Our Favourite Toy: Elmer the Elephant

If you’re a regular on AlexandAlexa.com, you might have noticed that our range of merchandise has been growing and growing, with more and more products being uploaded online every day. Now, not only have we got a huge range of luxury kids wear designers available at the click of a button, we also have a brilliant range of toys and gifts. From tea sets to crayons, to building blocks to racing cars, we have an amazing selection of playthings that will no doubt keep your little ones happy and occupied for hours!

One of our more dominant brands is Vilac. Starting life in 1911, Vilac wooden toys are still made in a factory in the beautiful French Jura Mountains. The popularity of wood as a construction material is as strong now as ever, and Vilac toys take full advantage of this reputation. Their toys are beautifully made, still partly by hand, and the rich, deep and bright colours are obtained by using a special lacquer in which they are dipped. There is something quaint and old fashioned about the Vilac toys which makes them extremely appealing! Click here to view the full range of Vilac toys, which include a pirate jack-in-the-box, a wooden plane and an ice cream handle skipping rope.

A particular favourite of ours here at Alex and Alexa, is the pull along Elmer toy. Some of you may already be familiar with Elmer the Elephant; Most of us at A&A distinctly remember being read this book in primary school and absolutely loving it!

The story is by David McKee and is about an elephant called Elmer who is very different from his fellow elephants… He is patchwork! The story follows Elmer and his worries about his colour and standing out from the crowd. The story is sweet and heart-warming, and teaches children that it is ok to be different. Over 20 book titles have been created since its first publication in 1989, and it has sold nearly 5 million copies in 40 languages around the world. The character has also been turned into a children’s TV series.

 Made from multi-coloured lacquered wood with big coloured wheels and a black string to pull him along, Elmer the Elephant is super cute and is sure to accompany your little one wherever they may go!

If you like him, and want to know more about his story, check out the website http://www.andersenpress.co.uk/elmer. There you will find information on more Elmer books and the author David McKee, a free colour-me-in print out of Elmer himself and a fun Elmer puzzle game for your little one to enjoy.

 

Alexandalexa.com Featured in Junior Magazine

We’ve been beyond lucky this month with lots of lovely press coverage…and to top off all the great press, we just found ourselves in one of our favourite parenting magazines, Junior Magazine.

Deputy Fashion Editor at Junior, Matthew Holroyd, included us in his list of latest fashion must-haves for children, where he praised AlexandAlexa.com for its preppy picks and back to school must haves, namely in our selection of Ralph Lauren kidswear.

You can get the look pictured above for your preppy boy or proper girl here or from our Autumn Winter Lookbook!

 

Geox School Shoes

Born In: Italy, 1995

The Name: The brand name ‘Geox’ was created from a mixture between the Greek word “geo” which means “earth” and “x”, a letter-element symbolizing technology.

Description: Classic school shoes featuring elegant traditional design.

History: During a wine conference in Reno, Nevada, company founder Mario Moretti Polegato, who was at the conference to promote his family’s wine business, noticed that his feet were getting incredibly hot in his sauna like leather shoes. To allow his feet to breath, Polegato cut holes in the soles of his shoes with a Swiss Army knife. To most, this act may have seemed like an act of insanity, but for Polegato, it was an act of genious.

Upon his arrival back home in Italy, Polegato developed the idea with the help of a small leather-goods business his family owned.

Scientific Fashion: Geox constantly invests in innovation and employees 15 engineers, chemists and physicists to research human-generated heat-movement patterns in relation to all materials used for footwear and apparel.

Slogan: “The breathable shoe”

A Gift for You: With each set of Autumn-Winter 2010 Geox shoes you order, you will receive one of five terrific silicon hi-colour watches!

History of the Hoodie

The hood is a marvelous invention, perfect for keeping off the rain, protecting our little ears, and creating one of the most popular items of the modern wardrobe, The Hoodie.

The Hoodie is an item we all own, and an object of our wardrobe that encompasses all of our favorite adjectives: comfortable, cozy and casual.

The garment first came into play in the Middle Ages as part of Catholic monk’s tunics, which had long decorative hoods or ‘cowls’; however, the history of the specific style we wear today began in the 1930s, produced by the brand Champion, for workers cold storage warehouses.

The popularity of Champion’s design spread quickly and sportswear designers began to develop entire collections based around the clothing item. By the 1970s, the hoodie was a clothing classic, perfect for sports, camping, chilling, studying, layering, styling and so on…

In countries where children need not wear a uniform, it is the perfect back to school wardrobe piece, and for kids that do wear uniforms, it is a great cover-up on a cold fall day, so, in celebration of the back to school season (which is creeping up far to quickly) we picked out 8 of our favourite hoodies for your children from the world’s best kidswear designers:

1. D&G JUNIOR blue hooded zip-up jumper, £102.00

2. JOHN PAUL GALLIANO newspaper print hoodie, £72.00

3. RALPH LAUREN grey and navy striped hooded jumper, £82.00

4. LITTLE MARC JACOBS miss marc Jacobs jumper dress, £90.50

5. HACKETT red hooded jumper, £66.00

6. RARE THE KID grey hooded sweat top, £96.00

7. JUICY COUTURE regal blue velour tracksuit, £124.95 (only tracksuit top pictured here!)

8. DIESEL grey jumper with coloured print, £46.00

If your children love hoodies as much as we do, send us picture to [email protected] and we will post the picture of your hooded cutie on the Their Little Wardrobe section of our blog!

The Victoria Pub

  

HOW WE FOUND THEM

We have many mini-critics in and around London, and a set of our mini-critics had just moved to Barnes from Kent and their cousin, happens to now work at Alexandalexa.com…as a blogger.

Having taken a weekend off to spend time with them while their parents were away, this Alexandalexa.com team member thought it best they escape the family garden and go out for a meal, and after asking a neighbour where the closest family friendly restaurant was, we wound up at the beautiful Victoria Pub on 10 West Temple Sheen in London’s SW14 7RT postal code.

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

On a hot summer day, walking into the cool bar The Victoria pub instantly refreshes you, it is quiet, and the lighting is non intrusive. The beautiful dark wood floors, leather seating and vintage looking wooden furniture is inviting, and if it wasn’t such a lovely day, I would be inclined to spend my day indoors; it is the perfect location for a relaxed romantic meal. But, I arrived with three of our mini critics, Lily (5), Scarlett (7) and Milo (1.5) who kindly agreed to help me with our undercover review.

After cooling off and ordering some (delicious) fruit smoothies from the smiling and friendly young gentleman at the bar, we ventured towards the great outdoors, through the beautiful timber framed conservatory and out to the stunning garden. We found seating in the shade of a tree, right next to the Pub’s impressive climbing frame.  

The kids seemed content with enjoying their smoothies and we were quickly greeted by our charming waitress who handed us each menus.

 

THE FOOD

The adult menu, created by award winning chef Paul Merrett and his team, had some traditional family favourites as well as some more eclectic cooking for those that like to venture into the great unknown.

The kids menu includes favourites of kids everywhere, like fish and chips, pita bread toasties, pasta, burgers, organic ice-cream and fresh fruit salad. But what the kids were most impressed about was that the menu is illustrated by ‘menu consultant’ Ellie Merrett (aged 11 ¾) and as mini critic Scarlett (age 7) is a budding artist herself, she branded the Pub the “coolest” before we had even ordered our food.

I found out after, that the menu is also incredibly environmentally friendly as The Victoria Pub only sources food from ethical suppliers:

BREAD: Baked in house with milled from Leicestershire.

MEAT & POULTRY: Comes from several farmers and small family butchers, including beef breed in South Devon, organic veal from Oxfordshire, and pork from Colchester.

FISH & SHELLFISH: Purchased from two harbour side markets in Brixham and Falmouth, and some of the fish they use, like their bass, is line caught and comes from sustainable stocks.

FRUIT & VEGETABLES: From a family run farm in Surrey.

COOKING OIL:  Is stored and recycled into bio fuel by a local company.

 

OUR MEALS

Lilly and Scarlett were both keen on the Pita Bread Toasties and Milo, being a bit less adventurous went for Pasta & Pesto. I ordered the Whole Char Grilled Sea Bass with a Salad of Green Beans, Black Olives, Cherry Tomatoes & Salsa Verde. As I finished saying the order, the kids snuck away from the table, having finished their smoothies, to check out the climbing structure.

 

THE CLIMBING STRUCTURE

As mini critic Milo was not quite old enough to ‘explore’ on his own, so I ‘escorted’ him to the play area which he independently investigated under my watchful eye. The girls climbed and screamed with some of the other children, while Milo took a wander around. He lost interest in the climbing structure after spotting a baby girl’s brightly coloured bonnet…..and started poking her in the head, which then turned into a game of peek-a-boo. The baby reacted to with giddy surprise and the other parents and minders in the area ooh-ed and aww-ed at how sweet they were.

Milo’s game was interrupted by our food arriving, which happened so fast, the mini-critics never even bothered to bicker or tease with one another, or the other children (horah!).

 

THE VERDICT

 

The mini critics and I gobbled down our food, enjoying each bite, and everyone, including the youngest mini critic (who is rather picky with his food), fully enjoyed their meals. For pudding, we all ordered Jude’s Organic Ice-Cream in all four of the flavours available and shared. It was AMAZING.

Afterwards, the two older critics announced their verdict: 5/5 for The Victoria Pub and with their duties complete ran off to the climbing structure, where they played happily for a full hour.

 

PROMOTION FOR YOU

For all you fantastic readers, The Victoria Pub would like to offer your kids a delicious smoothie at half price this summer. Just quote “Their Little World Summer” when ordering your smoothie! (valid until September 1, 2010)

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