Our Spending Spree

Yesterday was our neighborhood garage sale. It's a big neighborhood, around 2000 homes, and anyone who wanted to could have their own garage sale. We were up early and got going at 8 AM with one goal - secretly find a bike for Ben's birthday which is 3 weeks away. We must have hit at least 30 garage sales but an hour and a half later had exceeded our goal - we had not just one bike for Ben, but two. We found one for $5 which was prefect until we saw this little green bike which was way too cute to pass up; at first I thought the tag said $20, but we quickly slipped it into the back of the car when I realized the price was actually $2. Abbey and I couldn't stop laughing about the great deals we were getting. We happened to get a few other things too. Here's everything:

• 2 Bikes ($7)
  
• Barbeque including the full propane tank (free)
  
• Weed whacker ($10)
  
• Wooden riding toy for Max($5)
  
• Toy lawnmower($1)
  
• 2 Little People play sets (also for Ben's birthday)($2)
  
• Lincoln Logs(Free)
  
• 4 lawn chairs($1)
  
• Hungry Hungry Hippos (which we have been wanting to get for Ben for about 6 months)($0.50)
  
• The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game($0.50)
  
• 6 wood puzzle set($2)
  
• New wardrobe for Ben - 5 pairs of pants, 5 shorts, 5 sweatshirts, and 11 shirts, most of which are from Gap, Old Navy, and Children's Place and look like they were never worn. ($18)
  

Yep, $47. Can you believe that? We totally hit the jackpot. They were all things that we have been wanting but didn't want to spend the money on. We need to do this more often.




So, now for the funnier part. We were able to keep Ben and Max distracted as we drove around and Ben only got out once with $1 to spend (he chose the toy lawn mower). He had no idea we had bought him two bikes and other birthday toys. Abbey got him inside and I hid the things in the garage and then wedged an ironing board in front of the door so no one would go in. The way I had it, it seemed like a good lock that would keep the boys out. Abbey was in the backyard watering when Ben came running out yelling in a very happy, excited voice, "Mom, I love my new green bike. I love it." After discussing our options, which included pretending it never happened and waiting until his Birthday, we decided to have a little talk with him about early birthday presents and breaking out the bike. We were just relieved he hadn't seen any of the other things, or so we thought. When I couldn't quite get the training wheels to work right we ended up bringing in the other bike. He was pretty surprised to have two bikes. He rode for a while and then a few hours later he came up to me and said, "Dad, I want to go in the garage and play with the cars on that track." Ahh, what are we going to do with him; he is too smart for his own good. Today we are just waiting to hear him say, "I want to play with that Hippo game." So far he hasn't, so we have one surprise left. We are keeping the Little People sets hidden even though he has seen them. What a day!

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