Savings galore!!

Phew! We made it through another Kids Exchange consignment sale. This particular sale was tough because I am the pregnant and get tired more easily, so we got Auntie Hannah to babysit and I forced Dan to go with me so I'd have his big strong muscles! Normally Dan stays at home with the kids and I do my 8 hours of shopping on my own and don't have to hear him say, "Do we really need that?" and the like. This time I did have to listen to Dan's conservative commentary, but I think I perfected my this is adorable and yes we need it glare and we made it through the shopping still married. This sale was also tough because Dan's volunteer security shifts were on Saturday and Sunday for 5 hours right in the middle of the day.....the 2 days right before he left for Denmark for 5 days. Not exactly how I would have liked to spend the weekend, but the deep deep discounts made up for it.

I always cringe when we check out at the consignment sale. It's a big chunk of money that we're spending on kids items all at one time. Normally people buy things a little at a time and so the cost gets spread out over a longer period of time.....less painful. BUT the consignment sale is where I spend our money, and that's about it. I buy all the kids clothes for 6 months at a time, almost all of their shoes, necessary items like car seats, and of course toys; twice a year and in between I barely buy anything else. If they outgrow shoes I'll buy them a pair at the store, or maybe an extra special dress if I didn't already get them one at the consignment sale....like a Christmas or Easter dress and I have yet to actually plan ahead enough to buy Charlotte's b-day presents for May so I usually have to buy those separately. But my point is that our twice yearly consignment sale provides us with pretty much everything kid related. At this sale we got a LOT of stuff. It's the first time that we've had to buy for 3 kids, even though we don't yet actually have 3 kids! lol But there were a few items that we wanted to get that were gender neutral or boyish just in case....like baby blankets that weren't pink or say "thank heavens for little girls" and some boyish socks and booties. I didn't have much clothing to buy for Charlotte because she is able to fit into the 3T clothes that we had for Maddie that thankfully were the correct season.....that's the biggest problem we've had with our girls, their sizes and seasons not matching up so a lot of clothes can't be reused with Charlotte. But this time we lucked out. Maddie of course needed everything and this was the hardest time I've had finding clothes for her. I'm picky when it comes to clothes, I don't like my kids to look too grown up and Maddie is currently wearing a 6-6X which I've found to be kind of the size where the clothes change from being cute and girly to more grown up and in my opinion a little hoochie-ish. I guess a Hannah Montana rocker outfit or an off the shoulder crop top could be appropriate for a 6 year old but I don't really find that same outfit appropriate for my not even 4 year old who just happens to be a giant and wears size 6. So it took me a long time to weed through the clothes and find things I deemed acceptable. I also got Maddie a couple birthday gifts for her upcoming 4th birthday in September......she has been begging for a scooter for nearly a year so we got her a Radio Flyer scooter just like this one:

and a bag full of Littlest Pet Shop animals and accessories and a Littlest Pet Shop house/shop. I have no idea if she will even like the Littlest Pet Shop stuff, but she likes animals and she likes little things and she is really hard to shop for. Charlotte likes EVERYTHING, Maddie not so much. So hopefully she'll like her b-day presents. We've also talked about taking her to build a bear and letting her build something but we'll see.

Anyway......I'm not going to tell you how much we spent at the consignment sale this time....at least not in this post. I'll list everything and you can see some pictures below and make guesses and I'll post the total in a future blog. There was no way that I could, or wanted to take pictures of everything that we bought.....that would be ridiculous, but I've photographed some of my favorites for you to see and I'll list everything. And keep in mind when considering cost that everything is pretty much name brand. I bought like 2 pieces of clothing that were Circo and maybe 1 item that was a Walmart brand but I pretty much stay away from those types of brands because they are made more cheaply and aren't priced much less than better brands at the consignment sale. Brand names that we bought include: Gymboree, Old Navy, Gap, Hanna Andersson, Lands End, Osh Kosh, J. Khaki, Childrens Place, Lei, Arizona and Sonoma. Here we go.

STUFF FOR BABY

Medela pump in style advanced double breast pump in a backpack

8 Medela bottles
Graco car seat base (to go with our infant car seat)
6 neutral baby bath towels

Fisher Price electric baby swing
(we have a cradle swing but it take batteries and we go through a ridiculous # of batteries)

30 pairs neutral baby socks (somehow our baby socks disappeared)
1 Small prefold (diaper)
2 infant snapis (diaper fastener)

1 pair Robeez shoes
1 pair Robeez booties

2 neutral knitted hats (the raccoon one has matching socks)

5 misc. neutral/boyish booties and soft infant shoes

4 neutral/boyish baby blankets
(2 not shown are thinner cotton)

Infant bath seat
although I REALLY want to get one of these: Washpod
Baby doll in seat was for Charlotte

RANDOM ITEMS & TOYS

Suitcase for Charlotte

2 bags of dress up clothes
5 pairs of dress up shoes
1 bag of dress up jewelery, necklaces, bracelets, rings
8 headbands
Plastic tea party set (they had nice ceramic ones but they've been broken)
Littleest Pet Shop house and 75ish pet pieces
Radio Flyer scooter

Graco 40-80 pound car seat
(I know Maddie could go to a booster but I think 5 point harnesses are a lot safer!!)

CHARLOTTE CLOTHING

3 pairs tennis/play shoes 1 dress shoes

1 Dora nightgown
17 dresses

Possible Christmas dress.....it looks fancier in real life

It was easier to just try them on her since she like to dress up!

Checking out each others dresses :o)

Maddie on the other hand is a lot less cooperative with trying things on. She would only let me put this one dress on her!

12 pairs Charlotte tights. 11 pairs Maddie tights.
Okay so you might think I went a little overboard with the tights......
My excuse is that my kids are HARD on tights.
Most pairs that they currently own have brown stained knees from playing.
I'm just trying to hedge my bets!

45 pairs socks (mixed Maddie and Charlotte)

MADDIE CLOTHING

3 pairs tennis shoes, 1 pair dress shoes, 1 pair mary jane crocs

21 pairs of pants
1 skirt
22 shirts
3 sweaters
1 sweat shirt
11 dresses
10 pairs of pajamas

Possible Christmas dress

The rest of the clothes not pictured!

Can you guess what the girls' favorite item from the consignment sale was????

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The baby swing!
They play with it EVERY day!!