Woohoo, We Got Out of the House!

I have not been out of the house since Sunday and Lily has been cooped up since Friday. We like being home, but there is something about not being able to go out that makes a person a little stir crazy. So first thing this morning (for Lily at least- she didn't wake up until 10) we counted $3 out of the change jar for each kid and I took them to a surprise destination. Ryan came up with all kinds of guesses as to where we were going, so many I feared he was going to be disappointed with our destination. I was really only planning on taking them to 5 Below. I figured in a store full of stuff for less than $5 they were bound to find something that would be exciting for them. I'm glad I counted out the money before we left because I was tempted to give the each a few more dollars a couple times. Lily was so excited about so many things and Ryan really liked some of the $5 items. I did tell Ryan he could use a couple of his own dollars if he wanted something bigger. He is such a miser though, he wouldn't part with his money. As  matter of fact when we counted out the money this morning he asked me if they had to spend it. I told him he did. What kind of kid doesn't want to spend free money?! My kind I guess. He gets it from me. After all I'm the girl who didn't apply to Hopkins because it had a $50 application fee and I might not even get in. Ugh, I know. I realize now how silly it was. I really want to teach Ryan about value and using his money for things he values instead of squirreling it all away for no particular reason. It's funny the things you think about when you're a parent.
We went through the whole store. Lily found a necklace and bracelet pretty early on and though she saw some other things she liked nothing topped the necklace and bracelet. Ryan took a little longer to decide, that might have something to do with the extreme girlie-ness(is that a word?) of the first area we explored. He eventually found a soft, Nerf type sword that he could use to fight his brother since he has a similar one that came with his Playmobile knight set. Yep, that seems about right, dress up girlie stuff for Lily and weapons for Ryan. I was a little surprised he didn't want a USA soccer ball, but he does already have like 3 soccer balls and I'm sure he'll get another one when the fall season starts. All in all a successful outing.