LeapFrog Parent Panel

As a parent who is concerned with what my kids learn & play with I decided to join the Leapfrog Parent Panel awhile back & answer questions regarding the Didj game systems that we purchased for Gabby & Braly 2 years ago (was it really that long or just last year? hmmm).  Anyway, each time I answered their questionaire my name was put into a drawing of all the parents answering questionaires for $100 gift cards from places like Walmart, Target, etc.  They just wrapped up the last questionaires about a month or 2 ago & I reveived an email saying that I had won the drawing.  It was actually the 'grand prize' drawing since they were finished with our panel.

I won a gift card for Target in the amount of $1,000!  That's right, not just $100 but rather $1,000.  The email came right before Christmas & they actually next day aired the gift card via UPS so I got it on Christmas Eve when Adam came home from work.  We started making our list of things we could buy right away.  And amazingly enough since our shopping was already done for Christmas & we had purchased most of the toys that we really wanted, we decided to use the money toward home essentials instead of blowing the whole thing on 'fun' stuff.

Now living in the enormous town of Escanaba we have 2 Targets to choose from.  LOL  We either drive 1 1/2 hours to Marquette to shop or 2+ hours to Green Bay to shop.  We decided to head to Marquette after church last week (well now it has been a few weeks ago).  We ate lunch on the way up with the kids.  When we arrived we headed for a quick stop in the bathrooms & then grabbed 2 carts & started looking at things on our list.

Warning: this is going to be a play by play of just what we spent our money on.  Details may bore you so read on if you are brave enough or maybe you haven't heard me gush about our purchases yet & your curiosity has gotten the better of you.  By the way, I'd love to hear what you would spend $1,000 on at Target if you won a gift card.

If you've been in a Target you know they have their own 'Dollar Store' section with all sorts of fun stuff in the bins.  Since it was just after Christmas, the bins had mostly been picked clean.  Some of the ones that were left actually were on sale.  We found a few pairs of Hello Kitty socks for Morgan & continued on right past the womens clothing section, past the mens clothing & right to buying a box of diapers.  We sure do hope that this is the last box we ever have to buy for our family.  Morgan is working on night potty training but hasn't quite been ready to stay dry just yet.

Next came the cleaning supplies which sucked up quite a chunk of our money.  We purchased laundry soap, softner, dryer sheets, dishsoap, sponges, swiffer wet jet refill pads & liquid.  A new half size broom & dustpan.

Then came the toy section.  Like I mentioned before, we had purchased just what we thought the kids wanted & would play with for Christmas so it wasn't hard to just look at everything.  We did however purchase 2 of the same set of Galactic Heroes for Gabby & Braly.  Braly collects them & has several shelves on his walls to display the coolness of his collection.  Gabby enjoys playing with them too but doesn't usually get her own sets.  However, this was a special set.  It had Padme Amidala in a snow coat & was super cute.  So 2 sets were purchased.  Christmas decorations were next & I opted to buy 2 wreathes for our doors next year.  One did not have much in the way of decorations on it so I also purchased some ornaments to glue on at a later time (with the help of my friend).  I didn't think we needed much more in decorations as Adam keeps stating that there really isn't any more real estate in our house to decorate so would I please keep walking.  Well, maybe not exactly that but you get the idea, right?  We did get a few Christmas candy sales.  Like Wonka specialty bars.  YUM!!!

Next was the car section,. We purchased a much needed trash can to hang on the back of the seat in the car which will hopefully deter our padawans to keep the backseat cleaner.  We also found a special document holder for Adam's car so he can use it for work.  And my car was in need of an air freshener as sometimes the kids & I think it smells like some pigs rolled around in the back. lol

As we continued walking we came upon one of the most fun sections of the entire store. Yup, we're electronic geeks!  We ended up purchasing 2 PS3 controllers so that we can finish all the parts of Little Big Planet & look forward to possibly purchasing Little Big Planet 2 (which happens to come out tomorrow since it has taken me quite a long time to actually finish this post.)  We also found a box to hold computer CDs that fits nicely on the shelf of my desk and batteries were not only on sale but if one purchased 3 boxes with special codes one could get a $10 itunes gift card.  So worth it since we use batteries like they are going out of style sometimes.

On to the health & beauty section of the store where we managed to find toothpaste, deodorant, barrettes (the only kind that actually stay in Morgan's baby-fine hair), 2 electric toothbrushes to replace mine that died on me last year, some toothbrush heads for the new electric toothbrushes, lipstick, nail clippers, shaving cream, hand soap, body wash, etc  The list just seems to go on and on and on in this section as there were many needs.

We grabbed a few arm fulls of food such as Nutella (the new natural chocolate peanut butter, actually made from Hazelnuts & super delish!), some ice tea, canned goods, etc.  And how could we forget the kids clothing right?  They managed to get some new undies, leggings for Gabby to use as long johns since the girl is usually cold, & a nice sweater for Gabby.  I decided to take a look at the purses & found one that is a nice dark purple AND has just the right amount of divided spaces in it to make it super functional.  PERFECT!!! I grabbed some jewelry cleaner as I walked past the jewelry counter & then ran back to get a SIGG water bottle for Gabby but found out they must be discontinuing them since they were on clearance & didn't have much to choose from.  We got a water bottle cleaner though & I picked up a grey sweatshirt as I headed back to the checkout counter.

We didn't do too badly in the movie section either.  We picked out a $3.99 VeggieTales movie & How to Train Your Dragon since we all loved it when we watched it in the theater.  We purchased Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing & a checkbook software program as well.

So as you can see, we had a TON of fun spending our $1000 + a little of our own money & we were as practical as we could get with it.  God blessed us immensely and filled the whole back of our car with products that we can use for awhile.

It took us about 3 1/2-4 hours to fill those 2 carts & spend all that money & near the end Braly said to me, "Mom, you have about 10 minutes before I become a dragon."  I've been working with him to tell me when he needs to eat since he gets a headache & becomes very impatient as well as mean & nasty when his blood sugar drops.  I hate to admit it but he actually gets this from me & he is starting to recognize when it is happening so I sent him & Gabby up to the food court to get a bag of popcorn since we weren't quite finished shopping..  And another question we kept getting from both Gabby & Braly was, "Don't you think that 2 full carts is enough? Can't we be finished already?"

If you made it this far you are either my mom, you have lots of time on your hands, were very curious or well...I don't know what. lol Thanks for letting me share the story of our blessing.  It was a lot of  fun for me. Now leave a comment & tell me what you would have purchased with your $1,000 gift card to Target.  Perhaps a new bedding set, video games, books & movies,a complete new wardrobe....

Actually posted on January 17, 2011  And a pic or 2 to come.