedding? You can do that too at Voodoo!

Also worth a visit for family-friendly goodies: Acme Donuts (near SE 30th and Powell) Pix Patisserie (3901 N Williams Ave and 3402 SE Division St.), and Petite Provence (15964 Sw Boones Ferry Road, 1824 NE Alberta, and 4834 SE Division).  Read more...

Konichiwa Japan!

June 29, 2009

Having just survived a nine day trip with my daughter, all the travel I'm down for in the next few weeks involves our imagination and the internet! Just a two hour time difference continues to wreck havoc in our household even four days after our return, as my daughter continues to spring awake before six am and I'm still battling the piles of dirty laundry from our suitcases.

 My daughter shares my passion for collecting all things Hello Kitty and lately, we've been talking about making our dream of traveling to Japan come true. I've told my daughter we'll make there before she graduates high school; she's convinced she'll be packing her bags by the end of the month with all the nickels she's saved up (!) I've been planning a virtual trip, want to come along with us?

 --Check out the Little Travelers Japan DVD from your local library. This sweet movie follows the journey of two home-schooled children and their mother as they travel to various countries and immerse themselves in culture and joys of life. Join Chantel and Nakia as they explore daily life, cherry blossoms, and new foods in Japan! My daughter loves this series of films and is anxiously awaiting a new chapter of their travels. Very simple and captivating vignettes will keep even very young children interested.

 --Dream big, plan your trip and destinations online! Print out maps, chart your course, and let your children imagine all the places they will go. Send away for maps or scour thrift stores for old copies of National Geographic to find maps to pin up on the wall and use some yarn to detail your "journey". What animals live where you are going? What do people eat there? Make clothing or instruments that reflect the culture of the country you are investigating.

--Art can help take you there! We are going to make paper cranes, paint cherry blossoms, and create Hello Kitty themed paper dolls. My daughter and I are obsessed with pop culture and have fun collecting miniature sushi and other teeny tiny foods from Re-ment. Your investigations can be as simple as checking out a cd of traditional music from the library and dancing around the livingroom or as complex as recreating Roman architecture out of Model Magic! Have fun with it!

 --Sample foods you and your child may have never tried before. For Japan, we are making a trip to FuBonn for a sampler of Pocky, biscuits, noodles, and mochi. (You can also sneak in some interesting and unusual fruits and vegetables too!)

 --Learn to count to ten, or twenty in a foreign language! Check out  “Count Your Way Through Japan” or “I Live in Tokyo” for inspiration.

--Research the currency of the country you have chosen.
 Read more...

Cooking Once, Cooking Twice, These Cookbooks Make Cooking Nice!

April 27, 2009

Favorite Cookbooks for Kids

My daughter went through a phase when she was around 2.5 where she was obsessed with cookbooks. She liked to pour over them constantly, picking out the thing we would cook next, or use the recipes as a jumping-off point for her own concoctions. Instead of looking at picture books before bed, she wanted to take a stack of cookbooks to read under the covers. We picked up a bunch of cookbooks at the Goodwill Bins, yard sales, and on eBay to round out our collection. A few of these books are still getting a lot of use in our house, the rest (like the BettyCrocker Entertaining Manuals from the 1970s) have slowly been snuck out of the house to be re-donated. In fact, we often give copies of these cookbooks as our "go-to" gift for special friend's birthday gifts!

Pretend Soup and other Real Recipes--Mollie Katzen
This cookbook has sweet illustrations that give straight forward directions that are easy for children to read and follow. The numbered pictures present tasks that are easy for children and help to build confidence in the kitchen. It's especially fun to use food that you've grown yourself to cook and bake with, and MollieKatzen makes this process loads of fun! Using simple, healthy foods (no Cool Whip or licorice noses in these recipes) to make Bagel Faces, Carrot Pennies, or Number Salad means your child gains experience cutting, chopping, and measuring. Pretend Soup is thoughtfully written, it doesn't spend a lot of time with zillions of intricate steps (which may lead to your child getting bored and wandering off or Mama weeping when her elaborate marzipan birds don't turn out right) and one cooking project can be completed in a short time.

Look and Cook--Tina Davis
I find myself picking this cookbook up often just to flip through the fun retro illustrations. It claims to be a cookbook for children, but it is a reliable resource for the yummiest chocolate chip cookies EVER! The recipe for strawberry shortcake gets a lot of use in our house too. There is nothing like fresh strawberries and the joy of splattering whipping cream all around the kitchen to satisfy a toddler! Davis' book offers easy, beginner recipes for cooking basics like french toast, blueberry muffins, split pea soup. What I like about this book is that some recipes can be attempted with little adult intervention, and as your child grows, they can move on to the more complicated (and stove-related) tasks. Super whimsical graphics teach table setting and kitchen safety.

Mom and Me Cookbook--Annabel Karmel
DK makes the best in-depth instructional books and this cookbook will keep you and your kiddo busy! Lots of full color photos and step by step instructions make the tasks fail proof. There is a good variety of snacks, main dishes, and desserts (the book is quite heavy on the sweets, but does offer healthy options like smoothies, and freezer pops) Our favorite recipes were the Avocado Fruit Dip and the Fishy Fruit Dip---great projects to incorporate for your turn for snack day at preschool!

22:15:31

Parenting books that change things

by Sarah Gilbert

January 08, 2009

I admire, but do not own, the mainstream parenting books. Instead I have a shelf full of quirky ones that nonetheless change things in my house. I'd included books such as Little House in the Big Woods on my list, for instance: by reading this book I developed my mantra, "would Ma Ingalls have worried about it?" (especially good when applied to things like whether your baby has enough tummy  Read more...

Tasty books: Some books that warm my foody soul

by Sarah Gilbert

November 26, 2008

I love kids' books about food, although I have to do my best to set aside my sense of correct practices. (Especially those books that show soup being made; it's always way out of proportion!) Here are some that feature food in a way that is yummy: Pancakes for Breakfast by Tommy dePaola . This wordless book watches as a woman endures obstacle after obstacle while dreaming of pancakes; but I  Read more...