Birthday parties mean an activity or craft for us.

Rather than give goodie bags, we make a craft with the kids that they can bring home.  

Our daughter loves to draw and color, so for her 5th birthday we made crayons - super easy, fun, and quite beautiful too.

The only hard part of this craft, is to collect all the broken crayon bits for about six months before the party.  Needless to say, I failed, and you can see some whole crayons in the bowl that we used.

Both the boys and the girls enjoyed this activity - they ranged from 4-7 years old.



Materials needed:

• Cheap silicon bake trays from Ikea or similar shops
• Broken bits of crayons (we love washable Crayola)
• An oven heated to 125 C / 250 F

Steps:

• Peel and break the crayons and put into a large bowl (You could opt to color coordinate them in smaller bowls, but I prefer the kids to do the hard work!)
• Prepare two baking trays covered in foil - to protect from spills
  
• Preheat oven to 125-150 C / 250-300 F (if your oven runs cooler or hotter)
  
• Have the kids each pick colors and fill up XX number of shapes depending on number of kids and trays
  
• Put trays in oven for about 15-20 minutes - check every 5 minutes at first, then watch until they are all melted
  
• Remove from oven and cool on a rack
  

By the end of the party they should be cool and you can pop out and put in little bags or boxes for each child to take home the ones they made.

** Note: the stars were harder to pop out of the molds, and some tips broke, the hearts were really easy.  

** Note: I use these silicon trays ONLY for crafts, and not for cooking, they don't get perfectly clean after this, and I don't want to contaminate any foods I make.  So do be aware of this, and aim for cheap or old ones to dedicate for crafts.

There is a new gluten free, kid friendly healthy restaurant in Hong Kong - Choice Cooperative.  

We are so very excited to become regulars, not only because the owner is a good friend, but because it is perfect for us!  I am putting this under Family Fun, because this restaurant is all about Family as well as Food - that makes it a win-win for everyone in my book.

The ability to order freely and not worry that the kids are eating junk, the option to order healthy deserts, the chance to share a gluten and wheat free pizza with the whole family... yeah!  

• Healthy food
  
• 100% Gluten free
  
• No refined sugars
• Totally healthy, safe, top of the line ingredients only
• Vegan, vegetarian, fish and meat options
  
• Playroom, the largest in any HK restaurant
• Space for classes for kids and adults
  
• Ability to rent for parties, order special cakes, etc...
• Best best gluten free breads in Asia (seriously)

They recently opened with a soft launch and here are some fun highlights:

• Kids can pick out their own fruit to be juiced
  
• The playroom has little windows to spy on your kids
  
• The muffins have been declared 'the best ever' by many
  
• The green monster smoothie is a huge hit
  
• I loved the green juice (with added ginger) too
• Bread #8, lemon poppyseed is our family favorite - great texture!
  
• The blueberry muffins are incredible
• The brioche was out of this world, a bit sweet, but wow
• They are taking orders for custom birthday cakes, cupcakes, breads and baked goods.
  

UPDATE: I brought home a slice of carrot cake, and two days later decided to try one bite... it was gone in 2 minutes! It was incredible.  And it was breakfast - yup, I had cake for breakfast!

Because we know the owner, we had been privy to little secrets for months before it opened... she would send me tantalizing photos of the foods they were testing for the menus, the breads that both passed and failed the stringent taste tests, and the menu items. 

Ifat created Choice Cooperative for totally selfish reasons - she wanted a place for her family to be able to eat and not have to worry about their own food limitations, or unhealthy foods being presented to their children.  All of her experiences and passions contribute to the design and feel of Choice Cooperative. 

Ifat is a perfectionist, she is an Israeli who grew up in Hong Kong, has experience running F&B venues, event management and as a photographer - she has a passion for detail and perfection.  

The Choice Cooperative team has been redefining the kitchen - they are on to some  winning combination.  In addition, loads of support and advice on the menu has come from naturopath and nutritionist Louise Kane Buckley of Loula Natural.  

Choice Cooperative isn't just about Ifat though, they have been gathering some of the best healthy living practitioners in Hong Kong as 'ambassadors' to consult, hold seminars, and be part of the healthy living cooperative which is Choice.  

Find Choice Cooperative in Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, it is open now!  You will love it and you might see us there.

Choice Cooperative, 
7/F BT Centre 23 Wong Chuk Hang Road, 
Aberdeen, Hong Kong Island
+852 2677 7808 
info@theonlychoicehk.com

https://www.facebook.com/choicecooperative

Reviews
http://thehkhub.com/featured-posts/table-talk-choice-cooperative/
http://loulanatural.com/choice-co-operative-gluten-free-bakery-hong-kong/
http://www.greatnewplaces.com/hk/c390-ChoiceCooperativeBakeryCafe

Resources
Chinese-English Gluten-Free Dining Guide / 中英對照麩質不耐症飲食禁忌表
Green Queen - Healthy Dining in Hong Kong
Urban Health - Gluten Free Map of Hong Kong
Sassy Mama - 2012 Gluten Free Guide to Hong Kong

Halloween could be such a fun holiday (who doesn't love dressing up?) if only it weren't for the ridiculous candy, sugar, artificial flavorings, artificial colors and insane amount of E numbers.

When trying to keep a healthy home and give the occasional (preferably homemade) sweet treat, Halloween is challenging.  And yes, it has sadly invaded Hong Kong, but luckily not so much in the local schools yet.

It is not that I am against sweets or fun, but I am very much against artificial coloring, chemicals, refined sugars and things that even the mainstream press is recognizing.

For example, these great articles:
Halloween Warning: Watch Out for Neurotoxic Artificial Food Dyes in M&M's Candies 
Is Sugar Toxic?  
Big Sugar's Sweet Lies
Sugar and Aging: How to Fight Glycation
Study: Saccharin And Sugar Found More Addictive Than Cocaine.

What to do? 

Please allow me to introduce you the Halloween Gift Witch!

• She exchanges a candy for a great gift.
  
• You are allowed to take xx number of candy to keep, then put the rest in a bag, with a note to the Gift Witch.
  
• Then in the morning, you get a gift and the candy is gone!

If you prefer, you could change the Witch to a Gift Goblin, really up to you :)

Also, please do encourage the school, neighbors and everyone you know to give out things like stickers, tattoos, pencils, erasers, bubbles, balloons, toys, etc... as candy alternatives.

Cool pdf link from Green Halloween and Non GMO Halloween:
http://www.greenhalloween.org/2011nongmoguide.pdf

Regarding difficulty getting kids to sleep... this came up recently in a conversation, and with kids at any pre-teen age this seems to be an issue.

We have always had a routine for bedtime and we are very strict about it - no 'special' late nights allowed.  We travel enough to deal with jetlag on a regular basis and know what our kids are like without enough sleep - it is no fun for anyone.

They have always been early to bed, early to rise -  often asleep by 6:30pm and up by 6:30 am.  But with going to local school the days end later and this is no longer possible.  We don't get home until 6pm, and there is dinner, English homework, shower, then in bed by 7:00 reading to them, them reading alone, then listening to audio stories by Tales2Go, then more cuddling while they fall sleep around 8pm.  I wish it was earlier!!

My son is 7.5 and my daughter 6.5 years old, and they have very different inner body clocks.  

My son is up early and fresh and ready to go, and falls asleep easily.  

My daughter has a terrible time falling to sleep and hates waking up early.  

Both of them have a 'window' and if we miss it then bedtime is messy and I get very frustrated.  Like any other parent, I want some 'me time' to wind down before I sleep, and occasionally even *gasp* some time with my ever patient hubby - I need them to go to sleep during my 'window', so I can eventually go to sleep and have the energy to do it all again tomorrow!  

In the past, we have had to give magnesium to my son because he sometimes grinds his teeth - so when he does that, we give them both that before bedtime and it does go smoother.  I should really do this every evening, but I don't...  Magnesium helps to relax muscles and for some reason grinding teeth can be a sign of magnesium deficiency.  

Recently though, I wanted to help them both relax more before sleep, and my daughter especially loves what we do.  I made up a mini relaxing meditation (which is ironic if you knew how total type A, high strung I am hahaha)

After the above mentioned bedtime routine, we turn off Tales2Go (being sure to bookmark the long stories), and do this:

Lay down on our backs in bed (I am with one of the kids)
Breath in and out slowly 5 times, in through the nose, out through the mouth
Tighten each part of the body and relax it one by one, very slowly, inhaling on the tightening, exhaling on the relaxing
Toes, legs, bottom, stomach, hands, arms, neck and shoulders, head and face
Then the whole body
Then we do another 10 breaths really slowly and deeply as above

By the end of this, my daughter is really relaxed and almost asleep... she sometimes asks me to gently stroke her forehead too.

I could not believe that this worked as I tried it on a whim one night, and now they ask for it!

It's not magic, but it helps.... now if I could only be as disciplined as to do this for myself!

Resources
http://www.meditationoasis.com/ - free podcasts on iTunes
http://smilingmind.com.au/ - nice free app on iTunes, very age appropriate
http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/ - free trial no the app on iTunes

Twice a year we clean out our closets and playroom and bring clothing to the Friends of the Earth Clothing Recycling Bin in Mui Wo.

Throughout the year we have a special shelf we put shoes and clothing that the kids have outgrown and when the pile is big enough, it is time to go.

The kids love this bi-annual ritual.  They never complain about carrying the heavy bags and are never sad about saying good-bye to their former clothing and toys because they know they are going to a good home.

List of FoE Clothing Bins in HK.