30 Days of Littles Day 25

I keep a stash of presents for the boys Christmas and birthday gifts that I collect from yard sales and sale items throughout the year - it saves money and time and they end up with nicer things of greater value than if I were to pay full price for a gift right before the occasion.

That being said, because of their age they really aren't that into gifts. What I did last year with Judah and am doing this year with both of them is occasionally pulling out their Christmas or birthday gifts one by one for an afternoon of fun. They play with the item, figure out what it does, entertain themselves for a few hours and then I put it back away - then come Christmas morning they'll KNOW what their present is and actually be excited about the gift =)

Yard Sale Finds - Present Edition

As promised, here is a sneak peak at a few of the items I have picked up and am saving to use for Judah's birthday or Christmas gifts:

Our new favorite book. Check out the image below - one of the bad guys in the book is a fruit fly! How cute is that?!



I have also picked up a collection of Dr. Seuss books at .25 cents a piece.
And I was THRILLED to find this Bill Peet book at a yard sale. I loved Bill Peet growing up. Highly recommend his books!

I got two veggie tale dvds for .50 cents a piece.

We picked up this bike with training wheels for $5. We need to clean it up a little bit, but it was in great shape!
I think this horn will be his favorite part of the bike :)

We need to find a better hiding place for it! Everytime he sees it in the garage he asks to sit on it - he is pretty close to being able to ride it right now - his legs are long enough to peddle and he puts in a good effort to make it move! I think it'll be perfect for him at Christmas!


This is my favorite item - I even played with it while taking pictures! It is a Melissa and Doug item, and it came with a wooden car garage, which I didn't take pictures of. It was .50 cents.
A large collection of road signs:


There would have been a serious accident if that yield sign hadn't been there to save the day!

The trees didn't come with the set, but they work well, and so I have added them to the set to give him at Christmas time.

You CAN get nice gifts at yard sales.
The total for these gifts brand new would over $150.
The total I spent on these gifts was $9.
All but the Dr. Suess books are in like- new condition (or will be! once we clean the bike :)

And you can get more than just kids gifts in brand new or like brand new condition at yard sales, but I can't get into that here. Certain family members read this :)