Glitter, snacks, and pasta necklaces filled the Dream Downtown Hotel this past Sunday, where kids engaged in some upscale playtime. The HuffPost Parents-hosted event was the "Family Day" installment of The Food Network's NYC Wine & Food Festival that took place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. OASIS was meant to provide a space of rejuvenation for both children and their parents and invited them to "unplug and recharge" through various programming during the weekend.
Sunday's OASIS featured notable guests chef Marcus Samuelsson and artist Jon Burgerman. Burgerman led arts and crafts through a painting workshop, aimed at encouraging creativity in kids. Samuelsson, co-owner of Aquavit and the recently opened Red Rooster, took food suggestions from his young audience and showed how to make child-friendly meals both tasty and good for you.
"I always say, cook something your kid already knows about but add in something else. For example, mac and cheese - great, cut back a little bit on the cheese and just add in a little bit more spinach so you have mac and greens. So you take something kids already like and make it healthy."
Arianna Huffington also took the stage reading aloud selected children's books and handing out smoothies, much to the little ones' enthusiasm. One of the books was "The Bunnies Are Not In Their Beds" by Marisabina Russo, a story about three bunnies who refuse to go to bed and want to stay up playing, only to drift off into deep, happy sleep after wearing themselves out. Odds are that the kids at OASIS snoozed well that night, too.