Chatting with a seven year old

I've been carpooling home from work with my seven year old nephew for the past few days (he's doing summer camp at the museum). A chatty boy in the back seat is so much fun! I am now well versed on the ins and outs of playing "What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?"--a game I have played for the past few summers with my summer camp kids. And then "Blue Microwave"...this one I've never heard of and sort of don't get. I also can talk Bakugan trash with the best of the kid crowd. Bring on the brawl baby. But best of all, I have a new stash of cheesy kid jokes.

Q: What do cows read in the morning?
A: The Moospaper

Q: What happened when Mickey Mouse got in the bathtub?
A: He came out squeaky clean.

I think everyone should get a daily dose of seven year old chatter!

Where have all the stirrup pants gone?

I was home in Amarillo last weekend for my little sister's high school graduation (gasp!). While I was there, my aunt bestowed upon me lots of old photos she had found as she was going through my grandmother's house. There were the requisite cute, aww--invoking images of my childhood. Hello, pigtails and wispy hair that always escaped my barrette.

And then there were the cringe-inducing, what-were-we-thinking photos. Exhibit A: stirrup pants.


Exhibit B: way too big shirts and glasses the size of Montana.


I remember thinking I was SO CUTE in these outfits. sigh I really don't think I figured out that I was not actually a size extra-large until after a year at college.

Rifling through the photos led to reminiscing what other fashion mysteries I've lived through...

• units
• Coca-Cola shirts
• pegged pants
• jelly shoes
• slap bracelets
• banana clips
• shoulder pads
  
• Keds without the shoelaces
• a pair of pants my mom wore that featured neon paint splatters and fish skeletons
• the denim shirt craze
  

Although I like to think that there has been some improvement over the years, I can't complain too much. Our fashion sense might have been crazy, but without it, we'd have a world devoid of 80s parties. And nobody wants that, right?!