Who Knew the Bucket of Gold was at KMart?

While shopping for my daughter for Christmas, in particular I was searching for the Barbie Clean Up Pup set; I took a detour and decided to check out the availability at KMart. Normally you couldn't pay me to walk into a KMart, I just don't like them and don't think the quality is all that hot and the service isn't real friendly.

However, Target didn't have Barbie Clean Up Pup and Toys R Us is on the other side of town and the roads were nicely covered with ice and it was LATE. This toy has been on my daughter's "must have" list since just after her birthday when she saw it at Toys R Us. It was on the top of the Santa List and she'd talked to Santa about it specifically.

Miss Fabulous is 5 years old, just turned 5, and seriously BELIEVES. I want to encourage that! Clean Up Pup HAD to happen and I was worried about the stock. While I DO shop early and get this work done before most people start, I've been through the Christmas stock issues in years past and had to order a toy off Amazon for three times the regular price to ensure that Christmas happened for a 2 year old. I am severely OCD with my organization and I worry, actually I stress to the point of back pain and headaches if I'm not prepared in advance and that's WAY FAR in advance.

So I stopped and grudgingly walked myself into KMart after I made certain my doors were securely locked and reassured myself that I could be rewarded with a Starbucks after the visit was over. I searched all the aisles in toyland and finally was happy to see one last Clean Up Pup set sitting on the end of the Barbie section. Mine! Mine! Mine!!!!!!

Okay, so you'd think I'd have walked out after that and I really should have and truly intended to do so. After all, my skin was itchy and I already thought I needed to shower immediately. However, the kid's clothing is on the way out and I happened to notice Princess Tiana pajamas from the new Disney Princess & The Frog movie. Well, my daughter is a HUGE fan and had been eagerly awaiting the movie. The gift she picked out for her birthday was the Princess Tiana gown at Disneyland and she'd already read the book as well.

My skin absolutely crawled at the idea of outfitting my daughter in clothes from KMart (yeah, I'm a suburban snob) but it was Princess Tiana. As I was carefully inspecting the stitching and internally debating whether this was truly something I could deal with and leaning toward a yes, something gaudy caught my eye and I looked up. Princess Tiana pajamas went into my cart and I walked toward it.

I still do NOT believe this - metallic gold and metallic silver pants. For girls. I started laughing out loud (great, now I was the one looking like a nutjob in KMart.) No way, right?! Absolutely the truth - gold metallic leggings and silver metallic leggings for young girls. Not many people were in there but I did turn a few heads with my giggles. They were absolutely horrible! Then I had a thought!

Miss Fabulous would LOVE these! Yup, they were horrible but she would ADORE them! So I bought them - they were only five dollars.

When I got home, Miss Fabulous was already in bed. In preparation of washing the invisible bugs off the KMart clothes, I went to work getting the tags off the KMart clothing as my husband went off to hide the toys in the basement. Bad news, neither gold metallic pants nor silver metallic pants are washable. Okay, these are size six and smaller, how would a parent get away with never washing the clothes of a kid this age? "Spot clean with a damp cloth only, do not dry." I laughed out loud, yeah right! Well, those clothes were getting washed, period.

I sent the husband downstairs with the silver ones to hide for Christmas and I figured I'd give just the gold ones a whirl and see what happened. If I destroyed a five dollar item, I could live with it. I turned them inside out and threw them in the washer. I didn't dry them, just in case. I was relieved when they turned out just fine.

When Miss Fabulous got up in the morning, I surprised her with her new gold pants and she was ELATED! She was so excited that she couldn't wait to immediately put them on and wear them all day. Okay, they actually were pretty darn cute on her - they are absolutely her personality. She's enjoyed a month of showing them off to her preschool teachers, dance teachers, and family and she's really proud of those gold pants. She even wore them on New Year's Eve along with a black shirt covered in sparkly sequins and some big, gaudy diamond jewelry. By the way, silver was equally well-received on Christmas Eve.

So the kid looks like a rock star, literally, and the snob mom got a deal at KMart. I may even think about going there again, someday.