A Very Busy Saturday!!

We had a jam-packed Saturday! I went garage sale-ing with my friend Alicia and her mom Sheila. They are avid garage sale shoppers, and they go every Saturday. Last year I got Emily's more expensive Christmas gift (her pink and purple Cozy Coupe car) at a garage sale. This year, with two kids to buy toys for, we decided there was no reason to buy all these gifts brand new. So the last two Saturdays, I have tagged along with Alicia and her mom at community sales. I am excited that I have found so many toys for the girls! A Hokey Pokey Elmo for 50 cents and a Wiggles guitar for $1...you can't beat that! I think we are already done for Madi and just need a couple of more things for Emily!

So mainly I was just on the lookout for toys for Christmas, but I was also hoping to find a new double stroller. I bought one when I was pregnant with Madi, but it's one of those things that you don't really realize what features work well until you start using it. I loved being able to strap in Madi's car seat, but that meant Emily sat in the front. And having the 30 pound kid in the front of the stroller made it virtually impossible to steer! I only used it twice at doctor's appointments and a couple of times when we went on a walk...it was just too big, too bulky, and too much of a pain. Here are the girls the first time we used the double stroller (Madi was only 2 weeks old!).

This Saturday I found a different design in great condition! I've seen this "Sit and Stand" stroller before, where the baby can sit and the toddler can stand. But I knew the standing wouldn't work for Emily and it would be some time before Madi could sit up, so I didn't think it would work for us. But this one had a removable seat with a seat belt for the toddler. It puts Emily in the back, and Madi is sitting up like a pro, so we don't need to use the car seat with it. Emily can even "walk" on to her seat instead of one of us having to lift her up! We tried it out Saturday night, and both girls seemed to really enjoy it! It's much more compact and so much easier to steer!

After garage sale-ing, I rushed home and changed my clothes, and then Madi and I went to a baby shower in Deland that Jessica was hostessing for her friend Kim. As soon as Kim found out she was pregnant, Jessica called me to ask me to make her baby shower cake. Kim is a big fan of Tiffany & Co. (aren't we all?). :) So they wanted to make the cake a Tiffany box with a silver rattle on top. At the last minute, Jessica and Kim decided they wanted to incorporate some pink and the baby's name somewhere on the cake. We decided to do a name bracelet, and this last minute change ended up being my favorite part of the cake! The cake made it to Deland safely, and I'm sure Austin was thrilled that he didn't have to drive this time. :) Everyone loved the cake, and Jessica made sure everyone knew that the entire thing (even the accessories) were edible (a lot of the cake decoraters on TV are actually decorating styrofoam). Even though the mistakes on the cake GLARE at me, I was proud of how it turned out! :)

Madi and I were exhaused from a rough night of little sleep...can you tell we are forcing ourselves to stay awake at the baby shower? :)

Once we got home to Daddy and Emily, we dressed the girls in their long sleeved Halloween shirts (yes, it was 90 degrees) and went to the pumpkin patch. Emily was not thrilled about sitting next to Madi. Once Madi tried to climb on her, we got this expression of "Ewwww.....she touched me!!!" :)

Whew! I'm tired all over again just typing about it!!! :)