The Old Maid

Some of Abby's new threads

A parking lot chock-full of homeless people is not enough to keep the Houghs from treasure hunting, folks.  Let the bums come - we're a pretty determined lot when it comes to vintage clothes and antique oddity shopping.
Back in the day, Goodwill used to be a pretty cool place to shop at.  You could pick up an awesome shirt straight out of the '70s or '80s for $1.  Those days, unfortunately, are long gone.  Down here in San Juan Orlando, Goodwill charges nearly $6 for a t-shirt, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of thrift shopping in the first place, seeing how you can buy a new t-shirt for a few bucks more.

Without getting your allergies all up in a hen-hizzy.

Alayna's new Jem & the Holograms shirt

Anyway, a short drive south into the bowels of Kissimmee, one can find Goodwill's cooler, older brother - Salvation Army.  Their 'street cred' seems to be more legit, and lately we've been hitting that joint up more frequently, because their prices - while still not at the desired 'Value Village in the '90s' level that Kris and I became accustomed to - are much better than Goodwill.

New bookcase (left) in the Study

We went up their recently to pick out some new shirts for the girls, as well as tie-hunt and book scavenge for Yours Truly.  This time around, we managed to find a few some new shirts and skirts for the kids (see Jem shirt above), some snazzy new vintage shirts and ties for Yours Truly, some more books for our ever-expanding Library, some clothes for Kris, some records, and even a new bookcase (as our others are overflowing).

All for $50.  I'm not about to start complaining about that at all. . .

Still a little too big for daily wear, but she's still pretty stoked about using it as a night-gown. . .

 

  

Reading some new books. . .

 

 

The next day, the Cannonball and I decided to run a few errands in order to prepare for Kris' upcoming 31st birthday (not that we go to the extreme with birthdays around here - the kids actually like celebrating our birthdays more than we do).  Then came the actual baking and decorating process, which, with my two kids, was just as much fun as you can imagine.

Behold Operation: Old Maid . . .

The Cannonball drove us to Publix to pick up baking crap for Kris' Birthday.

Flowers from Kris' Mom

The girls each write/draw birthday cards for Mommy. . .

(Abby doesn't know how to write)

Alayna, attempting to capture Kris' likeness

Alayna's card for Kris (dictated to Yours Truly)

The girls decided Kris would appreciate cupcakes for her birthday, so that's what we did.

. . . but there's always a crapload of cakish material left after making cupcakes, so we just made a cake, too.

Leftover Cake.  Decorated.

Abby begins decorating Mommy's Birthday Cupcakes

And this is what Abby would look like if she were a Mexican migrant worker.

(we let her keep this one)

Nap time.

Abby's healthy lunch.

We also picked up a cheesecake so Kris would have something that she actually enjoyed for her birthday.

Trick Candles - the joke that NEVER gets old. . .

Kris gets some assistance. . .

This kid really likes cupcakes. . .

- Brian