Party time! Or 'How to win Mother of the Year Award"

This is the first of a new category called "Kiddie fun" as I am blessed to have incredibly talented friends with older little ones around. Just too tempting not to start a collaborating piece.

Margaux's future husband (hopefully - it's free to dream right?) just turned 2. We attended his first birthday last year (Margaux too, in my belly!) and it was simply the cutest baby birthday party I had ever seen, with darling details throughout the whole event. Needless to say, I was expecting great things for his second one...but his gorgeous mum outdid herself. When seeing the photos of the event (it was in Paris I'm afraid, could not attend this year sadly) I was immediately curious to know who helped her accomplish this. My little one is turning one in three months and I'm already starting to gather some ideas. The answer was simple: she did it all my friends!
I'll let you on a secret though, she's also a stylist and event planner, so those things come naturally to her I guess and she has an amazing eye for details and, well, anything pretty! (Check out her website here for more info).



Party Theme: Her little boy is a big fan of Mickey Mouse© so the theme came easily. I'm sure many children would appreciate this one.

Here is the magical result:

Below are a few photos of it all and my dear friend shares a few of her secrets with you:


" The Mickey Mouse©Wall feature:
Needed:
- x2 packets of crepe paper or  tissue paper (In black or white stripe or polka dot - or plain black)
- needle and thread
- x2 poster wall hanging stickers

• Cut the paper to the length of 40cm long for the large circle and x2 20cm for the two smaller circles
• Create three circles by folding paper back and forth at approx 3cm each way to achieve a fan effect.
• Once paper is folded hold at one end and fan out to create the circle (you may need to cut off excess paper if it is too full) stitch together at the center  Do the same for the two smaller circles then attach the two smaller circles at the top of the large circle, stitch at connecting point to hold in place.
• Place a poster wall sticker on both small circles and attach to wall.

The table was decorated with a red with white spot table cloth as we stuck with a red black and white theme but a stripe would work just as well to set the scene.
Red paper plates and napkins

Mickey Mouse© Wall:

I painted Mickey onto a large board and cut out his face for all of the little ones to have a photo as Mickey..... it worked well to add to the decoration of the room and was great for the children and adults alike to have a go and have a bit of fun!
You need yellow, white, red and black paints as well as a black marker for the finer details

Party favors:

Red paper bags
Mickey Mouse©e ears (available from ETSY or AMAZON)
Smarties packets
balloon
fun pencil
cake
Mickey Mouse© lolly pop

I simply filled the bags and wrote each child's name across the front, folded down the top of the bags and placed the ears on top. There were two girls attending so I found some cute little stick on bows to create Minnie ears for them!

Cake - three tiered Mickey Mouse© cake:

Top tier:
Chocolate cake covered in black marzipan fondant

2nd tier:
x2 Banana cakes with butter cream icing and white fondant with black Mickey cut outs 

Bottom tier:
CHEAT LAYER

a round cake tin covered in red fondant and black stripes to look like a cake! ;)

Cupcakes birthday cake

For the little ones I did little sugar free, butter free healthy cupcakes with an edible Mickey cake topper (available from ETSY or AMAZON)
Recipe:
Children's healthy blueberry and banana cupcakes

1 cup of rolled oats
11/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
21/2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
6 ripe bananas
1/2 cup of blueberries chopped
4 eggs beaten well
3/4 cup of unsweetened apple juice or apple puree
1/2 cup of butter melted (you can leave this out which I do)

Directions:
 Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (175 deg C).
Put the first seven ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir well until thoroughly combined.
Grease a 9 inch cake tin or cupcake molds and pour in the mixture.
Bake for around 50 mins to one hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in the tin or cupcake molds for 20 mins, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing: cream cheese and a splash of icing sugar and vanilla essence
Add a Mickey Mouse© cake topper

Mickey Mouse© fairy bread:
Using a mickey mouse cookie cutter, white bread, soft butter and hundreds and thousands (multicolored sprinkles)

Mickey Mouse© lolly pops
(purchased from Disneyland Paris©)

Mickey Mouse© cookies
Red lollies
Fruit squeezy packets "


Now, do we all agree? She just won Mother of the Year Award. And the happiest little two year old.

Don't steal! If you want to share this, please credit Jasmine Uhrikova for A La Maud.

3 course meal, baby's way

Margaux has definitely left the "baby" stage and now wants everything like a big girl. She's standing up, holds her spoon on her own, plays peekaboo with her towel and said her first two words.
Time to upgrade her meals, I say.

3 courses, Margaux's way:

Italian beef stew served with baby guacamole, followed by a yogurt topped with apple, cherry & vanilla compote.

For babies 6 months and up

Italian beef stew recipe: from the amazing Jenny Carenco's book "Recettes pour bébé".

I just changed the cooking method to work with my Babycook.

For 5 portions:
100g/3.5 oz beef (I used sirloin but you can use a cheaper cut, something good for stews)
3 carrots
6 tomatoes
2 zucchinis
1 celery stalk
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon thyme


Wash and peel all vegetables. Cut them and the beef into cubes.
Put everything in your steamer basket (water level 3 if using the Babycook). When steamed, add the cooking water and olive oil and mix.


Baby guacamole:
Half an avocado mashed up with a fork and a few drops of lemon juice.


Yogurt with apple-cherry compote:
I used an organic plain yogurt for babies and topped it with a compote using half apples, half cherries.
Peel and cut into cubes the apples, put them in a saucepan and sprinkle with water.
Add cherries (I used frozen cherries which saves you time as you don't have to remove the pits this way) and cook slowly until very tender.
Scrape the inside of an inch of vanilla pod, add a teaspoon of agave and mix to a smooth purée.


I used the same ingredients to make a stew for ourselves and cooked it with a bit of water on medium heat in a Le Creuset Doufeu©. Served it with a Parmesan polenta.
Who said baby food cannot be fancy?
Margaux was thrilled, ate just like an adult and we saved time as groceries were the same for everyone. Everyone's happy.

Saturday lunch: Fricassée of chicken, broccolette & zucchini

Weekends allow me to have more time to cook for Margaux and try something new for her. It's a good opportunity to make a big batch and freeze some portions for some days when you have little time and allows you to diversify the baby's meals.
Try it for yourself as well, I promise you'll want some too.

For babies: 6 months and up

Note: double or triple the proportions to make some ahead for the week, cool and freeze. You can make smaller portions and serve with a vegetable purée.

20g/1 tablespoon of chicken
100g/3.5 oz of zucchini
100g/3.5 oz of broccolette
1 Laughing Cow©
1/4 teaspoon of Spanish onion, minced
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Wash and peel the zucchinis, cut into cubes. Wash the broccolette and cut the florets, removing the stems.
Cut up the chicken into cubes.
Put the chicken, vegetables and onion in a steamer basket (if using the Babycook this is water level 3). Using the Babycook, it takes only 15-20 minutes but of course adapt this timing to your own food processor.
Once cooked, keep a tablespoon of the cooking water and add a teaspoon of olive oil, the Laughing Cow© and mix.

Watch your baby eat in delight.

Disclaimer: I am using the guidance of my wonderful Parisian pediatrician and the classic French book of Laurence Pernoud on how to raise your child. I am not a pediatrician nor a nutritionist, just a French mother sharing recipes. Always check with your own pediatrician especially if your baby has any allergies or health issues.

Don't steal! This is my own recipe, if you want to share it, please credit A La Maud.

Potato and cod purée with vanilla - recipe from Laura Annaert

This has to be the simplest and tastiest way to make your baby try fish. Cod has a very subtle taste, is quite firm and pairs perfectly with vanilla, making it an easy fish treat for Bébé.

Margaux's plate before it completely disappeared.

This is a recipe from Laura Annaert, Mamanchef, which I got from Babymoov and PARENTS Magazine.

For babies 6 to 9 months (introduce after you have introduced baby to white and red meat. Makes an ideal first fish meal).

Ingredients:
One potato
10g / 1/3 oz. of fresh cod
1 teaspoon of butter
1cm / 0.5 inches of vanilla pod
4 tablespoons of milk

Peel the potato and cut it into cubes. Steam it for about 20 minutes.
Open your vanilla pod in half and scrape half an inch of it.
Add the butter and vanilla to the cod and cook it on low temperature in a pan for 7 minutes on each side. Add the milk. Mix everything together.

Note: this is the original recipe from Laura Annaert but when cooking it for Margaux I changed it a bit: I steamed the cod and potato together, then added the milk and mixed. I found that was quicker, easier, healthier.

There you have it: a fish loving bébé.

Good finds: Trumpette socks

Socks. If your baby is anything like mine, he/she will love pulling off his/her socks. Most of them don't stay on, and I've tried using the socks'adds-on , those elastics which you put on the socks so they stay on. Margaux quickly figured out how to remove those as well (just like she figured out how to remove the safety plugs cover two days after we had baby-proofed the house). There's another problem: you don't want to use anything other than wool booties or socks as the baby's feet are still growing and should not be put in tougher fabrics or anything which could cramp their feet.
My good find: Trumpette socks.
1) They stay on.
2) They are made of 73% cotton (you don't want any other fabric than wool or cotton as research shows the baby's skin is then more prone to developing eczema etc. if using fabrics such as polyester. Also allows their skin to breath better.)
3) They look like shoes so you have a two-in-one and can go straight from home to out and about without changing.
4) They are simply ridiculously cute

The original models were the Mary Jane for the girls and the Johnny (sneakers) for the boys, both models I absolutely love for their classic look. The choice is yours as they have many, each cuter than the other and it's easy to quickly collect those little boxes, which also make great gifts as they are sold in a pretty packaging.
They come in baby size 0-12 months and toddler size 12-24 months.

Here are two of my favorites:

The Ballerina:

The Benny's:

For more information, you can check out their website here

Special thanks to the beautiful babies Margaux & Maxence for doing such an amazing job modelling the Trumpette socks.

At Peter Luger's restaurant - Lamb chop, lunch like a champion

When you're Margaux, you eat like a champ. That means when grandpa Mike and Mimi visit New York and we take a trip to Peter Luger's restaurant, Margaux doesn't get left behind.
Ready to go in her cooler bag: her first lamb chop. Considering she ate a bit over 8 oz of it and left a very clean looking bowl, we can say it got her seal of approval.

For babies: 7 months and up
Note: This comes after you have introduced your baby to poultry as white meat comes before red meat. Baby needs to eat lean and less fatty types of meat before being able to digest a more fancy one.

Reproduce it:
20g/70 oz of lamb chop
One big new potato
120g/4 oz of tomato medley (mix of small cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, black cherry tomatoes)
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 teaspoon of sunflower oil

Wash and peel the potato and tomatoes. Cut thin slices of the potato and the tomatoes in two.
Cut up the rosemary sprigs.
Put everything in a steamer basket (if using the Babycook this is water level 3). Using the Babycook, it takes only 15-20 minutes but of course adapt this timing to your own food processor.
Once cooked, keep a teaspoon of the cooking water and add a teaspoon of sunflower oil and mix.

Taste to check the temperature before giving it to your baby. Wish you had some for yourself. Change the quantities to adult's size portions. Be as happy as your baby.

Disclaimer: I am using the guidance of my wonderful Parisian pediatrician and the classic French book of Laurence Pernoud on how to raise your child. I am not a pediatrician nor a nutritionist, just a French mother sharing recipes. Always check with your own pediatrician especially if your baby has any allergies or health issues.

Don't steal! This is my own recipe, if you want to share it, please credit A La Maud.

Margaux's first salmon

For babies: 6-8 months
Note: You should introduce fish once you have introduced meat, starting with white meat, then red meat and finally fish (white fish, salmon and tuna - shellfish comes later).

This is a bit more sophisticated than cod and helps to widen your baby's horizons.

What's in it for bébé:
Salmon is what I call a miracle food: lots of omega 3, iron, phosphorus, vitamin A which is baby's friend for growth, good eyesight and boosting the immune system and last but not least, vitamin D for strong teeth and bones. It's a winner!
Fennel is filled with vitamins A and E and helps baby's digestion

You will need :
0.5 oz/10g of salmon
6 oz/170g of a mix of eggplant, fennel and tomato
1 teaspoon of olive oil

As easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Peel all the vegetables and cut them into cubes, along with thin slices of salmon.
2. Put everything in a steamer basket and steam for about 15 minutes (If you are using Béaba Babycook, this is water level 3 and only use 1 teaspoon of the cooking liquid when mixing) 
3. Add the olive oil* and mix to a smooth purée.

Who says there's no time to cook for baby? Save even more time by cooking it for yourselves: we used the same ingredients for us, grilling everything on the barbecue. Summer cooking made simple, healthy and tasty.

This makes one balanced lunch for bébé. Follow with a plain yogurt for dessert and you've just covered all of your baby's needs.

*I use ZOE for Kids olive oil, specially formulated for babies, it's organic, extra virgin olive oil with a fresh  fruity flavor and comes in an aluminium tin which helps to protect it from light and heat.

Disclaimer: I am using the guidance of my wonderful Parisian pediatrician and the classic French book of Laurence Pernoud on how to raise your child. I am not a pediatrician nor a nutritionist, just a French mother sharing recipes. Always check with your own pediatrician especially if your baby has any allergies or health issues.

Don't steal! This is my own recipe, if you want to share it, please credit A la Maud.