The Avian Avenue Sidewalk Sale was last weekend. I bought stuff. I ordered from My Safe Bird Store (MSBS) and from Things for Wings (T4W). My MSBS order was small, just a couple of essential things and a few extra little things. My T4W order was my first from there, all toys, and I was very excited about it.

Both of my orders came yesterday. I was expecting the MSBS order, but I was not expecting the T4W order so soon, as the store owner, Danita, gave a warning that orders would probably take a while to be fill orders. Because the Avian Avenue Secret Santa exchange is also going on right now, and Danita had said she got all the Secret Santa things done, I though maybe that's what was in the box. When I opened the box, though, it was both my order and something from my Secret Santa!

I opened both boxes as soon as I could, and I didn't bother even trying to wait until Christmas to open my Secret Santa present.

From My Safe Bird Store, I got food (TOPs Crumplets), a new food dish for Sydney (one that she can't throw on the floor), a new skewer for Digby and Lenore since theirs went AWOL, some finger traps, vine balls, and banana leaf bundles (Lenore's favorite!). The order also came with some freebies--one finger trap toy filled with shredded paper for each bird, and a soap and lotion sample from Quaking Canopy.

From Things for Wings, I got two Busy Boxes, a watermelon platform perch, a Party Explosion, a Pipsqueak, two Simple Foragers, and a Mini Gypsy.

Finally, from my Secret Santa, I got all of this:

And this clue:

From that clue (a single lovebird that isn't very good at playing), I narrowed it down to three people who were participating in Secret Santa that just had one lovebird. I then was able to eliminate one of them because she had said she was SS to somebody on another continent. So that left me with two. I was pretty sure I had seen pictures of one of those lovebirds playing, so I guessed the other one. And I was wrong!

It turns out that my secret Santa is Natacha, who has the blog Just Poifect. I had no idea that cute little Piper wasn't into toys. I was almost certain I had seen pictures of him playing, but I guess not. (Thank you again!)

With the addition of the stuff Santa Natacha sent us, the birds ended up getting pretty spoiled.

Irwin's Loot

Digby and Lenore's Loot

Sydney's Loot

I put some of the new toys in each cage today. Sydney hasn't touched her toys, though she showed no fear of her new food dish, Irwin has chewed on the cords his toys are strung on, and Digby and Lenore got right to work on one of the toys Natacha sent them--pics coming soon! (What are those, by the way? They're like the Mini Gypsy I ordered Sydney, but different colors. Is that what they are?)

The winter Avian Avenue Sidewalk Sale is coming up this weekend, and this time I'm actually buying stuff. So far, this is my list:

TOPs Crumplets and one or two food dishes for Sydney from My Safe Bird Store
Toys from Things for Wings--I haven't decided which toys yet, but I think this will be where I'll be spending most of my money
Soap from Quaking Canopy

I'm also going to let my parents know that a couple of the things on my Christmas list will be on sale this weekend. I may also add another store or two to my list and spend a little less at T4W. I'll also be ordering something for my secret Santa.

If I had an unlimited supply of money to spend, there are at least seven or eight stores I'd like to buy from, but that's just not possible, especially considering that no fewer than 4 of those stores are in Canada.

The paycheck I receive this week should be bigger than usual because of how many hours I worked last week (black Friday weekend). I also got my last paycheck from the zoo today. It was really small because it was only for one day, but I think I'm going to use every bit of it for the birds.