The Stuff Mart

We went to the Stuff Mart today - Ikea. This was our families first trip to the Stuff Mart. Appropriately as we are pulling into the parking lot the Veggie Tales song "The Stuff Mart" came on. The parking lot is huge and it was full. It took us a few minutes to find a parking space and then a few more to walk in the store.

My goodness! I who like shopping and was the one who wanted to go was totally overwhelmed. I could spend 24 hours straight in that store and still not know half of what is in there. It was complete overload for me. The twins were mesmerized. Their eyes were big and they were just staring. I'm sure it was the store and not the fact that it was 4 pm and they had not had a nap today. Now let me just say they were put down for a nap and chose not to sleep - I don't want you thinking I was a bad mom and not letting my 1 year olds nap. Charlotte and Rehm were in heaven. They both loved the store and can't wait to go back. Michael was the least impressed or phased by Stuff Mart. He did say they have to sell food because it takes so long to get out of the store.

I went to Stuff Mart for one reason. I wanted to buy some of their kid plates, cups and bowls. I didn't have enough plates and such now that the twins are eating real food and knew from friends that the ones at Stuff Mart were the perfect size and of course cheap. I have been wanting to go to Stuff Mart for months but have not found a good time to go. I finally decided I would just order them online and have them shipped since it didn't look like I would ever get there. Unfortunately when I went to the web site I discovered they were only available in the store! So if I wanted these items I had to go to the actual store to get them.

After we had been in the store 30 minutes and still had not seen the famed plates, bowls and cups I was starting to think they really weren't worth the effort. Alas we found them and a cute little rocking toy and after 15 more minutes of winding through the store were able to check out and leave. Now I do have to say we bought 12 plates, 12 bowls, 6 cups, and 2 rocking toys (they stack so storing 2 is as easy as storing one) and spent less than $30.



For those of you who don't have preschoolers the Stuff Mart is actually the subject of a veggie tales movie. It even has its very own title song. The moral point of the this Veggie Tales is contentment - that more stuff will not make us happier. The Stuff Mart is the store in the story that has everything. I really did feel like I was at Stuff Mart today.

As Veggie Tales put it "Happiness waits at the Stuff Mart...All you need is...lots...more...stuff!"
Jenn

PS I just spent 10 minutes on the Ikea website trying to find the rocking toy so I could add a link. I couldn't find it. It finally dawned on me that I have two of them and I own a digital camera, duh!