black friday.

{MOSS KIDS- DON'T read this OK??!!  Seriously, Don't READ it.}

guess what we did?
yup.
4am.
we rolled out of bed and headed to the stores.
the professor and i...
i had invited him to join me, he was a bit begrudging.
on the way to store ONE he said, "I'm so glad i can be doing this with you."
i said, "i HOPE i'm glad you're doing this with me..."
(i did have girlfriends that invited me to shop with them, but i bailed... i LOVE doing Christmas with my husband...)

The NIGHT BEFORE Black Friday--
So, for sure it was the night before that made Black Friday so great...
we spent some time after the kids went to bed looking at this site
www.blackfriday.gottadeal.com
at this site you can enter "barbies" and it will show you all the deals so you can compare.
this year, we are doing 3 gifts each per kid.
we're combining lots of ideas we'd heard and sticking with
Something to WEAR, DO and PLAY  plus stockings.
We had been brainstorming and had a pretty set list of what each kid would get for each of their gifts.
I had shopped a few stores so i knew the prices before sales...

Store ONE- AMAZON...
we placed an order at Amazon Thursday night taking advantage of their free shipping and good deals.
one thing i HATED was finding a good deal and realizing at the checkout that it wasn't coming from Amazon so it may have been only $3.99 but was $8 shipping.
hated that.
loved having a list that we stuck to...
we found some great deals online and got a big bulk of our shopping done Thanksgiving night.
i took the Lego stuff out of my shopping cart... i'm afraid i like Legos a bit more than my kids do.

Store TWO- Target...
to get 24 cases of play-doh for $5.96 and Memory for $3.99, and fleece gloves/hats for $2.
yup.  4am for Play-doh.
our tip-- head for the CENTER lines.
while i headed to the toys, the professor got in line.
There were lines all the way to the back of the store... insane!
but, the center lines were normal-sized.
thank goodness we weren't in line for an hour... 

Store THREE- CVS...
besides Target, the roads were clear and the stores weren't too croweded.
of course, it was 5 am

there was nothing i wanted at CVS... i got my ads mixed up.


Store FOUR- um I mean Walgreens...
at Walgreens I got Lil'Kinz 2/$5 for their stockings, and $1 eyeshadow and nail polish kits for the girl's stockings

Store FIVE- Michael's
the coupon said Michael's would open at 5am... it really opened at 6am.
but, this was a GREAT black Friday store.  i'm so excited for the art stuff we got here...
we had printed out a coupon for 30% off your entire order... even sale items.
and, we got a great art kit and eisle 50% off from $50 to $17.
another water color/acrylic metal case kit from $25 to $7.
and art paper from $10 to $3.
we got some mythical Sheik animals for 30% off.
we got stocking stuffers and cute ribbon for 60 cents each.

Store SIX- Old Navy
the professor and i each got a pair of jeans for $15- mine are cute maternity
and i got a cute sweater and maternity dress for $15.
some cozy socks for $3-- they will be on sale for $2.50 tomorrow, but $3 was still a great stocking stuffer for me.

Store SEVEN- Big 5 Sporting Goods
nothing.

Store EIGHT- Payless
i want some black flats... but they didn't have any good deals.
nothing.

Store NINE- Academy
this was my second favorite store...  because we were surprised.
we hadn't been able to find a few big things and we decided to stop here to see what they had...
i'm so glad we did...
we found a $70 girl's bike on sale for $34... and, it so cute... she's going to LOVE it.
and, i got some art stuff and some play doh and a game fore leah, but i didn't have a big thing.
for $15 we got her a princess play house... it folds up to really small and then pops open.
no, not a great quality item, but it's big and will be fun for Christmas morning AND the little girls really will play in it every day AND i can store it easily when we're moving.
AND, my boys have asked for some fun outdoors things like air soft guns, a compound bow n arrow set, fishing poles, etc.  some things we couldn't find for less than $50... and at Academy we found them... for $17 and $10 on Friday morning deals...  i'm SOO excited
plus, at the checkout we found CHICKEN POOP CHAPSTICK, so we got one to send to Todd's brother.
funny huh?!

Store TEN- Walmart
we got here around 8am, and it was pretty quiet.  the aisles were empty, we found what we wanted and went home.
i needed GLITTER CRAYONS... they were up by the books at the front.
seriously, i looked everywhere for glitter crayons and a big coloring book for my little girls.
they are going to be so excited.
we didn't get any big deals here, just picked up our final stocking stuffers and things we needed to finish the list...  earphones for an MP3 player we ordered from Amazon, dress up gloves to your elbows, a barbie, and glitter crayons.

i feel so excited for Christmas.
i know, when i was writing out what we got i noticed that i'm excited about LITTLE things.
but really, that is how i am... i'm so excited about the little things we got because i KNOW my kids will LOVE them.
AND we stayed in our budget.
AND we're DONE.

NOW, i can do some craft projects, plan our 12 days before Christmas gift drop off, and figure out something for our parents.
i need to sew stockings for leah, lily and baby 7... so that will be fun...
i have some ideas for the professor... but i wish i had big money to get him things he'd LOVE like a flat screen tv or a back up hard drive.  i keep saying, NEXT YEAR we'll shop for electronics honey, next year.

i think i'm going to steal a wrapping idea that i heard from someone...
buying a different wrapping paper for each kid...
cute huh?!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

 

Christmas is on it's way!!!
{i think i'm going to pull out Christmas stuff tomorrow...}
did you go shopping?
what was your favorite find??