I've never been a big believer in Black Friday. In my opinion, the stress and elevated blood pressure associated with early mornings and crowded stores wasn't worth the little bit of money saved. I have family members who have told stories of standing outside Best Buy at 3 a.m. waiting on the doors to open two hours later. I thought they were crazy when I heard that and still do, a little).
But this year, I decided to look around at some of the specials that have already been announced. Having made an online shopping cart with my Christmas needs, I'm dreading the budget-breaking cost associated with playing Santa to four children who have almost all reached an age where expensive electronics and video games have replaced cheaper toys.
Features' Editor Ashley Sanders, who blogs in the Enterprise's "Trendy on a Dime," has talked several times over the past few weeks about Black Friday sales and deals. I've compared the toys and items I originally planned to by at full price with stores that had sales on most of them, and realized I could save up to 50 percent of my original cost.
And I must say, now I'm a believer.
Check out these sites, and plan your path for Black Friday. And if you see me out and about, stop and say "hello" or perhaps say a little prayer for me. I have a good feeling my first Black Friday experience is going to be one to remember.
Black-Friday.net
BlackFriday.info
November 18, 2009
A Black Friday believer
November 16, 2009
A sad Saturday discovery
As a family on a budget, we rely on local parks and playgrounds to provide our children with entertainment. We live in walking distance of Port Neches Riverfront Park, and often spend our Saturdays picnicking at Tugboat Island, or roaming the playground near the city library. Our summers are spent "poolside" at one of Mid-County's two great spray parks. And often we travel to Doornbos Park in Nederland to feed the ducks.
This last Saturday, my husband and I decided to treat the children by loading up some footballs and Frisbees and park hopping all day, spending an hour or two at one park before moving to the next. And during that time, I realized how disrespectful some people truly are.
While helping my toddler climb through the wooden wonders of Tugboat Island, I realized that almost all the boards lining the towers had been drawn, colored or carved on. I would place my hand on a rail exclaiming the undying love "Jane" has for "Tony," or that "Tina" had been there, and even a few hateful statements about someone's classmate. Some of the latter contained a few words that none of the children playing there needed to read, or even know about.
When we moved to Doornbos Park, my children headed to the playground where my toddler (who will put almost anything in his mouth) found a chip bag on the ground and picked it up with the intention of eating from it. Thankfully I was right beside him, and was able to snatch the bag back before he started snacking. But on my way to the trash can, I realized the ground at the beautiful park was terribly littered. The trashcan near a picnic table was overflowing, having not been emptied, and trash covered the ground beside it. I spent the next ten minutes picking up trash around the park while my children played near my husband. Unfortunately I couldn't do much about the littered pond that hadn't been cleaned out, or the deck covered in teenage ramblings in permanent marker.
As the park neighbors a school, we traveled over to the school playground to have a family "race" through the obstacle course. Afterwards, while the older children continued through the bars and hurdles of the obstacle course, I took little Riley to the playground. Thankfully, being that child that will eat anything, he didn't notice the used condom on the ground by the slide. That's not only disgusting, it's incredibly dangerous and senseless. That is a school playground for elementary children as young as pre-k. The spray paint graffiti across the slide and playground equipment was sad enough, but to see something that could damaged a child's health was heartbreaking.
Please respect our city and school playground equipment. Not only is it the right thing to do, but these incredible activity sets are not cheap and might not be replaced for many years. For some of us, it's used by our children on a regular basis to give them exercise, entertainment and a chance to run around in a safe area. Let's keep it that way, please.
November 4, 2009
Searching for the Holiday Holy Grail
Every year, there's at least one have-to-have-it toy that sends shoppers nationwide in a frenzy for finding. And nearly every year, one of my children want that toy.
One month and three weeks before Christmas, I'm having anxiety attacks over fake hamsters. Zhu Zhu Pets, they're called. Tiny little toy hamsters that act like real hamsters, but without the bites, smell and cleanup. They even have hamster cages, exercise balls, and other accessories for the Zhu Zhu pets that mirror those for actual pet rodents.
And my daughter "has to have one."
Last week I sat down with the Interwebs to buy some Zhu Zhu Pets online. (I do a considerable amount of Internet shopping every year, but always in November to ensure my shipment makes it to my house in time. They're $8 a hamster on Walmart.com, and anywhere from $10 to $30 for accessories. That made me happy. But when I got to my online destination, they were out of stock. And so was Target. And so was Toys-R-Us.
Thinking I'm a smart shopper, I head over to Ebay to snag some Zhu Zhu Pets. And to my shock, I see they're going for $50 or more a hamster, and up to $200 for the accessories. We're talking about toy rodents, here, folks. I wouldn't pay $200 for a real hamster that washes the dishes and plays the saxophone.
Now I'm scrambling to find an underground toy store that has reasonable prices on Zhu Zhu Pets. Thinking outside the box on Web sites and stores that don't normally carry toys, but have Zhu Zhu Pets and the rest of the world hasn't noticed yet.
And now, of course, I'm worried about failure, and getting dramatic about. How do I tell my daughter she can have anything except the one thing she wants for Christmas? Will this ruin her faith in Santa Claus? Will she end up in therapy, crying because she didn't get Zhu Zhu Pets when she was 7-years-old? How do you explain supply and demand to a 2nd grader?
It's Tickle Me Elmo all over again - people trampling all over each other to get their hands on a toy that laughs. And it looks like this Black Friday, I will find a store advertising Zhu Zhu Pets, and camp out on the sidewalk if I have to. I'm fully prepared to beat crazy shoppers over the head with plastic lightsabers if necessary. In the meantime, if you hear of a place for Zhu Zhu Pets, let me know.
October 29, 2009
Second-child syndrome
My youngest child has what I like to call "second child syndrome."
It's actually a condition that affected me, not him, and resulted from my own laziness/tiredness/loss of memory (any of those words are interchangeable there).
Essentially, what "second child syndrome" means, is when he is older and opens his baby book, there's not going to be anything in it but dust and empty lines. And when he goes looking for his first picture with Santa Claus, or sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap, he isn't going to find one. But what he will find is boxes on top of boxes filled with pictures and clippings from everything his older brother did in the first two-years of his life.
My oldest two children came to me as toddlers, and already had most of their baby books filled out. I wasn't around to see their first smile, first laugh, first word. So when Colby came in 2005, I was fascinated with all the things he learned to do.
I took pictures of every person that held him for the first six months of his life. I wrote - in detail - about every tooth he cut, every visit to the pediatrician, every new milestone. And for most of the, there's a roll of photos to accompany them. I can tell you the first time he smiled at me, the first time he laughed, the first time he rolled over. I remember his first steps, the first words he said, and the first time he slept through the night. I stood in line for over an hour to have his photo taken with Santa at 5-months-old, and even bought him a special outfit and baby sneakers for the occasion. In his Easter Bunny picture, he's wearing bunny ears.
But by the time Riley came around, I was exhausted. I had a toddler, and my two step-children had come to live with us, doubling the size of our family almost overnight. I don't remember Riley's first smile. I couldn't tell you his first word. I'm not sure when he cut teeth, or even how many he has now. I'm lucky I know his birthday. Since three of my four children have July birthdays, sometimes I mix that up, too. And as far as pictures with Santa go, I just never got around to it.
Colby had a nursery with a theme, matching wallpaper and new furniture. Riley had whatever I saved from Colby mixed with whatever I borrowed from friends, and we piled it all up in the corner of our room. There was no color, no theme, no nursery. In fact, he's 2 years and 4 months old, and he still sleeps in our room in his toddler bed.
I doubt my lack in recording Riley's life will damage him any when he realizes what I forgot to do. But I'm hoping when he sees his brother's every breath on paper, he'll understand that by the time he came around, Mom was just wore out.
October 26, 2009
Our great pumpkin tradition
As a relatively newly developed family, we haven't had the opportunity to create many traditions. But as a family-oriented couple, my husband and I are always searching for a new activity to make an annual event.
We have, however, incorporated one tradition into every fall for four years. And when October comes around, we're all looking for the perfect day to pick and paint pumpkins.
Our annual pumpkin painting event began in 2006, the week my two stepchildren came to live with us. While it was a wonderful week for us, it was a stressful and confusing time for the then 4- and 6-year-old children. So to help ease them into their new home, we started searching for activities and things we could do together to get their minds off the change of household.
It was late October, and they asked to carve a pumpkin. While I have four very bright and very creative children, I can't trust them with a crayon. No matter how many times I tell them otherwise, the three older children will inevitably leave that one crayon laying out for my 2-year-old to find, and then redecorate the walls. So the idea of letting them hold kitchen knives to carve pumpkins was a little nauseating. We decided to paint instead. We headed to Walmart and bought the perfect pumpkins, an arm-load of paint, and sat down to create masterpieces from our fruit.
By the next October, we had added another child and another step to our fall tradition. That year, we headed to the local pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. I learned that year that children want the largest, strangest, and most expensive pumpkin they can find. We left the patch that year with about 100 pounds of pumpkin in the back of the van.
Since then we've made it an annual event to explore the local pumpkin patches for the perfect painting pumpkins. This year, we added a carving - by my husband and myself, of course. But they children were delighted to help dig out the gooey insides and fill it with a candle that made our pumpkin visible to everyone passing by.
There are still a few days left to add pumpkins to your annual fall traditions. Here are a few local pumpkin patches to get you started:
- For 15 years, Wesley United Methodist Church in Beaumont has opened a large pumpkin patch at the corner of Folsom Drive and Major Drive. This extraordinary patch has rows and rows of pumpkins in every shape and size (and a few different colors), as well as plenty of places for picture-happy parents like myself to set up their kiddos and snap fall photos. This patch is open through Halloween, from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 12-8 p.m. on Sunday.
- First United Methodist Church in Port Neches has a smaller patch with a large hometown feel. Located at Nall Street, this patch has plenty a pumpkin on the side of their beautiful church. The FUMC pumpkin patch is ready for pickins' on Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and from 12-6 p.m. on Sundays.
- Grocers like Walmart and H-E-B also have plenty of pumpkins, and a farmer's market stand set up across from Walmart on Twin City Highway in Groves is displaying dozens of plump orange fruit ripe for the painting...or carving.
Posts
