Sunday was nothing short of amazing! Starting the day off with fried catfish & grits at CJ’s Cafe La Brea, really can’t hurt! If you haven’t been to either CJ’s cafe’s then you need to get yourself together! Haha!
So after breakfast my mom, Jax and I caught up with my friend Joelle and her family that includes Jax’s BFF, Joden. We met at the 15th Annual Kids Rock Music & Eco Festival at the park between the LACMA & The LA Brea Tarpits. First of all, I had never heard of this event before and I’ve been living in Los Angeles longer than 15 years! But I guess its true when they say that parenthood opens up a whole new world for you, it’s like a secret society of meetings, groups, events and places! LOL! Needless to say it’s a secret society I am proud to be apart of because you find out about little gems like, The Kids Rock Music & Eco Festival!! This event was really great! It’s by the Children’s Nature Institute & The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and they have a bunch of sponsors & vendors present such as Happy Baby, Lakeshore Learning & Cuties Juices. They also had a few fun food trucks there such as my favorite Kogi BBQ & Los Angeles Shaved Ice. We got a cherry/pineapple & coconut treat…super delish!! Jax went crazy over it!!
One of our favorites was the music booth with all the instruments from different countries. All the instruments were built with sustainable & organic products. Next door to that was the ukulele booth. Well, you know Mr. Guitar who loves Stitch couldn’t pass that one up! Unfortunately he didn’t understand why this ukulele wasn’t electric and didn’t make sounds like an electric guitar! Sometimes life is too hard on a two-year old! Jax & Joden both had fun with the reptiles. Which is ironic since both of their mother’s cannot stand the thought of a snake or a lizard! But both toddlers were game to pet and play with the lizards & snakes! Well I say bully for them! Mama was on the other side of the booth! What I loved was that there was a lot of sensory things for the kids to play with and learn from. They had a lot of tables set up for arts & crafts done with recyclable, sustainable materials for the kids to make things with. One table had a cut up fruit & other materials for stamps to paint with. Another table had all kinds of paper items to glue & rig together to make a flying item to put into the hand-made vortex machine. It taught the kids what was too light and too heavy to fly. Jax was excited to see one child’s creation zip straight out of the top of the funnel and on the table next to it. They also had some kid friendly artists & bands playing music for the kids to dance to.
I also discovered Cuties Juices there! You know Cuties, the tangerines? Well, now they have a juice. And let me tell ya, it’s super good!! I had the Tangerine Juice & the Rockin’ Red which is a tangerine & strawberry smoothie!! Now I will say that like with most natural juices the sugar is high because it’s just straight fruit. So don’t freak out! Just add a little water to the juice like I do with Jax. They still love and its waaaay better for them than a Caprisun or Juicy Juice.
So after a little dancing and chasing babies in the sun, the three of us headed back toward GG to get a quick bite and see Madagascar 3! Now the first time I saw a movie from the Madagascar trilogy, I was in college babysitting Holly Robinson Peete’s kids when she had only 3!! Now she got 4 and they are all in school!! LOL! Now I’m damn near thirty with a toddler who is talking about, “i likea move it move it! ” My how the times have changed! So we go to this little pizzeria in Sherman Oaks called The Leaning Tower of Pizza. Listen to me when I say that this pizza is DEEE-LISH-US! Do you understand me?! You need to bring this pizza into your life right now!! Soooo GREAT! Okay so after we stuffed ourselves we headed over to the movie. I swear this Madagascar series doesn’t disappoint! Simply enjoyable! You had four generations in my group who laughed and enjoyed every moment! So bravo to them!
To answer your question about what I felt like at the end of the day with a toddler, an ostomy bag and a belly full of good food, I felt like I had worked a full 14 hour day on set!! But even more tired than that I think! LOL! But it was all worth it! It was an amazing family day! When I was buckling Jax in, I remembered something my mom said to me years ago about raising kids. She said, “Brooke, it’s hard work. But having kids is a lot of fun! You’ll see!” as I looked at him and his little red smiling face, I realized that it was fun. Every moment you get to spend with your kids is the most fun! I don’t know how anyone could not be there with their children whenever they can.