Yard Sales!

I never went to yard sales until I became a Mom. I'm not sure if the places where I lived before had "community yard sales" or not. If they did, I wasn't aware of them. The first community yard sale I went to was in our town in September 2009. I was amazed. I'd never seen sooo many yard sales taking place at the same time while churches and other groups were selling all different things to eat and drink. It almost had a carnival atmosphere. I was also amazed at how many people (from other places) came for our town's yard sales. We spent a LONG time trying to find a parking space. Well today I attended a similar event in the town where we go to church. They have theirs every year the weekend of Mother's Day. This was the first time I attended theirs. It was also very huge (there had to be far more than 100 yard sales taking place), but this one involved more driving. There was one housing development that looked like it was mobbed with cars. I didn't go in there, but that development could have been toured on foot (or stroller as the case may be). I had printed out directions to 7 different yard sales that advertised toys, toddler clothing, and such. I stopped at a few others that were next door to these seven and a couple others that we drove by and something caught my eye. This evening at the dinner at church some ladies were talking about all the yard sales within that development. If we're around the Saturday morning they have their sale next year, I'll have to make sure to stop in that development.

I have to give the kids credit. They were angels. We also stopped at a grocery store. Our whole trip (driving plus yard sales plus grocery shopping) was a little more than 2 hours. I didn't expect they'd last that long since they spent the majority of the time in the car. I took them out of the car for a couple of yard sales, but for most of them I pulled into the driveway, locked the car (with them in their car seats) and hurridly made a purchase or two. The first couple of times I expected them to be crying when I returned to the car, but they didn't cry the entire time they were in the car! Of course it helped that at many stops I was buying things like a new book they could look at. I spent $28.50 altogether. I would have kept going, but I figured my luck with their good behavior was about to run out especially since I have to feed Ian every 2 hours to get 6 feedings in a day. It's not usually wise to have something in mind that you really want to purchase at a yard sale as you have no idea what will be for sale. My #1 item I was hoping to find was a toy shopping cart. I got one! It's a Little Tikes one that even has a seat a doll can sit in just like Ian sits in the cart when we shop. Both kids are enjoying it. I also bought 4 pairs of shoes (all for Ian), 3 costumes (Winnie the Pooh, Clifford, and Cinderella), 2 sweater vests and 1 shirt for Ian, 5 hardback books for the kids, and 1 craft kit that had tons of neat stuff (various paint supplies and that box had never been opened). One of the books was one I had been hoping to get sometime (another "How do dinosaurs" book by Yolen). Ian laughed and laughed when he saw Nadia wearing the Clifford costume. I'm definitely hooked on yard sales as a customer. We shall see what I think about being a seller after I have my first yard sale this summer.