The World of Kidtropolis Richmond

Located in Richmond, The World of Kidtropolis is the perfect rainy day, indoor activity for kids and parents! 

With a little city comprised of different shops, kids can pretend play to their hearts desire! They can work at the pet shop, bakery, police station, even become reporters on the evening news. 

There is also a climbing area and slide for the bigger kids (those who are ok to climb higher by themselves).

Birthday Party!!

At Kidtropolis you can book a party room for 2h. They include cutlery, cups and plates. The food you pre-order (from the cafe) for the party is brought to the room when it's ready. Kids loved the mini donuts, fries, fruit platter and popcorn!

The Kidtropolis Host assigned to help you is available for anything needed, blowing up balloons, bringing the food and they even do the clean-up for you.

Kids 2 and under are free for the birthday party and outside cake or cupcakes are allowed. Other outside food is not allowed but there is a nice cafe onsite and you can order other food items including coffee here!

On the weekend, all the other businesses are closed so you can park anywhere in the parking lot. On the weekdays, it might be more of a challenge to find a spot.

We had a really great experience at Kidtropolis and definitely recommend it as a party venue or just a place to visit for a few hours to let the kids run around. 

Don't forget your snacks!

The World of Kidtropolis 

110-5940 No 2 Rd, Richmond, BC V7C 4R9

Check out their website for more info.

Le Musée en Herbe Paris

A rainy day is a great time for an indoor activity like a museum! Unfortunately, on a Tuesday many of the museums in Paris are closed.

We did a little research and found a few museums that are open on Tuesdays that sounded interesting for the kids. We decided to try one near the Lourve called, Le Musée en Herbe.

During our visit in Jan 2024, there was an exhibition "Seth se la Joue" which features work from globally renowned French artist, Seth Globepainter (Julien Malland).

He has traveled to various countries and created many artworks using themes from the places he has traveled.

 

The artist loves to include kids in his artworks but doesn't show their faces. The artwork shows kids at play, exploring and playing games.

When you arrive at the museum, you can put your jackets down in the jacket area and buy your ticket. The staff will let you know when you can go in. It can get crowded, especially on a rainy day, so they stagger the number of visitors.

Before you go in, the staff gives you a little introduction, that was available in English as well, about the exhibit. The kids receive a booklet with some questions and activities to follow as they visit each room of the museum. There are several different versions of the booklets available, depending on the age of the child. English was also available. 

This booklet was for kids under 6 yrs old. Kids work with their parents to answer the questions about the artwork.

The kids really enjoyed the interactive areas like Tic Tac Toe and the puzzles! 

At the end of the visit, the kids can return their pens and get a little gift. There's also a small gift shop at the front of the museum where you can purchase some souvenirs of the exhibit and other art and drawing supplies.

It's a small museum with just a few different rooms but overall, we had a lovely visit with the kids! If you're in Paris or visiting the city and looking for a nice rainy day activity, go visit Le Musée en Herbe! The "Seth se la Joue" exhibit runs until May 2024.

Don't forget your snacks!

Le Musée en Herbe

23 Rue de l'Arbre Sec, 75001 Paris, France

Check out the museum's website for hours and more information. 

Småland at IKEA

We visited the second largest IKEA in the world located just outside of Stockholm. 

If you're a parent, you know, shopping with kids can be exhausting. It takes longer, since you are always putting things they've grabbed back or they are having tantrums over wanting to buy something.

A visit to IKEA however, the shopping experience is made a little easier. You could go for a reasonably priced lunch at the IKEA cafeteria with the kids, they could find something to play with in the kids area or even better head over to IKEA's kids-only area, Småland! 

Parents can get some shopping done, browse for design ideas, pickup their IKEA order or even sit and have a dessert and coffee. It's really a brilliant idea! 

Remember to pack some socks to wear in the Kids area, if it's a warm day and the kids are wearing sandals. The same parent who checks in the kids, must pick them up. In Sweden, the kids area is only for kids 3-7yrs old.

One of us picked up the kids while the other parent stood in line to pay for everything we had bought that day. Then we switched and got the kids some Vegan softserve ice cream :)

Enjoy your next trip to IKEA (after you drop the kids off at Småland)!

Don't forget your snacks!

IKEA Stockholm - Kungens Kurva

Ekgårdsvägen 2, 141 75 Kungens Kurva

Check out more info on the IKEA website 

5 Easy Indoor Christmas Activities for Kids

Gingerbread House Building

I found some mini gingerbread house shapes to use. Of course, the classic Gingerbread house kits are also great! 

Kids seem to prefer using smaller icing sugar tubes better but they liked the 'taste' of the bigger icing tubes haha!

Baking Pepparkakor cookies 

Rolling dough and making shapes. They already love to do this with playdoh too! So they have lots of practice ;)

This way, you can have some snacks afterwards too!

Painting Ornaments or Art for Gifts 

Painting is one of our favorite quiet time indoor activities. It's nice to have several brushes and colors, blank paper or other paper to color. My older kid likes to save the art to give away as gifts ❤

We have also enjoyed Painting Wooden Ornaments (from Flying Tiger Copenhagen) for the Christmas tree. These are small and easy to hold for tiny fingers. 

Reading Christmas Books

Getting into the Christmas spirit is easy with a book! With books, kids stop to ask questions about what's going on in the photos. The toddler loves to point to everything on the page and have us tell them what it is. 

One Christmas book we enjoy was gifted to us a couple of years ago now, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Advent Calendars!

You can get Advent Calendars with crafts or little toys instead of candy. 

And of course, listening to Christmas songs while you are having fun doing the Christmas activity.

Enjoy the countdown to the holidays and remember don't forget your snacks (especially your Christmas themed snacks this season!)

Flying Tiger Copenhagen 

This store has lots of different materials for crafts and even activity books for kids.

Check out their website 

Motel-L Hammarby Sjöstad Hotel Stay

We stayed for 3 nights at Motel-L Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, Sweden (September 2021). We were visiting Stockholm for a long weekend.

It may be called a "Motel" but it really isn't your typical Motel. This one was actually better than we expected with little touches like free coffee/tea all day long, and free hotel breakfast (if you book on the hotel's website)

There are other food/snack items you can order at reception but there's no room service at this hotel, which is one reason it's called a "Motel".

The buffet breakfast isn't anything fancy, but it's pretty good. You could choose from various meats and Swedish cheeses. There was hard boiled eggs and different breads and even warm croissants and cinnamon buns! 

Throughout the hotel and food area, there were signs to keep distance and each person takes their own fork to use for serving themselves the breakfast items. 

The staff at the hotel were very helpful when I asked them about Vegan options and if they could clear a table for us to sit. Baby chairs were available to use but no kids plates (not usually available anyways). We brought our own kids bowls/utensils, as we usually do.

Even though many restrictions have been lifted in Sweden, Motel-L was still being cautious and we appreciated that.

The elevators were limited to 2 people or one family and there were glass screen guards by reception and hand sanitizer available.

The hotel room was very spacious for a Swedish hotel room and even had space for our stroller! 

Our favorite part of the family room had to be the bunkbeds! 

The hotel is located across the street from the street tram but it wasn't noisy. There is also a grocery store, ICA, conveniently located next door. It is open until 10pm and a great place to pick up snacks and dessert.

We got a few takeaway dinners at the nearby restaurants in the area during our stay which was perfect when kids just needed to eat dinner and rest at the hotel.

If you're looking to stay away from the city centre or if you are attending an event at Avicii Arena (just a couple of stops away), Motel-L is a great choice!

Family friendly, spacious family room, hotel breakfast and convenient location, make this a great option for hotel stays outside city centre in Stockholm. To get to the hotel from Central Station we took the metro, and then the street tram. 

Happy travels and remember don't forget your snacks!

10+ Rainy Day Indoor Activities for Kids

The rainy weather has come back this week and that means, I need to brainstorm a few indoor activities for the tots to keep busy with while we are indoors. They don't mind repeating the same activity, in fact, when we do pretend play, we often repeat a scene multiple times!! Kids are so creative and hilarious.

Here are a few Indoor activities we have enjoyed doing when we have rainy days and limit our time outdoors.

• Painting with Fruit Puree. They started out eating it, but then decided to paint with it instead ;)

• Pretend play Cinderella, cleaning windows (Give them a spray bottle full of water and a towel! My daughter was busy for awhile on this)
• Counting macaroni, transferring it into cups from a bowl
• Airport, Hotel, Shops - Can you tell we love Pretend Play at our house?
• Water painting on window

• Hide a toy and they find it or traditional Hide and Seek
• "Washing dishes"

• Guess what's missing from a box of toys or on a blanket (we also played this on our recent picnic).
• Making 'Moon Dough' *1 cup conditioner, 2 cups Cornstarch
• More Baking!! Cookies, cakes, breads.. whatever you're in the mood for. 
• Reading our Old and New(we borrow books from the Book bus every few weeks and we rotate between their favourites)
• Puzzles! The toddler has started to enjoy helping me with puzzles:)
• Playdoh!
• Cutting paper and gluing it on paper (supervised if they aren't so confident with scissors)
• Stickers and Sticker books!
• 
• 
  
• Rubberband ball

Enjoy the indoor play and remember, don't forget your snacks!

Baking With Little Helpers

My daughter has always been interested in what we are doing in the kitchen. She has helped me do things like boil noodles, scramble eggs and even prepare the turkey for Christmas. We enjoyed baking together pre-pandemic, but during the pandemic, like many others, we bake more often. 

Some sprinkles for the horse, some for the little helper. Gotta try your ingredients right? ;)

The kids like to sometimes 'washes dishes' after we bake too. We usually just stick to simple recipes or have used 'Box' cake, to make it easier. Her favorite part is mixing or squishing the dough/batter with her hands and decorating!

We once baked Peppa Pig Muddy Puddle cup cakes from a box!

The other day we had a bunch of overripe bananas, so we decided to make some Vegan banana bread. 
I used the same recipe that I use for the banana muffins.
Just 5 ingredients, 1/4 cup Oil, 2 cups Flour, 3-4 Bananas, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt.

Of course, she wanted to put it in the Dalarna Horse shaped baking pan. You often see Dalarna horses when you look up Sweden. (From wikipedia: A dalarna horse is traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). In the old days the Dalecarlian horse was mostly used as a toy for children; in modern times it has become a symbol of Dalarna, as well as of Sweden in general.)

When little ones help with the baking, it's nice to ask them to help you with simple things like kneading the dough, choosing the pan to use, maybe buttering it or if you're doing muffins, they can place the muffin liners in the pan. 

Some delicious Vegan buns, a favorite of mine! We first made these when we couldn't find 'dinner rolls' at the grocery store. We decided to make our own to bring to a dinner party a couple of years ago now.

Baking can be messy, so just be prepared to clean up a bit more with them helping ;) I think it helps to have all the ingredients out and everything you need for baking before you call them over and ask if they'd like to help. Then try to put the ingredients away once it's been used, before they can try to open them again.

Another time we baked Sugar cookies! 

We have a stool they can stand on, but you can also do this sitting around the table. Like when we roll the dough and press the cookie shapes, that's easier done at the table. Adding extras like placing chocolate eyes on the horse or the sprinkles for the horse hair makes it fun for them!

This was the final result of the horse! After it cooled, pieces were cut out to enjoy!

Beautifully decorated cookies by my daughter!

Remember it might be messy but try to enjoy it :) Kids are so amazing, they learn so fast and have great long term memories. They will get better at baking each time. 

Baking can make you hungry, so enjoy the baking together but remember, don't forget your snacks!

Fun Independent Activities for Kids

Working from home with kids is a bit of a challenge. I do what I can, but there are times that the kids are just too interested in my computer. I often wait until naptime to do work or wait for my co-pilot to watch them while I escape to the office to concentrate. There are some days, a few activities can keep their attention for short periods at a time so I wanted to share them.

Some indoor play ideas 

* Excavation Kit from Flying Tiger (3+) - After the activity you're rewarded with a little dinosaur friend.

My daughter finds that putting water on the mound of clay helps her chisel away. Her activity table is usually separate from our dinner table (it actually used to be our breakfast nook area).

The kit comes with two tools, a paint brush and chisel. 

* Coloring! Kids are so quiet when they color! And they enjoy it!

* Playdoh - This is ok for the toddler, he likes trying to cut it with one of their toy butter knives, or cut out shapes.

We have made Homemade Playdoh and have used the store bought kind.

Two tips! 

#1 Some homemade playdoh recipes mention Cream of Tartar. Instead of Cream of Tartar, you can use Lemon juice.
#2 Be sure to keep the playdoh in an airtight container afterwards to avoid mold!

* Paint with water in Water Books (from Flying Tiger and different Toy shops) - both the toddler and 4 year old enjoy these. 

* Sticker books - both kids like to peel off the stickers and put them back or on different things in their room. Get the thicker stickers so it's easier for the Toddler to peel off and stick.

* Draw and Wipe books - they can trace a path, animals, or just free draw and then easily wipe it away.

* Lego/Duplo - both the toddler and 4 year old love this. The toddler likes to use a soup spoon to scoop blocks from one bowl to another. The 4 year old builds towers or likes pretend play with the Lego characters.

* Painting with Paint - I found some heart-shaped magnets that could be painted. This kept the 4 year old busy for a while.  Make sure they wear something you don't mind getting paint on.

Some other ideas...

* Using glue stick, they enjoy sticking paper on or even just picking glue from the paper or their fingers. The toddler also likes removing the cap of the glue and putting it back on, over and over and over again...

* Taking cards from zippered purse and putting them back in (over and over again) - Toddlers loves doing this. Actually, anything where you can put something in and take it out again. Whether it be shape blocks or putting something in the oven and taking it out again (the Toy kitchen has been very well loved). 

Toy Kitchen has been perfect for taking items out and putting them back in!

They are also interested in what I am doing. For example, several times I've been cleaning out a drawer and they just find something to look at and play with while I finish cleaning, either clothes or papers etc. I mean, what kid wouldn't find their parent's closet interesting? 

And yes, we do allow screentime at our place too. Although the 4 year old can sit on her own for awhile, she later wants pretend play and the younger one wants to check out other things. So it's not a guarantee that it will keep them occupied for long periods of time, while I try to concentrate but that just means they aren't TV zombies.

Good luck working from home with kids and remember, don't forget your snacks!

Flying Tiger

Really great for craft supplies and little toys/activities for kids with locations all over the world.

Check out their website for more information.