Favourite Things

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Here’s a curated list of all the Wander Full and Free family favourites. Just like our personalities, each member has their picks. Check back often for updates on our latest finds.

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Tech and coffee.

All the latest gadgets given the thumbs up by Ton (if he had thumbs)

Cooking + Crafts.

The reliable work horses of the kitchen that churn out the best dinners, bakes and snacks. The must have items for my DIY projects and crafting projects with the kids.

Cooking

  • Le Creuset cast iron enamelled 4.5 qt dutch oven (Disney edition): Ok this is the true work horse of the kitchen. Essential for that crusty sourdough loaf or mid-week dinners. The addition of the Disney detail is merely a bonus and adds only whimsy but not flavour to your cooking experience.
  • Kitchenaid Artisan Series Stand Mixer: I have the classic red. Essential for cakes, buttercream icing, kneading enriched bread loaves and we have the pasta head attachment to make our own linguine when we’re feeling fancy.
  • Shun Santoku knife: I own other Shun knives but if I reach for a knife, it’s always this one. End of story.
  • Abeego beeswax food wraps: The greatest purchase I made to help reduce my foot print on our planet. Have not bought plastic food wrap ever again.
  • Stasher bags: Once you have one, it’s hard to stop buying more. This bundle was on sale for Black Friday. Throw them in the freezer or the pantry, carry snacks around. Say bye-bye to zip-lock plastic bags forever.

Crafts

  • Cricut Explore Air 2: This machine is a real beauty. You’ll let our a low whistle when it’s unboxed.
  • Staedtler Luna watercolour coloured pencils: We own a lot of coloured pencils. I am quite addicted to stationery so when I say this is the set my kids like the most, even after all the Japanese sets I have spent money on, it says something. Curiously these were my also my favourite pencils as a child but we could only ever buy them from Malaysia on a family holiday. Warms the cockles of my heart knowing my kids love these pencils so much too. We rate pencil quality on the richness and juiciness of the colour. These are top notch.

Reads.

Mr A. is an avid reader and we enjoy going on adventures through the literary world. He took a lot of pride in curating this list of our favourite books.

Christian Books and Devotionals

  • Bible Infographics for Kids: We love facts and trivia. We love board games. This book covers it all in this really high quality publication using the coolest graphics to boot. Volume 2 is in our ‘cart’ for to purchase soon and we can’t wait to give this a read too.
  • Jesus Calling – 365 Devotions for Kids: We read this devotional every night before bed. The devotions are always just as relevant for parents as well as kids. Beautifully written to capture hearts and keep us focused on what Jesus wants to speak to us.
  • Laugh and Grow Bible for Kids: Nothing better than hearing your kids genuninely having a laugh while reading this book. We really love (classic) VeggieTales in this family and that same humour is delivered in this sweet book.
  • The Adventure Bible, NIV: The first ‘big people’s’ version of the Bible that I chose for my children. We had Bible storybook versions until recently but they needed a real Bible for their own reading and Bible Study Fellowship homework. I like the additional support pages throughout Bible that are targeted well for my children’s age range (6 years old and above)
  • Read and Learn Bible: This children’s Bible storybook was recommended to me by another Christian mum and she was spot on with this one. I loved this version so much we bought them for our Sunday School kids class too. The stories are really well told and illustrations very pleasant. It’s a great Bible for toddlers and pre-school aged children.
  • The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers: While my kids have moved on from this devotional book, lots of other parents ask me what I read to my kids to start the family ritual of doing daily devotionals. This was the book we used when my kids were very little, starting around age 2-3 years old. Each devotion is like a little bite-sized nugget and the kids would repeat the sweet little rhyming prayers after me. So cute!

Fiction

  • Cat’s Cafe: This quirky little comic book combines cute drawings and simple humour about a bunch of little animals and their need for their favourite caffeine beverage. My kids were hooked on this book as soon as they got it.
  • Octonauts Explore the Great Open Ocean: We are huge Octonauts fans. We have learnt a lot about the underwater world because of this adorable series and all the Octonauts books are wonderful. The illustrations are just divine. This book is our favourite of the collection because we love picking our favourite kelp cake flavours!

Non-fiction

  • Lego Star Wars Ideas Book: We love Lego and we love Star Wars. This book has inspired many builds using just common bricks and don’t require buying another pricey Star Wars set.
  • Usborne Lift-The-Flap Periodic Table: We love the Usborne flap books and have a few but this one is really quite a keeper. It’s a great introduction to children about the periodic table and the elements. The facts are really interesting and illustrations are very cute.
  • How to Draw Cute Things: We first had this book from the library and we renewed it so many times I ended up buying it. The kids reference the book when they design cards and write stories.

Play.

We love playing games and our collection just keeps growing. Here are the ones we love the most and recommend.

Board Games

  • Carcassonne: Without a doubt the favourite game of Wander Full and Free is Carcassonne.
  • Rummikub: This one is probably Mr A.’s favourite game because he is just so good at it.
  • Sushi Roll: Mr R.’s favourite because of the cutie dice. It’s a really adorable game and sometimes makes us hungry.
  • Risk Jnr: A good and very playable version of Risk. All fun. No tear and quick!
  • Mouse Trap: It’s all about the contraption here folks. Kids cannot get enough of the Rube Goldberg-esque set up to get the mouse trap going.
  • Monopoly Super Mario Bros. Celebration: This is the one version we play often because of the cool ‘video game sound effects’ question block (replaces the Chance card). The game moves faster than a typical Monopoly too.

Card Games

  • 3 Up 3 Down: This game is just so much fun and once you start playing, it is very hard to stop. The boys love teaching their friends to play this game too. You just need to play it to believe it.
  • Phase 10: This card game is like if UNO and Rummy had a cute baby. I would love it if our set had come in this nice tin!
  • Monopoly Deal: Super grateful that Monopoly came up with a card version of their game as this is fast, tear-free and portable fun for our family. I hope to buy a local Hong Kong version at some time as a keepsake of our time living here.
  • UNO: Oddly we do not actually own the original rendition of this game but if we do buy one eventually, I would definitely get this version that comes in a tin! Instead we own multiple special editions:
    • When the kids were under 4 years old, we started out with this adorable My First UNO Octonauts version. The chubby cards and simplified game play were a great introduction to the game.
    • UNO Super Mario Card Game: This is the set we play with the most as we are big Mario fans here. The two special Mario themed cards, a bounce back star card and a customisable card make this game a lot of fun.
    • UNO Disney Pixar Cars: We went through a phase where we loved Cars and all the characters in this franchise. This version of UNO was a lot of fun for the boys when they were younger because of the special ‘crash’ card where all the players have to reshuffle and redeal out the remaining cards in play!
  • UNO flip: This game really takes the classic UNO game to the next level. You don’t know pain til you are served a ‘pick up 5’ card! We love it. I sure wish we had this tin version too!
  • Sushi Go!: The original card version of this game is more transportable and simple to play than the board game Sushi Roll. We bring it around with us to play at restaurants and on holidays.
  • theory11 playing cards: Nothing beats playing games with a traditional deck of cards. We have two star wars collaboration packs from theory11 and the graphics are minimalist yet impactful. The card quality is lovely too and they’re almost too nice to play with. Only wish they were waterproof and came in a tin.
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