The Wandering Mother

Celebrating Lunar New Year festivities

Chinatown, Soho

Chinese New Year (also known as the Lunar New Year/Spring Festival ‘Tet’ to Vietnamese) was a joyous celebration in London for the first time post-covid. The lion dance was back for a short appearance on 01 February which Little Miss had the honour of watching. I have never taken the kids to watch the CNY celebrations at Soho before – simply because it was always too busy – but this year, it was slightly less of a crowd but still busy enough to showcase its bustling atmosphere.

Treating ourselves at The Knot Churros

Bute Street, South Kensington

To keep up with the Spring celebrations, I took the kids out for a bit of ice cream at a place that I’ve been meaning to visit for the longest. I give you… The Knot Churros (@theknotchurros) in South Kensington. On their Instagram page you’ll see endless photos of their imaginative designs but beware, it can be a sweetness overload so prepare yourselves for a sugar rush from the kids!

Roughly a 40 minutes journey from Greenwich, this delightful little shop on Bute Street is kitted out with the cutest pink décor that’s of course instagrammable. The kids adored the loveseat swing, to me it felt fragile to sit on but the kids had no problems. When you look up, the ceiling’s covered with handing flowers and the seats are made from plush velvet.

We all had a chilled churro each (about £8-9 each) which is definitely on the pricey side but worth a one-off treat. I got the blue one for Little Man, the pink one for Little Miss and for myself, a lilac one – looking back in hindsight, we were better off sharing one because they are MASSIVE and the kids are not the best dessert eaters. It’s defo a place to add onto your list for older children ie. tweens and teens. The churros were nice and crispy, the soft-serve ice cream was delicious and the candyfloss cloud was bigger than our faces! My advice would be to take photos as quickly as you can before scoffing your face.

Immersed ourselves in art at the NOW Gallery

Greenwich Peninsula, by The O2

We went to check out the latest art exhibition at The NOW Gallery (@nowgalleryse10): ‘Your Ship Has Landed’ by artist Lydia Chan. The immersive art installation is colourful, quirky and child-friendly. Although it’s free entry, it’s recommended to book online before going as it can get busy. For the immersive part, children can kick off their shoes and fully explore the installation by crawling, climbing, hiding and discovering the colourful landscape. Upon entry you can scan the QR code which directs you to instagram where you can load up the special filter that allows you to interact with the installation.

Getting crafty with recycled materials at Tate Modern

Tate Modern, Bankside

Our plans to watch the planes fly at London City airport clashed with our date to the Tate. It was actually meant to be a date to Tate Britain but I got everything muddled up and we ended up at Tate Modern. Not all bad as they currently have the Uniqlo Tate Play sessions on so we had a good wander around the gallery before heading down to the Turbine Hall for some crafty fun.

For our Tate Play session, our task was to make or build something as big or as little as we wanted using bits of old cardboard, foil, fabric, and other recycled materials. Children that came before us made giant boats with sails, rockets and other interesting sculptures. Little Man decided to make his very own ironman suit, whilst Little Miss decided she wanted to make a present for Santa wrapping up bits of fabric and card. We ended our afternoon with a trip around Borough Market for a spot of lunch before heading home as it started raining.

All in all, we had a great month albeit the crappy weather, storms, and Boris’ annoying announcement it will not deter us from the good times we’ve had this month!