Weekend highlights

Lollipop lollipop
Oh lolli lolli lolli
Lollipop lollipop.....

You probably all know the tune. This is also the opening and closing song for the Lolli-pops concerts, where we went on Sunday. It is a very engaging show in which they make the audience participate through songs, rhythms and questions, so the kids won't get bored. The one that we attended was about the orchestra. In a very simple way, they presented the different families of instruments that exist in an orchestra and explained how they all work together to create music. They performed from well known children rhymes to Mozart and finished up with a Can-Can dance. I personally think it's a fun way to introduce classical music to children. Who organizes this is The Little Orchestra Society and it has two series of concerts for children: the Lolli-Pops Concerts that are recommended for 3 to 5 year old and the Happy Concerts for Young People that are more appropriate for 6 to 12 year old. I may be new to it, but this not-for-profit organization has been around for 64 years and the Lolli-Pops Concerts have just celebrated their 25th anniversary. The season usually goes from October to April with a series of 5 concerts for the younger and 3 concerts for the Happy Concerts.

For my Brazilian readers, in São Paulo, there's a similar program for children that is absolutely fantastic (imperdível) - TUCCA - Aprendiz de Maestro. These are also educational concerts for children (and grown-ups). The concerts are presented in the beautiful Sala São Paulo (São Paulo's concert hall - see picture below) and they are really well organized and performed. The season usually starts in February and finishes in December, with a series of 10 concerts. We started going with F when he was only 2 and P went for the first time when he was around 6 months. Both my sons used to love these concerts and stayed (almost) quiet for the whole 45 minutes. However, the good thing about this kind of concerts is that since the audience is composed mostly of young children, it is not a problem if your child talks to you to ask you a question or at some points even starts crying (as a courtesy to the other spectators you just go out quietly for some minutes until he/she calms down). In addition, all the money collected from the tickets and products sold (DVDs, CDs, etc) goes to this non-for-profit organization TUCCA which takes care of children with cancer. This was by far one of our favorite activities to do with kids in São Paulo - we actually liked it so much that we tried not to miss any of the concerts, which sometimes meant having to change our plans for the weekend. Give it a try, I'm sure you won't regret it.

Sala São Paulo

 
On another note, on Saturday, as I mentioned in my previous post, F ran the Ronald McDonald Kids Charity Fun Run. It was a lot of fun and since I'm a very proud mom I couldn't not mention this here (I'm going to lower my voice now): F arrived 2nd of his group. But... Shhhh! This was a politically correct race, so there were actually no winners or losers, they all got the same blue ribbon at the end. But, like I said, I'm a very proud mom!

Oh, and have I mentioned how gorgeous the park looks these days? I couldn't help myself and I had to take tens of new pictures...

Have a happy week!

Don't you love all these autumnal colors?

Yesterday, after going to the Pace Gallery (here's the post), P and I went to Central Park and it was gorgeous. Fall could be felt everywhere, but with a kind of spring-like weather (today we are back to reality and it is quite cold outside).  While I was walking in the park, surrounded by all these colors and seeing the leaves falling off the trees, I wondered about my preference between spring and autumn. I couldn't really decide, until I remembered a relevant fact. After fall comes winter and after spring comes summer. So, I'd definitely rather be in spring that in fall. But, since I can't do anything to change this, let's just enjoy the good aspects of the season.
I didn't have my camera with me, but I couldn't resist the temptation of taking some pictures with my blackberry. The quality of the images is not the best, but it gives you an idea on how beautiful the park looks now.

P., frustrated, trying to convince a squirrel to come down the tree.

Plans for the weekend:

For the kids

• F. is running the Ronald McDonald Kids Charity Fun Run on Saturday morning;
• This concert for kids seems great - I'm thinking on going on Sunday. TIP: If you are planning on going, buy your tickets through the phone instead of the internet. I've just bought mine for the Sunday performance and the seats that I was offered over the phone were better than the ones that were offered on the website, plus they didn't charge me the handling and processing fees that they charge on the internet;
• F has been asking me to take him to the cinema to watch the "Puss in Boots". However, I'm not sure we'll manage to do everything we are planning to do.

For the grown-ups
Nothing planned yet. My husband arrives from his business trip on Saturday morning, so we won't kick off the weekend with our usual dinner on Friday night. It's been a while since we went to the cinema and I know that there are a lot of new movies right now, so we'll probably go watch one of them on Saturday night. Any suggestions?

Have a great weekend!

Cultural Thursdays - Calder

Wouldn't you love to have one of these in your children's playroom?

P. and I went to see these beautiful mobiles by Alexander Calder that are currently exposed at the Pace Gallery. They are so simple. So delicate. And I love the play of light and shadow that appears from their reflection.

And what about this one for your living room?

Dreaming is for free as are the visits to galleries. If you are in New York, take advantage of this. There are always beautiful things being exposed in the hundreds of galleries that are spread throughout the city. It is also a good way to learn about new artists and their work.

Currently, you can see Calder, Braque, Magritte and Matisse among others.  

Activity for a playdate

When I was a child, I remember playing with my sister and my friends all by myself. My mother was around but not necessarily playing with us. Well, with boys it seems to be a little bit different. I don't know if that rule applies to all of them (probably not), but with my sons and, especially my oldest, they don't really know how to play alone. And this is also the case when they have friends around. I have to, more and less, be the game moderator. Otherwise, they get bored, they don't know what to do and they end up fighting.

Today we invited one of F's friend from school. And after taking out all (and I mean ALL) of F's and P's toys from the shelves and drawers, at some point they got stuck and didn't know what else to do. I could only hear F complaining to his friend "I invited you to a playdate, so you have to play with me" and then threatening him with a "I won't invite you anymore to my house, because you are not playing with me".

So here's the part when I had to intervene. We played "hide and seek", "Freeze" (I put some music, they had to dance and then freeze whenever I stopped the music) and we did some craft (this is what I'd like to share with you).

Last Sunday, when we went to the park, F picked up some dry leaves on the grass. And today, we used them to make some Art. My original idea, was to make stamps with the leaves, but F refused to do it that way. Instead, he preferred to simply paint the leaves and tape them to a paper. The result looks really nice. However, if you want to try my idea, you just need to paint one side of the leaves and then press them on a paper. Simple as that!

Books of the week - Barbapapa

Do you know Barbapapa?
This was a question that would have never occurred to me to ask before I had children. I grew up reading Barbapapa and watching the cartoons, so for me it was obvious that EVERYBODY knew the whole family. Until F. got his first book and my husband took a look and asked what this ridiculous pink thing was. I was shocked. How could anybody not know Barbapapa, one of the sweetest character in children literature?! Especially my husband! Oh, what a disappointment and I thought I knew him when I got married...

So, now that I know that not everybody is familiar with Barbapapa (cotton candy in French), let me introduce him to you. He's this sweet, pink, shapeless character that was first introduced in 1970 by french writers Annette Tison and Talus Tyler. He was born in a garden (like a flower), he later on married Barbamama and they had seven babies - the Barbabébés. Each book is a new adventure. And what is fantastic about them is that they can change their shape into whatever they want to (a plane, a bridge, a ladder, an animal, etc) and by doing so they can help solve any problem!

Here at home, we have, of course, several books of the series. My kids love them and there isn't a week that goes by without reading at least one "Barbapapa" (with P is actually everyday before his nap time).

First book of the Barbapapa series published in 1970

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Here are my latest purchases:

• Along a Long Road, by Frank Viva - The illustrations are beautiful, but my children are too young to really appreciate the book;

• My Taxi Ride, by Jennifer Swender - Fun book for someone living in New York like us and who take cabs all the time with the kids;
  
  
  
• 10 Little Penguins, by Joelle Jolivet and Jean-Luc Fromental - My kids loved this book. It is a good counting book.

Estou na NY with kids!

Blog da Paula Homor

Para as minhas leitoras brasileiras. Acabou de ser publicado o meu post "Relocating... never easy" no baladadíssimo blog NY with Kids, da Paula Homor. Dá uma olhadinha e aproveita para ver as dicas que ela dá no blog que são sempre ótimas.

Cooking with children - Gnocchi

Rush hour. Bath time. Dinner time. The kids want your attention. They are running and screaming all around the house, while you are in the kitchen putting sugar in your stew instead of salt and feeling the nerves on the edge of your fingers. Relax. I have an idea. Tight on your apron strings and put your kids to work!

I don't do this very often, but whenever I decide to cook gnocchi (Italian little potato dumplings), I ask F. to help me out. He's been doing them with me since he was 3 and he's getting really good at it.

They are very easy to do and here's how.

For 4 servings:

Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes (or the equivalent to 1kg) 
• 2 cups of flour
• ½ cup of grated parmesan
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp of butter at room temperature
• Salt

Preparation:

1. Peel the potatoes and boil them in salty water. Cook until tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the parmesan cheese, the egg and the butter. Reserve.
3. Once the potatoes are fully cooked (a knife should go through easily), while still warm, mash them with a fork, a potatoe masher or a food mill.
4. Combine to the mashed potatoes the mixture you had prepared earlier.
5. Start to add, little by little, the flour, kneading gently until forming a firm but still slightly sticky ball.
6. Dust your work surface with flour and start dividing the dought into little balls that you will then shape into rolls, like "snakes" and, finally, cut them into little dumplings or gnocchi. While doing this, dust your hands and work surface repeatedly with flour.
7. Cook the gnocchi in boiling and lightly salty water until they start floating to the surface. Using a strainer spoon, drain the gnocchi and put them in the serving bowl. Mix with the sauce and serve immediately.
8. Gnocchi go well with many sauces. Personnally, I like to serve them with a simple tomato sauce. Other suggestions could be a bolognese sauce, pesto sauce or even just melted butter with some sage (burro e salvia sauce).

Little "snakes" ready to be cut

Et voilà!