The McMahon Family

Speaking of shopping…Patrick picked out his flip flops for the summer.

Oh wow, when I wrote that post title, it made me laugh.  In the Sims game I used to be addicted to (back when I had time on my hands…time? what’s that? Oh wait! focus…), when the characters did IT, it was WooHoo.  But I guess that’s another story.

Anyway, back to my post.  I hate to clothes shop.  Literally.  I hate it even more than I hate cooking.  It got a little better when I had kids as I don’t mind shopping for them as much, but me?  Not so much.  It’s too expensive.  It’s too depressing.  It’s too exhausting.  But I did want to share a great find this past weekend.  On our way home from visiting the Sullivan Vineyard, we stopped at the outlet stores in Tuscola for Shannon to look at work clothes.  Walking into the first store, I saw a rack of jeans, looked and found a pair.
Guess how much…

$11.50!!!!

We started a sticker chart as an incentive for Mac when he potty trained.  When Patrick potty trained, he got one as well.  Now, we put their ‘chores’ on there and they have to fill it completely, and then they can pick out something that they want.  Mac usually knows what he’s ‘saving up’ for and Patrick usually just copies and gets the same thing.  This time, Mac wanted a yellow truck, just like his blue one.   When I turned around in the car on the way home, they looked so adorable; each with his prize on his lap and huge smile on his face.

Returning with their treasures.

I LOVE the dollar store.  I fell in love with it when I started having kids.  I can always find great little ‘treasures’ for the kids and at a price I can afford.  As a teacher, there are tons of things that come in handy also, again, for a great price.  Now, a lot of the items are so super cheap that they’re not worth it, but most of the time I can find great deals on things that I really don’t need. 🙂  Shannon is always making fun of me for wanting to go to the dollar store.  I defend it and explain why I ‘need’ the items I purchased and defend their quality.

Except for this item.  For Christmas, I put this cute little build-a-car in each of the boys’ stocking.  I thought, what a great activity to do with Daddy!  Well, tonight, they sat down to put it together.

Yeah, piece. of. junk.  While I’ll admit that this little car wasn’t a great buy, I still defend the dollar store and its treasures.

Patrick’s newest thing is to line up our shoes as soon as they’re off.  He usually has it done before I can even catch him in the act.