Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Smurfs & Cabbage Patch Kids



Sydney came home a few months ago and asked me if I had ever heard of the "Smurfs." Well one would have to live on Mars to have not heard of them. I personally don't remember playing with them but I know my 23 year old daughter did. So after scouring the second-hand stores and not finding a one, I was off to eBay. Three auctions and about a hundred dollars later Sydney now has a bunch of Smurfs (the things we do for our kids). I have had no luck finding videos so I am still in search of them. If anyone is cleaning out their video collections and happens to come across a Smurf show please email me! I guess I should let you all know this Smurf craze came from Sydney's teacher. Lord I tell you, the man barely looks out of high school, jeez am I getting old or are teachers getting younger? Don't answer that.
So now that the Smurfs are in full swing at school, he has introduced the Cabbage Patch Dolls. Luckily I bought one for Sydney when she was about a year old and lo and behold we still have it, minus her clothes. I have no idea what happened to them so when Sydney asked me to sew up an outfit I was confident that I could search the net and find some free patterns. Well no luck, although I did find some preemie 1 to 2 pound outfits that would work somewhat, and I did sew one up from an old crib sheet. The arms are a little snug and I will definitely make the neck a bit bigger for the next go 'round, but for the most part it works. I won't even show you the diaper but again, it works :)
What I find surprising is what comes back into style after all these years. Like when Dallas was in school in the '90's; bell bottom pants and lava lamps. Anything from the '70's was in style. And really most of the clothes still are. I think the only difference is everyone packs a mp3 player and a cell phone now. Oh how I wish I still had my "star jeans" or those really ugly nylon tops with the wides sleeves. Anyone remember them? Oh, and what about the black & white running shoes, mind you I think they came out in the '50's and never went out of style, it's just that when I was in school it was the poor kids who wore them...now it seems you see some form of them on all classes. I just bought a pair when I was in Nanaimo, they are camouflage colour, flowers on the side, and no laces. But I have to say that is a good thing, today you walk into a school and you see very little differences between the kids. Money doesn't matter anymore, Sydney has friends of all kinds and if it takes styles from the past to do that then that's a good thing.
I should say that I'm not a total sucker when it comes to being Mama...I have all the Smurfs from the auctions and Sydney has to earn them...whether it's by doing chores without being told or just plain pitching in. I don't believe in just handing your child everything and if she can learn a lesson, well, we all win :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kansas,
Just thought you should know that part of the right side of this post got cut off.
I loved the Smurfs when I was a kid! I had a Cabbage Patch Doll too. Her name was Ivy and she was a redhead :) She had a shiny yellow dress and cute little white shoes. I forgot her birthday though :(

Anonymous said...

WOW! This brings back memories! My daughter is almost 26 and she used to play with Smurfs, but before she came along, when I was a teenager, I had some girlfriends that collected them! And, of course my kids had Cabbage Patch babies, too! I wonder what happened to ours...? My youngest was into Furbies - not the "new" ones that are out and big and bulky and ugly. These are the smaller ones and so darned cute! =) We used to LOVE to get it "talking"!

Hope the snow clears up quickly so you can get to your garden.

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