Samantha returns!

Alas, no pictures of this weekend's yard sales. Samantha and I had three little boys to constantly corral and keep safe from running in the street, so there really weren't any opportunities. Nancy was by herself, skivving when she could, in between running various children herself to activities.
So Samantha and I got started around 7:30 in her trusty Prius (no braking issues for us!), thereby demonstrating not only how environmentally-friendly yard saling can be (the ultimate in reusing!), but also how carbon-less footprinting we were! Excellent!
Our first stop was a school rummage sale, for which we had high hopes, and I did purchase a remarkable $2.00 jacket (so fuzzy! so furry!), but not much else. Signage was not proper. They even had a marquee with NO YARD SALE SIGN. Whatever is a marquee for, people? On to the next......
We skiived to THE sale of the day, in an alley off Gilbert Ln in Fairview Heights. The proprieteresses (I am quite sure that is not even a word) had some really wonderful kids' and women's clothing, and Samantha and I spent a good chunk of our morning happily digging for treasures. I had my 7 and 5 year old boys with me, and Sam had her almost 2 year old. We scored 4 jackets for boys, 2 for us, and countless boys' shirts and women's shirts. The kids truly enjoy yard saling if they 1. have company in the form of each other, 2. get toys from yard sales, 3. get to eat regularly, and 4. get to use a potty on demand. I enjoy sharing something I love with my boys; it is a fun activity for us to share, in a different context than just going grocery shopping. They choose to come with me (they have the option of staying at home), and we discuss things like map reading, bargain hunting, and how to decide what to spend their money on. They get to see me in a different light, doing something I really enjoy rather than doing dishes. It is a win-win!
Our next stop was Church St./Douglas Ave., in which I purchased markers, a great playground bouncy ball, and Samantha found an excellent fruit basket for kids, with the fruit made in Italy. Sam is consumer-conscious and doesn't like to purchase items made in China, which was fun for my boys to try to find a truck not made in China for Sam's son.
We passed by a sale I had been to the previous day, which I was not impressed with, so on we sped by, to get to the 10am egg hunt at school. We missed many, many sales yesterday, but alas, duty calls, and we had other engagements.
Sam is leaving again, so it may be just me on tap for next weekend, since I believe Nan is gone as well. I will try to remember to break out the trusty camera to enliven my posts!