In part to afford our eldest the opportunity to spend her birthday money, and in part to give W a few hours rest from the children, I marched our little gang of trouble makers out into the frosty morning air for a shopping expedition.
We nearly all ended up in hospital - while crossing the road near the bus stop (on a crossing), a car appeared doing at least twice the speed limit. I grabbed all the children and wrenched them backwards out of it’s path, and it slithered to a stop just short of the crossing. The driver smiled sheepishly at me - I’m pretty sure he was worried I was going to put a boot into the wing of his car.
I’m not sure what it is about buses, but our children love them. It’s probably the novelty factor more than anything - or perhaps the height over nearby traffic. Whatever it is, it caused the journey to pass quietly and uneventfully. Anybody who has tried to ferry three small children will appreciate this magical trick…
First stop was at Waterstones - a fantastic book store that the girls rarely get to visit. Our eldest (pictured above) spent ages either fingering the books on the shelves, or sat on the floor reading odd pages.
Little Miss Five and Six spent most of their time reading the first book they found at the big round table in the middle of the childrens area. I’m not sure if this is the behaviour of all small children, but ours do it with everything - the first thing they see is the thing they usually want… unless they see something bigger, more pink, or more glittery of course.
Our final stop - and the one place I didn’t think to take any photographs was the main reason for our trip - “Build a Bear Workshop”. After quite some time deciding, the younger children got small bears with sequined jackets and jeans, and Miss Ten got a fantastic rabbit with the longest, floppiest ears in the shop. Strangely she went for the most “normal” clothing accessories she could find - a polo shirt and shorts…. go figure.
I’ve got to hand it to them - Build a Bear have got everything worked out - we spent ten minutes filling the details for each bear into their computer system. This resulted in birth certificates replete with bows and ribbons, and will no doubt also result in prodigious quantities of spam over the coming months (they now know our email address).
How shall we close this post? How about a greeting from the three new members of our household ? I give you Freddy the bear, Sophie the dog, and Scott the Rabbit…