Crazy for Crazy 8!

Do you have any kids between the ages of 0-14? Have you ever shopped for them at Crazy 8? If not, well, in my humble opinion, you are missing out.

Here at Watch Me Grow we get tons of adorable clothes in and we definitely have our favorite brands that seem to hold up better than others: Janie and Jack, The Children's Place, OshKosh, Gymboree, and Carters to name a few. One brand that we just absolutely LOVE, though, is Crazy 8. They are a fairly new company. Their clothing is absolutely adorable and super well-made. 

Truth be told, though, I don't get out much. Most of my shopping is done right here at Watch Me Grow (I know, go figure.) When I do shop for kids clothing it is usually down in St. George and the only time I have shopped at a Crazy 8 store was on a trip to Salt Lake a few months ago. BUT, guess what??? On a recent trip to St. George I was surprised to find that there is a brand new Crazy 8 store right inside the Red Cliffs Mall!! (Like so brand new that you can't even find it on the Store Locator page of the Crazy 8 website.) Well, I was in St. George on a mission, but I had to at least take a look around. I mean, it would be downright irresponsible of me not to. And I do have one adorable 3-year old little boy who was in desperate need of a new hoodie. Needless to say, I found probably the cutest hoodie imaginable. No really. Imagine a cute hoodie ... ok, got it? The one I found is at least that cute, if not cuter. Crazy 8 is a sister company of Gymboree and so they also have the collections like Gymboree does with the cute themed clothes that all go together. I love the hoodie from their "Mr. Space Alien" collection. So. Cute.

Here's a pic, but it doesn't even do it justice. The alien eyes and ears actually stand up, and the eyes are googly eyes! Did I mention already that it's REALLY cute?? Needless to say I bought one for my little guy. And my nephew. And my other nephew.

Anyway, the entire collection is super cute and they have several other adorable collections, too. My favorite current girls collection is the "Forest Magic" collection. Holy. Cute. This is the Baby Fox outfit from that collection:

Unfortunately, I no longer have any little girls. And my 9 year old, 11 year old, and 17 year old all refuse to wear clothes with foxes on it. Rude. 

Anyway, I just wanted to spread the news that Crazy 8 is now in St. George. So go. Shop. Dress your kids in the adorable clothes. And then when they outgrow them, bring them here to us at Watch Me Grow.

Messy, Messy, Messy!

"MOM! You didn't spray the spaghetti stain on my shirt and now you RUINED it!" 
So says my 11 year old daughter after I spent the entire night washing, drying, laying out the shirts she doesn't want dried, and hanging her laundry. Apparently in all of the making sure her soccer uniform made it to the wash, perusing her room to find dirty clothes that somehow got lost on their way to the dirty clothes basket, and "right-side outing" (pretty much) EVERY skirt, shirt, pair of jeans and socks I missed looking for stains on her (now right-side out) clothes. What can I say? She caught me. I am the world's worst mother.

I try to look for stains on my 3-year old's clothes before they go in the wash (emphasis on TRY.) I try to catch stains on clothes before they go into the dryer. I remind my kids when I SEE them spill something to make sure they stain spray before putting said clothes in the dirty clothes basket (or on the floor of their rooms which is a more popular option.) But somehow, somewhere I missed a spaghetti sauce spot. I'm not really sure how because it's not like I have anything at all else to do, but it happened. 

I know that she is probably devastated because it is one of her favorite shirts (from Old Navy - with a cute panda bear. Watch for it at Watch Me Grow soon since she grows so fast her clothes only fit her for like 2 weeks  - IF I am able to get the stain out, of course.) And it's probably also very hard on her because she bought it with her very own hard earned money. Oh wait. No. No, that was me. Alas, these are the trials of an extremely messy almost 12 year old girl. Especially one with an obviously inadequate mother. 

She has always been particularly hard on her clothes. I had these funny assumptions that by this age she would care a little bit more about her appearance and be able to keep her clothes in a little bit better condition, but as usual I was very, very wrong. Let's just say that very few of her clothes are in consignable condition. Very. Few. If you have never met a 6th grade girl who despite owning more jeans than I do, still manages to put holes in all of her knees, let me know. I will introduce you.

Alas, I digress. Suffice it to say that while going through (tons of great) clothes that came in to be consigned today, it hit me. Call it inspiration. Call it a seriously wandering mind, but I have decided to stick Shout wipes in her backpack. And maybe in the pockets of all of her jeans. And maybe have a decorative bowl of them in the middle of the kitchen table. OK, probably not that, but definitely in her backpack. It's called shifting the burden of responsibility. Welcome to the world of worrying about your own stains, girlie. Hope you enjoy it. 

I'll keep you posted on how well it works out for us, in the meantime, only my 3 year old is allowed to criticize my laundry abilities. And he'd be happy to wear his Cars pajamas every day.