Affordable Kid's Clothes

I thought this week's prompt: Affordable Kid's Clothes was interesting for Mama Guilt Monday...because I am a 90% hand-me-down, thrift store, garage sale mama. And I feel no guilt :o) But I can write about it anyway! Click on the logo above to read other mom's feelings on the subject!

This is Snug at a wedding #1 was in back in October. 100% hand-me-downs, right down to his underoos. Yep, we use hand-me-down underwear. I don't see how once it is washed it is much different than a shirt.

Both Snug and Little Monkey Man (pictured here) wore this their second Halloween. I bought it for $1.49 at Goodwill. The shoes are from Once Upon A Child.

Our outdoor summer play clothes are almost all from garage sales or friends who have given us hand-me-downs!

Garage sale! (The BabyLegs I did buy new) Even our diapers are probably 50% from Craigslist.

Our Easter/Christmas outfits are almost always 100% from two families who generously hand things down to us. I am so grateful to them for all the things they have shared. We have two families that we now give bags of clothes to, and when we find out that Hannah is for sure a girl, I have so many more things to hand down, sell, donate.

Do I like to buy my boys clothes at "real" stores? You bet! I have a particular soft spot for Children's Place and Gymboree. However, I probably spend $50 a year in retail stores on their clothes/shoes combined. I spent $6.75 just this past weekend on a tie (Wal-Mart) for Snug (#1 is in another upcoming wedding) and shoes (Goodwill) for Little Monkey. Let me tell you about the shoes...they are "Lightning McQueen", a big favorite around here, and they light up. I don't think they had ever been worn before. I could have spent $12-$15 on similar shoes new, but why? They were bought to be play shoes!

So nope, I have NO guilt about how I dress my kids. They always look nice, and really they probably dress better in other people's recycled things than if I went to the store and bought them myself...because I can't afford the name brands that they wear daily!!!!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was beautiful here. Although getting down on their level for the angle I would have liked to have gotten was simply not happening the way I wanted...I did manage to capture a few shots I like.

I love getting their pictures taken in the grass, but it was long and wet, so I didn't go for that option this year.

Little Monkey Man wasn't sure how to pose...

...big brother had things to do...

...but in the end, I was happy with the results! This is a miracle picture. Sitting still. Looking posed. An Easter miracle.

This guy is much more my "model". He (usually) loves to pose for the camera. I didn't realize until it was too late that he didn't have a tie, but I think it was probably ok...and I think he was more comfortable.

A family portrait. This will probably be our last one before Hannah is born. She is there though!

Our new house came complete with a lovely set of hyacinths and daffodils.

There must have been tons of exciting things going on in the nursery, because Little Monkey Man didn't even make it home without crashing...and he remained konked out for a couple of hours.

Our church service was so nice, and I was really happy when Snug came home with the complete Easter story in his memory. He had details I was surprised about too. He has been asking ever since for "more stories 'bout Jesus". Hope you had a blessed Easter!

To see how much the boys have grown, check out last year's Easter pictures!

Easter Egging

Snug has been talking about "Easter Egging" since the first plastic eggs starting appearing on store shelves, back the day after Christmas. For the last two years he has gone "Easter Egging" at #1's mom's work. This year she had to work, so the kids didn't go. (#1 would have taken them...I'm not to go more than 30 min. or so from our hospital) It probably was a good thing seems how Snug has won the first prize, a large Easter basket, the last two years. He really had to let someone else win :o)
The day we moved Snug got his first round of Easter Egging in. Because the kids didn't get to hunt eggs with them last Saturday, #1's parents brought eggs and hid them around the yard. You can see that Snug got quite a few of them. He was so thrilled!

In fact, he got all but two of them. Because that is all Little Monkey wanted to gather. After that, he was quite satisfied. He had one for each hand. And he even kept sharing with our dogs. Chester was more interested in Little Monkey than his candy stash, but no matter.

When prompted to go find more eggs, it was not happening. "No thanks!" I'm sure was his exact answer, but it came out in the screaming and stomping of feet. He was truly satisfied with one egg for each hand and his two trusty dogs (Lucy didn't get photographed...not sure how I missed her).

I couldn't find the kids' Easter baskets for the hunt, so I grabbed a couple of regular baskets from the living room stack of boxes. Little Monkey wasn't about to carry a basket either. Snug really lucked out this year, huh? I doubt the competition will be so...lacking...next year!

The next day we had discovered our "Easter box" and I had the kids' buckets. We don't do Easter egg hunts or bunnies or the like on Easter. In fact, we have always done it the weekend of Palm Sunday, but this year I was a bit...busy. So Saturday morning I gave the boys their buckets. They each got a book, 2 Cars vehicles, boxes of raisins (Grandmommy) and 4 eggs with candy (gluten free). They each had a couple of Skittles, but the rest is sitting on the counter and daddy has been eating it. The bunny Snug is holding up is from his very first Easter basket. I re-use it every year...but this year he has decided to sleep with it, so I don't think that plan will continue. He sleeps with an entire menagerie of animals. Pretty soon there will be no room for him in the bed!

Little Monkey's book was from the used book sale at the library. It was in great condition, and guess what? He likes is and listens to it!

The boys have cute matching shirts this spring. We got them from two families in two sets of hand-me-downs. And they are the right size for both of them. What are the odds?

Later that morning there was an egg hunt at church. Snug was very pleased to go Easter Egging again. He didn't get quite the same number of eggs, but that is WAY ok. He even shared with some other kids. He was happier to give the eggs than to collect them. Sometimes he makes me really proud.

Here he is with a friend from his Sunday School class. They are moving in July, and we will miss them VERY MUCH. (sniff sniff Debbie)

I'm not sure how many eggs Little Monkey collected this time. Not very many. However, he was more egg savvy and knew there was candy inside. He popped an entire Hershey kiss into his mouth, wrapper and all, before either my mom or I knew what he was doing. She got the wrapper out, but the chocolate was gone. Thank goodness Hershey Kisses are gluten free (who knew?)

Actual Easter morning pictures to come...have to upload them from the camera.

Gluten Free Candies:

Hershey's Kisses (original)

Snickers

Skittles

Nerds

Sixlets

There are many many more, but these are just a few. Even though there are lots of gluten-free candy options out there, Little Monkey doesn't even get candy unless he is having a haircut. He has a mean mom.

Moving Summary

We moved! If you need our new address, please contact me Jenney@famconnect.net and I can get that to you. "Everything" was moved on Friday, and we didn't require any extra help on Saturday like we had anticipated. There were still some little things (trash cans, my pots and pans **how did I not pack those???** etc.) that we went back on Saturday and got, but mostly everything was moved and set up by Friday night!



Here are some pictures I took on moving day. This is the boys' room.

And the kitchen...

...and the living room. Thanks to my mom, none of these rooms look even remotely like that anymore. 90% of the boxes are unpacked on the main level. I have 10 boxes left to go through in the living room/dining room area. The garage is almost cleaned up (we had a shed at the other house and not here, so storage is a little tricky) but the basement. Oh my, the basement. That will take months. Years. An eternity.

My job was directing traffic, and letting my mom know where I wanted things in the kitchen. My MIL watched the boys in the backyard during the move, so they were entertained and out of the way. Not that little boys would be in the way during moving :o)

We couldn't have done the move without all the help we had. We had friends from both our old and new church, and family members here. They worked SO hard.

When I take more pictures of rooms done, I'll post them...for now I will just say we are in and living at the house. No baby yet...I feel better everyday so maybe I won't have her for another 2 months, who knows. I have more energy today than I have had in a month. I also have lots of Easter pictures to post, look for those tomorrow!

Checking In

We get internet (supposedly) tomorrow. I can give a full moving report and pictures then. Everyone is doing well. I went to the OB today and he said I am dilated 3cm and he gives me about another week.

The move went really well, glad to be done. Living among stacks of boxes :o)