Thrift Thursday - Yay for shopping!

Yay, March is over! And so is my resolution not to shop. I did pretty well, all things considered. I do have to fess up to buying band-aids, light bulbs, (the darkness in the bathroom was irritating and they were on sale) , and I threw a few things into the cart at BigLots like shampoo and nice new 400 thread count sheets (but Erik was the one who swiped the debit card so that doesn't count). I also got these shirts for the kids from the Sesame body exhibit:

They were our only store-bought souvenier from our 8-day excursions - 2 for $20. . . not available in stores. . . plus, they're organs with eyeballs! Where else can you find organs with eyeballs? (When Erik saw them he said, "Um, that's kinda gross.")

I didn't, however, buy myself clothes or cosmetics or or books or junky toys for the kids. I didn't step foot in a mall or thrift store. Instead, I spent the month getting rid of stuff. Sage learned that if he wanted something he had to spend his own piggy bank money, and he spent that money judiciously. McKenna didn't even notice the lack of new things. She's just as content with an empty box as she would be with anything that costs money. We spent the money we saved on all those excursions and a few nice dinners. I think we'll remember those more than any thing.

But! on April 1st I was excited to be able to shop again. I hit my 3 favorite thrift stores in one afternoon and found a few cute things at each. Like these skirts for me:

($15 total) and this shirt:

(GAP, $3.99) And a few things for McKenna, including this outfit:

(Talbots kids, $3.50) and this jacket:

(Pumpkin Patch $3.99). I also got a pair of new-with-tags Steve Madden sandals ($4.99), and 5 pairs of reading glasses (to make into jewelry) for $1 each, and I found a few books that I knew Sage would like. The kid loves books - it's hard to pass up hours of enjoyment when it's only 50 cents. Oh, and I found a brand new kid's croquet set for $6.

I felt like the most extravagant person in the world and I only spent about $50. You're welcome, economy.

Studio Tuesday - Design-It-Yourself Tooth Pillow

It's teeth-losing time!

Sage has this weird (but normal, I'm told) thing going on where his adult teeth start coming in before the baby ones fall out. He must be part shark. When the first tooth fell out we weren't prepared with a tooth pillow for the occasion. Luckily, I had mine from waybackwhen and he used it. Last week, when his second tooth started getting loose I told him to design himself a new tooth pillow. Here's what he came up with:

After our Sesame Street Body exhibit excursion on Wednesday (it must have inspired us to make our own crazy creature) we started assembling it. I cut out the shapes, he assembled them, and I guided it through the sewing machine while he stepped on the presser foot. Then he stuffed it:

and I stitched up the hole. Viola! A hungry drooly crazy-eyed tooth monster!

His mouth doubles as a pocket for the money. I also added a tiny tooth pocket inside the mouth to keep the tooth safe.

It fits nicely on his bed rail, easily accessible to the Tooth Fairy who visited Sunday night.

This gave me an idea (my kids inspire all my best ideas). . . I bet other kids would like to design their own tooth pillows too - I should offer this service on kokoleo. So today I updated my (sadly barren) monster shop to offer a Design your own Monster and Design your own Tooth Pillow service. I can't wait to see what kids come up with. Grownup designs are welcome too - I'm an equal-opportunity monster-maker.

My 8 Days Around L.A. (with kids) . . .

Well, that was fun. . . exhausting and expensive, but fun. I don't know what I'm going to do this summer when I have to entertain both kids again. We could visit a new place in L.A. every day for the rest of our lives and still not see it all. Besides, sometimes it's nice just to stay home.

Lest you think I'm some happily energetic supermom and my children are always sweet and joyful, I feel like I should mention that what I presented was an edited version of the last 8 days. I chose the cutest pictures and deleted all the ugly ones of myself. I didn't show the meltdowns or mention how many times I said typical mom phrases like, "Keep your hands to yourself!" and "Do you want me to turn this car around?" I didn't show you what it was like when we came home from these excursions - my messy kitchen, projects piled up in my studio, the weeds in the garden. I didn't photograph Sage staring at the television while McKenna napped and I got on the computer. Those things just aren't as exciting or photogenic.

Sometimes I wondered why I made myself do it. It took well over an hour each night to upload pictures and write about our day in order to meet my self-imposed deadline. I'm such a demanding boss and I don't even pay well. It was worth in in other ways though. Some people scrapbook; I blog. I have no idea where we'll be in a year or if I'll ever have this kind of time again. These kids are growing up so fast I just wanted to capture the way they are right now. Sage has enjoyed reading about our excursions too. Yesterday he said I should make it "9 Days Around L.A." and blog about our trip to Big Lots. Haha. No. (Don't worry, I stayed true to my pledge not to buy anything. Luckily Erik didn't make the same pledge.)

Today, we're returning to a normal routine. Sage is in school, McKenna is sleeping, and it's time for me to get back to my kokoleo. . .

8 Days Around L.A. (with kids): Day 8! - The Aquarium of the Pacific

Day 8! We made it! And today I even had Erik around to help. We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I'll spare you the endless pictures of fish (you can see those in my Flickr album) and just show my favorite pictures here.











Then we explored the harbor. . .




And ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. , which after spending the day admiring beautiful ocean life seemed a bit cruel, but also delicious.

Good night!

8 Days Around L.A. (with kids): Day 7 - Kidspace

As if my kids weren't getting enough kidspace these days, today I took them to another one - Kidspace Children's Museum near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. I can't believe we've lived here this long and have never been there before. Sage played on the playground beside it years ago but I guess I didn't notice it? It's pretty inconspicuous. From the outside, it looks like a preschool or bathrooms or something.

The entrance though, is anything but inconspicuous. It's a stained glass patchwork mosaic of awesomeness:

This part is free - go see it! Take lots of pictures. Next time we go there I'm going to bring the good camera and spend more time in the hallway.

Here are those dinosaurs we were looking for yesterday:

McKenna's like, "Oh look, another completely surreal environment."

This was a bug cafe':

In this place. . .

they had real bugs (behind glass). We saw spiders and bees and beetles and scorpions and lizards (with tails).

This area reminds me of A Bug's Life land in California Adventure park, only more educational and less Disney-fied.

Of course, I had to take a picture of this patchwork tile work:

We climbed stuff:

And made crafts.

Sage made that Astroidman and I made that footed puffball creature. Remember those, from the 70s? I want to start making those for kokoleo now and bring the fad back. I'm glad I got a picture of this because we lost the puffball creature and the ink that said "Asteroidman" came off on my hand and McKenna decapitated Asteroidman and tried to eat him. We also lost one of McKenna's shoes. Apparently mama needs to stop taking so many pictures and pay attention to her belongings.

Outside, they have a bike course:


Okay, we're back inside now, are you keeping up with us? They also have a great science lab, set up like an oldschool classroom.


Here's Sage smelling sage:

On the way out we saw this, which we weren't quite sure was meant for kids, but it is:

Then we went to the giftshop and adopted caterpillars. "Adopted" is way different than "bought," so I'm not going to count this as a thing. We're just fostering them until they become butterflies.