Shoptastic Saturday

Yesterday we packed up the kids{that still seems so strange to say} and headed to Sunrise, which is a little over an hour away, to do some shopping at The Sawgrass Mills Mall and Ikea. I had some Gymbucks to Gymboree that I needed to use by the end of the day and I thought I could get more mileage out of them at the Gymboree outlet. We also have had a list of things we have been wanting to get at Ikea, so we thought we would make a day of it and hit them both on the same day.

We headed to the mall first. This was by far the biggest mall I have ever been to in my entire life! They have both and indoor and outdoor mall consisting of both regular and outlet stores. Heaven on earth! 

The map of the mall

I'm pretty sure that everyone had the same plan for Saturday because it was INSANELY packed...

Craziness

We opted to leave our stroller at home so we would have plenty of room in the trunk for the purchases to come. I knew we could rent strollers at the mall but didn't really think about how we would fit 2 kids into it. We ended up with one of these guys...

We sat Jude in his carseat on the bars across the shopping bag portion and then Isabelle sat on the seat where the bag is in the picture and we set off through the crowd. { I got an amazing deal on a tandem stroller online and can't wait until we get it}


We checked our map and located Gymboree then slowly wiggled through the crowd until we made our way there. For those of you who don't know, I have SERIOUS anxiety issues when it comes to crowds. I try to not let it keep me from going and doing but I thought I was going to claw my eyes out by the time we made it to Gymboree. Isabelle, the diva deluxe, wanted to pick out her own clothes of course so we shopped in there while the boys piddled around in some stores across the way. We found lots of good bargains and filled our bag in record time. I was getting things done, going to be in and out! Super proud of our speedy shopping I went up to the register to check out and hand over my Gymbucks. The cashier, in the nicest way possible, says, " Mam, you can't use these at the outlets. They can only be redeemed in the regular store, I'm sorry." WHAT.. The ENTIRE reason we came to this huge, over populated mall was so I could spread my bucks further. I had about 150 dollars worth of clothes in my bag that, hello, I was NOT going to pay full price for, so we walked out of Gymboree feeling defeated{No worries, I was able to redeem them online when we got home}   My spirits were quickly lifted when my hubby, who had been piddling remember, told me he got me a surprise!

Hubs did good

After all that drama, we all had to use the potty. Isabelle and I first, then Luke, then I took in Jude since he had already pottied in his diaper of course. While waiting, Isabelle spotted a carousel she wanted to ride and we snapped a pic of our "date mate" shoes...

Our awesome matching jeweled sandals we found while feeding Jude in the shoe aisle at Target

Isabelle rode the zebra

Feeling revived, we headed back into the mall craziness to see what else we could find. I found this AWESOME store called A'Gaci. At first glance I thought this store was to rich for my blood, but then I spied a sign that said 14.99! That was all I needed. It reminded me a lot of Forever21. Isabelle helped me pick some things out and then gave me her opinion on them all in the dressing room. Meanwhile, Luke and Jude found a corner to park in and waited very, very patiently{thanks for not huffing babe} Here is what I ended up with...

Score

After 4 hours in the mall and only actually making it into maybe 4 stores, we worked our way out of the madness and took a breather while waiting on Luke to pull the car up to get us...

My two little shoppers

Showing off her doll

Jude, doing what he always does

We were off to our next big adventure...

Holy home furnishings Batman! Ikea is a crazy place, plus I'm almost positive that all the people from the mall followed us here. Like I said, I had never been to an Ikea before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. We followed the heard of fellow shoppers in and loaded the kidlets into a cart. We were here for only a few things. Nightlights for the kids, a bookcase for Isabelle's room, one for our living room, and some magnetic knife holders for a pinterest project I have up my sleeve. For those of you who are like me and have never been, let me give you a little run down on how this whole Ikea thing works. First, you get your cart, or if you have 2 kids, carts...

Then you get a map, a large bag, and a pencil. You then are herded into the Showroom, where everything is set up like it would be in your house...

You travel through all the different areas of the home where everything has a tag on it. If you see and item you want, you use your handy pencil and write down the name, aisle, and bin number so you can locate it after you have made it through the whole showroom. Once again my anxiety kicked in and I thought I was going to puke, pass out, or punch someone in the face. List in hand,  you move to the next level to locate your smaller items...

This is where I was working to locate my knife rack. I searched for all of 5 minutes before becoming overwhelmed and saying " Forget it". Luckily, we found the night lights as soon as we walked in so now it was off to find our bookcases which were housed in a self service warehouse...

We located one bookcase with no problem. The other, seemed to be out on the shelf. So after looking it up on a computer and asking 2 separate workers, we found out it was indeed out of stock but there would be more in on Tuesday. Ahhh, this means we have to come back! Now, this place would be awesome on a less busy day, without 2 kids, and not after 4 hours of mall shopping. This trip was like trying to navigate through Dante's stages of hell. Very confusing, anxiety producing, and hot!




After all the excitement of yesterday, we are taking it real, real easy around here today.

Lots of coffee

Trying on mom's new shoes

I told her to make a sassy face 

Working on some letters

Jude, doing Jude

Isabelle's Ikea light

Jude's

Now I am off to order pizza, take a shower, and take a nap. Happy Sunday to you all :)