kids Archives - Page 8 of 10

Benihana, a treat of a night out

In the name of research (coughs), for good places to take the family for supper, I had a grown-up night out, hosted by the lovely Laura @LondonBabyMum founder of London-Baby.com who invited myself and several London blogger types, for a night out at #BenihanaChelsea on the Kings Road (easy to find, we jumped on a tube to Sloane Square, and walked up).

Now, I’ve know of this restaurant for years, the founder Rocky “Hiroaki” Aoki opened the first Benihana restaurant in 1964 in New York City. They are pioneers of “Teppan-yaki” dining, chefs combining dazzling performance and cooking freshest ingredients in front of diners.

We sat at a table for eight, and watched with delight as our chef Luke performed fantastic tricks with onion rings (volcanos and steam trains no less) – and cooked up some AMAZING food on the 300degree hot plate right in front of our eyes… bonkers! (There were a few comedy moments when Luke ‘accidentally’ threw an egg at me, and ‘squirted’ some fake soya sauce at Maggy)

Seriously – I’ve found another new place to take the kids for a special treat, I know they will LOVE the spectacle of it – they will love the vegetables (well, I’ve never had tastier courgette) and the freshest, melt-in-the-mouth fish… oh, and the (grown up) blackberry cocktails were divine.

Benihana UK have a new facebook page (with more photos of us!) and can be found in Chelsea and Piccadilly. A big thank you to Laura for inviting me, it was great to catch up with so many friends, and thank you too, to the attentive staff at Benihana, and in particular Dieter Kemp, Marketing Director for Benihana UK (who was full of stories about Rocky, and the history of Benihana, and kindly helped me with my chopstick technique!).

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos, Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x

Disclaimer: we were invited to the evening out by the BENIHANA management team.

read other views here:

http://missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/big-night-out-at-benihana-chelsea.html
http://domesticgoddesque.com/2013/09/benihana-chelsea-fun-family/
http://babesabouttown.com/2013/09/eat-london-with-kids-benihana-chelsea/
http://lifeatthezoo.com/2013/09/nights-benihana-chelsea/

http://www.reallykidfriendly.com/exciting-family-meal-and-egg-juggling-at-benihana

crafts, gardening with kids, google+ hangouts, kids, Uncategorized

Flowers and Leaves and Andy Goldsworthy

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This week my darling boys got busy with some Andy Goldsworthy style flower arranging! Well, they made some gloopy papier mache glue (recipe here: two parts water, one part flour, nuked in the microwave for 50 seconds…stir stir stir the lumps out as best you can).

Then they painted the patio and started building up their pattern of summer leaves and petals. It has to be said, 10yo particularly LIKES working with colour patterns, you only have to look at his gogo crazy bones collection which he has displayed by colour, and he LOVED David T Waller’s amazing Toy Atlas Rainbow – the hundreds of toy cars… oh, click here to see it…

This is a fabulous way to explore the science of plant decomposition too – watching as the petals’ colour changes over a period of days – and the release of carbon dioxide…

If you’d like to see how our own patio art works with Autumn / Winter leaves – take a look at the ‘sculpture’ we made with the neighbour’s children – read more here, taking inspiration again from the fabulous Andy Goldsworthy and RedTedArt of course.

10yo boy was really excited to tell his Dad all about this, and has decided that he will cover the entire patio for his birthday, in November, so watch this space!

Anyway, as you know, I’m on a weekly panel of crafty So-and-So-s invited to ‘hang-out’ on Google+ by the every lovely Maggy Woodley at Red Ted Art.

I’m hanging out on Google+ for a bit of a vlog…(click the screengrab to watch) with some craft buddies to share these flowers and leaves ideas, hosted by the aforementioned ever lovely Maggy from Red Ted Art. who made flower crowns and showed us how to press flowers and cute woodland people. Also present are Anna, Crystal, Anthea’s wild grass seed head art, Kelly‘s amazing helicopter seed thank you cards for teachers, Liz was featured with her diy flower-petal paints, The fairy and the frog’s discovery bottle Pop back later for more links soon.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough onGoogle+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, google+ hangouts, kids, monster

How to make a Despicable Me Minion keyring or badge

You can’t miss the posters – Despicable Me is back (and I can’t help amusing myself by calling it ‘This Pic about me’ – as that’s what my small children thought it was called….)

So, as you know, I’m on a weekly panel of crafty So-and-So-s invited to ‘hang-out’ on Google+ by the every lovely Maggy Woodley at Red Ted Art.

Like Maggy, Hama Beads (or Perler Beads as I’ve heard them referred to) were always a bit of a mystery to me when my kids were really small, and them I realised what a great thing they were – appealing to both genders on play-dates, and across a wide age range too… When 10yo was sitting down making his Despicable Me Minion (the larger of the two in the photo) Maggy’s 5yo son was working away with a furrowed brow (glancing occasionally over at my 10yo’s) – great team work, delight all round as they were revealed from the greaseproof paper and hot iron – love them!

Ours were meant to be made into badges, however, it now transpires that they are destined to adorn their book-bags!

I hung out on Google+ for a bit of a vlog… with some craft buddies to share these melty beads crafts, hosted by the aforementioned ever lovely Maggy from Red Ted Art who showed us several ideas for the Hama Beads, some fab little bowls and sweet greetings cards. Kelly made some EPIC jewellery! and pop back later for more links to Anthea, Kelly, Liz, Aly’s Tardis and Rebecca.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, kids

Yarn Bombing in Wargrave

Well, imagine my delight, receiving these images on an email last week… Usually emails from the OH over at Wargrave Auto Centre are quite ‘dry’ to say the least… reminding me to artwork up some new business cards, or design an Ad for the Carnival brochure.

So I was beside myself that he clearly knows me so well that he went on a walk around the village taking photos of the amazing #yarnbombing which appears to have popped up on every street corner, bench, and lamp post in Wargrave, near Henley – how delightful are these?

Both me and the children are positively enchanted by this wonderful Yarn Bombing! It made our afternoon, so thank you to the locals of Wargrave for all of their hard work and creativity!

(We particularly love the shot of the bench, and the ‘lost cat, reward’ poster sellotaped to the lamp post, we hope this helps to find him!)

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

create, key stage 2, kids

In awe of David T Waller’s rainbow Car Atlas

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There is colour and pattern everywhere in our lives… 10yo is obsessed with putting collections of ‘things’ in colour order, creating patterns and art – For example, all of his gogo crazy bones are placed into colour specific piles, and taking inspiration from artist David T Waller, he then experimented with moving the camera to create blurred rainbow patternations…now to start collecting toy cars! (see below)

We love this wonderful installation of 2,500 old toy cars by UK artist David T. Waller. And one for the car love Pinterest Board eh @WoodleyAutos?! To enter our competition to WIN #Turbo goodies (the film about a little garden snail who thinks he is a racing car!) click here.

If you’d like to see more on colour and pattern, check out our Andy Goldsworthy inspired leaves and flowers on the patio here!

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough onGoogle+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, google+ hangouts, kids

Lolly Stick Bi-Planes

A nice quick and easy craft for you today… you need five recycled ice lolly sticks for each plane (that’s a lot of lolly-licking – you CAN buy popsicle sticks in bulk though!) This post has now moved to http://incredibusy.com/clothes-peg-bi-plane/

I hung out on Google+ for a bit of a vlog… with some craft buddies to share these peg planes, hosted by the ever lovely Maggy from Red Ted Art who showed us four crafts including her Lollipop traffic light biscuits which are featured in her book. Another great lolly stick craft here from Craftulate – popsicle sticks and magnets! Pop back later for more links to Aly Hodge, Anthea, Kelly, Liz‘s lolly stick boats, and Rebecca. Maggy’s other feature crafts were superhero-puppets and spiderwebs.
Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/Incredibusy too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x
Ali also writes over on FunCraftsKids.com

crafts, google+ hangouts, kids, monster

Fun Felt Finger Puppets

So – the challenge was on… several scraps of felt, and half an hour to kill… the boys wanted a Baby Yoda, so we got to work.

Ingredients:
Felt
Googly Eyes
Scissors
Glue Gun (or PVA)

We each of us drew the Star Wars character Yoda from memory on a piece of paper, to establish a 2D representation, Baby Yoda’s ears and BIG eyes seemed to be the main recognisable features. We cut him out, glued him together and built up some fiddly layers to create his creased face and ears.

We had a bit of a debate about which eyes to use, as I was super keen to use the googly eyes with eyelashes. Funny how that got knocked on the head by the two boys… I was desperate to use them, so 10yo allowed me to add them to his Jar Jar Binks – you like?! Not perfect, but you can see a resemblance!
I hung out on Google+ with some craft buddies to share these finger puppets – Anthea from Zing Zing Tree made some lovely hair pinwheels. And some beautiful rings (we’ve put our orders in! Lizzie’s little felt mice were adorable, and our host Maggy from Red Ted Art showed us my favourite felt doughnuts and strawberries.

Ali, KidsChaos. x

Also on incredibusy.com – and if you like Star Wars you’ll like the PORG paperchains here kidschaos.com/make-porg-paper-chains

And if it’s puppets you are looking for, check out these sweet stick puppets here

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebookand Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

kids, life

We had a day out! Thorpe Park

The boys had been behaving well all week, homework done, on time, thumbs up from their teachers, they’d got dressed and to school on time EVERY day for the week (without me losing my voice ‘reminding’ to clean teeth, pack sports kits etc), so it was time to break it to them…. carry on like this for another five days, and next weekend we’ll take you to Thorpe Park!

The boys pored over the Thorpe Park website, planning which rides they would be going on, and in which order… this took quite some planning as 8yo is not quite tall enough for some of the scarier rides (he’s just under the 1.4m limit at 1.3m – however, there are LOTS of rides he CAN go on at that height, equally scary if you ask me!)

So we packed some snacks, and waterproofs, and set off for a day of fun.

My personal highlights were all fairly ‘water-based’ so I’d say if you CAN take waterproof trousers too, do! I hung out with 8yo, and started with Depth Charge, (picured below, a couple of times!) followed by Flying Fish, Loggers Leap (damp), Rumba Rapids(soggy), and the SOAKING WET Tidal Wave.

Another favourite of mine, which took some doing to get me on there… was the Detonator. 8yo said it was more fun going on there with me, than with Daddy, as I actually enjoyed it and queued up straight away to go back on! Gut wrenching, but a GREAT view from the top! 8yo and I LOVED RUSH too, so make sure you ask for a blue wristband for your child as you enter the park, this denotes that he is tall enough for a 1.3m ride, and speeds things up.

Meanwhile 10yo and his Dad went on ALL of the ‘extreme thrills’ rollercoaster rides that he listed as his PLAN for the day, so he had the best day EVER apparently!

(and yes, they both braved it backwards on the Swarm!)

So a great day all round, we’ll definitely be going again, and 8yo will be pestering me on a weekly basis to see if he’s 1.4m yet!

There are a few offers on at the mo, to help families to make savings when visiting: Pick up a Frijj to take advantage of a 2-for-1 coupon offer when booking tickets. Check out more information on their Facebook page.

We were lucky enough to be given our tickets by Thorpe Park, however if you book tickets seven days or more in advance you can save 30% – adults from £30.24, children from £23.52 (under 12)

We drove, as we’re only half an hour away, however, if travelling by train, South West Trains website offer online discounts on entry too.

We heartily recommend it for a day out, take waterproofs, and plan your day, would be a great day out for half term – see you there!

Ali, KidsChaos.

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebookand Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

Check out interesting facts on some of THORPE PARK’s top rides!

gardening, gardening with kids, kids, life

Out in the garden…compost treasures

Chaos writes:

Out in the garden this morning before school, grabbing some compost for the little Papier–mâché seedling pots pictured below.

And look! (actually, look away now if you’re squeamish about worms… oh, too late…)

There was a potato growing deep at the bottom of the hotbin compost bin! I’ve pulled him out, and re-planted the little spud, how exciting – looking forward to harvesting them later in the year 🙂 #composttreasures

To read more on our gardening adventures click here to see where we got our delicious compost for our seedlings.
To see how our garden grows, follow our Gardening With Kids posts here.

and how to make an indoor watering can here!

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, google+ hangouts, kids

Pine Cone Crafts – Hedgehog

Chaos writes:

Looking for something different to make with the air-drying clay we bought AGES ago from my namesake the poet Graham Clifford at Canonbury Arts, when I was working in Islington. And at the same time, pondering, what do we do with the pile of pine cones we have beside the fireplace? So we figured, this adorable hedgehog!

So easy to make this little fella, one large ball of clay, formed into an upturned face, four smaller balls, flattened for feet, claws indented with the ends of a pair of scissors, two petal shaped ears, and a little bobbly nose… I find that having a little cup of water to soften the clay whilst you are working, really helps… we used felt-tipped pens for the colour detail when the clay had dried. The feet, I’ll admit, keep falling off, so we glue-gunned them on.

We are going to try some more over the Easter break with some Fimo instead of the clay, as it’s it’s more malleable for the kids, will let you know how we get on!
THEN Maggy at Red Ted Art invited a few of us creative types to ‘hang out’ on Google+ to share our pine cone expertise…! I must admit we did have a FEW technical problems, from falling cameras to lost internet connections! You can see the edited version here, and yes, I do pop up at both ends of the video with my superman cape flapping behind me….please do take a look at the following links from the other creatives for shed loads of pine cone inspiration. Lizzie at Me and my Shadow produced a most fabulous photo holder, which is what we are going to make with the ‘spare’ pine cones we have. Aly at Plus 2 point 4 had some printing with pine cones. Anthea at Zing Zing Tree made a very adaptable felt animal creation.
The Frog & The Fairy made some adorable small world play trees. Jen Mum at the Madhouse made a gorgeous owl. Kelly (and her small person) Domestic Goddesque shows us how to make a beautiful door hanging, and of course, our lovely host, author Red Ted Art shares some pine cone babies from her book.
Oh, Maggy’s book is launched 28 March 13, so don’t forget to order your copy now!

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x