Gearing Up for Easter and St. Patrick's with Dollar Deals & a GIVEAWAY!

Happy Saturday!  :)  I hope everyone got to sleep in late today!  I woke up early to get in some shopping before I took my mom to the spa for a pedicure for Valentine's (it's the only time I can get her to slow down and get off her feet!)  I NEVER want to be stuck like two weeks ago when I found myself scrambling to find cool supplies for Valentine's Day centers because no one had anything left.  Very sad.  So I said to myself, "Never again!" and I went shopping.  I'm trying to consider it as being proactive rather than being a shopaholic.  :)

So I went to Dollar Tree first.  Here are some things I found:

Easter Grass & Eggs

How cool are these carrot eggs?  I can't wait to use them in the sensory table!

Easter Bunny Headbands & Flower Table Scatter

Yeah, you know we're gonna wear these!  :)  I even got blue bunny ears for the boys and pink bunny ears for the girls.  I'm thinking the kiddos can wear them while digging through the sensory bin and for read/write the room.  Can't wait!

St. Patrick's Day Glitter Shamrocks, Hats, Garland and Green Foam Dice

Yay!  I am super excited about the mini hats.  They come with an attached string so they should stay on my kiddos' heads well.  I was sorely tempted by these headband hats at Party City...

And by these...

But you just can't beat a pack of 5 hats for $1.  Sorry Party City!

Here's my sole Target find:

Cute Cupcake Boxes

Target doesn't have anything out for Easter and I was very disappointed by their dismal St. Patrick's Day selection, but I did get these adorable boxes for only $0.30 each since they were on clearance from Valentine's!  Yay!  :)

The pedicure place is right next to Party City, so I peeked in there for a bit and here is what I found:

Shamrock Pails, Shamrock Cookie Cutters, St. Patrick's Day Stamps, St. Patrick's Day Erasers, and Green/Gold Shamrock Coins

I found A LOT at Party City!  Now of course the only thing that was $1 were the pails and the cookie cutters, but I had a 40% off coupon so it really wasn't that bad.  The shamrock coins were $5 for 100 coins but that's really not bad (considering I spent $9 for only 72 coins at Michaels; going to return those tomorrow!)

And here's what I'm ordering from Oriental Trading:

Black Candy Kettles

Can you believe no one else had these?  Well, Party City has some (and green and black in bigger sizes), but they were out.  So I'll just order these online.

Easter Foam Dice

These look so cute and super fun!  I am bummed that they discontinued their Valentine version.  :(

I'm STILL looking for shamrock measuring cups/scoopers and Easter buckets that are just right.  I am really hoping Target gets more St. Patrick's Day and Easter stuff in soon!  These cute felt bunny buckets from Michael's might do.... except they were so expensive!

SO I'm going to hold off for the Target Dollar Spot and Walmart to get more stuff in!  :)   But I hope you got some good ideas for great places/items to shop for your upcoming holidays.  All of this fun shopping got me inspired to think about my upcoming sensory tables, so expect to see some freebies heading your way!

Lastly, I want to leave you with some news about my upcoming giveaway!  I am almost at 100 Followers (9 away as I write this) and some lovely friends of mine are helping me celebrate with a good old fashioned giveaway!  :)  Giveaway prizes will include contributions from Irene at Learning with Mrs. Leeby, Megan from I Teach What's Your Superpower?, Khrys from Keepin' it Cool in Kinderland, and Kimberly at Live, Laugh I Love Kindergarten.

If you are interested in contributing something to the giveaway, please let me know!  I'd be honored!  :)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!