Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in san jose, CA

April Fools Fun

by bonggamom

March 31, 2009

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day, and Savvy Editors from all over are letting loose and cooking up some April Fool's Fun.  So instead of my usual "looking back" post for the end of March, I'm looking ahead and joining in with some April Fools' pranks of my own!   Here are some ideas for celebrating the silliness in life:

1) If you're brave enough, play "dress-up" with your child -- agree to let your child pick out your outfit for the day if you can pick hers.  Pick out something silly (like pajamas) for your child to wear, and stick to your end of the bargain!

2) Serve your kids some fried egg on toast that's not egg-sactly as it seems.  Pat a small scoop of marshmallow cream fluff on the center of a piece of toast and flatten it so it looks like a fried egg.   Dab a bit of lemon pudding in the center for the yolk.  Then watch your kids bite into their sweet surprise and let them know the yolk's on them!

3) You wouldn't pull the same joke twice, would you?  Yes, you would!  Serve up some cookie fish sticks and tart taffy peas for lunch or dinner.   To make the fish sticks, cover some sugar wafers in peanut butter and roll in crushed cornflakes.  For peas, break off bits of green taffy and roll into balls.

4)  Visit the Rodin sculpture garden at Stanford University and play hide and seek among the statues.  When it's your turn to hide, speak out loud in a funny (not scary!) voice and pretend one of the statues has come to life.  If you sense that the game might be too scary, skip it; instead, plop a hat and scarf on the one of the statues, and take a photo of your little one acting silly with his new stone friend.

Happy April Fools' Day!

Eating Globally with Kids: Ethnic Restaurants

by bonggamom

February 19, 2009

Back in January (how long ago that seems!), I made a New Year's resolution to help my children cultivate a global outlook, and one of the ways my family has decided to do this is to spend the year trying out foods from different countries.  But many of Alfie's and my favorite international restaurants -- Cascal in Mountain View or Evvia in Palo Alto, for example -- don't exactly cater to the kiddie set.  So I enlisted the help of popular local parenting and foodie blogger, the wise, witty, and always delicious CityMama.  Here are her suggestions for kid-friendly international eateries around Silicon Valley:

1) Vietnamese -- I love Pho Vi Hoa on the corner of El Camino Real and San Antonio Road. Great pho (noodle soup) and delicious clay pot fried rice and green papaya salad. And the egg rolls are heavenly.

2) Korean -- I like Secret Garden in Santa Clara on El Camino just south of Lawrence Expwy. Or Tofu House is great for tofu soup and tofu pancakes but their menu is more limited than in a standard restaurant. The girls usually order tofu soup (without spices, because it can be HOT) and a bowl of rice then eat all the yummy side dishes.

3) Afghani--Kabul in Belmont is topnotch, but Cafe Sophia in midtown palo alto is casual and delicious and they are very kid friendly (they have toys).

4) Thai --we usually go to Krung Siam on University ave because they serve sticky rice in cute little baskets.

Not quite ready to venture into table service territory?  Take the family to an international cooking class instead.  Start safe with Italian Family Cooking classes at Kids Culinary Adventures on Feb. 27, or the Young Chefs Academy on Feb. 28.

My mouth is watering already.  Stay tuned throughout the year as my family and I try out Citymama's favorites, and find some of our own!

The Great Indoors: Cooking classes

by Bonggamom

January 12, 2009

You can take the girl out of the tropics, but the tropics will always rule my internal thermometer. My heart sinks at the thought of shivering outdoors in the cold (yes, 45 degrees farenheit is freezing!). So now that winter has planted itself squarely on our doorstep, my thoughts turn to the warm indoors -- and my focus (for the next several weeks, at least) centers on fun indoor activities  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: January 2nd-4th

by Shawn Burns

December 31, 2008

Happy New Year to All! 2009 is already shaping up to be a great year and it hasn't even started yet. "How can that be?" you ask. And I'm glad you asked, because it gives me a segue into the first Weekend Outlook of 2009 (or the last one of 2008, depending on your point of view). On Friday how about taking the under-3 tot to KidzArt for their "Squiggles to Grins" art class from 10am  Read more...

List Day: Consumable Gifts

by Shawn Burns

December 16, 2008

Today on Savvy Source we're talking about "consumable" gifts. Not "gifts you can eat" but gifts that you use up, like gift certificates and memberships. My favorite gifts as a kid were always bookstore gift certificates, and I think my post-Christmas Certificate-Shopping-Spree kept the local bookstores in business through March. But not everyone is like the nerdy kid I was (am?), so  Read more...

Holiday Gift Giving on a Budget

by Bonggamom

December 05, 2008

With the economy tanking like it is, it's no wonder that shoppers everywhere are tightening their purse strings and slashing their holiday budgets. But that doesn't mean you can't spread some Christmas cheer all around. Here are some ways you can stretch your budget and still give unique, thoughtful presents to the people you care about most: 1) Know before you go Start your gift-giving  Read more...

Bastille Day: Soup's On

by Shawn Burns

July 14, 2008

Today is Bastille Day, the holiday the French celebrate in honor of their own Revolution. Our National Editors are taking you on a trip to Paris today, but we'll stay a bit closer to home. How do you celebrate Bastille Day in the Silicon Valley? You could enjoy a swanky dinner at The Left Bank . Not really kid-friendly, but also not kid un friendly. But really, all I want to eat on Bastille Day  Read more...

A book for a little cook

by Shawn Burns

July 11, 2008

Would you eat them in the dark? In the park? Up a tree? Yeah. Yeah I would. Because I love me some Dr. Seuss eggs. And my wife has always wondered "Is the ham green?" From the pictures it would appear so. But how would you go about turning a ham green in such a way that it would still be edible? What about the eggs? Georgeanne Brennan has the answers. She is the author of The Green Eggs and Ham  Read more...

Extra-pre-school Activities

by Shawn Burns

June 17, 2008

'Tis Tuesday, and Tuesdays around here are List Days. Today our List assignment is to help all of you parents-of-preschoolers find some things for your youngins to do once pre-school ends for the day (or before pre-school starts, or once pre-school is over for the year). Erin is not yet in pre-school, but now that I've been able to think about this for a while I've compiled a list of  Read more...

The Home Team

by Shawn Burns

June 16, 2008

Our national editors here at Savvy Source have enlisted our help in coming up with ways to connect your tax deductions to their far-flung relatives. This one touches pretty close to home with me, because I'm terrible at keeping Erin connected with my parents (Emily is much better at this). We bought one of those infant picture books that you are supposed to fill with  Read more...