Who Needs a Playroom When There's Target?

I've always kind of thought of Target as my own personal Mommy playland, but my friend Christy and I recently learned that Target can be the perfect spot for a zany afternoon playdate!

While you finish laughing at me, I should explain that we made the decision while we were high on sodium from Chick-fil-a waffle fries, and it couldn't have been that bad because we went two days in a row with four children in tow. Christy is my New York Girls' Trip partner in crime--nobody is as fun to hang with as her!

Target is usually my refuge, my little Nirvana in the midst of preschooler chaos. I like to go by myself and just wander down the aisles of shoes and decorative plates. But Christy and I discovered that it also has its merits as a playdate spot. Let's review the benefits, shall we?

• Caffeine (Starbucks!)
• Toys (albeit packaged ones)
• Ambient music (it beats the heck out of Dora and Diego in the background)
• No clean up!!
• Carts with restraining devices for out of control youngsters
• Shopping. Need I say more?

Photo opp!

My best and expert advice for a playdate shop?

Caravaning is a must! Two carts make for more room to stash your loot (and kids).

Yeah, it got a little crazy (Natalie looks like she has been possessed by a shopping demon, but that's what I look like when I spot a good deal too), but we hit the Dollar Spot, the Valentine's clearance, and the clothes before anyone had a meltdown. We dangled the promise of a stop in the toy section over their heads for as long as possible.

And then Christy had to run out to her car for a minute, and I got a taste of what life would be like if I had two sets of twins, ages 5 and 3. And that life would be cah-razy. This blog would be called Jack Daniels: A Mommy's Solution to Staying Sane.

So I did my best to entertain the 4 younguns in the toy section, and I kept losing Christy's little boy, Ree, because he wanted to look at dinosaurs and the girls just wanted to have fun (fu-un) because that's what girls do, right?

The only time I had them all together:

They were entranced by this nasty dragon toy that talked and burped. It did not come home with us.

The girls put on dramatic musical and dance performances (with props!) that carried on for several aisles. I am quite sure America's Got Talent will be contacting me soon:

And I had to video them dancing in the princess aisle because not only was it humorous that Natalie tried to sing along to a song from Tangled that she'd only heard once 3 months ago in the theater, but Brianna punched the machine, and Michaela Byrd just dances along without a care in the world.


Of course, there were several "Can I please oh please have this BarbieCarBabyPrincessDollhousePuppy?!" but I ignored those and mostly focused on making sure Ree didn't run off to the hardware section to play with the drills.

And then our good fun was cut short because Christy came back and while we were looking for clearanced soaps, she realized that it was much later than we thought and she had to run home with the kids to meet her middle schooler at the bus stop.

Which is why we went back with Michaela Byrd and Ree the next day during preschool hours.

Because there's not much that's better than good bargains except for good friends!

{Have you ever had an unconventional playdate/Girls Get Together?}