Shopping with the boys

So Tuesday was Bourbon's shopping and lunch day. He kinda got jipped on getting to pick out where to eat lunch, since Alan's company christmas lunch was that day, but I did ask him if he wanted to go and he said yes, so I suppose it wasn't too bad a deal. We had yummy steaks and baked potatos and other good stuff. I didn't have my camera with me that day though! He wanted to start out the day at Penn Square mall, and then hit up Quail springs mall. But, he ran out of money at Penn square, so we eneded our shopping trip there! I had told both boys that we would match whatever money they saved up for Christmas shopping, so they both ended up with $60 in the end.

It was funny to watch them shop. Bourbon was very keen on getting the best deal for the price, picking out good, but cost-effective gifts for everyone. I told them they only had to purchase a gift for their dad, brother and sister, after that it was up to them who they bought for. Bourbon managed to buy Alan, Roman, Starla, Nanny, his step-mom Megan, and even me a gift. He was so sneaky too, we were in walden books, and I was purusing the bargain books up front when he said he was going to go to the back and check out the kids books. A few moments later, he walks up with a walden's books shopping bag in tow and says "Don't look in this bag." Lol. I told him he would have been really sneaky if he just didn't say anything about it at all, and I would have never known. But still, I thought that was pretty tricky, and sweet, of him. We started shopping at 10am and were done by 11:30am. We went and had lunch with Alan at his work, and came back home with time for him to wrap presents before going to get Roman from school.

Roman, on the other hand, was quite different. The day was supposed to be more about shopping for others, with lunch as an added bonus. His day quickly became all about him, with lunch taking up most of the time! He too had grand schemes of all the different places he wanted to shop. He wanted to go to Bass Pro Shop, Quail Springs mall and Penn Square mall. I decided on the first stop of The Vintage Marketplace in midwest city, because I had never been and it looked like a neat place. It's like an arts & crafts swap meet, with dozens of "booths" in one store (all ran by one person, there aren't people in each booth). The store was huge, and it had tons of neat things. Lots of antiques, and crafts and such. The place even had a tea room, which I've decided we must go try sometime! He found Starla's gift there. There was a booth that sold only stuffed animals, and there was a giant Pooh Bear, probably as tall as Starla there. He instantly grabbed it up, hugged it tight and said "Oh! He needs a home!!". So he bought it, and loved on it all day long. He wanted it himself, of course, but since he wasn't allowed to buy anything for himself, he bought it for Starla. It was like that all day, he picked out things he would like rather than what the person he was buying for would like! I kept reminding him, it wasn't supposed to be what he wanted! Lol. I had to make this quite clear when he was purchasing a video game for Bourbon, and he wanted to pick out the games that HE wanted. I knew Bourbon wouldn't even want the games either, so I finally convinced him to purchase one Bourbon had said he wanted. He bought only 3 big gifts, rather than lots of smaller gifts like Bourbon had.

After the marketplace we went to Bass Pro Shop, which had nothing to do with shopping, and everything to do with him wanting to play in "Santa's Wonderland".

Roman was very excited that the place was empty and he now had free reign over all of the toys set up to play with. We had gone over the weekend, and the place was a jammed pack mad house, and we didn't stay long. He had melted down and cried about not getting to play with this race track, but I told him it would be so much better if we came back during his shopping day.....









Now most kids, when you ask them where they want to go for lunch, will say McDonalds, or say Pizza hut. Not my kids. Roman wanted to go to The Melting Pot!! So that's what we did. I love fondue, so he didn't have to twist my arm.....



And of course, if you have ever eaten there, you know it is a lengthy ordeal. It took us 2 hours there, which left us very little time to run to Penn Square where he got Bourbon's & Alan's gifts. And then we got back into town just in time to swing by and pick up Bourbon from school. :)

And this is my early Christmas present. My friend Lori's neighbor was selling this table, which was slightly bigger than the one we had that seated 6. This one seats 8, and has a flat surface, whereas our old table had stripes of grooves in it, which was hard for the boys to do homework, or draw on without putting a book underneath their work. The lady who was selling this also threw in a free Zhu Zhu pet with purchase, which cracked me up. So Starla will get it for christmas.