The Summer of Discovering and Becoming Frida Kahlo

This is a sponsored post brought to you by Toyota. ¡Gracias! bitly.com/gplegal

This is the first year that I’ve actually had to figure out how to make sure our full summer is mapped out ahead of time because Camila is on her first official summer break. If I could have had it my way, we’d be in Playa del Carmen right now and I’d be working from there while Camila attends a local camp in Spanish. We weren’t able to pull it off this year, but we are heading out to Mexico City and Valle de Bravo for one week in July to visit familia. Can’t wait!

Meanwhile, I’ve managed to make sure Camila is enrolled in fun and somewhat educational camps to fill in the week, and we’re taking advantage of having the Toyota Prius since we’re much more inspired to add miles to the odometer visiting and discovering our surroundings in SoCal knowing that we’re not leaving a huge impact on nature or our gas budget.

For the last three weeks Camila has been attending the fabulous Caja de Arte camp, run by the Vox Box Arts Collective. I’m loving that it’s in Spanish and so culturally-relevant and she loves that every day she gets to nurture what she loves to do the most: art and performance.

Every week has a specific theme, and last week it was Frida and Diego. They read the book Frida by Jonah Winters (which has been a favorite in our house for years now) to learn about the life of Mexico’s most beloved artist, and also explored her paintings; all in preparation to practice a play called “La Vida de Frida,” — to celebrate her birthday on July 6th — that they will get to perform this Saturday along with Vox Box Collective artists.

She’s been so ridiculously excited about this that she now talks about Frida nonstop and keeps asking questions about her. She even wants us to take her to Frida’s Casa Azul in Mexico City when we visit next month. Me? I’m over the moon.

So my husband and I decided that the trip we’d take on the Toyota Prius V this weekend would be to visit the MOLAA (Museum of Latina American Art) in Long Beach to expose Camila to some more Latino art. But what we found was that the museum store is a treasure cove of kids books in Spanish and/or by Latino authors, and also of clothing, objects, recipe books, games, jewelry, etc from Latin America. Of course, Frida was all over the place and my girl was all over it.

Cool tattoos of Kahlo’s paintings and stickers of her art. We got one of each and also found that they are available on Amazon for less than $2.00 each!

A Frida puzzle couldn’t be ordinary. This 3-sided box carries a 2-sided puzzle with two of Frida Kahlo’s most renowned self-portraits.  

I wouldn’t mind a Frida Kahlo  leather wallet to hold my ambitions in.

This very original statement jewelry is designed by Beijou Brasil. Find it at the MOLAA store. Hard to resist.

The Frida Fiestas book intimidates me, but I crave it every single time I see it. One day…one day…

After so much Frida Kahlo inspiration and practice, she’s ready to take on the stage as one of the little Fridas.

If you want to see me shed tears (¡de felicidad y orgullo!), then please come check out the kids perform “La Vida es Frida” play created for kids and en español.