Tag Archives: kids

Guest Feature :: Snacktime with Shutterbean

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SNNAAAAAACCCKKS! Oh, hello!!!  It’s Tracy from Shutterbean here, back with my favorite Kiddos. Today we’re talking snacks! Don’t you just love snackies? Honestly, they’re pretty much my favorite part of the day. Snacks are especially important when you’re running around with your kids. How else are you going to fuel the rest of your day??? Don’t get me started on dealing with a cranky hungry child!  We must avoid that at ALL costs. I put together a little arsenal for you, so if you’re in a rut snack-wise, this might break you free. We’ll start out with some easy peasy no-brainers and then get a little more fancy. So let’s get crackin’!

1. Fruits! I love orange segments. SOO easy. Also fun to put in your mouth & cover your teeth with them. SMILE! Also white Nectarines & an assortment of cheeses. YUM! Think indoor picnic. Apples are fun and easy too.
2. Veggies & Dip!  Pile up your kiddo’s favorite veggies & have a dip party. Dip makes vegetables approachable!
3. Scrumptious green grapes!  They are amazing frozen too! Just like little popsicles.
4. Slices of apples with a squeeze of lime!  It helps jazz up apples like you wouldn’t believe!

5. Peanut butter, bananas & honey on top of a rice cakes! Great for breakfast too!
6. Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Crisps! Watch out, they’re addictive. Trust me.
7. Make your own Trail Mix for on the go!  It’s such a good thing to carry in your purse/diaper bag.
8. Peanut Butter Granola Balls Such little work for a BIG pay off!
9. Fig Crumble Bars!  Think FANCY fig newtons!
10. Banana Bread with a yummy cinnamon sugar topping.  You’ll make such good memories with a loaf.
11. Easy Baked Potato Chips! You can make them with sweet potatoes too!
12. Pretzels & hummus. Put them on a fun plate and everyone’s happy.
13. For those kids who love spice, try a grilled corn tortilla with avocado & a few dashes of hot sauce.
14. Addictive Baked Kale Chips! (my son LOVES them and so do I!!)
Whew, that’s it folks. Hope that gets your motor going!  What are some of your favorite kiddo snacks? Do your kids like spicy foods or are a little pickier? What are your snack time tricks? Let’s chat!

Thanks Miss Shutterbean! Another amazing collection of easy peasy meals. OH, and hurray to Pilgrim Lee for rockin’ the artwork on Kiddo once again!

Real Life: Tiki Oasis 2010 Part 1

Real Life, Real Life : Alix, , , , , ,

Ahhh, the sweet days of summer have come to a close and I’m so very sad. Thankfully we managed to sneak in one last little tropical getaway to the magical Tiki Oasis just a few weeks ago. So what is this thing called Tiki Oasis I keep yammerin’ about? Lemme tell ya .Tiki Oasis is a celebration of Polynesian pop culture and is “the largest and longest running Tiki Event on the planet.” For one weekend every August, Tiki-enthusiasts take over the historic Hanalei hotel in San Diego (now called the Crowne Plaza) and fill the place with art, music, tropical drinks—and of course, fabulous fashions.  I suppose I should start at the beginning….our trip began with a short-n- sweet plane ride down to San Diego:

Finally, we arrived! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Mid 70s with a touch of a breeze. ALOHA, indeed.

The hotel itself is lovely. Palm trees, little waterfalls, a huge pool and, of course,  lots of cool Tikis all over the property.

The best part is that it’s an extremely family-friendly affair. Single folks, couples young and old, and families with kiddos—all mingled together. The whole weekend was the doing of my sweet friend Baby Doe (aka Dorinda) and her cool hubby Otto von Stroheim. They are the Producer’s Extraordinaire who dreamed up this crazy thang and made it all happen. This was the 10 year anniversary. It’s so crazy impressive I can’t even tell you.

Here is the always charming Doe with her little cutie Dash (and Wolfie on the left—sportin’ his Pineapple Princess aloha togs! My friend Stephanie makes groovy kid’s clothing out of vintage muu muus! More on her later….).

All told over a thousand people frolicked at the Oasis that weekend. I’m so proud of Doe—she is crazy sweet and cool and yet runs these huge events with the precision of a 5 star general!!

During the day, you could swim or browse the amazing vendors who had set up shop on the lawn near the pool and in the hotel conference area. Vintage clothing, records, artwork, tiki mugs and necklaces, even polynesian BBQ spices. There were also a wide variety of symposiums—The History of Tiki, Rum & Chocolate, The Persuasive Power of Punch, Pin-Up Hair and Makeup, Live Tiki Carvings…it was overwhelmingly awesome.

Hey look! It’s Modern Kiddo reader, Mrs. DeTiki! She was a doll and had these really cute retro-style handbags she makes.

Wolfie and Greg loved checking out the awesome vintage car show in the parking lot.

Wolfie had so much fun…I love he started wearin’ this groovy surfer necklace. By the end he had a tiki pendant to match! How cute is that tee, by the way? It’s for Greg’s kiddo band The Time Outs and the rad “Rocky the Rock Hand” artwork was done by Michael Fleming, aka Tweedlebop!

There was literally something to do at every moment. You could do everything….or nothing. We were big fans of the “do nothing” option and I’m pleased to report we clocked many hours by the pool.

Every day amazing DJs spun vintage vinyl—boat loads of 50s/60s exotica, surf, lounge and more. The vibe was super chill and cool. You honestly felt like you were living in a vintage movie….

Aw yeah! The debut of my vintage swim cap!!

I love the elevators…they’re glass and look out on an atrium of waterfalls and palm trees. At night, two guys played stand up bass and guitar IN THE ELEVATOR. See? Even the elevators are cool.

As the sun set, the vendor booths disappeared only to be replaced by lawn chairs…and the night time entertainment began. Fun bands and dance performances. Wolfie was allowed to stay up a little later to watch the first few performances.

Of course I had a blast dressing up. It’s not required by any means, but loads of people get dolled up in their vintage Hawaiiana finest. High off my vintage bathing cap victory, I decided to bust out THE BIG BUN for Saturday night!

I’ll be posting more on the Tiki fashions over at Strawberry Lemonade, my other bloggie.

Whew. OK, that’s it for the Part 1. The next installment will be Kiddo-centric and I’ll tell you allll the cool things there are for you and yer wee ones to do. Because you ARE coming next year….right??


Real Life: A trip to the MOMA.

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That’s Wolfie up there. Admiring art. OK OK. I can’t lie. There is this little part of me that just wants to post that photo and impress you with my cosmopolitan ways and toss my hair and said, “Yes, this past week we took the young lad to the Museum of Modern Art where he made various astute observations about the exceptional collection of Abstract Expressionism and regaled me with the finer points of Pop Art!” And then tell you how I went home and made an asparagus goat cheese tart that my boy ate with gusto and how, just for a laugh, we ate on the floor because my house is THAT SPOTLESS.

*cough*

But I can’t do that. Don’t worry, it’s still a nice story with a happy ending, we just took a slightly twisty route.

This past weekend was a pretty glorious one. We began our day with an awesome birthday party in Dolores Park—lots of running around and silliness involving a UFO pinata and a bunch of 5-6 year olds racing around. After the party we packed ourselves up and were going to head home when I suddenly thought, “Hey, lets swing by the SF MOMA!” Greg loves art galleries and I love museums. And also,  I was hankerin’ for this:


You see, the SF Museum of Modern Art has a rooftop cafe that is known for it’s spectacular art-inspired sweets. Like the Jeff Koons White Hot Chocolate (served in a dainty porcelain cup topped with golf leaf-coated marshmallows) and Andy Warhol Pop Art Corn (complete with commemorative box!). I have been DYING to get a slice of that Mondrian-inspired cake ever since I posted about it. I know, I know….Wolfie had already had a full day at a birthday party and here I was schleppin’ him to the Art Museum just so I could get cake. What can I say? I want to be the girl with the most cake. Also, Wolfie is a pretty chill little guy and we can pretty much take him anywhere without a fuss. Except, apparently, the MOMA on a Sunday.

We arrived at the museum and I dragged everyone up to the top floor (YAY to Greg for being so accommodating to my sweet tooth whims!). Alas, they were out of the Mondrian cake, but I had this:

with this:

which was inspired by this:

Mmmm. The Wayne Theibaud cake was completely delish. I was delighted and so content, happily sippin’ mah cappuccino. Alas, my little six year old was not as happy as I. “WHEN are we leaving? WHY are we here? I’m TIRED. I want to relax in the CAR!!!” [relax in the car?? ]  I tried joking. Offered him some cake (He was horrified. He hates sweets. Seriously.). “Do they have pretzels?” “Um…no.”  HMPH! And there he sat, pouting and playing his DS.

Once I ate my cake he looked up expectantly, eyes lighting up. “Are we going home??” “No. We’re here at the museum we’re going to go look at some cool stuff!” “Ohhhh man!!!” (head hanging dejectedly and a not particularly adorable scowl on his face.) And he turned into THAT CHILD. Dragging his feet. Whining. Sooooo not into this. And we could have just gone home. But I’m stubborn (where do you think he gets it from??) and refused to give up. As we were walking across the breeze way (oooooh….i don’t think I’ve EVER typed that word before) I looked out the windows and said, “HEY! There’s WALDO!”


On the roof top of the building across the street someone had made a big cut out of Waldo. We all totally laughed—and even my crank-a-puss child giggled. And suddenly I had an idea. “Hey Wolfie, we’re going to play a game.” “A game?” There was a flicker of interest in his eyes. “Yep. OK, so here’s what you have to do. You have to find these FIVE things for me:  1) Something with red in it,  2) Something with an animal in it,  3) Something with a tree in it, 4) The thing that looks the biggest and 5) The thing that looks the smallest, ok??” He seemed mildly amused, but not exactly thrilled with this thought. I should also clarify that I was TOTALLY making this up as I went along and had no clue if this was a cool game or the easiest game in the world and would be over in 5 sad seconds. Luck was on my side because the first room we walked into was filled with paintings….but only one had a red in it. “Hey! mama! I found a something red! Look!” he was triumphant. “Awesome!” The next room yielded nothing, which added to the mystery. Suddenly he was on a mission. While finding a painting with red in it was easy, finding something with an animal was surprisingly hard. We both triumphed when we finally spotted a teensy little horse figurine sitting on a dresser in a collection of Black and White photographs from the 40s. The cool thing about this was that he really LOOKED at everything. And it made me really look too. We chatted about the pieces (“Do you think that this is a really big comb or do you think that it’s just a really small bed?”), we pointed out our favorites and discussed why some painters made everything so dark (“it’s very angry, like a storm.”). And it was SO awesome.



He was totally intrigued by the Andy Warhol and we talked about self-portraits and having blue hair. Of course, the Jeff Koons porcelain Michael Jackson w/ Bubbles got a good look. (I posted the picture on Monday.) Our last sighting was this totally cool Barry McGee piece, which Wolfie proudly informed me was “Both the biggest AND the littlest!”

He was pretty adorable, marching through the rooms looking thoughtfully at everything. Allow me to brag and say he charmed every single guard in the place. Eventually we had to leave and he happily skipped down the stairs. “This was awesome mama.”


So I guess the whole point of this story is….don’t be afraid. And don’t give up. Life’s not always perfect, but a little bit of creativity (and mommy Jedi mind tricks) can go a long way. Dare I say it? I think I must. You can have your cake….and eat it too.