Day 3: Buying gifts - Some wins and some challenges

When I woke up today I had a mental list of things to do today.  City Center trick or treating (check), getting pumpkins, decorating them, etc.   I literally thought this morning and about when I would make it to Target and then reminded myself that I was on a challenge!  The biggest thing on my mind is that we needed to find gifts for our 2 nieces and 1 nephew as we were celebrating family birthdays with my husband's family on Sunday.

Typically we would have ordered the gifts from Amazon this week, but we set out to find them in Elmhurst!

As we were trick or treating I looked around at the Uptown Shop and saw the Rainbow Loom stuff and I thought "bingo!" as one of my nieces was very into Rainbow loom.  We texted her dad only to find out that she didn't need any Rainbow Loom stuff and that she really wanted and iPad case.  Wha Wha.  I gave it some thought and realized that there really wasn't a local Elmhurst place where I could get an iPad case (is there??).

His 16 year old nephew wanted a gift card - wha wha again.  I actually hate giving gift cards as they seem so impersonal.  I know they are practical, blah, blah, blah.

We decided to gift cards for all 3, BUT to include a small gift that we found in Elmhurst.

First Stop:  A Book Above

I absolutely LOVE a Book Above.  I am surprised that there a still a lot of people who do not know about this store.  It is an independent book store here in Elmhurst.  They are an AWARD WINNING independent book store.

One thing that makes me go here vs. a larger bookstore like B&N is the personalized service you get at A Book Above.  There was a time this past summer where we were looking for books about "listening" (we do have a 4 year old ).  I contacted the owner of A Book Above (Carolyn) and she ordered us a selection of books to take a look at.    The biggest thing is that this is a store where you can not only find popular books, but also books of QUALITY!  They are great stories that are engaging, but also have real value.  I always feel good about what we purchase there.

I also love that she stocks unique books and has a great selection of holiday books.  Our daughter was born on Groundhogs Day and A Book Above was the ONLY place we found a selection of Groundhogs' Day books.  They are some of her favorites (all year long btw).  Today they had a selection of Halloween Books available.

I go there often to find books for our 4 year old, but today, I was looking for a good young adult book for my niece.  The younger kids books are downstairs and the young adult and teen books are upstairs so I have rarely ventured upstairs.  They steered me towards a few authors and I settled on a few books by Kate DiCamillo.  I am excited to see if she likes them.

Of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few more Elephant and Piggie books (Mo Willems) for our daughter.  We are doing the Switch Witch with her this year.  The idea is that if she gives the Switch Witch her Halloween candy she will leave her a present instead. These will be perfect.

Last thing I noticed is that A Book Above is now carrying the Goldie Blox set of toys.  These are great toy sets that encourage young girls to build and engineer.  We have a few of these at home, but I was very excited to see that they had the newest sets that were just released!  I picked up a new set and put it away for Christmas!

Second Stop:  Main Street Candy and Toys

This is another store I love to find gifts.  I will admit that it was easy to find something small for my niece to go with her gift card (Washi Tape Sticker book), but it was a challenge to find something suitable for a 16 year old boy.  I was about the give up when my husband found the Ring Stix.  It is a very cool looking outdoor toy that consists of what looks like 4 swords and a ring.  I won't do it justice so click on the link above if you are interested.  It looks like something every age will love.

So, we were happy that we found some good items to go with the gift cards and that we found them in Elmhurst.  Fingers crossed that they are as excited as we are :)  Stay Tuned...