Beanie Babies Galore

Everyday in kindergarten we introduce a letter of the alphabet. We have a stuffed animal or puppet for each letter except I. (I'm not sure what animal the teacher has for X) I told her not to worry, I had a large container of Beanie Babies left over from the Beanie Baby craze of 1990's and I'm was positive we had Iggy the iguana. Both of my kids collected them and if I'm honest I collected a few too. Hubby dragged the cumbersome storage box up from the basement and after opening it many memories came back. I figured if I have to hunt through all of them I would take the time to count them.

The kids amassed their collection over a few years with their two aunts buying some for them as well as grandma and I but for many they spent their own money. Often times I'd go halves with them. It was a good teachable moment about spending and saving money.

There were 20 dogs, 9 cats, 20 birds, 14 bears and many more. All total 134 Beanie Babies and 51 Teenie Beanies that McDonald's had offered in happy meals.
I realize that some people went to the extreme collecting these things. I never looked at them as an investment, I thought that was strange. Yes, I scoured the Hallmark stores and the boys were excited when they found one they didn't have but it wasn't my life's mission. You could always tell when they had a new shipment in, there would be a feeding frenzy of mothers. Not me though, I'm like a hyena and waited until the lions had their fill. I was thrilled when I got the Princess Diana bear, I actually won it in a contest for something.
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My kids always played with them, we never put them up or in plastic bags. I kept them in a laundry basket and we had lots of fun. We'd sort them by category; dog, cat, forest animal, jungle, ocean, insect, number of legs, color, habitat, etc. While looking through them I found Nanook the huskie and remembered how loved he was by my youngest. He took him everywhere.


The purple one in the center is the Princess Diana bear. She has a jewel (a clip on earring ) on her ear that a friend bought at a garage sale for hers and mine. Beanie Babies were a fad and a nice one that wasn't too expensive if you bought in moderation. Young kids could get into it and they weren't tied into a TV show or product, well except for the McDonald's happy meals.