Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Sixty-One

Highlight of the Week

Twice a year, there is this gigantic kids consignment sale at the Monroeville Convention Center called Just Between Friends. My Mom & I have gone to every sale since Braelynn was born & it’s a huge highlight – we love thrift shopping & hunting for amazing deals, so a consignment sale the size of the Convention Center is like going to Disney World (okay, not quite Disney World – but something else equally amazing). People bring in literally thousands of items to sell & it’s utterly overwhelming (while I was waiting in line to check-out, I chatted with a lady who said she had never been to the sale before & she was just blown away by how huge the sale was). Thankfully, we’re seasoned pros & we have our system down. I always “inventory” what the kids have as far as clothes for the next season/size & bring a list of what they specifically need, then we shop for those items first!

On top of shopping & finding incredible deals, I also take items of my own to sell. My goal is always to simply break even – that way it just feels like “trading” – switching out old clothes/toys for new ones! As a consigner, that also allows us in to shop the sale even earlier than the public – so we literally get first dibs on all the very best deals. It’s a ton of fun!!

And, so far, this year has been amazing!! I found almost every item on my “needs” list, plus picked up some really awesome Christmas & birthday presents! I’m SO excited!! I’ve also sold over half of the items I took – and with a full 2 days left to the sale, I’m feeling really good about hopefully selling about 75% of what I took (which is really good – I usually sell around 60% of my items).

The best part was getting up to check out with my overflowing bags of stuff – snow pants, coats, boots, shoes, pjs, clothes, books, toys (lots & lots of cool toys!) and for my total to be way less than I was expecting!! In fact, down at the bottom of the receipt, they added a new line that gives you the average of how much you paid “per item” – and mine was just $2.81!! Can you imagine paying just $2.81 for snow boots & snow pants & big toys?! I’m still so excited over everything I found! (The trick was getting it all into the house, up the stairs, and hidden up on the third floor without Braelynn seeing!) Now I just need to sort & separate everything out for Christmas vs. birthdays & see if I’m short anything!

Yes, This Happened

• It’s hard to see, but I promise, Braelynn & Leander are in the suitcase in this photo! That means, it must be time for our annual “vacation” photo!! YES – we’re officially on vacation (again)! This time, there are no roller coasters involved (boo), but we’re off for the entire coming week to relax & rest & enjoy each other – I’m so looking forward to this week!! (And if you want to go back & see the past suitcase photos I’ve taken, you can watch the progression here (warning, it’s heart-wrenching how much things change from year to year!) Number 215, Number 145, Number 95, Number 33
• Braelynn & I had dentist appointments this week. I’m so proud of my big girl – she loves going to the dentist & has no problems going back, sitting up in the big chair, and getting her teeth cleaned all by herself! And, the best part, no cavities! Our dentist is amazing & makes the whole process super fun & interactive (specifically for Braelynn) & she literally looks forward to going to the dentist – I love it!
• Leander learned how to push himself up into a sitting position (from laying on his belly) this week! And I kind of missed it! I knew he was getting close, but as we were getting ready for vacation, I set him down on the floor to play. As I walked away, I saw him flop down onto his belly & begin scooting around. When I came back, just a few minutes later, he was sitting back up again. I said to Derrick, “Wait, wasn’t he just crawling around? Did you set him back up to sit?” and he said, “No..” So, we watched him for a few minutes & he didn’t do it again. Later that night, when we put him to bed, he started crying after about an hour (which is very strange). We looked on the monitor, and he was sitting up in bed!! The poor dude was half awake/half asleep, but he had sat himself up, and couldn’t figure out how to lay back down! It was so sweet!!

Feeling Blessed

I wrote a whole post about our trip last weekend, but just in case you missed it – last weekend we gave Braelynn 2 BIG surprises! The first was a huge swingset in our backyard (I wrote the whole story in last week’s Abby’s Saturday post). The second was us getting up Sunday morning & driving out to Sandusky, OH, to spend the day at Castaway Bay – Cedar Point’s Indoor Waterpark (then we spent the night & went to Cedar Point the next day). Braelynn loves the water & is obsessed with watching waterslide videos on YouTube, so we knew she would be beside herself to go to an indoor waterpark! We’ve been to a handful of waterparks this year along with all of our amusement park adventures, but our time in them has always been very limited. We had the whole day to enjoy Castaway Bay & it was one of the best trips of our summer!! Both she & Leander had so much fun splashing in the water & Braelynn went down her first “big” waterslides – after she went down the first one, we couldn’t get her away from them! She’d get out at the bottom & instantly run back up to the top! No joke, she went down those big slides at least 100 times (she marathoned them for about 90 minutes before dinner, and then another 60 minutes after dinner!) We have had such a full, fun summer – I am a bit in denial that it’s coming to an end!