Tuesday 21 October 2014

Emma’s birthday is nearly organised. I went shopping for her today and got most of what we wanted to buy for her.

I stopped at Spotlight first, because she’s mentioned wanting to learn to knit and so I thought some needles and a knitting bag and yarn might make a good present for her. I haven’t been to Spotlight for ages and I really didn’t enjoy it as much as I used to- they seem to have cut their craft section down dramatically so now it’s really a homewares store with a craft section, rather than a craft and homewares store. However despite that I found a sheep bag that I’m sure Emma will love, and I bought her a couple of chunky yarn and a set of chunky needles for her. I’ve got several knitting books saved as pdfs on my computer, so I’m going to get Troy to print and bind the ‘kids knit’ one for her, and then I’ll teach her.

I went to Knox after that because I wanted to go to Toys’r’Us to buy her other things. Although I wandered into Target first and was rewarded by finding all their Lego sets were 20% today. So Emma’s getting the Lego Friends juice bar set, and the ‘Emma’s lifeguard station’ set (so she’ll get the Emma Lego girl) for her birthday, and the Hartlake High Lego friends set for Christmas.

I also bought the fire station Lego set and will put it away for Jericho and Soren as a shared Christmas gift. Troy and I are slightly uncertain as to how a shared gift will work with those two (Jericho is not the best at sharing) but I think it should be okay. The set has the fire station building and a fire truck and a fire helicopter and a small fire vehicle as well as several minifigures, so there’s a lot in it for them to take turns with. Besides, if they didn’t get it to share they wouldn’t get it because it’s too expensive to buy for just one of them.

I went to Toys’r’Us after that because I was going to buy some more of the Shleich animals figures that Emma wanted. That would have made her birthday all done, but much to my disappointment they didn’t have any good ones! They had heaps of horses (which she already has) and almost nothing else. So I’ve had to put off buying the Schleichs- she’ll want the mum, dad and baby set so I’ll leave it until next week and go to Eastland and see what I can get for her.

I also went to Best and Less (haven’t been there for years) and bought some socks and sports shorts for various children who required them, and then I was home by lunchtime. Spent the afternoon doing stuff around home and then went and picked up the kids, who had all had good days at school. It’s nice when I can pick them up and we can just chat and enjoy being with each other.

I’ve made an appointment For Emma and I to get haircuts on Friday. Emma decided she’s ready to let go of all her beautiful, long, thick hair for a while and she’s going to get it cut so that it’s only around her shoulders. This is mostly because despite being almost eleven, she can’t even brush it. It’s too long and thick and so easily tangled that she just can’t deal with it. I don’t mind doing her ponytail and plait for school, but she has to learn to do it herself at some point. And that point is now! So we’ve decided that if she cuts a lot of it off she’ll be able to manage it by herself, and by the time it grows back she’ll be an expert at doing her own brushing and ponytailing. Hopefully, anyway!