Flea Market Finds

Keith and I wait all winter long for flea market and yard sale season to start. Keith is usually looking for tools, while I'm usually just looking. With Bert on the scene, a whole new world of purchasing opportunities has opened up: toys! As Keith pointed out this morning while we debated over buying something, our house is only 1200 square feet, so we don't want it to get overrun by toys. So when we buy something, it has to be in good shape, preferably not battery operated, and have some old-school charm if possible. And, of course, it has to be a good deal. Here's the highlights of this morning's outing.

First up, a huge bag of Lincoln logs. The sticker says $6, but Keith talked them down to $5. Well, it didn't take a lot of talking but it just goes to show it's always worth asking, "Can you do any better on this?" These are already stashed away in the basement for when Bert is big enough for building.

My personal favorite of the day: a mailbox shape sorter. How cool is that? And all the shapes were there so for $5, I was happy. I had a little tin mailbox as a kid. I don't know, I've got a thing for mailboxes.

A walker that plays music, makes lots of noise, and has no old-school charm. What were we thinking?

Fifty cents, that's what we were thinking. And the batteries work so we might have actually made money on this one.

Two bucks for a Fisher Price xylophone, made of metal and wood? We'll take it.

This was actually the first find of the day. It's a minnow bucket and what little boy doesn't need a minnow bucket? I checked it out online when we got home and found that it is supposed to have a second piece inside that appears to be a minnow strainer. Oh well. Three dollars and it would look good on the patio too.

Then we were headed home, quite content with our finds and getting hungry for lunch, and passed by another flea market (which is usually pretty junky) when I spotted the holy grail of backyard toys: the turtle sandbox. (Ok, maybe that's exaggerating but I've always been enamored by the turtle sandboxes. Strange, considering I want to get rid of our real turtle.) Keith pulled over, turned around and we headed back. With $10 left in cash between the two of us, we were hoping it would be cheap. The man who was selling it said, "I don't want to haul it back home. Give me $5." Yes, sir.

Keith had been planning on making a sandbox out of an old tractor tire, but this was in such good shape and for only $5, it hardly seems worth the effort to make one. Plus, he wasn't sure how he would cover the tire sandbox and the turtle comes complete with his shell.

Before you think that Bert is going to be completely spoiled, our plan is to only pull out a new toy every couple weeks. He gets so excited about something new so we'll stretch that out as long as possible. He would just be overwhelmed if we put it all in front of him at once anyway. We may not even need to head out to yard sales this spring after today's haul.

How much fun can you have for $20 (and fifty cents)? A lot, if you're Bert.