Plastic Shanty Town Expansion

Today was another beautiful day in Seattle! That isn't really a typical start to any sentence around here but the weather has been good for the past week or so. McKenzie and I were headed to the store to pick up some things before lunch when we saw a big sign right down the street that said 'Man Sale' so of course we took a detour. It was a garage sale being run by two men and they had a lot of assorted garage items that men might like. They also had a plastic playhouse for the yard. I stopped and asked them how much it was and then called Matt to make sure he could live with a plastic playhouse in the yard. Then I called my mom and asked what she had paid for a similar house she had purchased for Nathan and Kayla in Chelan. Then we went back to the 'Man Sale' and bought McKenzie the house.

McKenzie's Uncle Chris likes to describe all large plastic items that accompany babies as belonging in a plastic shanty town. Which if you see some peoples houses and yard is a very true statement. At our house we try to control the plastic sprawl to a few select areas. The upstairs landing is officially McKenzie's turf - that's where all the inside toys live along with her books. Outside we have gotten away with only one toy so far - a water table that McKenzie got for her birthday.

Matt was mowing the lawn at home so when he was done we drove back to the 'Man Sale' and picked up the house. When we got home we lifted it out of the truck and McKenzie ran over and went in. Then we loaded it onto our yard cart (one of our best purchases ever - look back a few entries for a picture of McKenzie in the cart) and McKenzie followed us around the house crying because she thought we were taking her house away from her.

We put the house on the patio near the back door where we can't see it from the door or windows and McKenzie spent the afternoon happily playing in her new house. It does need a good once over with the pressure washer but that's the beauty of plastic - just clean it up and it's as good as new.

Here's McKenize playing in her house.




Now about garage sales - I know I have mentioned them in two blogs but I'm not one to ever stop at a garage sale. Typically, I just do the Mill Creek sales twice a year and even then I only drive by and look at large items. I do have to give these guys credit today they were very creative with their advertising - 'Man Sale' hooked me in - I just had to see what it was about and I'm glad I did!