Buzz Light Year To The Rescue!

So when it comes to saving money and getting the best deal on things in life, my parents take the blue ribbon on that. Each of them have their own unique specialty in ways to save money, but they are both absolutely fabulous at it.

As you know, my mom is here for a visit. I gave her a list of things we wanted for Jack, and she made it her personal goal to find them and find them dirt cheap. For example, she got him the all-terrain Radio Flyer red wagon for $40 when I was about to buy it brand new for $150 (and it's in like-new condition already!). Well, my mom was downtown and found this adorable little used toy shop. Now, when most people think used, they think "eww". But this is Bend, OR, where 85%+ of the residents are upper middle class, so everything in the toy store is very nice and in very good, clean condition. Plus, as you know, the Goodwill is my favorite store, and I love buying thrift. Anyway, while looking around, she found him a Buzz Light Year Action Figure. This thing is about 12" tall, talks, lights up... everything! It looks brand new if you ask me. Retail at Target: $39.99. My mother paid: $3.99. That's right, $4, baby! She is such a champ at this! Jack loves his new Buzz and takes him everywhere to play with.

In other news, we went to the library last Wednesday with Laura and the kids. We happen to see Jack's friend, Edward, from soccer, there, too! Jack was very good throughout the story time (25 minutes long!). The only difficulties we had were crossing the street from the car to the library and getting Jack to actually leave the library. Jack hates holding hands while crossing the street and we had a mini-brawl in the middle of the road trying to get him to behave. After story time, we went to the children's section of the library, which is the size of a Target, and Jack played with the other kids and toys. When it was time to go, he ran from me, jumped up and down on the couches, screamed, and threw a fit. I even had to have one of the librarians helping me catch him. I was not a happy mommy when we left. I keep threatening him with a kid leash if he doesn't behave, but he doesn't care. Sigh...

This week we had James over for three days. He is such a sweet little guy. I am really enjoying watching him. He reminds me a lot of my nephew, William. He's very cuddly and thoughtful. Jack is enjoying having a playmate as well. Sunday we have Gadge, the other little boy, and then Monday and Tuesday I have both Gadge and James. I don't like overlapping the kids, but both moms are in a jam so I agreed to it. Luckily, the boys only overlap for four hours as their schedules are very different. Gadge is 5:30am - 2:30pm, and James is 10:00am - 5:00pm. Yawn! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. We'll see how it goes!