School Uniform Shopping - Take Two!

Up bright and early, i was ready for day two and hopefully the final day of our school uniform shopping quest.
Today John was coming with us, and then leaving us to meet Sian and her two once he had to go to work.

We decided to get the worst bit over with first and went into Clarks. 'I hate this shop' John declared after 5 minutes 'Everyone hates this shop' i replied to the amusement of the sales assistant that overheard me. Oops.
Bumping into another mum from the girls school we got chatting about shoe sizes, rates children grow at and what we had and hadnt bought, where we had and hadnt bought it from and before i knew it, my ticket number had sailed past and we were now on Number 32. Our ticket was number 31.
'Dont worry' I was assured 'We'll just serve you next and then number 33 can go after you and so on'.
This sounded simple in theory but in a shop full of frazzled mothers with several children all needing school shoes at once, it was anything but.

Having single-handedly destroyed the shops ticket and queue system amid complaints and hurried explanations as to why i was being served before the lady with ticket number 33 we managed to get the girls feet measured. Tayla is a 2F and Katie a 10G incase anyone was wondering.

We were then presented with several boxes of shoes. I didnt like any of them on Tayla and only one pair on Katie. Why oh why do they insist on bringing out the patent leather and of course SHINY! shoes for small children? All mothers know that they get scuffed and ruined 5 minutes after being put on and you could almost cry as you watch your money go rolling down the drain as you trudge to yet another shoe shop for replacements.

So feeling quite daring and almost naughty for waiting in line, throwing the shop into chaos, getting the girls feet measured and then deciding to leave the shoes on offer 'To see what i can find next door' (at the local M&S) i looked around for Sophie who was wandering around just a minute ago.

On a quick scan of the shop i realised she was gone. 'Wheres Sophie' I said to John who immediately panicked and began looking around a shop that was plain to see contained no Sophie.

After a few seconds, that actually felt like hours, i spotted a blue t-shirt and brown hair running around outside the shop, in the middle of a busy high street, arms stretched out wide, chasing pigeons.

'Sh*t!' John declared as he legged it out of the shop to grab our devil spawn who had just sent another round of pigeons flapping their wings in panic into the air and i had to agree.

God only knows what could have happened to her in this day and age, and thank god it hadnt.

After a brief row about who the worst parent was, we went into M&S where John loudly wondered why they always put the Children's section on the top floor when alot of people have pushchairs. Fair point i agreed, it would make more sense to put this section on the ground floor. It would save the queues at the lift for a start.

Anyway, i managed to find the missing items from yesterday and got Katie a grey pinafore, and Tayla some white socks. During this time John left us (and his bank card) and went off to work with shouts of 'Bye Daddy!' 'See you soon!' from the girls who managed to be heard all across the shop floor and i completed our purchases.

However i didnt manage to find any better (and cheaper) shoes for Katie so meekly back to Clarks it was where i bought the original pair she had first tried on.

Our next stop was Pizza Hut, where i had promised the girls a lunch buffet. Meeting up with Sian and her girls, we got a table for 7 and settled down.

After the drink orders were done and the waitress agreeing that Sophie and Lacie didnt really need to be charged for a whole childrens meal, we helped ourselves to the buffet one by one.

I was quite impressed with what i found. There was 2 big tubs of hot pasta, 4 or 5 pizzas that were replenished as soon as they ran out, a big pan of garlic bread fingers, and unlimited access to the salad bar which was also restocked as soon as it ran out.

The girls all ate lots, Tayla went up around 3 times or more! But i only managed one plate. I was disappointed in myself but what can you do. I have more of an appetite in the evenings unfortunately as its when im sitting around comfort eating out of boredom and not when im chasing three children around trying to get them seated and fed.

The girls at Pizza Hut today

And Sophie with a bright orange face

When the bill came we were given another surprise. It was around £10 less than we had worked it out to be.

For two adults and 3 children plus 7 drinks it should have come to around £37 something but instead it was £29 something.

At the bottom of the bill we discovered they had taken off 2 more of the kids meals as part of their 'Kids eat free' offer. So we ended up paying for 2 adults, 1 child and 7 drinks all in all. Not a bad lunch if i do say so myself!

After this, Sian decided that her two were driving her too mad to continue on and so took them home while i took mine on a lunch box and school bag hunt. After trying to persuade Tayla that the Rapunzel backpack was a bit too babyish for a girl nearing 8 years of age and to please go with the far more trendy and grown up Fabulous Sharpay or whatever her name is, we ended up £30 worse off in the Disney store but came out with 1 Sharpay Backpack, 1 Rapunzel Lunchbox (Katie) and 1 Rapunzel PE Bag (Also for Katie) but no Rapunzel lunchbox flask to match the lunchbox. Out of stock until next Thursday apparently.

After a minor grumble we headed into BHS where i found Tayla a black PE bag with white hearts on it. Far better than the gaudy looking thing she had picked up and again another lecture about her getting a little older now and therefore needing to aquire a bit more taste in things.

One more stop later and we found ourselves in Next - one of my most favourite shops.

I can spend hours looking round Next at all the girls clothes, and i could easily and happily spend hundreds of pounds in there too for i do love their seasonal ranges! But i had come for one thing only, and i knew i would find it in there - 1 Peppa Pig Lunchbox and Cup for Miss Sophie.

No other lunchbox would have done and no other option would have sufficed, so with more money spent, we now had 2 children with lunchboxes and 1 without.

By now everyone was tired and fed up so instead of trudging round trying in vain to find a decent lunchbox for Tayla i decided to call it a day.

On our arrival home i ordered Tayla the shoes she had tried on yesterday in good old well known supermarket and decided to worry about her lunchbox another day.

So with one child having gone missing, a whole shop sent into chaos, and two angry bank managers later.. we very nearly, have almost finished our School shopping for this year :-D