Saturday, May 8, 2010

I'm Rich

Sadly, not me. This was the excited squeal of my almost 5-year old niece Lulu in Dundrum yesterday after I emptied the change from my bag into her little hand. It's her 5th birthday next Wednesday and after consultation with her Mum (aka Little Sis), it was decided that she needed new shoes as her present. So I arranged a Girls Nadventure Day just for the two of us and called to the house to collect her.

The door was opened by a curly haired child still in her pyjamas who told me that she wasn't going anywhere. The face on her would have soured milk from 100 yards and my heart sank. I could have stayed in my own jammies at home with The Hubs who had taken a day off. So stroppy knickers proceeded to have an epic meltdown and her Mum threatened her with the cancellation of her birthday party if she didn't cop on and get dressed. After some very tense negotiations and rather a few high-pitched screams (from both sides), a smiling child appeared into the kitchen, dressed for a day of shopping. I had also promised her that I would let her have the pick of my nail polish for a manicure, so I brought the box in from the car, opened it and she nearly fell off the chair with delight. Amazingly, she didn't opt for the bright pinks and purples - her choice was a sparkly purple/navy called OPI Ink, so I promised we'd do that when we got back.

We arrived at Dundrum and Lulu showed me the 10c coin she had in her pocket for shopping, so I rummaged through my bag and gave her all my change - she ended up with about €3.50 and kept shouting "I'm Rich" I nearly fell over laughing at her! We started our day in Boots because they had just started a Diet Coke/Nails Inc promo which I heard about thanks to the totes wonderful blog Beaut.ie. It wasn't on the floor, but a quick enquiry produced two bottles - Paris and New York, which also happen to be my two favourite cities. Lulu gave them her seal of approval - ooh they're GORGEOUS. Ahem, they're mine and not yours, little fluffy head. Step away from the bag. She told me that she was the strongest girl ever and carried the bag back to the car for me - it also contained 4 bottles of Diet Coke, so this was no mean feat!

Next stop was M&S to buy Squishy Piggies (Percy Pig jellies) which I had promised her earlier on. We did a food shop to ensure that Uncle Hubs wouldn't starve and she was very impressed by his love for broccoli and baby oranges. Eventually we found the squishy pigs and a bag of Colin Caterpillars also managed to fall into the trolley... how bizarre! We looked at the kids shoes but they were all denounced as being yucky, so we dropped the shopping back to the car, liberated the bag of Squishy Pigs and went in search of new shoes.

We went to Next and there was a whole wall of pink shoes awaiting us. After some horsetrading, and some "pinchy" shoes that were too small, Lulu chose a pair of pink shoes with a rabbit on the front - utterly gorgeous, but they were even nicer in blue. Unfortunately, pink was the victor in battle of the shoes. At this stage, it was time for lunch, so we headed over to The Counter for burgers. Lulu is not a fan of burgers so she chose the toasted cheese sandwich. We did some advanced colouring in with the crayons, making sure that our colours all clashed. I was told that salt is naughty but pepper on chips is lovely and hot (it was!) She refused to try my turkey burger and only ate her sandwich when she saw a toddler of the same name devour a baby burger, fries and a milkshake - she refused to be beaten by a baby!

We decided that a birthday girl needs a birthday cake, so we wandered into Tesco to pick one out. She opted for a white one with coloured stars - and when she discovered there was jam in the middle, she squealed with delight and told the nice lady at the checkout that she absolutely loved jam. Finally, we went to Penneys where I wanted to pick up a new sunhat for myself. She told me I looked ridiculous in all of them and then chose a big floppy gold number for me, pronouncing it beautiful. No point in arguing with her really. For her, we bought some green nail polish - one normal, one with glitter, a new pair of runners with coloured stars all over them and a very funky blue t-shirt. She was absolutely delighted with all her birthday gifts and to be honest they were all very reasonable, so I didn't spoil her too much (anyway I'm her Godmother, so I'm entitled to!!)

We got home to show Mum everything and then the nails were done. She sat still through base coat, two coats of colour and a Seche Vite topcoat and was thrilled with her new nails. God knows what her Dad will say when he sees the state of her...

2 comments:

  1. Ah what a fantstic way to spend the day! Lulu and I share the same birthday :) 'cept my cake will have a LOT more candles, humpf. She sounds like a real cutie.

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  2. I LOVE colin caterpillars! I very much approve of your blog, sweety diet and cute-as-a-button niece!

    xx

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