The Baranko Family: The GAM's Spring Sale

It was the Gurnee Antique Market's first sale since we took over ownership and I'm happy to say it was a huge success! We did a lot of advertising to drive customers to the big event and Matt did a ton of work leading up to the sale getting everything ready and then worked the whole three days, too. It turned out to be the best sale since 2008! Yay!

We had a nice weekend. It was pretty quiet with Matt at the sale for much of it, but Claire did get her first ever haircut!

Here are a few more recent kid updates.

- Claire started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and she LOVES them. It is our special Mommy/Claire time every Saturday morning, which she loves, and then she gets to go swimming, which she also loves. We had her in the Level 1 class since it was her first time taking swimming lessons, and she is in there with all the babies! Ha! She is super advanced compared to those 6 month olds:) No matter! She loves it and will move up to Level 2 next session.

- After our FL trip when we didn't have the baby monitor for Luke we retired it at home, too (I know, our 4 year old no longer has a baby monitor, big news!) Its just that we had gotten used to seeing what he was doing in there, and he had gotten used to being able to "talk" to us from his bedroom. So now if we wants something he has to get out of bed and come out and talk to us. At first this was crazy talk to him, but now he's used to it and every so often we'll be in the family room watching TV and he'll peek around the corner and just be standing there shyly.

- Meanwhile, Claire is still in her crib in her room with monitor. I'm holding on to her being a baby as long as possible. She likes the lamp to be on very brightly now every night, which is so strange to me and I keep trying to turn it off after she falls asleep but she would protest so loudly if she woke up and saw it off that I stopped trying.

- Luke is obsessed with long carrots. They are his favorite snack these days. He likes to peel them with the peeler himself and he especially likes the ti-colored ones that Matt gets for him sometimes.

- Luke has been collecting things from outdoors and stashing his little treasures in his desk drawer. When we got back from Springfield Luke started emptying his pockets and I swear he had 20 acorns in his little pockets. It was like a clown car of acorns! They all went into his drawer of "his collection".

- Claire gets easily scared now by loud noises. Like if Luke makes a "roar" sign pretending to be bear, Claire is legitimately freaked out and runs to the nearest adult saying "scary!".

- Luke has started giving the thumbs up sign instead of speaking when he agrees with something or likes something. For example I told Matt how well Luke did at helping me set the table, and I looked at Luke and said "Right, Luke? You were a big help!" and he just smiled and flashed us the thumbs up signs. I don't know why I think that is the cutest thing ever.

Pictures from the week (I'm so far behind in the blog, this is the week of April 20th)!

New "How to shop" sign and maps

New Help pull cords

We had an ad in Chicago Magazine (not sale related, but I put it in here anyway so you can see our brand look)

C at swimming lessons with the babies

That is her perma smile at swim class

At the mall getting ready for haircuts

Luke is an old hat at this, he did great

Claire was unsure at first, but then was really into it. She did awesome! Her hair is so cute. She really liked the movie/police car chair/lollipop treat combo.

More mall fun

Food court meals are always a novelty

Mall play area next - can you tell it was a cold, rainy day out?

Saturday night we had a fundraiser for Luke's school and I won this beautifu piece of artwork in the silent auction. Luke was so into the space unit that this will be a nice memory of this part of his life, and his little friends! These are solar systems that they painted on these window panes.