Today was the RSPB walk meet up that we’ve not managed to get to for ages. I had full intentions of going but on checking the facebook event saw I was the only one planning to attend. We do love it there and can have a nice time when it just the three of us but none of us were that fussed so we decided not to go today.
Scarlett collected another Sploosh egg (one a day at the moment 🙂 ) and wanted to bake some cupcakes with it and I had a sudden flash of organisation and remembered the kids Badger uniforms were in the wash and both of them had said their shoes didn’t fit. So I dug out the uniforms and got them in the wash and then we headed off shoe shopping. Scarlett also needed winter shoes which can be quite epic as she is quite specific about what she wants. She doesn’t like black shoes or boots (I agree, why wear boring black shoes when you don’t need to), she doesn’t want high heels, she favours boots and knee high ones rather than ankle boots, she doesn’t like pink and doesn’t want flowers, hearts, dangly beads or fluffy or furry things on them. She likes a zip, hates the Ug style furry lined ones and I won’t spend more than about 20 quid on them as I know she often gets through two pairs over a winter and she doesn’t need special width fitting or anything like that. Davies and Scarlett are so infrequently in shoes all day long I have long since stopped worrying about Clarkes shoes being properly fitted.
In previous years we have done well in Littlehampton as they have a cheapish shoe shop and a Peacocks which often has boots she likes. We drove over there first. Sure enough Peacocks came up trumps for some cheap black shoes for Davies for Badgers (fiver 🙂 ) and I got both of them some more pants as they keep running out now washing isn’t get dried as quick on the line. The other shop didn’t have their boots in yet.
On the way I drove down my favourite ‘turning of the seasons’ road. It is a dual carriageway that is tree lined on both sides of the road and on the central reservation with desiduous trees which look stunning as they turn all shades of autumn before shedding their leaves this time of year. The same stretch of road has daffodils and crocuses in the Spring giving an equally colourful and stunning display as winter comes to a close. I used to drive along that road on the way to sixth form college, again on the way to work when I worked in Bognor and then again fairly regularly when we first moved home and used to visit Julie every week. I drew Davies and Scarlett’s attention to it – wonder if they will one day drive down it themselves at this time of year and remember today?
The next town (working our way back towards home now) had two likely shops but neither had anything Scarlett (or I infact) liked, we tried Brantano which had various black ones and a few brown furry and fluffy ones, which she did deign to try on but hated. I got some petrol while we were at that retail park and we headed into Worthing town centre. We found a parking space (sooo expensive, 20pence per 10 minutes :shock:), dashed round all likely places in town, found nothing and were heading back to the car when I diverted past where I thought there was a shoe shop. Indeed there was, with a pair of brown boots that ticked all boxes, fitted and she wore out quite happily – yay! :). We celebrated by popping into Greggs the bakers for something each on the way back to the car.
Back home again I hung out washing and did some camp organising and planning and cleared my inbox of a few things while the kids played lego. Scarlett and I then made her duck egg cupcakes. I don’t know when I stopped calling them fairycakes but D&S have always called them cupcakes. I blame the Cat in the Hat movie 😆 I told her the ingredients and she weighed them out and did all the rest. Consequently they have much home made charm 🙂 but she is better at keeping her eye on things in the oven than I am.
Scarlett did some painting and Davies did some DSing while I did some more online stuff and we all watched a documentary about evolution on aswell. I really like the channels that have a constant stream of good documentaries on and it’s often our default choice.
I went and sat in the van for a little while, theoretically because I wanted some more pictures but once I was in there I just enjoyed hanging out for a while :). The kids did some running around the garden.
Then I got dinner on while Scarlett made some icing and decorated her cupcakes. Ady arrived home and he read to Davies for a while and then it was dinner time. We watched Australian Masterchef while we ate and it was a lovely dinner, finished off beautifully one of Scarlett’s cakes each.