Mikki and Me Blog

Choosing lunch boxes for kids and especially fussy kids can really be a lot of hard work and test your patience to the end.

Read on to find the best lunch box for your little one!

It doesn’t matter HOW you celebrate Easter….you can’t escape THE CHOCOLATE!!!

It’s EVERYWHERE! But what happens if you aren’t allowed to eat it!?
If you have young ones that suffer from allergies, babies not old enough to have chocolate or you’d just rather not overload the kids with sugar, Easter Sunday can be a tough gig….

So if your Easter is going to be about better choices (and less chocolate) we have a range of alternatives and gift ideas to make sure that your child doesn’t miss out on the fun and festivities!

An Easter Treasure Hunt With A Difference!

Just because you are limiting the chocolate doesn’t mean the kids can’t go on a treasure hunt!

We’ve made it easy for you with our FREE Printable Easter Treasure Hunt signs! Simply download the file HERE or at the bottom of the page, and print! Cut each shape out and attach a paddle pop stick to create little signs you can use around the garden on Easter morning.

If you are avoiding chocolate eggs and sugary treats this year, we have some adorable trinket gifts available in our online store including little Bunny Lip-glosses, Wind Up Hopping Toys and Mini LED Bunny lights!

For added excitement, place some Bunny Footprints around the house and garden! Kids will be super excited to see the prints on the floor in their bedroom – especially when they realise that the Easter Bunny must have checked on them while they were sleeping!

(We have included some Bunny Paw Prints in our Easter Treasure Hunt Printable File for you too!)

Personalised Bunnies, Teddies & Soft Toys For Kids This Easter

Kids will love discovering a special new friend at the end of the trail!!

Mikki & Me have an extensive range of adorable bunnies, bears and soft toys just waiting for someone to love them.  Our bespoke Alimrose Designs dolls are a timeless favourite (and they make a gorgeous nursery piece for those still too little to appreciate them!)

For little ones celebrating their very First Easter, we also offer Personalised Keepsake teddies & bunnies! Choose your favourite teddy, select a design and some colours, and let us create a one of a kind soft toy that will be treasured for years to come!

More alternative Easter Gifts too sweet to say NO to!

If you like to take a more practical approach when it comes to gift giving, we have you covered!

Gorgeous Retro Bunny Night Lights, Pretty Pastel (and Monochrome!) Bunny Placemats, and Books to read together with your child mean their Easter gifts will still be loved long after the Easter eggs have been eaten!

Head to over to our dedicated EASTER GIFTS section to shop online and have your goodies sent directly to your door (no trying to secretly hide things in the trolley with the kids around!)

And don’t forget to download and print your FREE Easter Treasure Hunt for a fun filled Easter morning!

It’s widely known that imaginary play supports strong, healthy, confident minds and creating their own enchanted fairy garden is an ideal way to capture their imagination!

Choose your very own handmade and hand painted FAIRY DOOR

Your Fairy Door is the gateway between our world and theirs….Attach it low on a wall, high on a shelf or in another secret place inside (or outside!) your home. Once your Fairy Door is attached, the fairies will know how to use it to come in and out!

Don't let little children try and open your Fairy Door though...only the fairies can open the door and it may scare them away if the door is not treated with care!

Start decorating your Fairy Garden!

Create an enchanted garden with our range of fairy accessories: teeny tiny windows, petite fairy furniture, grass mats with flowers and lots more.

A dedicated Fairy Mail Box is the only way to get a message to the fairies and although they only come out at night, they are sometimes known to exchange notes and gifts with well behaved children. Finding their very own note or message in the morning will be a wonderful surprise when they wake up!

An ‘imaginary’ coping mechanism...

A Fairy Door is also helpful in guiding children through difficult times and growth in their lives –  learning to go without a dummy, toilet training, starting childcare or kindy, or parents who work away for long periods. Let the fairies help them by leaving special trinkets, rewards and encouraging notes as they learn to cope with changes bigger than they are!

Children need to believe that ‘good things’ really do happen – and that magic is real. A Fairy Door will not only help encourage imaginative play and creative writing, but also help to eliminate fears

Start building an enchanted world full of surprise, creativity, and most importantly -magic for your child now!

CLICK HERE TO GET CREATING!

HOLY MOLY! 

It's officially less than 2 weeks til Christmas! Where has the time gone!?

For our 12th Day of Christmas we have a set of FREE Christmas printables for you!

Watch the kids excitement grow on Christmas Eve as they sprinkle Magic Reindeer Food out on the front lawn for Santa's reindeer to nibble on while he delivers presents.

PLUS they can plant their very own CANDY CANE trees!

You can download the FREE Christmas printables HERE 

*MAGIC ELF SEEDS!

Fill your snap lock bag with tic tac's, skittles, mm's or jelly beans

Seal and fold your printable over the top and staple in to place!

To 'plant' your seeds - place them in a bowl of sugar on Christmas eve and after the kids have gone to bed, replace the lollies with candy canes!

*MAGIC REINDEER FOOD

For this you will need:

1/2 cup rolled oats

Red and green edible glittler (or sprinkles/coloured sugar/hundreds&thousands)

Simply mix together and put into your snap lock bag, seal and fold your printable over the top and staple in to place

On Christmas Eve, take your kids outside to sprinkle on the lawn or garden for Santa's reindeer to eat!

IMPORTANT INFO:

*Printables are sized to fit a plastic snap lock snack bag from your local supermarket that measures 15cm x 10cm

*Make sure you 'print to file' or UNTICK print to page - you need the printed file to measure 15cm x 10cm to fit properly!

*Pictures are for example only

Deciding to leave the house with kids in tow is never easy. Whether you are going to the shops for bread and milk, a doctor’s appointment or a play date at a friends house it can take planning of military precision to make sure that nothing important is left behind and that you are ready for any situation that life throws at you….

It’s no surprise that when we decide that a family holiday further abroad is called for, that the list of stuff needed to keep the kids placated grows at an alarming rate…

Kids get bored easily. My kids are usually happy for 5 minutes and then it begins….

’Are we there yet?’

‘Mum, I’m bored!’

‘Timmy is touching my part of the seat!’

‘She looked at me!’

‘I’m hungry/thirsty….again…’

But it doesn’t have to be that way!! With these 5 essentials in your travelling arsenal, your child will be content, your sanity will be preserved and your family vacay pictures should show smiles all round!!

#1: Snacks….LOTS of Snacks!!

Food is a necessary when travelling with kids! With tummy’s much smaller than ours, they are always going to eat more frequently than we do, so lots of healthy snacks are ideal.

But what to carry them around in!?

YUMBOX are perfect if you want to pack yohgurt or dips for the kids to snack on – along with other foods. They have leakproof, individual compartments so you can pack a range of finger foods to keep a variety of foods fresh on the go

SKIP HOP INSULATED FOOD TUBS are great for bringing a warm lunch in cold weather. You can keep soups, stews, pastas and more warm and they come with their own fork attached so you can eat whenever and wherever hunger strikes. And they come in a super cute range of designs too!

BOON TRUNK & CARGO SNACK BOXES have their very own handle so your child can carry their snacks around with them! Plus they are full of compartments so you don’t have to worry about those cheese cubes touching the strawberries!

#2: A drink bottle

If they aren’t hungry, they’re thirsty…

Get them a cute water bottle of their very own and all of a sudden water tastes SO much better!!

The ‘Forget Me Not’ range of flip top, straw drink bottles have a handy Velcro strap that you can attach to a bag or pram, plus a 2nd spare straw just in case!

If you are worried about drinks staying cold, we have a range of personalised, insulated drink bottle holders that will stop your kids drink bottles going missing, and keep them colder for longer!

#3 A special friend….

Everything is better when you share it with a friend!

New places, strange beds, and long car drives aren’t so bad when you have your very own teddy to cuddle. A personalised cubby or teddy bear could be just the reassurance they need to get through the night!

#4 A snuggly blanket!

Just like a teddy, being wrapped in a warm, comforting blanket can make everything seem better!

Our Ripple design blankets are fair trade and handmade with love, and are ideal for rugging up at night or on a long car drive. If you little one isn’t quite up to size yet, our baby blankets  are perfect size for over the car seat or in the pram and will keep them rugged up and snuggly without burying them in a giant wad of material!

#5 QUIET activities!

The keyword is quiet!!! If you’ve been stuck In the car or on a plane for hours with the kids, chances are 10 minutes peace and quiet will go a long way… So quiet activities that they can do on their own will be a lifesaver

Try our Felt Creations storyboards. Kids can use their imagination to create a wonderful world of fantasy. Once they are finished, they can simply start again!

Another timeless activitiy is drawing and colouring in. Our personalised pencil cases are large enough to hold those pencils, crayons, textas and more. Just throw in a cheap scrap book or colouring book and they will be amused for ages!

BONUS TIP!!! Get yourself a Car Organiser!

We have recently added some personalised car organisers to our website and they are PERFECT if you are planning on spending time with kids in the car!  Easily accessible from the back seat, the kids can keep all of their precious travel gear in one convenient location! Plus the large clear pocket fits an iPad (hello peace & quiet!) and it contains lots of compartments to keep all their gear in!

So now you know what we recommend to have on hand to keep the peace next time you are on holidays with the kids and to help them deal with the change in scenery as smoothly as possible… have you got anything that you would like to add?

Feel free to leave your comments below 

Do you pack lunch for your kids every day, only to find them bringing their lunchbox home from school mostly untouched?  It can be difficult (and frustrating) to make a packed lunch that is appealing enough to make kids want to eat it.  There is a solution to this age old problem, and it comes in the form of a bento box.

 Kids love fun, bite sized food.  Bento style lunch boxes are perfect for this; they are made up of small compartments that you can fill with a deconstructed style lunch.  For example, instead of giving your child a salad wrap, you could put one salad item from that wrap into each compartment, along with a small wrap cut into wedges.  You might put cherry tomatoes in one section, small cubes of cheese in another etc.  If you still prefer to make wraps or sandwiches, try cutting the wraps into small, bite sized pieces, or using cutters to cut sandwiches into fun shapes that will make them irresistible to kids.

 Not only are bento boxes more appealing to kids than the usual sandwich and piece of fruit, they are also so much easier to put together, even the kids can get involved.  You can keep prep time to a minimum by using small fruits and vegetables that don’t need cutting, like grapes, cherry tomatoes, dried fruits, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  Bento boxes might look time consuming, but they are really quite quick and easy.

 Another benefit of bento lunch boxes is that they completely eliminate waste, which is perfect for schools that ask all parents to send along zero rubbish lunches.  Because of the many separate compartments in a bento box, everything has its own place.  You will save money and the environment by not having to use sandwich bags, zip lock bags and other forms of disposable plastic.

Ready to give bento boxes a try? Firstly, SHOP HERE for a range of different styles/sizes on Bento Boxes

THEN,

Include at least one item from each of the groups below and you have a healthy, balanced bento lunch that any child will be excited to eat.

 Start with a protein, such as

• Boiled eggs
• Yoghurt
• Cubed cheese
• Chick peas
• Deli meats

 Next, add some grains like

• Cooked quinoa or couscous
• Pita bread wedges
• Crackers
• Pasta salad
• Muffins

 Add some vegetables

• Sliced cucumber
• Carrot sticks
• Celery sticks
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sliced red capsicum

 Include some sweetness with fruit

• Grapes
• Apple slices
• Pineapple chunks
• Sliced kiwifruit
• Cubed watermelon
• Fresh berries

 Finally, add in a few snacks

• Dried fruit
• Pretzels
• Rice crackers
• Air popped pop corn
• Cookies
• Dried fruit

 The foods you include might be the same as your child has always eaten, but because they are presented in a different way they will suddenly look far more fun to eat, after all we eat with our eyes.  It’s also a great way to encourage your kids to try new foods.  There is a good chance your children’s’ lunch boxes will all of a sudden come home completely empty.  Even if there is still some food left uneaten, because everything is kept in compartments separate from each other, any leftovers will likely be good to eat as an after school snack.

Here are some examples of packed lunches using Go Green, Bentgo and Yumbox

Inspired!?

We hope so!

Leave any comments about Bento Style eating below.

Liza x

For those new to the site, the Mikki and Me Kids gorgeous online store features gifts and products that are:

• Practical;
• Affordable;
• Adorable

 When you’re browsing through the Mikki and Me Kids you are looking at quality products which are tried and tested by a real family; just like yours.

 Many new customers coming onto the site are looking to find something for their newborn bub or for an upcoming baby shower gift, so we decided it was time to gather our list of Top 5 gifts for newborns in one easy-to-share post!

 Baby Book

 Our Baby Book is gender neutral, meaning it is ideal for a baby shower or birth arrival, especially in instances when the gender of the unborn bub is a surprise! The Baby Book is the perfect gift to document all the milestones and special moments experienced with a new born baby. Record moments with ease on the featured Enviroboard paper. 

While we love Facebook as much as the next parent, there is something incredibly rewarding about holding this baby book between two hands and recording your moments within this A4 spiral bound baby book. You can treasure these for years to come.

Those with toddlers will agree it feels like a lifetime ago that your two year old was just born, so having a book which can take you on a trip down memory lane is priceless! See for yourself here. 

 Personalised Cubbies

 You can’t go past our personalised cubbies… They are thoughtful newborn baby gifts.  We are constantly receiving orders for these bespoke baby gifts and they are always received with delight!

 With so many to choose from, we can barely choose a favourite Personalised Cubbie. Cubbies are personalised with embroidery with your chosen colours, font and message. Browse the entire range online today. 

 OB Designs Baby Blankets

 Mikki and Me Baby Kids stock practical, affordable and adorable gifts – and the OB Designs Baby Blankets are no exception! Bestsellers from day one, these blankets make a cute gift that is not only a pleasure to look at, but soft and snuggly too. Those receiving them as a gift for their baby will be elated. There are a variety of designs to choose from, so you can find a style to suit. Why not bring a soft touch to a bedroom décor with the gorgeous Sky Ripple baby blanket by OB Designs. 

 Marquee Lights

 You’ll find our collection of Marquee Lights to be that perfect finishing touch on your newborn babies’ room. Our range of Marquee Letter Lights and Marquee Shaped Lights can be hung on a wall, or stood upright depending on the look you’d like to achieve.

 The letter lights are available in letters A – Z. 

Why not spell out your new bubs name, or perhaps words which make a statement such as: L-O-V-E or B-A-B-Y.

 If you have a unique light décor idea, don’t keep it to yourself, share it with our Facebook community, we’d love to hear from you!  

Personalised Pillows

 We believe there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’, especially when it comes to a name! It’s why Mikki and Me stock a wide variety of personalised products, including our Personalised Pillows. Our range of pillows can be personalised with your name of choice and complements the OB Design Baby Blanket’s perfectly. 

We love seeing our customers happy with their new gifts! Why not share your pictures with our gorgeous Facebook community. Simply like us to stay in touch, see the latest products and by inspired by the latest in Australian baby boutique products. 

Mikki and Me Team xx

P.S. This list is like the baby shower equivalent of your 2016 Christmas wish list being pinned to the fridge door but perfectly tailored for those in charge of throwing a baby shower! Why not share the not-so-subtle hint with your friends and family with the simple social share buttons?

So this morning when my 5 year old daughter woke up, within minutes, she exclaimed she was bored. To which I replied;

"What do you mean, bored?"

Her response; "Well, I have nothing to do!"

I looked around me at our lounge room that has been "transformed" into what looks like a play centre/toy shop!

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE YOU CAN BE BORED!?

All those toys! When I was a little girl (here we go...) we didn't have phones full of apps/games, tablets or tv channels committed to kids programs. We had to find our own fun and be creative, use our imagination to initiate our own amusement.

This shaped my inner creativity and my fondest memories growing up!

"Making perfume" using flowers from the garden

"Making an outdoor kitchen" using sticks and pebbles, then "cooking" a meal and serving it up to my parents. I was so proud of my creations and "meals".

My brother and I would play cricket with a stick and a pine cone! For hours! It was so fun and I remember it like it was yesterday!

PLEASE, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all kids have lost this way of entertaining themselves but I do put my hand up and say I need to encourage my children to find their own fun. Not always be reliant on digital devices.

So today I have imposed a tech free day! Let them play outside and use their imagination. Let them be bored for heaven's sake! That's when the greatest of creative play comes to life and where lifetime memories are made!

Leave a comment below about your fondest childhood memories, we would love to hear them!

Signing out now to join my kids and watch them make memories.

Liza