Lunch Time

This picture was snapped after lunch last week at one of our favorite neighborhood hangouts. Since it was spring break, it was a rare treat for all four of us to enjoy a lunch out together. Our kids are well seasoned restaurant diners. Dave attributes it to us always eating out. I say it's the atmosphere and all the people around that the kids enjoy. I do occasionally like to mix it up and serve dinner at home too. But I can't say I don't enjoy the fact that the servers at the places we frequent know who we are, what are kids like to drink and often stop to chit-chat with us. That and not having to wash all those dishes afterward.

Happy Easter

I found this essay by David Sedaris on a blog and laughed so hard it hurt (in that good kind of way). It's an Easter tale of multi-cultural and linguistic adventure. Or would it be misadventure? In any event it's hilarious and made me think of the Easter we spent in Belgium three years ago. In Belgium they do have Easter bunnies, except they weren't of the chocolate variety. They were large brioches and the ears were just as tasty.

Photographer

A year or so ago in Classic Play, I wrote about an idea I had for a playdate - a photo scavenger hunt. There's something amazing that happens when you put a camera in a kid's hands—you get their unique perspective.

I think one of the most fascinating illustrations of this was captured in the film Born Into Brothels where documentarians gave a group of children living in the red light district of Calcutta cameras, taught them how to use them, and followed their journey. The journey started with taking pictures on their neighborhood streets to some of the children showing their work in a gallery. If you haven't yet seen the movie, put it on your Netflix queue. It's a fascinating film.

Here in the US, digital cameras are as ubiquitous as cell phones (which often have their own camera) and photo editing programs are increasingly more user friendly. This all means photography as a means of self-expression has become available to an ever wider audience—including kids.

Now I'm not sure if it's having a daddy for a photographer or a natural love of capturing pictures of things they find interesting, but my two love to take pictures themselves. So today while we were waiting outside of a restaurant for a table to open up, I handed my camera to Ellie to help pass the time. Here's what she captured...






If you ask her, she'll tell you why she chose each picture and the corresponding filter. And I love that. I love the quiet confidence and I love the perspective. It's her world and she's sharing it with us. That to me, is beautiful.

A Rare Photo

Since we've had kids, Dave and I are rarely seen together in a picture. This picture is especially meaningful to me since Ellie is the one who snapped it.

Yoga

I've recently started practicing Yoga. I take a couple classes a week at the gym and while it's supposed to be grounding I find it rather challenging to do at home as I always seem to have an audience. The kids are apparently taking notes:

Be a Fan of Ellie Bellie Kids on Facebook

We created a new and improved Facebook fan page for Ellie Bellie Kids. It's more interactive and daily I'll share a link for something that has inspired us, photos of behind the scenes, ideas for you and your kids or maybe something I just think is pretty darn cool.

Also, I'll randomly select fans from time to time for free EBK gear! Now that's pretty awesome.

Sketches

Havana's Doing It Right

Well I'm on a big gardening kick at the moment. We're turning our little plot out back into a potager or kitchen garden. I've been pouring over seed catalogs and dreaming wistfully of big armloads of fresh fruits and veggies harvested straight from our own wee back yard. Le sigh.....

In a very timely coincidence today, Cecilia Leibovitz of Craftsbury Kids fame (whose store I absolutely adore!) posted the video below I'd like to share with you. Oh how I would love to see this extend to my hometown. Perhaps one day the kitchen garden revolution will grow past our little yards, across our neighborhoods into the common spaces where we can all work and enjoy them.

Dave on Cycling TV

101 Cookbooks

My friend Kirsten told me about a blog she loves called 101 Cookbooks. Kirsten is an amazing cook and shares my love for culinary adventure. She's also one heck of a home and family cool hunter. So when she says she loves something, I am compelled to check it out.

So off I went gleefully to the site and of course fell in love. Heidi Swanson (the owner/writer/photographer) has created a beautiful resource for people who love real food. It's labeled as a healthy recipe resource but I feel that's too narrow a description. It's to the point for sure, as 101 Cookbooks features recipes which use natural ingredients. But it's so much more for me. As someone who has a reputation for eating bizarre things (bizarre as in eating starfruit and kumquats not insects or durian - that's Andrew Zimmern's job) this is a place of affirmation. A place where people like me, who love food, can go for inspiration. A place where food is treated as something beautiful and sensuous.

But let me say, I tend to get really excited about things at first. And sometimes what I initially get excited about, I'll later realize was just meh. Yes, I'm a jump in first, ask questions later kind of gal. So I've learned to be slightly skeptical when I start to feel the fluttering of fuzzy feelings.

So before I get too involved with the beauty and grandeur of this site (too late perhaps?), I should tell you I have made the following recipes from the site (with my brief notes on each):

Jamaican Veggie Patties These are one of the best things I've ever eaten!
Lentil Soup Mmmm, so yummy and so hearty &
Black Bean Brownies I was very excited to try this one

And before you scrunch up your nose thinking black beans don't belong in brownies, let me say they were pretty delicious! And when Jonah (JONAH! whose diet consists of yogurt, milk, mac & cheese, occasionally some chicken nuggets and frequent bowls of raisin bran—yeah, yeah, I know a preschooler who likes raisin bran?) asked for more brownie, I knew I had hit gold.

So bookmark the link and try something new. Afterward, we'll grab a cup of coffee together and discuss our return to a world free from high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and excessive amounts of corn and soy hidden in our processed foods. A place where food is once again something we savor.

Heidi Swanson's book (she's published two)