Archive for September, 2008

I know, I know, it’s a little too early to be thinking about Halloween. But the local thrift shops don’t think so. Last week, all the chains put out their costume racks; and if you’re hoping to score something adorable for your kids, now is the time to shop because it gets more picked-over every day.

The best thing about buying Halloween costumes from thrift stores is that you tend to get something unique. No one will be able to say “Oh yeah, I saw that chicken costume at Target.” Even if the costume you buy is factory-made, it’s at least a year or two old, and who remembers what they saw at Target four years ago? You may even be able to get something homemade, maybe even vintage: picture the mom who spent weeks sewing on rick-rack and tulle in the ’80s!

The best San Francisco thrift stores to find costumes: The Goodwill Flagship Store, 1580 Mission Street (at South Van Ness Avenue), 415-575-2240; Goodwill’s Haight Store, 1700 Haight Street (at Cole Street), 415-738-5606; and Thrift Town, 2101 Mission Street (at 17th Steet), 415-861-1132.

If these fine establishments don’t supply the costume you were looking for, you could also always try the Spirit Store, open for a few months each Halloween season. There’s one at 901 Market Street (at Fifth Street), 415-371-1804. Maybe you’ll be looking for that baby whoopee cushion costume above? Happy hunting!

A healthy crop of indie boutiques have sprung up in the Bay Area to cater to our local obsession with the non-corporate and unique. They’re fun to shop in — if you happen to have a girlchild. But the pickings for baby boys are generally quite slim; a table and a rack at the back vs. rack after rack of cool girl’s clothing.

Local fashion hero Gama-Go evens the score a bit with its Gama-Goo line for infants. Gama-Goo’s onesies and T-shirts feature Asian-ish, graffiti-ish graphics that don’t make small boys look like a ruffly li’l nancy boys. Neither does the clothing contain the hyper-masculine logos pushed by chain clothing stores, where the thinking apparently goes that if it doesn’t have a dinosaur, a truck, or tools on it, your little man might as well be wearing eyeliner and a dress.

Gama-Goos are stitched up right here in San Francisco, printed in Sacto, and beloved by local parents who want something a little different. Check out the intense expression on the Tigerlily Rock T-shirt mascot. That tiger-boy is not messing around! He is about to rock. And we salute him!

Available at gama-go.com.

I wish I’d had a movie pregnancy. You know: Conception happens on the first try; morning sickness is milked for laughs; the biggest trauma parents have to face is a poo-filled diaper. But for the real life people I know, pregnancy is infinitely more complex, fraught, and ugly. Playwright Tonya Foster hopes to capture the real-life gray areas in her play Knocked Up, running now through October 18 at the Studio 300 Theatre. Each of Knocked Up’s three acts concerns a different pregnancy: an older woman with a “change of life” baby sired by her 18-year-old neighbor, a husband and wife who suffer a miscarriage, and an unmarried waitress who discovers she’s pregnant after having a one-night stand.

It all sounds messy and meaty, and it’s written by a woman with an axe to grind. As she told the San Francisco Chronicle in an article that ran Thursday, Foster wrote her play after she and her husband had a prolonged bout with infertility, followed by a devastating miscarriage. “I was just very frustrated with the whole process and how it seemed like there were people who had no problem getting pregnant, and it was just something that happened for them,” she told the Chronicle. “And for me, it seemed hard and I really wanted it.”

Yeah.

Knocked Up runs each Thu.-Sat. through 10/18 at the Studio 300 Theatre, 442 Post St., 5th Floor (at Powell Street) San Francisco. Tickets are $23-25; call 888-410-8355 or visit imaginativeproductions.com.

California Academy of Sciences Grand Opening Party

After years of wait and speculation on the retrofitting/renovation of the famed museum in Golden Gate Park, the Academy throws open its doors this weekend for a big party. Live music, food, family activities and tours of the new facility happen all weekend, with free admission into the museum Saturday. Huge crowds are expected to be checking out the new digs of the Morrison Planetarium, Steinhart Aquarium, and Kimball Natural History Museum, which are rumored to be palatial and a far cry from the cramped space on Howard Street the museum just moved from. The event begins with a Native American blessing, followed by a butterfly release to symbolize the Academy’s new life. Then performances of dance and music companies begin in the bandshell (performances are free both days), and family activities crank up. Of possible intense interest to your preschool-age kids: The Sippy Cups play at 10:30am Saturday.

When: Sat.-Sun., 9/27-28; 9:30am-9pm Sat., 9:30am-5pm Sun., Age 2+; Free-$25.

Where: California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive (at JFK Drive) in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 415-379-8000, calacademy.org.

How Berkeley Can You Be? Parade and Festival

The wacky city commemorates its weirdness with this annual parade, replete with art cars, crazy floats, and costumed revelers. One word of warning: You may see boobs. A family festival follows the march, with live music, magicians, jugglers, children’s activities, and food stands. The art cars park on Center Street, so it’s fun to march up and down the rows, checking them all out closely.

When: Sun., 9/28, Parade starts at 11am, Festival runs 12-5pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Parade begins at California and University Avenues and ends at Center Street at Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (at Center Street), 510-644-2204 #15; howberkeley.com.

The Great Train Expo

Tiny trains by the thousands crowd into this celebration of all things on tracks. Try your hand at operating model trains, get some instruction on building railroads, or spend your spare cash on wares from hundreds of vendors.

When: Sat.-Sun., 9/27-28, 10am-4pm; Age 3+; $7 (Free for kids under 12), admission good for both days.

Where: Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road (at Seventh Street), San Jose, trainexpoinc.com.

How I hate when my daughter says “Mama, tell me a story.” I am a terrible storyteller. I find it exhausting, and even a little depressing that I can’t dream up fantastical scenarios on a moment’s notice. But since I can’t do it, I’ve turned to resources like Storynory and this guy, Michael Katz. His NPR radio show, Katz Pajamas, does not broadcast in the Bay Area, so many local parents reading this won’t know him from a hole in the ground. But you can listen to him live each Saturday morning from 7:30-8am on kcbx.org, and if you listen you’ll hear mesmerizing tales told by storytellers from all around the world.

Katz is bringing his storytelling schtick to San Francisco tonight, with an event at the Parkside Branch Library. Wear something comfy, sit with your eyes closed, and let the tale wash over you like a wave. Now that’ll get the kids settled for bed a lot better than a few episodes of Spongebob.

When: Wed., 9/24, 7-7:45pm; Age 3+; Free.

Where: Parkside Branch, 1200 Taraval Street (at 22nd Avenue), San Francisco; 415-355-5770; sfpl.org.

The Oakland Tribune has an uplifting story today about Lisa Klein, a mom whose nonprofit has collected and turned out 10,000 pounds of baby clothes for needy moms in the Bay Area in the last three years. Every week, Klein drives a pickup route to various East Bay and Marin County children’s boutiques, which donate toys and trinkets that don’t sell. She also has a drop-off spot at a children’s salon. Once the clothes are collected, Klein washes and sorts them before packing them into a box for needy moms and dads. She tries to put everything a parent would need for the first year in each package: a layette, onesies, hats, blankets, pajamas, socks, maybe even a few books or toys. Then she brings the boxes to hospitals and health clinics with underserved populations.

Here’s the part that blew my mind: Klein has a preschooler and a toddler, whom she brings with her on her pickup and drop-off run. It’s all I can do to get my one child through Trader Joe’s every few weeks, and that’s with a balloon attached to the handle of the shopping cart, and an unlimited supply of pretzels. How does Klein do it?

If you have energy to help or infant clothing to donate, visit lovedtwice.org.

With a window lined with fashionable women’s and men’s accessories, Doe doesn’t look like a kid-friendly spot. In fact, a peek into the shop, with its shining floors and merchandise neatly arrayed at a toddlers’ grabby-hand level, it looks entirely like a place you should avoid when you have a stroller or a kid with you. But the small Lower Haight boutique is, in fact, owned by a local mama and staffed by friendly folks who will welcome you in with your young ones to check out the bounteous selection of luscious kids clothes and housewares with cutesy youth appeal.

Much of the clothing and gear is fashioned by cool local design firms, like Loyal Army, Glug, and Petit Collage. Here you will drool over plush toys from Fuzzy Town, brightly painted wooden gewgaws from Haba and Plan, Cram Cream mushroom soap dispensers (pictured), Decole dishware and sewing kits, a pepper grinder that resembles a Russian nesting doll. Just try to get out of here without spending at least fifty bucks. It’s worth it though, because whatever you buy here will make you smile every time you look at it.

Doe, 629A Haight Street (at Steiner Street), San Francisco, 415-558-8588, doe-sf.com.

It’s really difficult to find vintage children’s clothing in thrift stores and new-to-you boutiques. The kids who wore the garments back in 1965 or 1952 probably did a good job destroying them in the first place, not to mention the indignities that happen to clothes over a half century.

Thankfully, vintage-loving designers like Heather Williams of San Francisco’s Lali Clothing are creating new garments with retro style and appeal, like her signature X-Back Dress ($46 at local boutiques). Handmade in her Mission District apartment, most of Lali Clothing’s dresses and button-up shirts are made from nostalgic fabric that’ll remind you of things past: Hey, I wore a shirt with stripes like that in my seventh grade class picture! I think my mom had curtains made out of the same fabric as this dress!

Lali also makes the kind of cleverly screen printed onesies and hoodies you see on the hipper young ones at the playground. Everything she makes is soft, and cute, and will have strangers on the street asking you, hey, where’d you get that?

Tell them you got it at Lavish, 540 Hayes Street (at Laguna Street), San Francisco, 415-565-0540. Lali sells to other local stores; see laliclothing.com.

Up, up, and away for the last weekend of the summer.

Family Day Kite Festival

Colorful kites soar into the sky at this “carnival of the skies.” Kids can watch kite fights, learn how to make their own kites, watch live performances from master kite-flyers and scoop up candy from multiple aerial candy drops.

When: Sat.-Sun., 9/20-21, 11am-6pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Marina Green, Marina Boulevard (between Scott and Webster Streets), San Francisco, 415-383-0500, fdkf.org.

Rancho Day Fiesta

Hearken back to the 1800s at this annual party in a magnificently preserved authentic adobe home. Participants can spin wool, make tortillas, dip candles, churn butter and make adobe bricks.

When: Sat., 9/20, 12-4pm; Age 2+; Free-$4.

Where: Sanchez Adobe, 1000 Linda Mar Boulevard (at Adobe Drive), Pacifica; 650-299-0104; historysmc.org.

Fall Festival at Rosicrucian Park

The mystical museum celebrates a noteworthy month on the ancient Egyptian calendar with two days of events aimed at families, including tomb tours, a look at animal mummies, and a kids’ archaeological dig.

When: Sat.-Sun., 9/20-21; 11am-6pm; Age 3+; Free-$9.

Where: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, 1342 Naglee Avenue (at the Alameda), San Jose; 408-947-3665; egyptianmuseum.org.

Snow White at the New Conservatory Theatre Center

The classic fairytale gets an unusual spin in this teen theater presentation that sets the story in the Colorado silver mines in 1875, transforming the story into an old-fashioned comic melodrama.

When: Saturdays and Sundays through 10/19; 2pm and 4pm Saturdays, 2pm Sundays; Age 4+; $15.

Where: New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Avenue (at Market Street), San Francisco, 415-861-8972; nctc.org.

At first glance, Berkeley’s Adventure Playground looks like a parent’s nightmare. Wild-eyed kids roam around with hammers and saws, stepping over nails on the ground, pounding away at an amorphous wooden structure or flying delightedly through the air on a zipline. But someone could get hurt! Or killed! Or at least very dirty.

Yes, Adventure Playground is not the place to bring your starched, small, spiffy, or very timid children. The play centers around the never-ending free-form building of a large wooden structure. Children are encouraged to pick up a hammer and nail something on, cut boards to size, sand, paint, and carve their initials. Once they tire of building, they can climb into a barrel and roll down a hill, play on the tire climb, or try their luck on the zipline. It’s all dangerous, filthy, and very, very fun, not to mention educational.

The park is intended for children age 7 and up, but younger ones are allowed, if parents stay close at hand. Children 7 and over can even be dropped off at the park for up to three hours and supervised by the Adventure Park staff for a mere $7. That’s not a lot to pay to do an unaccompanied grocery trip, or even go out to lunch for grown-up talk. Admission for children accompanied by parents is free.

Adventure Playground is located at the Berkeley Marina, 160 University Avenue (at Frontage Road) in Berkeley. It is open 11am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Call 510-981-6720 or visit www.ci.berkeley.ca.us.