For Real Pretend

I love watching my kids play dress up.  They love the costumes, shoes and accessories.  Up until recently, we had been letting our kiddos play with a set of plastic dress up shoes like this:

Disney Princess Dress Up Shoes

http://www.amazon.com/

These plastic, high heeled shoes were adorable and were a present from my Auntie J for Lucky when she was 2 months old.  Lucky (and Charm) loved playing with them, and I loved that they loved playing with them.  What I didn't love was the near heart attack I would suffer every time they turned their ankles with them on.  I also didn't love the potential for scratches appearing on our hard wood floors.  While at Target, staring at a clearance section of kid shoes, I came up with the perfect solution!! 

I purchased the following shoes:



They were all on clearance for 75% off, and I paid no more than $4.98 for a pair.  The total for these 5 pairs was actually less than $20.  I bought the shoes in a size or two larger than what my kids are currently wearing, so they are not too big AND when they grow into them, they become their real, every day shoes.  By doing this, I never have to pay full price for a pair of shoes, the kids have lots of fun dress up options, the floors aren't being scratched and I'm not having near heart attacks (as much anyway) because they aren't falling nearly as much. 

Everybody wins!!

Here are some more recent additions to our dress up shoe basket:

And here is where we store them when they are dress up 'pretend' shoes:

Here is where we store them when they are everyday 'real' shoes:



And most importantly, here are the shoes in action: