Happy Easter

Yesterday at the start of the Easter weekend, it was cold, wet and we couldn't decide where to go for a family day out. Couldn't face any of the usual places which would be rammed - so D in his wisdom suggested Selfridges! Genius! So after breakfast we bundled Curly Haired Beauty, Thing 1 and Thing 2 into the car and set off to W1. OK so a bit of a bus-man's holiday for me, I have been working in Oxford Street all week...but I would never pass up the opportunity to go shopping. We explained to CHB that we were going to visit the yellow shop (the green Shop is M&S). She got very excited as she loves to shop at the green shop - unknown to me the last month or so D, to give me a break, he takes her to M&S. There he treats her to a chocolate lolly and it also makes her stay put inside the trolley. The roads were not too bad into town and we parked up inside the department store.

Now we always get a bit confused here as the car park floors do not correspond with the actual department store floors. We exited into the Ladies shoe department right by the Loubs and Prada (how very fortunate). The double buggy was able to glide through past the displays and I was thankful Thing 1 kept his hands to himself for once. First stop was the Children's department on the 3rd floor. CHB raced over to check out the Hello Kitty gear - so many handbags, baskets, pencil cases, etc. She kept picking up things to put into her buggy. I kept putting it back onto the shelves. A sympathetic shop assistant told us not to worry - I guess they must get that all the time. We rounded a corner and was greeted by a woman who was doing face painting. A little girl was having Hello Kitty painted on her face. CHB could not believe her luck - she wanted to be Hello Kitty too. There was a short queue of two other little girls, I didn't think CHB would have the patience to wait but actually for the first time ever - no tears, no tantrum but waited quietly and and cooed when the woman tapped a little glitter to add a bit of sparkle to the face. How special is that! The second girl chose to have a rabbit and her sister wanted to be a lion. Both results were pretty good and my goodness that woman was fast!

Now it was CHB turn and she went a little shy when asked what she wanted - I took a video of the make-up/face painting session. She was blown away by the result and and for the rest of the day kept asking for a mirror to check her reflection (so like her mummy).There was an Easter Bunny mooching around - he was a little scary and freaked out the twins - he was a bit on the skinny side and looked like the rabbit in Donnie Darko :-D There was an Easter Egg hunt but that wasn't too hard to do as it involved a woman with a big basket full of chocolate eggs telling kids to help themselves.   An art and craft stall to make your own cards and I think there might have been a balloon person but I was a bit distracted as I had circled back to the Hello Kitty stand to see what I could get for myself. All in all the activities held in the Children's wear department was a success for CHB - she was beaming and very happy. It reminded me of how I loved days out with my own dad as a kid. He used to take me and my sister to Harrods, rather than to the park. We loved going there, to look at stuff, try out the food samples etc. We never bought anything  but were happy to browse and it kept us highly entertained. So sweet CHB is following in my footsteps a true London kid like me.  I'm setting the bar high for her so I can be blamed if she turns to retail therapy to make herself happy.

We headed to the basement for tea and cakes (OK really its lunchtime but it was an Easter treat). We fed the twins their HIPP organics, no heating the jars for them - this lazy mummy has taught them to eat it at room temp. CHB went a bit loopy with her red lemonade and ate all the jam from my scones. We got a lot of sympathetic looks from the other shopper as we fed all three. It was the first time we had really gone out as a unit of five for a whole day. Most times my mum is on hand to help feed, change a nappy, bounce a baby, hold one while you dealt with the other. Several trip to the loos in-between eating for CHB to check on her face and a quick stop at the food hall for cheese. Phew it was a crammed day.