Funday Monday: Dollar Store Swip-Swap

Funday Monday Idea #4: A Dollar Store Swip-Swap

For family night last week, we did something really fun.  We've done this once before but it's been years so it was definitely time to try it again. 

First you draw names and then instruct everyone to be thinking of something they can get the person whose name they drew.  Then you pile into the car, give everyone a dollarn (and some change for tax) and drive into town to the dollar store and sneak around the place trying to find something for your person without anyone else seeing what you're buying. 

Then you pile back into your car and find your favorite ice cream joint (or one you have coupons for! Which is what we did) and get some cones.  Then one at a time you give a hint about what you bought and who it was for.  Then everyone tries to guess.  Next you hand over your surprise to the person it was for. 

Hmmmm, if we did this again, I'd have everyone give their hints and write down everyone's guesses and then have everyone swip-swap their surprises at the same time.  As it was it was pretty obvious whose the last gift was for since everyone had theirs.  But that's okay, we still had a great time.  We laughed and giggled over some of the gifts...

My favorite gift of the night was what Emmett picked up for me.  A six pack of tape.  Yay! Tape! Obviously he has heard me say, "Hey! Who took the tape?" too many times.  And I love it that he bought some for me!  So cute.

I picked out some car air fresheners for my handsome cowboy.  Yep. His truck could use 'em.  Seriously.

Sam found Zoe a lovely gold hair set. A gold headband and gold claw and gold elastics. Mmmmm...gold.

For a few days, Zoe insisted on wearing the headband and claw together.  Lovely, right? I tried to talk her into letting me stick a flower on the headband.  She gave me a big emphatic "No."  Dangit. 

Zoe found a Emmett a plastic dinosaur (he loooooves dinos).  Molly got Weston a big pack of gum (with a little help from mom) And Ryan bought Molly a new box of Kleenex.  You can see why this was the perfect gift Here.

Molly really enjoyed the ice cream.  ha! She kept wanting more and then finally realized she didn't really like the super cold stuff.  So, then if we offered her any she gave her head a big shake.  Of course we all enjoyed that and had to keep offering her ice cream so we could see it. 

And Sam, my crazy funny boy.

If  you're looking for a quick and easy family activity, this might be the ticket. We sure had a great time. Although, it is true, we are pretty easily entertained. 

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Oh and one more thing.  Sweet Andie Jaye over at Crayon Freckles gave me The Versatile Blogger Award the other day. Thank you cute chickadee! :)

This feels a bit like a chain letter, but, what the hay! I'll play along...

So there are rules to this award:

 1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them
2. Tell your readers seven things they don't know about you
3. Award 10 other bloggers
4. Contact the bloggers about their award! 

Alright, then here we go...

Seven things people don't know about me? Urm...this will be hard. I'm super chatty so....I don't know that there is anything people don't know about me!! Well, I'll try.

#1: I like soy sauce on my hard-boiled eggs.

#2: I took a couple semesters of French in college and thought about minoring in it.  I loved French. And I LOVED my French professor.  She even came to my wedding reception.

#3: I have a HUGE fine at the library because I often forget to renew our books and we check out A LOT of books.  I'm going to be calling one of the librarians today to see if I can help out with story time this summer to help with my fine! (she's a friend of mine) And actually, helping out with story time sounds super fun. 

#4: Once, when I was about ten, I was showing off for some new kids in our neighborhood. I climbed out onto a tree branch overhanging the canal (I grew up in southern Florida next to the Everglades) which had gators in it although I couldn't see any at the time....but it was pretty murky. They were probably there somewhere.  It was a deep and wide canal.  Anyways, I climbed out on the branch and it broke. Down into the canal I went. Ack! I was so scared! The water is really murky. So you can only see about, maybe a foot in front of you.  I scrambled out of that water Very Fast. My brother fished my flip-flops out of the water for me. A neighbor wrapped me in a towel. And my parents grounded me from going to our fort of trees, which is where I was doing my Great Performance, for a week.

The canal was right behind our house. I can remember standing in the driveway and staring at the water. And I didn't want to go near it at all.

#5: I'm kind of scared...nah, terrified of being in dark or murky waters and not knowing what is around me or under me.  Ack! I went to Lake Powell on our Senior Trip in high school. I tried to learn how to water ski. The water was not clear. I bobbed out there in the waves trying to get the skis to stay on my feet. They were too big. I had to keep reaching down to put them back on. Reaching down into the murky water.

Finally I lost it and had to get back into the boat! (did I mention the boys kept telling me stories about how catfish the size of VW bugs were in the lake?  Ack!)

#6: When I was little I loved the movie, Babes in Toyland with Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves (long before he was super Matrix cool) I made my older siblings watch it. They were not happy about it. If I had to sit through it now....I don't think I'd be too happy about it either. Sorry Heather, Jeremy and Fred. Those are hours you will never get back.

#7: I'm working on a super secret project for one of my son's birthdays at the end of the month.  It involves robots and I'm really excited about it.

I'm passing the award to some blogs I enjoy...

Simple Simon & Company
Gluesticks
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Helping Little Hands
All Things Beautiful
Somewhat Simple
Scrumdillydo
Handy Man Crafty Woman
The Creative Collage
barefoot in the kitchen