Monday, May 04, 2009

When The Hand-Me-Down Cycle Ends

Over the past few weeks, I've been coming to a very sad realization. Isabelle has reached the end of our little hand-me-down cycle. She has caught up in clothing size to her former hand-me-down donater.

So today, I took the kids shopping and tackled two firsts at once.
First #1 - Honestly, this was the first time we have had to buy clothes for the kids out of necessity rather than by choice. Up until this point, the hand-me-downs have been overflowing.

Since the weather seems to be holding steady with the warmer temperatures, we are focusing on buying summer clothes for Isabelle right now. Today we went to Old Navy. I was pretty pleased with how we did, and Isabelle was thrilled with what we picked out. I was able to point her in the right direction and let her choose what she wanted since her taste in clothing is very acceptable to our standards. I think she felt empowered and was smart enough to use that freedom wisely.
Now that she has a few fun and functional pieces which will serve as the base of her summer wardrobe, we are going to hit the thrift stores tomorrow to do some filling in with odds and ends.

And First #2 - I took all 4 kids shopping. By myself. At an outdoor mall. I can't believe I've never done this before. It's just always been one of those errands that I push back to weekends so that we can all go together. I think that's mainly because mall shopping is more of an adventure than an errand for us. Trips to the mall are an only-occasional occurrence, and then usually just for fun. Because like I said earlier, we really never have to buy clothes.
But this outing was a major success. And now I feel as empowered as Isabelle did. There's nothing stressful about taking the kids out by myself to a crowded place. They behaved wonderfully. I feel like I could take them anywhere now. Maybe our next outing should be Disney World, just the 5 of us. I could handle it!

Stop by 5 Minutes for Mom for more Tackle It Tuesday and The Lazy Organizer for more Talk About Tuesday.

17 comments:

Jennifer 9:48 PM  

I love taking the kids to the mall! They love to ride the merry go round and play in the soft play area. Also, during the summer (which it seems is now!) we will play in the splash pad before we leave. Oh, but on the way out to the splash pad we must go by the elephant, aligator, and fish! Very cheap entertainment. That is if I don't go shopping. :)

Sue 11:12 PM  

Super Mom!! Way to go ;-) Now you can do anything I'm sure!

Gina 11:16 PM  

I felt that way the first time I took my two shopping by myself. I felt like a whole new world had opened up for us!

Frugal Sara 11:41 PM  

I don't know what I would do without my hand me downs!

Michelle 1:16 AM  

We love shopping my daughter and I .It must be a girl thing.Good tackle ;) The shopping area looks like West Vancouver (is it?)

Monica@DailyDwelling 1:35 AM  

Great job!!!! Sounds like you had a very successful day. It must be so freeing to be able to know that you can take your kids shopping without any hassle!

Dominique 4:13 AM  

I love going shopping but it can be a hassle if I am going with both boys. They will dash for the kiddy rides and toy section only making it rather difficult to browse the other sections which I am interested in .

Upstatemamma 4:32 AM  

Good for you!!! I love Old Navy and the majority of my kids clothes come from there. We have no hand me downs. Or well, my oldest has no hand me downs - his clothes are coming own the pipeline for our younger kids.

Kimmie 7:26 AM  

I love hand me downs, but I also love taking the kids shopping! My Tackle It Tuesday

Rhen @yestheyareallmine 8:10 AM  

The hand me downs ebb and flo in this house so sometimes I do have to supplement. LOL Kohls is my favorite place. They have some awesome clearances. :)

Great (and fun) tackle!

annies home 8:21 AM  

mom you have did a great job and now you can be proud of the job you did and your children

Susie 8:44 AM  

I know what you mean...we are still in hand-me-down-land but our genes are going to take her well over the givers very soon.

Julie Bonner 3:04 PM  

I love taking my kids to the mall also. As long as we visit the pet store and they get to pet the animals, then they can endure the shopping part. :-)

Lora @ my blessed life 1:34 AM  

Congrats on a successful shopping trip with kiddos:) I know that is quite a feat!
And I can totally relate to running out of hand-me-downs. When we moved to AL I lost a couple of great *givers*. And I was so sad when my daughter finally ran the course of all the ones I had in storage for her. I never had any hand-me-downers for my son. I get probably 80-90% of their clothes at the seasonal children's clothing consignment sales in our area now. They have them in the Spring and Fall. These have been a lifesaver for us! I like to mostly shop for the name brands that I could never afford otherwise and they are all in like-new condition most of the time. If you have those in your area you would probably really enjoy checking them out. They always have other great stuff like games, videos, books...

Lara 12:14 AM  

That's very sad about the hand-me-downs! My sons has just outgrown his cousin that is four years older so no more for us either!

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