Santa Cruz

Mike and I took the kids to Santa Cruz a couple of weeks ago. Olivia loved it. She played in the water, dug in the sand, chased birds and had an overall great time. She was an absolute joy to have at the beach.


To say Alex isn't a huge fan of large quantities of sand or water would be an understatement. However, he can't get enough baseball so we distracted him from how much he hates beaches and oceans until he forgot himself and started having fun.


The boardwalk was garish and crowded and overpriced, but still fun to see.


Afterwards we went to a yummy restaurant with an amazing view (we sat outside in the perfect weather, but I liked this image).


Liv got an upset tummy and Alex threw pancakes at the seagulls, attracting an aggressive bird mob, yet it still managed to be a satisfying close to a lovely day spent celebrating our 6th anniversary.

Smelly Lunchboxes

Last spring while I was learning how to pack school lunches, Olivia was practicing how to spill food into the lunchbox. Her lunchbox was a soft bag that looked something like this.


After just a week or so of using it, I noticed it was smelly.

I'd been wiping or shaking it out every night, but I hadn't realized how smelly and gunked up the crevice that goes around the interior seams can be. I won't even tell you how gross it can get.

Despite my best efforts to keep the bag clean, there was no way I could keep up with the child that insisted on bringing home a half-eaten yogurt with no lid, loose in her lunch box.

Luckily, Liv was only in school for 5 weeks, and the smelly lunchbox went into the trash soon after.

This year I'm looking for something insulated, easy to clean, and preferably with a shoulder strap. Anyone have any suggestions?