Birthday Shopping

This week being Spring Break has really thrown a wrench in my blogging!  But I’m not about to complain.

My middle son happens to be away with our friends camping for the weekend.  So as a special thing for the other two boys (and us!) we went  out to eat at Olive Garden yesterday.  It has been ages since we splurged like that, and it was a treat for everyone!

With my tummy full of Chicken Parmesan, the next stop was a place I have heard about but never explored, Old Time Pottery.

Wow!  Oh, wow!  Have you every been to there??  The place is huge and has everything under the sun from bedding to outdoor decor.

It earned an audible grown from my oldest son when he walked in the door and surveyed its vastness.   Along about the thirtieth aisle, my four-year-old fell asleep in the cart (thank the Lord!).  So, we pressed on! Lol!  What else could we do?  He needed his rest, right? 

We emerged with a few serving bowls, two end tables, a pretty library tote bag for Mom’s birthday, and a memory foam bed topper for our camping cot.

As a treat for “hanging in there” my husband humored the boys with a trip to Toys-R-Us across the street.  (This store always makes me groan.)  We came out with a handy little lap desk, and a set of three Star Wars Figures—one for each boy.

While there, we spotted a huge Bionicle set which we’ve seen on clearance at Wal-Mart for $30.00.  The price at Toys R Us was $79.99!  Since we were kind of shopping for my middle son’s May birthday, we decided that maybe we should go ahead and buy the Wal-Mart set.

So off to Wal-Mart we went. 

And guess what?  They had two left, and had marked them down again, this time to $25! 

Since it was a really good deal and my boys have been drooling over the set for months, it was decided on the spot that both sets would come home with us—one for our middle son’s birthday in May, and the other for my oldest son’s birthday in August.

So, what did we do today??? 

My oldest son and I spent just about the whole day building one of the sets (693 parts), tearing it apart (it wouldn’t function properly), and putting it back together again.  The second time was a charmer.  It opened and closed, and did everything it was supposed to do just perfectly.

It’s huge, and totally awesome, in the words of my son. 

My middle son will love the set.  But he would have never had the patience to follow the THREE instruction books it took to build it! 

So while my husband and I will give him the set, my oldest son will give him the gift of the many hours it took to assemble it!  I think it will be a winning combination.

I forgot to take a picture of the completed work of art before I squirreled it away in its hiding place.  But I’m sure there will be more pictures come May.