Collections

I have had some interesting collections over time.  Barbie was probably my most exciting collection.  I had about 30 dolls I actually played with and about 20 that were collector's items.  I still have them, but they are sadly in the top of a closet at mom's house.  One day they will be out for Lilly to admire and play with!

I've also collected bags.  Not purses really, but shopping bags.  Plastic not the new reusable kind, but not like an everyday Walmart bag either.  Mine were from neat gift shops from NYC to Paris.  I had about 200 folded up in a closet.  Bags within bags before I finally decided to get rid of them.  

Now we have some new collections around our house.  I've been keeping some of the foreign currency we get on our trips abroad.  That's kind of fun except I kept a few too many Francs that are now useless.  Unless a collector wants to pay top dollar for them. ;)  The ones I kept from Africa are barely worth a penny by the time you do the exchange.

One of our newest collections is some really fun kid's music from South Africa.  We noticed the CD in a gift shop at the Johannesburg airport one year.  Wes bought the first CD called Beautiful Creatures when he went to Malawi while I was pregnant with Taylor.  We didn't really listen to it much until Taylor was about 2.  When he went with us to Africa that year we bought CD 2, More Beautiful Creatures.  We wore those things out until the next year when Wes got him CD 3, Even More Beautiful Creatures.  This year we got CD 4, Beautiful Creatures of the Sea.  

They are really fun songs about African animals.  Some of which we had never heard of or seen.  CD 2 has a song about a Hadeda bird.  Wes just happened to see some of those in South Africa this year.  It's a fun song too.  The songs incorporate a little bit of african languages as well as environmental issues, but they are mostly educational.  Like for instance did you know that Ostrichs don't really stick their head in the sand?  It just looks like they do because they are picking up little stones to eat and that helps with their digestion.  :) 

I don't know of any place you can buy these in the US, but I saw that you can order them online now.  We always just got them at the best airport store in the world...Out of Africa.  They have the neatest stuff there from all over Africa.  

Here's a promo I found on youtube.  It's mostly for one of the CD's we don't have yet.  This year Wes said the Beautiful Creatures of the Sea was the only one he could find.  They must have been sold out. :)

And if anyone wants to tell me what they collect I'd love to hear it.