The Infamous Target Toy Clearance

As the reports came in this past week from various parts of the Country with people celebrating fantastic clearance hauls from the beloved semi-annual Target toy clearance, I was starting to feel like the last girl invited to the dance. Seriously it was getting depressing. Blog post after blog post of other people's toy finds that would've even made Santa jealous were starting to really irritate me. And I almost said to hell with it, but something possessed me to head out one last time yesterday to see if by some miracle Target would finally come through and put up those dang 75% off signs.

When I walked into Target I wasn't even going to grab a carriage because I was certain that the toys would still be at 50% off, but being the eternal optimist that I am, I grabbed a carriage just in case. Good thing I did. As I rounded the corner I knew I hit pay dirt because there were scores of other mommies pushing overflowing carriages that were stuffed with every kind of toy imaginable. And before I get to the good stuff and tell you about the toys, I want to talk about the women who were buying them. (this of course includes me)

There are certain times of life when a woman forgoes makeup. The birth of a child would be at the top of the list. Unless of course you are one of those fruit cakes who does your face before you give birth so you can look good for your after-birth pictures. The only rosy glow a woman should have after giving birth to a baby should be from the broken blood vessels on your cheeks from pushing the little bundle of joy out. Next, any time of sickness would warrant not wearing makeup. When I'm puking my guts out I'm not really going to care what I look like, so mascara is not needed.  After childbirth and sickness, the next time a woman (at least this woman) might say to hell with makeup could most likely be the Target toy clearance. Go ahead and laugh at me, but I swear that all of the women shopping in those aisles yesterday shared my philosophy.....

When I left the house yesterday I looked in the mirror (not a pretty sight at 8am)  and thought "please God, do not let me run into a reader today". I had no makeup on, my eyebrows were once again looking like two caterpillars in an intense love dance, and my hair was looking a little wild. Not a sexy come hither type of wild either. Wild like I can't find my freakin' hair brush because once again the girls decided to style their dolls hair with it and it's now buried in the bottom of the toy chest kind of wild. Nobody hunts for a hairbrush on a Target toy clearance day.

And just to let you know, God has a great sense of humor because I ran into at least ten readers yesterday (hello Laura!). Ten readers who probably all prayed the same prayer because we all looked like we had just rolled out of bed. Not from the same bed of course because that would just be wrong, but you know what I mean. We all scoured the aisles together looking for hidden treasure. All of us running from shelf to scanner to verify prices. Oohs and ahhs and the occasional words of praise about each other's finds because women need to encourage each other at all times. Even during clearance sales. We are givers that way.

And after we had scoured every shelf, inspected every end cap, and cased out all the other departments for clearance deals, we made our way to checkout with our overflowing toy stuffed carriages to face the register. For people who really love to save money, we sure spent a lot of the green stuff yesterday. But I'm sure that all of us now have overflowing gift closets for every birthday party, Easter basket, and tooth fairy visit for the rest of 2011. Let's see what I found.......

I was beyond excited to find the Barbies you see above and below marked at 75% off. $11.00 for a $44.00 collector's Barbie is a sweet find. It will be hard for me to part with these. Actually I just might keep them.

My Target stores had a huge selection of Disney merchandise on clearance. My girls are huge Disney fans, so when I saw the fairies above marked down to $3.00 I scooped them up. I think this would be an awesome gift from the tooth fairy. Don't you think?

And these mermaid Barbies were another awesome find. The perfect gift for the countless birthday parties the girls get invited to. And they swim! How cool is that?

There was such a wide selection and I bought a little bit of everything. I even found some cute stocking stuffers for next year. We all know how expensive those little stocking stuffers are.....

I found this dragon for my 4yr old nephew. He will love this for his birthday this year.

I'm not sure who this baby doll will be gifted to. She goes from crawling to walking and originally retailed for over $60.00! Toys like this make me crave babies. I swear my ovaries pop eggs when I see toys like this.

Ok, I'm not a Moxie Girlz fan, but my girl's friends are. At least these dolls have somewhat modest clothing covering their bodies. Not those skimpy mini skirts and half shirts typical to Moxie Girlz which makes them look like hookers. Did I really just type that? I meant to think it. I'm not even sure why they bother me so much. I don't know about your girls, but mine strip their Barbies of clothing immediately and they all end up in a naked jumbled heap anyway. All my girl's Barbies look like they've been vacationing at the resort Hedonism, so does it really matter?

Can I tell you that I bought this at full price for Leela's birthday? Sigh.

Final damage? Just shy of $180 for almost $1,000 worth of toys. A good investment which will cover every child's gift I need for 2011. Was it torturous waiting for this sale? Yes, but it was entirely worth the wait. Hitting the Target toy clearance on the first day of the sale was AWESOME! I'm delighted with my finds and can't wait to make a whole bunch of little people smile when I give them these gifts this year. 

Ok, your turn. Did you hit the Target toy sale? What did you find?