Little Green Dot

Category: Kids

Chocolate Cupcake Fizzy Bath Powder Recipe
This fizzy bath recipe is pure joy! It’s the perfect remedy to a busy, stressed-out day: you’re smiling as you make it and giggling when you use it! It’s completely all-natural, and if you don’t already have the ingredients in your kitchen – you’re going to want to pop into the supermarket, today! And parents, if you’re little one ever complains about not wanting to take a bath – whip this up! It’s some kind of magical thing that just makes everyone instantly happy! (don’t worry, clean up is easy. Had to be said!)

Though a fizzy bath powder may seem like just a bit of silly fun, these ingredients are seriously good for your skin and health!
- raw chocolate: Tops the charts in antioxidant levels – it’s even higher than blueberries! Raw chocolate help to protect your skin from free radicals which can cause the effects of early ageing.
- baking soda: Both antibacterial and antifungal, baking soda helps to keep your skin clean. A baking soda bath is a great remedy for acne and nail fungus or irritated itchy skin.
- epsom salts: Delivers minerals to your body, which directly affect your health and wellbeing. Epsom salt consists of magnesium sulphate, which can be absorbed by the skin, replenishing mineral deficiencies. It even helps our body to better absorb nutrients in the that food we eat. Epsom salts are used to relieve tired aching muscles and as a detox treatment to pull out toxins from the body, especially heavy metals.
- citric acid: this is what reacts with the baking soda, to create that fun fizzy action, but it also has great skin properties of it’s own. Citric acid is a natural fruit acid, which is high in Vitamin C – the beauty vitamin. It helps to build collagen and keep our skin bright and youthful.
- vanilla: A mood enhancer, the scent of vanilla evokes feeling of calm and happiness.
- sprinkles: ok, this part is just a bit of silly fun – which, is also very, very good for you!
Let’s see it in action!

Have fun making your own things. Take the time to disconnect. Use lovely, natural ingredients and be kind to our planet and to your body. Sure, you can buy something like this – but making it is half the fun! Enjoy!
Chocolate Cupcake Fizzy Bath Powder Recipe
1/2 cup baking soda

1/2 cup epsom salts

1/4 cup citric acid

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond, olive or coconut oil

sprinkles
mix all the dry ingredients together

blend the oil and vanilla extract together

pour the wet mixture over the dry and work together with your hands.

get in the bath, and sprinkle the powder in!
Tip for parents: give your kids a tray with the chocolate bath powder on top. It feels like wet sand, let them shape and play with it and watch them erupt in laughter as it gets wet and starts to fizz up!
[ribbon title=”Singapore Shopping Guide”]
- Citric acid: find it in the baking section of Cold Storage or at Phoon Huat for much cheaper!
- Epsom salt: find it in your local pharmacy, like Guardian
- Virgin coconut oil: Where to buy coconut oil in Singapore
Shopping online? Check out iHerb for many of these ingredients! This link will give you 5% off any order!

I hope you’re getting as excited about whole food skincare as I am. Just get started, and you could have your first natural skincare product in just 5 minutes!

And if you want more, join 17,000+ subscribers who receive a new recipe in their inbox every Tuesday by signing up for my newsletter below.
September 6, 2013
Interactive Meals + Breakfast Crêpes
Kids (and adults) eat a lot of junk food. But, let’s be honest – it’s hard not to, the junk food industry has made it their business to make their food attractive. So how do I get my family to eat more healthy? This is a BIG question for most of us, but I believe we’ll have a lot more success if we ask it a bit differently: How do I get my family to LOVE eating real food?

The trick is to make healthy foods as fun and impactful as the boxed stuff. How do we do it? Create moments centered around fresh, whole foods. Remember, the goal is not just to get them to eat it – but also to build a life-long, healthy relationship with real food. Think about how happy a kid gets when you give them a lolly. Do you want to know how to make them that happy to get a plate of fruit? Here’s one of my favorite ways to do just that – Interactive Meals!

This interactive crêpe breakfast is perfect for lazy Sunday mornings. It takes no time to prepare, and all morning to eat!

We use this basic recipe to make our crêpes. It’s simple, yummy – it’s a winner. Now, the fun part are the fillings. Think in colours, textures and flavours to excite your kids! In my house it’s all about lemon and sugar or berries and maple syrup. Our youngest adds a little of everything. And here’s the important part: even if they only go for the sweet syrupy stuff, it doesn’t matter at all, because it’s about the experience you are creating for them. Viewed through their eyes: they wake up to a table full of beautiful fresh foods, like a colourful wonderland. They get to choose their own toppings, build it as high as they want. They get to squish berries and get their little fingers all purple and red. They play and eat – and here’s the best part – they’ll connect that image of fresh, whole foods – with memories of fun and happy moments. That’s a big win for the Real Food team!!

Here are some ideas for your crêpe buffet:
- lemon
- fresh fruit cut in small pieces
- dried fruit
- yogurt
- crème fraîche
- nuts – slivered or ground
- peanut butter (or any nut butter)
- maple syrup
- sugar crystals
- home-made “chocolate” sauce
Happy eating!
July 23, 2013
Tinkering Around

What’s the best part of being a parent? For me, it’s the excuse to go to places like L’Observatoire – – a project that combines art and science for kids (and child-like adults!). We spent our Sunday in a beautiful classroom brimming with evidence of children creating experiments and art.

Once a month they host what they call Tinkering Sundays, activities centered around different themes. On this bright, sunny day – we played with water. We made colors, shapes, photography – and got pretty wet along the way. It was a blast! Stations were set up with experiments, giving kids the chance to view water in a whole new way. The girl’s senses were excited – they were happy tinkering away for hours and I have to admit, I had fun playing too! If you are in Singapore, do check them out!

They had so many great repurposing ideas!

Syphoning water and changing your perspective when looking through water

Water Sculptures with artist Ila – projecting images of water mixed with colours, oil, soap and bubbles!

Capturing the shapes of water thrown in the air, which turned into a very silly game of ‘run under the stream before you get wet!’ I got wet.

It’s located near Pasar Bella, so after our morning at L’Observatoire – we walked down to the market for lunch. A perfect Sunday!

June 5, 2013
Repurpose Condiment Bottles into Toys

We had fun at home repurposing condiment squeeze bottles. You gotta love how kids can find such pleasure in little things…

My youngest watered our plants in the afternoon – which is always a fun activity, but sometimes a watering-can leads to more of a mess than you really wanted. A squeeze bottle was the perfect trick – she watered the plants, kept dry and had a blast!

Bath time was a big hit. I made puffy bath paint (followed this recipe) and used our condiment squeeze bottles again. This time, messy fun was in order – and the girls loved it so much, they played for almost an hour! Which means I got to sit in the bathroom catching up on e-mails! I can’t be the only one who does that?

I’m sure you could buy toys like these, but it’s fun to be creative with everyday things…

April 30, 2013
Kid’s Birthday – Party Food
This is a quick look at an idea that turned out really well! If you’ve ever thrown or have attended a kid’s party – you know that these little guys expect to have a good selection of treat laid out! When set loose, they can demolish a table of chips and cookies in minutes. I wanted the kids to have a nice dessert table, but without the inevitable sugar crash and belly ache that comes with it. I was inspired by the yogurt bars that you see in malls, with all the toppings to choose from, so I created our own yogurt station which turned out to be great fun, super yummy and sneakily healthy!

Here’s what I did, it was so easy and a big hit with the kids!
- Get a few flavors of yogurt, I went with two big tubs each of mango and strawberry. Set them in an ice bucket to keep cold
- Cut up fruit like strawberry, mango, dragon fruit, grapes, kiwi… you name it!
- Add in some fun bits like sprinkles or mini marshmallows
- I also made a homemade granola as a topping which was really yummy!
- Put each topping in a bowl with a spoon to serve
The kids loved building their own yogurt sundae, choosing their toppings… a lot of them were bit heavy on the sprinkles but, hey, it’s a party after all!

Serve this healthy treat at your next party – and by the way, the adults loved it too!

p.s. don’t miss part 1 of this post, on Bubble Snakes and Keeping It Simple.
October 3, 2012
Kid’s Birthday Games – Bubble Snakes + Keeping It Simple

I learn from my kids all the time. They live in the moment and find so much joy in the little things – something that I needed to remember as I planned my daughter’s 5th birthday. The thing is, with these parties, there’s a bit of pressure there. They’re getting older and you want to make it a day that they’ll remember always. We can get get caught up in wanting to create something perfect, spending lots of money buying cakes, presents, decorations and all the extras. So I feel very lucky that with my kids, I’m constantly reminded – happiness is not found in those things.

All that kids really want is the opportunity to to do what they best – be creative and play! They want parents who play make-believe with them, who laugh, jump in the pool and get their hair wet. It’s never about the toy, it’s about the experience. So, in that spirit, I invited my daughter’s school friends over… and gave them each an empty plastic bottle.

This is a DIY kit that I made for the kids to create these bubble snakes with. Which eventually became more like bubble mountains. (I may have added a bit too much soap!) They loved it and never cared that they were playing with an old plastic bottle! We all had a blast and I got to share a fun way of recycling materials.

Here’s how you do it:

Cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle. Then take an old rag, towel or t-shirt and cut into a circle, large enough to cover the bottom of the bottle completely. Give the children the bottle, the pre-cut cloth and a few rubberbands to attach it on.

For the bubbles, I made my own mixture. I filled a big shallow tub (a kiddie pool would have been great!) with water and added a few too many squirts of my dish soap. I also added a few squirts of corn syrup to produce better bubbles, but to be honest I don’t think it needed it. We called it the Snake Pit, to go with our safari theme.

As the guest arrived, they each were given a welcome bag with the craft inside. It served a good icebreaker – something for the kids to do right away and set the mood for fun! I think adult parties could use this too!

So that’s how you make bubble snakes. If you have kids, or like acting like a kid, try this one – it’s great fun!

September 28, 2012
Singapore National Day 2012

Hi! How did you spend Singapore’s Birthday? We headed out to the new Gardens at The Bay…have you been there yet? It’s such a nice day out. The Cloud Forest greenhouse is so beautiful and actually a bit cold! (bring a wrap for the kids!) Here are some pictures from the day. Sorry about the quality, I took them on our iPhone, but still wanted to share them with you…

there’s so much to see!

The girls loved sitting on the floor and watching the short movie!

What a view!

Happy Birthday Singapore. We were lucky enough to land here 10 years ago and are very happy to call Singapore our home!

August 10, 2012
DIY – Cheeky Bunny Easter Egg Surprise

I made this DIY to add a little cheekiness to Easter! It’s a fun gift, to bring to a friend’s house or Easter gathering. The idea is: you have six eggs – five are stuffed with sweet treats and one, the bad egg, carries a big surprise! Let your friends and family choose an egg, smack it open and hope for the best!

Remember, there are lots ways to make this green, simply by choosing the right materials! That’s what I love about making our own things! So let get right into it! I hope you like it!

(more…)

March 30, 2012
Making Friends With a Weed

Meet Rosie, our shy plant – her leaves close when you touch them. I transplanted her from the curbside – without gloves (ouch!) and ignoring the confused looks from the neighbors – I know it’s a weed!

We planted her in a pretty pot, trimmed her thorns and now we feed her blended up veggie scraps from the kitchen. She is, I suspect, the best cared-for weed in the neighborhood! She sits on our breakfast table and every morning my daughters tickle her leaves to watch her curl up…

It can be hard to get kids excited about plants. In fairness, it can be hard for adults to get excited about plants too – they take a while to grow, they don’t do much of anything, and they are all to easy to forget…and subsequently neglect. Rosie is different. Actually, she’s the first plant that my daughter has named – and when it comes to connecting with nature – I think that’s pretty promising…

January 25, 2012