Friday was the last day of the Spring school holidays, here in New Zealand. A day without boys. Dash was off to play at a friend's house; Scrag was off to pre-school (which ran through the holidays).
It was a chance for a mother-daughter day with my one and only Miss Fab.
We don't get those very often. Usually there is a boy or two lurking around, completely uninterested in shopping or cafes or manicures.
So this was our chance.
Miss Fab recorded the whole thing in her special book. Her words and pictures...
We headed to Ponsonby, a place we've never been together. I wanted to check out my favourite furniture store, Early Settler. After 10 years of marriage our bed is due to be replaced. And it needs to be a King Size because of all the visitors we get. A Queen bed just doesn't accomodate five wriggling bodies.
Here's what I drooled over...
And here's what we came away with...
A Bird Bath. I got it for Mr G, because he always talked about his Grandad feeding the birds, and sadly his Grandad passed away last Sunday. {We love you Great-Grandad John. We'll miss you}
I saw this cute super-reduced cast iron bird bath and thought of my sad hubby and so I bought it for him, to go in our front garden which I have been working on. Sadly Mr G was not all that impressed. He called it an ashtray, cos it's kinda small. Doesn't he know that size isn't everything? It's small but perfectly formed. I'm sure that deep down he appreciates it.
Anyhow moving on...
Continuing our girly morning we walked along in the sunshine, holding hands, looking for a nice cafe. We walked for miles. And Miles. Darn it, I never realised Ponsonby Road was sooooo long!
Then we spotted Rocket Kitchen. Mmmmmm. Do they do anything gluten free??
Oh yes they do!! A decadent chocolate cake and some friands and fanciers that looked divine.
No, said fussy Miss Fab. Not interested. I sadly waved goodbye to the friands and we carried on walking.
Now we were thirsty. Ahhh, here's a sort-of cafe. Nothing gluten free, but lets buy a drink, said Miss Fab.
So we sat and drank our chilled drinks in the Spring sunshine and then turned around and headed back to the car. As we passed Rocket Kitchen, I peered longingly at the friands and fanciers and then my heart leapt as Miss Fab shouted, STOP! Let's go in!
So we did.
And got some delectable citrus and almond fanciers. Mmmmmm.
Then we found a bench seat and ate our treats. The sunshine did its thing and then Miss Fab pulled from her pocket, a balloon. She tried to blow it up as I nibbled my fancier and finally gave up and handed me the gooby thing.
"Can you blow this up mum?" she asked sweetly.
Oh yay. I love gooby balloons, don't you?
I wiped the goob off (telling myself, she's my baby, it's baby girl goob, not so bad) and blew up the balloon.
My fun-loving girl then spent 10 minutes chasing her balloon while I snapped pics of her. She is so cool, my girl.
Then I had a brilliant idea. Manicures!! Lets go to St Lukes mall and get our nails done!
Miss Fab squealed with excitement. She is a feisty girl with incredible upper body strength, but you could never call her a tomboy. She loves all things beautiful.
We drove to the Mall with the radio up loud, and I sang along with Tina:
You're simply the Best (girl in the world)
Better than all the rest (of the little girls)
Better than anyone
Anyone I've ever met...
She loved it. (And said I was a good singer. LOL)
But Horrors. At the Mall the manicures were $25 each!! It would cost us fifty bucks to get our nails done together. Yikes. In England it cost us a fiver.
What to do. What to do??!!
"I know," I said, "Lets go and get some nail polish from the $2 shop and we can do our own nails at home!"
Yes, she thought that was a great idea. So we chose three colours each...
Her: Fluoro yellow, fuchsia and hot pink. Luvly!
Me: Silvery white, pale pearly pink and shimmery pastel green.
I set up a nail bar outside, made us mochachinos in my best coffee cups (from sachets, but still) and we did nails. Fun.
Afterwards, with her mummy-love tank all full to the brim, Miss Fab pronounced our morning the best day ever.
Yay for a lovely morning with the Best Girl in the World. xx
Have you ever done a Mother-Daughter Day??
Nice! Good to get girly time in! O and I have been to St Lukes for a manicure together too only to find it cost the earth. Our solution was similar as we headed to farmers, chose nail polish together and then painted nails as we coffeed it up at Starbucks. Good times!
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool Simoney! (Especially that I've LIVED IN YOUR HOUSE and can sooooooo picture everybody doing their thing..)
ReplyDeleteMiss Fab is just that, and you are totally Mummy Fab. Stink pants about the un appreciated gift :( hate that!
I think the bird feeder is gorge. Was just thinking the other day how cool it would be in to have one.
XOXO
Beautiful Mummy.
ReplyDeleteSuch a special day - and love your innovation with the nail polish etc! Would you believe I've neeeever eeeever had a manicure!!
ReplyDeleteaw cute post. Great ideas.
ReplyDeleteSounds PERFECT! I love that she wrote the whole morning down in her book of pictures. So cute! Can't wait until Maggie is a little older and we get to do Mommy/Daughter days like that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day!!! I love it. Its nice to spend time together without an 'agenda' - you know shopping lists etc.
ReplyDeleteLove the bird bath .. want a bird bath...
And doing your nails at home together is so much nicer than those stinky places in the mall lol! Which reminds me.. bought nail polish last week, Im off to get my girls to do their nails :) And to make apple tea in the teapot - thanks for the inspiration!!!
Oh Simone you should print out some of the pictures and make her a wee book about your day :o)
ReplyDeleteThere's something very special about one-on-one time :-) Brought a smile to my dial reading!
ReplyDeleteOh I like what widge called you....Mommy Fab!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what you are
so fun simoney, what a great day!
love and light
Looks like an awesome day Simone! Love the song for Miss Fab! You're a great Mum
ReplyDeleteLove it. Can't wait till my little munchkin is old enough for this kind of stuff!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the RSS link. Working perfectly ;>)
ReplyDeleteOh I love this. Your girl is super cute - I would like to borrow her some time for some girly fun! ;)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds and looks like you had a really fun morning together. Like you said, her mummy-love-tank is now full to the brim. Nice one mummy! X
Wow, what a lovely day you had! I can't wait for mummy-daughter days like this in the future! :o) Every day is a mummy-daughter day for us right now, but they are mostly spent around the house and consist of multiple feedings and nappy changes instead, ha ha :o) I'm loving it though :o)
ReplyDeleteSounds like your day was a little bit of heaven! Emily and I love doing girl things and we try and sneak out as much as we can. She loves it just as much as I do!
ReplyDeleteLovely. We enjoy one-on-one time with our children too - always mixing up the magic with Daddy and one of the girls, or myself with one of them. It might be a movie, a game of mini-golf, or simply a walk on the beach and a cup of hot chocolate. Whatever we do, we treasure the time, as with busy family life it is so very precious to have that one-on-one time. Great post :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day! I really need to do this type of thing with each of my kids. I don't think we get enough one-on-one time. It's just too bad those manicures were $25 each (?!?!?!) but I'm glad y'all still got to paint nails anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteI love having days like that with Maddy. These kinds of memories really are priceless. Thank you for sharing them with us-I feel very honoured!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes always,
Natasha.