Beach bums...or should I say beauties?

If you have children, and you're the one responsible for clothing them, you know how frustrating of a job that can be. I believe it was Mark Twain that said "Clothes make the man..." but it's Mommy Wade that says "Buying children's clothes is the most frustrating thing with the exception of losing baby weight." Here's why it's a problem....you'd think a 3 is a 3 in any language, right? Wrong. In some stores a 3 really means a 6; or a 3 can mean a 0; or, glory of all glories - a 3 can mean a 3! I basically have a list of each store and know before going in, what size to look for. You think that's a joke? Nope...all of these stores carry sizes that aren't the same as the next store/brand: Faded Glory, Circo, GAP Baby, Okie Dokie (JCP), Children's Place, Sara Togs, Gerber and my all time favorite Carters. And on top of that, stores put out their cute holiday stuff early and rarely have 2 of the same sizes when trying to outfit twins...or get matching outfits for twins AND a big sister! So, what's a Mommy to do? Go shopping at all the stores. And what's a worn out Mommy of three to do? Send a personal shopper out first to do a lookey-loo (and pre-purchase) to limit my, eh hem, window shopping! Ha! "Aunt Kelly" is still in Florida - only a mile or so away from a string of stores providing outlet prices. She headed out earlier this week and scored big on all of the holiday clothing I needed! No lie, when I headed out (with all three girls) this morning to spend the day shopping, all that I apparently had to do was meet Kelly and swap my money for the clothes she bought. It really was like a miracle on 34th Street, or should I say Highway 98! After "shopping", and a little Bass Pro Shop mishap (which put the Grinch right back into my shopping experience), we headed to lunch...on the beach of course! Beautiful weather, gorgeous sunshine...and "Uncle Matt", Kelly's husband, getting to meet the twins for the first time! We ate some good seafood, played in the gulf, built sandcastles, turned Abby into a mermaid, and snuggled with some babies! We ended the day with a safe trip back home and honestly couldn't have asked for more! Maybe I do like shopping...I said "maybe."