Shopping, Amanda Style.

Yesterday we decided to spontaneously go shopping in Winnipeg. It seems over the summer, Chelsea grew - a lot. We needed to update her wardrobe and buy her a few things for school. We dropped off Gavin for the day (he would have hated shopping) and set off for Winnipeg. I told Chris that I would be hitting up Value Village and Salvation Army first, hoping to get a few things so that we didn't have to spend a ton of money on new clothes.

Now please don't get me wrong - I love my daughter to be pretty and wear nice things, but if I can get them second-hand I will. She is so rough and tough on her clothes that I don't want to panic when I see her with holes in her knees, grass stains or tears from getting caught on something. Add in some dropped pomegrante seeds and a spilled orange crush every now and then... I just can't do it. One time, she begged me to buy her these fancy sweat pants (oxymoron, perhaps?) from Joe. They were $27. I almost had a heart attack. $27 for a pair of sweats? But, I did buy them, probably because I felt so guilty that she always has used clothes.

That night, I kid you not, she showed me where they had ripped and snagged on the playstructure. Sigh.

Anyways, that was a nice little rabbit trail we went down there.. Back to Winnipeg.

We scored big time. My husband didn't even mind the time spent at VV. Granted, I didn't look at kids books (that usually takes me a good hour), but I simply focused on clothes for Chelsea. Not really even Gavin or Eli. I was on a mission.

And we succeeded. We bought all this (and more that isn't pictured - but that's all puzzles and such) for about $225. It's mostly size 7 (what she is in now or will be by next week, and some size 8 to pack away for when we need them.) It is a ridiculous amount of clothes.

Here's the breakdown. I probably should have stopped and counted what we had bought. We now have a lot of clothes!!
9 pairs of jeans (2 H&M, 1 purple Levi's, 1 OshKosh, and 4 Old Navy)
13 pairs of sweats (4 Joe, 3 Children's Place, 4 still new with tags)
3 sweaters (all Gap)
2 skirts (Children's Place)
1 night gown
1 splash pants (MEC)
10 dresses (1 H&M, 2 Children's Place, 1 Gymboree, 3 Old Navy, 1 Gap)
16 tshirts (5 Children's Place and 3 Old Navy)
Hat
Plus toe socks and crocs...

...rollerblades, crocs for Eli and Gavin, 2 pairs of rubbers, a pekkle sleeper, 4 puzzles, some building toys, hot wheels cars and some bird ornaments.

We did hit up Old Navy for socks and underwear (no worries - those I always buy new) and a cute owl romper for Baby EY, Payless for indoor shoes for Chelsea and The Gap for a blue sparkly backpack for Kindergarten.

Supper at Montana's and our day was complete!

(learning to play tic-tac-toe)

Oh and thanks to a friend sharing a picture on FB, we now own this beast...

Good, good day!