Happy days are here again.

No more driving into West Little Rock to go to Target.

No more of Jenna mournfully saying "Tah-get not open yet" every time we drive by.

The new Target in Bryant, Arkansas, is open for business.

True to form, I've been there twice in the past 18 hours. I took Julia and Jenna yesterday, where we made our first official purchase of... Band-aids. Julia apparently got carried away on the monkey bars at school and has experienced her first really big blister. Today, both girls are in school so I went back. This time for diapers and Go-Gurt. (I will make an exciting purchase soon -- I promise.) It's really a nice store. Everything is new and shiny and the carts don't have that layer of gunk on them that you find at older stores. Oh -- and today they were handing out store maps with the little Target dog on them. I will forever cherish mine.

The only thing wrong with this brand new Target is that it hasn't been open long enough to have clearance racks. I don't think there's one little red sticker in the entire store. Oh, well. Like all things worth waiting for, it'll happen in its own good time.

And why stop at two Target trips in one week? Tuesday Julia was out of school for teacher conference day. So we took Jenna to her school and headed to West LR for a Target shopping spree. Julia needed some clothes for cooler weather and I had some gift cards that were burning a hole in my purse. Julia was so excited because we never get to shop without Jenna anymore. She tried on clothes and we settled on ...






...this shirt,





...this shirt,












...these jeans,



...and these pants (except in blue):



Yes, Julia's on a blue kick right now. She says it brings out her blue eyes. She's right.






Then it was time for lunch. I told her we could go anywhere she wanted to. I was thinking of a somewhat nice place since we would be able to eat without having to chase Jenna around. But Julia insisted on Sonic. I said, "We can eat anywhere in Arkansas' capital city. Why would you want to sit in the car and eat French fries?"

"Because that would make this the best day of my life," she said.

So there we sat in the car eating French fries and cheese sticks. The perfect end to a perfect day.