Cheap Summer Fun!!!

So I did one of my better, cheaper summer fun ideas today. It will probably by lame to anyone who reads this, but think I am lame, whatever. But before I tell you what exactly I did there is a little back story on how I discovered my cheap summer fun idea!

When we moved from Louisville to Boise we were only permitted to bring 1000 pounds of our stuff. Which may sound like a lot, however, that is everything- clothes, toys, books, basically anything thought we would need for the 9 months we were going to be there. They told us our corporate apartment would be furnished and I suppose it was, but anything and everything in the kitchen was needed and of course no toys! And while I did bring the kids some of their toys, it became apparent pretty quickly that we needed more. However, I didn't want to spend a lot of money when we had tons of toys in boxes in storage somewhere in a warehouse in SLC. So I went to the DI and found some of the biggest trucks we could find for Carter. Bigger is always better right? Ella was so little she didn't care much still about toys or just played with Carters. So we came home and gave them all a good scrubbing and he played with them tons until we got all our stuff out of storage 5 months after we moved to Boise. And those DI toys became Carter's outside toys. He loved having big trucks he could play with in the unused garden plot of the house we were then renting. And I loved that he didn't ask to take his "nice" toys outside to play. He knew he had fun stuff outside already.

But that was 2 summers ago! That is funny to write 2 summers cause it doesn't seem like that long ago in my head. hmm.. And we have moved and while we have a big tub to put toys in during the winter, he still played with them in the snow and the lid wasn't always put on just as it should have been, so those poor, cheap, very played with trucks didn't make it through. I think all have pretty much been put in the trash. Carter hasn't noticed soo much that his trucks are gone, cause they left slowly, but I noticed how much fun he had zooming down the slide or off the landing of the playset. Or crashing them into each other in sorta crash derby off the deck. And the best part was that I didn't blink an eye!

So after my doctors appt. today we were very close to the DI, which we actually don't live very close to at all, hence me taking so long to finally get over there. The kids were like where are we going? DI. Why? To buy some toys? For who?- they know better to think they were the ones getting the toys cause that never happens. For you. Why? They are going to be your outside toys. So whatever we get is going to be for you play outside with. They were very excited about this idea. In my head I only wanted to spend $15 dollars. I thought that sounded like a good number, no other reason than that.

Once inside DI we head straight for the toys. I had only been to this DI once before and so we did have to look a minute for it, stupid as that sounds. We found it quick enough though. And that was like the hub of the store. Those two isles were slammed packed full of people. I felt like I had to be really savvy and make sure they didn't take all the good stuff. Carter knew exactly how it worked and went to the biggest cars, trucks, jeeps and ATV's he could find. There were plenty there because people donate their old remote controlled ones, which are perfect for what we were wanting them for. Lincoln was excited too and was crawling around on that filthy floor playing with cars he found. We put those in the cart too. Now Ella wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. She wanted the Barbie cash register, which totally didn't work. I put it in the cart to satisfy her, but was removed before we left the toy isle. I then directed her to plastic dolls and my little ponys. On her own she found a pink ice cream truck she wanted too. She was thrilled and didn't want to put them in the cart with the boys toys, she wanted to hold all of them- she had like 10 + the truck. So we head to the register and while the kids all are all walking backwards up the isle, I am wondering how much exactly am I buying? While of course everything is cheap, the point of all this is that it is cheap, I didn't want to pay $25 for all this crap.

However, when the cashier said $15, I thought this is the best $15 I have ever spent. The kids were soo excited and wanted all their stuff in the car. Ella's was easy enough for her to play with, but the boys trucks/cars/jeeps/atvs were huge compared to their little laps. Yet Lincoln didn't seem to mind. When we finally got home, after a "quick" stop into Walmart, the kids flew outside, despite the serious wind and not so warm temperature to play with their new toys. Ella asked if she could play inside and seemed content when I told her no those were outside toys. They seriously spent the whole evening outside playing with them. And I am sure there will be many more hours of play those toys will get.

Best $15 ever spent!