It’s that time of year when I once again purge and clean the girls’ wardrobe closets.

Jamie at 2.5 years of age has suddenly had some sort of a growth spurt.  She’s still very petite, but the 18-24 month and 2T clothes she’s been wearing are suddenly getting tighter and shorter.  On top of that, Jamie has also gotten to be very opinionated about her clothing choices and will not wear something she did not pick out herself.  Even if they don’t really match.  One time she insisted on going to school in her pajamas… and it wasn’t even pajama day!

Jamie follows the lead of her Ate Sam (of course!), who is suddenly so opinionated about what she’ll wear outside her school uniform.  It’s probably an offshoot of teaching them independence at an early age, and generally it’s okay.  Lately though, Sam just wants to wear dresses.  No shorts, no pants, not even skirts… but dresses.  Sam will ask me to take down 3 or 4 choices from her closet and will pick from there.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I like to dress the girls in situation-appropriate clothing.  It’s gotten harder to do that with Sam because of her dress-fettish (Is that normal though?!).  And the thing is, in my effort to invest in situation-appropriate clothing (ie play clothes),  she started out with a limited number of dresses, and just kept asking for more.

I haven’t gone shopping in Manila for children’s clothes (because I hoarded before coming back here), but couldn’t resist the new collections I saw at the Gingersnaps branches.

Gingersnaps has always been a well-loved brand for me even before I had kids.  When I wanted to give out clothes as gifts for kids, I would automatically head over there.  And now that I have girls, I’m quite thrilled when the girls get clothing gifts from their store!  They’re of good quality, they’re designed really nicely, and they last a long time.  Jamie wears a few of the Gingersnaps outfits that Sam has outgrown over the years (of course I kept them!).  What started out as just a local brand here is actually now in 7 countries around Asia!

A few weeks back, I had the privilege of meeting Sabrina and Sherry, the wonderful hardworking sisters-in-law behind this lovely brand.  They had invited some of the #SoMoms to lunch.  Nothing formal; just a nice relaxing, get together.  It was really just like going to a lunch amongst girlfriends.  They were both genuinely interested in all of our stories and what had driven us to start blogging.  They even shared a lot of her own stories as a moms and businesswomen themselves, and freely gave out advice that has worked for them in the past.  As a “new” mompreneur in this country, I totally appreciated this.

When I walked in, they were already all seated, and so I made a grand entrance carrying  Tin’s Two Tots braided crate.  That’s pretty much how Sabrina and Sherry learned that I was part of the Two Tots family.  And I must say that it was flattering to hear them sing praises for what they’ve come to know of our humble brand (Good job Bea, Liza and Andie!  Haha!).  When we got the chance to speak privately Sabrina mentioned we should one day exchange anecdotes about our businesses (Yay!).  I do look forward to that!

But back to the wonderful clothing world of Gingersnaps.  When I take the girls with me, it’s hard to control them in the store.  The window displays are such eye candy that even Sam deviates from our usual path and asks to enter.  She thinks it’s a place to play!

The clothes they love.  How can they not?  It’s soft and comfy.  Sam and Jamie wear pick out their Gingersnaps dresses every single week, and it still looks really good.  They’re really well made, and no matter how much they’re washed, they still go back to their original shape.

Gingersnaps outfits are quite stylish too.  If you watch Project Runway like I do, there are designers and stylists that are great at mixing and matching prints.  Gingersnaps knows how to do that well, and the kids look lovely!  In fact they dress better than me.  The sizing of the clothes will last the girls a good number of years too.  And the dresses (as you can see that’s pretty much all the girls have) versatile enough to become long shirts or blouses when the girls get bigger.

I was a little bit worried coming back home to Manila, about not having my go-to kiddie brands locally available.  I’m not anymore.  In fact I think I’ll pick out a few outfits for some of Sam’s friends back in the States.  There’s nothing like Gingersnaps’ style there and the outfits are great for layering.  Come to think of it, as I’m now sorting through the girls’ clothes, I realize they could use a few more practical outfits from there too. 😉

 

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