Kelly Goes to Walmart

I believe I've mentioned my hatred of Walmart. Maybe even a few times. I hate it. For lots of reasons other than that when you need a lot of stuff, and you need it fast and cheap, its there. Other than that, its evil.
Well, my children are in need of clothes. Aaric is especially in need of clothes. We got lucky with Mikayla - she has a spring birthday, which means she gets a fresh crop of summery clothes every year. She also has a cousin who is 3 years older than her but the cousin is quite petite and Mikayla is not, so they're only about a size apart. Promise may have finally moved into more 6's now and Mikayla has been in 4's since late summer. So size wise, they're around a year and a half apart. Works out perfectly. Also, Promise is, like, the Golden Child to my grandmother and gets tons of new clothes from her every year. Especially more dresses than any little child needs. But the point is, we get a whole lot of hand me downs from the kid, so at the very least, Mikayla is well outfitted in Sunday dresses and play clothes.
Aaric though, didn't luck out quite so much. He was born in late July. Fall clothes aren't out yet, so for his birthday, he gets summer stuff usually. It just seems strange to be buying jeans and cords in July. And there's not a ton of it out yet, usually. Not only that, he has no cousin to get hand me downs from. Well, he does have an older cousin, 3 yrs older to be exact. But that cousin also has a younger brother.
Okay, so honestly, the kids could not care less about clothes. The lesson here is: plan your children to be born just after the start of a new season. There will be a few weeks where the wardrobe is limited, but it works out much better than mid-season. And try to let your siblings have kids first, so that you get hand me downs. It means you have to shop less. Kelly's tips for life.

So, all that said - the predicament here is that Aaric needed clothes for the very very warm days we've had. His size 5 tees are all worn out or shrunken. The shorts are all still fine - probably because he likes to just run around in his underwear so often. (not so much now that we live in an actual neighborhood again, thank you very much) I searched everywhere other than the mall and Old Navy. I wanted play clothes that would look decent for going out. My preference is pretty simple tees either plain or with stripes. A few silk screens here and there is fine, but not a complete wardrobe. And I do NOT wish to pay $10 per shirt! I am not a fan of the big boys' section, I miss the lower prices of the toddler section. So I searched high and low. I found striped tees in sizes 8-16, but nothing in a size 5/6! I did NOT go to Walmart though. Its a last resort kinda deal, ya know? Another problem is an Easter dress for Mikayla. Apparently our options are: very babyish dresses that were cut in a size 4, or dresses taken off the rack in the juniors department, washed in very hot, probably boiling water, then thrown into the dryer on the highest setting, and that process was repeated until it went from Jrs size 3/4 to little girls' size 4. What's up with the skanky little girls' dresses?? I saw a few cute ones, but the ones that were more suited to a toddler were all boring. I guess toddlers are just so darn much fun that we need to dress them down a bit. Yeah, tell that to a 4 yr old who thinks she's Cinderella.
Well, my mom told me on Sunday that she'd seen some tee shirts that were just what I was looking for at Walmart, for under $5 each. So, today, I sucked it up and went in there. I happen to know that its been 2 months since my last trip to The Big W. I was just 4 weeks pregnant, and we were in charge of bringing snacks for Sunday School. We weren't planning to tell anyone that I was pregnant, but Michael accidentally said in front of someone that he was never sending a pregnant woman into Walmart for food alone again. Since my last trip, they've changed a few things. They added a tire center. They painted inside and out. They added some of the hardwood flooring. They rearranged a bit - including moving the McDonald's. I've seen the nicer ones before, but ours wasn't one of them when I was there in January. I think they totally redid the bathrooms too - but I can't be sure since I try to avoid those even more than the store itself.
The point of the story is this:
I bought clothes. George and Faded Glory had very convincing arguments about why I should buy them, regardless of the fact that they are manufactured in El Salvador, China, Egypt, and who knows where else, those are just the ones I noticed checking for sizes. They're arguments were things like "$4.88 for a t-shirt!" and "17.88 for a perfect pink Easter dress for a 4 yr old princess - and you know if you buy me now, you won't have to go through the misery of dragging her to more stores to look at other potentially better ones!" and even "assorted girls shorts and tees for just $3.88 each!" So in the end, my wallet won. It liked Walmart better than Target (which I admit, is really no better, but at least I usually like the stuff better, but not this year!) It certainly liked Walmart better than Kohl's - even the sale stuff.
The shoe hunt is still on though. I found a decent pair of non-flashing, non-spiderman spattered play sandals for Aaric at Target for $12. And I saw the pair of white dress shoes I think I'll get Mikayla at Target - no heel, no diamonds. But at Walmart, the shoes still sucked.
So, I suck. Why can't good quality cute kids clothes that are made in America or at least sold in stores with high business standards cost less? Its not fair. So I shopped at Walmart. A lot. But didn't spend a lot. So that's good, right?