CONNECTING WITH FAMILIES THAT SHARE OUR VALUES ABOUT ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNITY AND CHILDRENS´ WELLBEING
Bella is a photographer and lives in Portugal with her husband and 2 daughters
Read about their daily rituals, favourite things and how do they care for the environment and their community
PHOTOS BY @bellacrusoe
KIDS OUTFITS THROUGHOUT by LMN3
BELLA CRUSOE x LMN3
"I'm Bella, a photographer. I am married to Felipe and we are parents of two beautiful and brilliant girls Amélie and Olívia. My husband and I came to Portugal from Brazil in 2015 as newlyweds, and we are building our life here"
THE RITUALS:
1. How do you start the day?
We start our day with the girls sneaking into our bed to wake us up, we have an early start with kisses and hugs until the rush to go to school.
2. How do you end the day?
We always end our day trying to connect, like the children around the house, lamps on, the father in the kitchen preparing dinner and the mother preparing the bath. On ordinary days spent at home, we try to slow down, focus on ourselves as a family. We do a ritual to fall asleep, with stories and prayer at the end of the day.
3. What are the favorite activities for the whole family to do together during holidays?
We like being in nature and also bringing a bit of nature home, we do activities with paint, drawings with our treasures from outside. So there are always stones, sticks and leaves around here.
During the winter holidays when we end up spending more time at home, we try to do small traditions like making bee candles, preparing the tree together, making granola together. We also look for a bit of nature to breathe, rain or shine.
4. How do you pack your kids´ clothes for holidays? Any tips or tricks?
For holidays when we travel in winter the best thing to do is to wear as many layers as possible during the trip. For the girls I love having tights too, they are perfect for keeping warm and also wearing with dresses and skirts; a good warm coat as well as knitwear, boots, caps and a raincoat.
YOUR FAVOURITE:
1.Travel destination
Our favorite destination in winter, I say after they were born, in the last two years for three months literally was going to Brazil, being immersed in the farm we have there in Minas Gerais, escaping the cold, embracing the heat there, but certain that they will be close to family life and also animals such as horses, cows, chickens, even monkeys seen swinging in the trees in the background and toucans flying in the sky, a true blessing-luck I can say. This year we will stay here because of my oldest daughter's school, which is in primary school, we will have to discover a new favorite place.
2.Childrens books to read during holidays
Girls love books that talk about the seasons, and about animals, a good book to have at home is to follow the child's taste. We love our Animalium by Jenny Broom. We also always read “the boy who liked everyone” by Jane Porter and by the same author “the girl who noticed everything”.
WHAT IS YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITY?
We try to recycle as much as possible, sometimes it is difficult because we know that a family of 4 produces a lot of waste, but we try to minimize our footprint. So glass, plastic, essential changes like not spending so much on unnecessary purchases, on birthdays using a lot of DIY, even on holiday costumes, using your hands and what we have is the first rule we have around here, and the girls simply love it! We are very careful with our trash outside the house, and teach the girls the importance of this.
