thrift shop

I spent yesterday with my friend evilducky, on our twice-yearly thrift shopping trip. We hit every Goodwill in town, plus two other charity shops. I haven't added up everything, but I think I was pretty close to my planned budget of $75 for the day. Once I laid out all the stuff I got, it started to feel like a lot of things for that price. I got myself some work pants (for a dollar!) and summer camp / hiking shorts, plus quite a few new or like-new long-sleeved shirts:

I also got some short-sleeved shirts:

I got Nico a bunch of shirts - a pair of polos for school, two maybe brand new Children's Place dress shirts, some T-shirts:

I found a dress for an April wedding that is surprisingly flattering and comfortable:

I got little bags for the vet kits the boys are getting for Christmas, and a backpack for Nico who really wants one specifically for hiking. Even though we need another backpack in this house like a hole in the head, I think he'll be excited. I think the backpack is new.

Elliott really wanted a fireman hat from the children's museum gift shop the other day and I said no, but I'll say yes for a dollar. This may be horrifying to fans of Minecraft if that pig is some kind of official Minecraft thing, but the plan for that is to end up in the dog's stocking.

It's hard to tell, but that cooler is half the size of the typical personal Igloo lunch cooler. It's adorable and I feel like it might be perfect for Nico's summer camp lunches. I bought a long cooking fork thingie and some heavy duty tongs for campfire business. The book has really cool illustrations and info about interesting / unusual animals. The bird was 50 cents and is from the same line of cheeping birds for which I just paid 12 bucks a pop for the boys' stockings. The Smithwick's glass is for MB's brother.

I possibly wasted money on this, but it's a neat-looking train set that was $7.50. I had the idea that I could set it up to run in a loop around the bottom of the Christmas tree. We'll see. Right now I feel like the chance of achieving this thing that the kids would flip for was worth $7.50. I might change my tune if it turns out to not be in working order.

It was a really great day. I typically don't personally go in for retail therapy, but bargain hunting is definitely my jam. And it's always more fun to thrift shop with someone else.

Christmas activity report:

We hosted our annual kid-friend cookie painting party.

We visited the best Santa of all at the library, where Nico was chosen to be Rudolph and Elliott did adorably request a "noisy bird."

And we attended the annual holiday evening event at the children's museum, which was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure how it would go, taking two end-of-the-week-tired children out to play until 8:00 PM, but it was wonderful.

Happy Solstice! Three more days until Christmas Eve!