This is a serious post about kid's shoes, ok? Ok.
Soooooo. What's in a shoe? I have 3 main criteria for my kids' shoes.
1) fun color and style
2) durable
3) affordable
And Vincent shoes for kids had all that and MORE if you ask me.
Sadly my favorite kid's shoe of all time(Vincent, obvi) has left the U.S. and is only selling in European countries...probably due to our new lead laws that make selling in this country too expensive. Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of the timing of this law, with our poor struggling economy.
Anyway, I am so bummed. These shoes are so colorful and go with all of our clothes. With their rubber-enforced toe and hard leather body, these shoes are built ford-tough.
SO easy to clean. Just wipe off that hard leather exterior. They are practically water proof.
And whenever my boys grew out of them, I just bought the next size up, and it was always a perfect fit.
Even though they retailed for around $50, I was always able to find them between $25 and $35.
And one more perk? The velcro. We are usually running late for school, so velcro makes it super speedy to get on each morning.
Now, I am at a loss. I don't know what shoes to buy them. I bought Finn some Keen shoes at zappos and they were too big and uncomfortable, so I had to go through the process of returning them.
I saw some cute Pediped shoes online and then read the review: after one wear, the leather was scraping off.
NO thanks.
And there were the super cute Kickers Jump shoes...$75. GASP! Who on earth would pay such a steep fee???
Finally I bought Finn a pair of navy blue adidas online and they work ok. I actually do like them.
Nice and sporty but not as durable as the Vincent shoes. They were getting thrashed outside when he played, so John sent me to Target to get the boys some play shoes.
While at Target, I instantly gravitated toward some plain grey velcro shoes...while Finn and Calvin went wild over some tacky cheap looking light-up clone wars shoes. $16.99.
"Nuh-nuh-noooo boys", I said nervously. "Those are ugly, come try on these cute shoes over here..."
{don't judge}
Calvin dutifully complied and I somehow managed to sway his opinion to the cuter shoes. Then all of a sudden some bells started going off in my head. "Davi, WHAT ONE EARTH ARE YOU THINKING??? These are PLAY SHOES. WHO CARES what they look like???"
{I am sure most of you have already come to this conclusion eons ago, so bear with me}
"Boys", I said..."Would you rather have the clone wars shoes?", I asked, giddy with excitement.
"YESSSSS!!!", they shouted with glee.
We picked out a pair for Calvin but could not seem to find Finn's size, so we went to Famous Footwear(because I had a gift card) in search of some fun shoes for him too.
And lo and behold. There they were folks.
In all their shining glory.
Light up, clone wars shoes.
Brand: Stride Rite.
My heart soared with happiness that they would at least have a good quality shoe on their feet. And they were on sale too. Still a bit pricy for play shoes but I had the gift card.
Yellow Commander Cody for Calvin(from $50 to $35) and blue Captain Rex for Finn (from $55 to $35).
We thought we'd return Calvin's Target shoes, because these had yellow accents. YELLOW, ya hear????
"Ok boys", I lectured, "These shoes are ONLY for playing outside, you hear? They are not for school or church", I droned on, pointlessly.
Back in the car, we cheered "hip hip hooray" for new light up shoes.
And then I had the dawning of yet ANOTHER realization{Boy, I'm a slow learner}.
"Boys," I said with excitement. "Would you like to wear your new shoes to SCHOOL tomorrow????"
And we all erupted into cheers and hoots and hollers. YES YES YES!!
I don't know why it took me so long to just 'let my boys be boys' and wear light up shoes to school.
We decided to give Calvin's light up clone war shoes to Ollie, instead of returning them to Target.
Ollie looked at them curiously and then put them on.
Stomp...stomp...light up...*bling bling* . He was absolutely mesmerized and starting stomping around and prancing for an hour that night, with the most glee I have ever seen over a pair of shoes.
Little Twain's face fell as he asked, "Everyone has new star wars shoes...but me?" He buried his face in my shoulder in devastation.
So guess what?
Yep, that's right.
I went BACK to Target and got Twain a pair too(I could not justify spending more on the fancy Stride Rite ones at Famous Footwear for such tiny feet that grow so fast).
I think it's safe to say that he loves them.
So here we all are folks, decked out in our new light up shoes.
Twain has such attitude with his fist pump, LOL.
Well, he looks tough until he starts snuggling with kitty.
Jumping for joy over our new light up shoes!
They look so happy.
Twain got a {wee}little bit of air here and I think it's cute.
One for all and all for one.
One for all and all for one.
Random photo. Ollie found some sticks and looks like a deer.
If you have never had the chance to purchase your kids some light up shoes, I'd highly recommend it. They are all the rage.
Ollie could NOT WAIT to wear them to preschool and Cubbies to show everyone.
And Ollie then threw a wild fit when we said he could not wear them to church this morning. That was a problem. But I figure for one morning a week, it would not kill him to wear regular shoes.
p.s. Yes, that is the first time I've said totes{and obvi} on my blog. I realize it's like *super annoy* to most folks. Muhahaha, but you can't publicly complain with my comments disabled. I feel drunk with power.
