sparkly shoes

The mission was simple. The goal obtainable. Ella needed a new pair of shoes. She starts preschool (3-days a week) next Monday and I'm not about to send her back wearing the same old Crocs she wore last year, now completely worn through in the toes.

First mistake. We took the entire family to the shoe store last night, thinking we could make it a fun, family outing. I naively thought that my girls were old enough to appreciate and enjoy their first experience with buying a new pair of shoes for the new school year! This was always a highlight for me. I'll never forget my first experience of my mom buying me a new pair of shoes:

I was 6 years old and heading into first grade. I had my sight set on a pair of Punky Brewster high-tops.* They were the coolest things I ever laid eyes on. From what I recall, though my memory may be a bit fuzzy, was that they were purple and blue, had multi-colored shoe laces, and they sparkled from top to bottom. That, of course, was my favorite feature. I loved those shoes and remember being so excited to wear them at my first day of school, proudly admiring them as I sat in my desk. And so began my obsession with shoes.

Apparently, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

The second we walked into the shoe store, Ella instantly spotted her new loves:

A pair of pink, sparkly jelly sandals.

She was smitten. She grabbed a pair for herself, Britten and even Chloe. Surprisingly, grabbing the right size for all three of them. Had summer just started, I might have considered buying them for Ella. But with fall just around the corner, and Ella's feet growing at least 1-2 sizes a year, I wasn't about to buy a pair of (very expensive) jelly sandals that would only be worn for a handful of weeks (days, even!) before going into storage! It wasn't an option. But try explaining that to a very determined 4 year old who has her heart set on a pair of sparkly jelly sandals.

And so it began. It being a full blown, dramatically intense, wailing at the top of her lungs, meltdown. Instead of throwing herself on the floor, like she had done on many occasions in years past, she decided to run around the store, all the while screaming that "she wanted her sparkly shoes!"

My husband, who was trying to juggle a fussy baby and toddler (or is Britten considered a preschooler?) who claimed to have a "tummy ache" and needed to "go potty really bad,"
tried his best to reel in our screaming preschooler. To no avail.

All the while, I'm dealing with a very sweet, but very new, employee of the shoe store, trying to track down the right size and color of the shoes we did decide on for Ella. What was supposed to be a quick, fun and exciting trip to the shoe store, ended up lasting a treacherous 45 minutes. In the end, the most frustrating thing about the entire trip was that we left empty-handed, with no shoes purchased.

For whatever reason, the store clerk and her manager, probably distracted by my whiny, very misbehaved children, weren't of much help. They couldn't find the right sizes or colors and because their computer system wasn't "working properly," they weren't able to special order the shoes for a free home delivery.

Ugh.

My husband and I left the store completely and utterly drained. Not of money, just energy. Both grumbling under our breath, we vowed to never, ever do that again. Yeah right. We always say that.

To give my girls some credit, it was nearing their bedtime and I think we were partially to blame by expecting them to "behave" while we tried to find shoes for Ella. It's hard to get mad at them in situations like that, when in all reality, we knew better. We really did.

*I Googled "Punky Brewster high tops" to see if I could share a photo of the coolest shoes ever to be manufactured, but I was disappointed and a little surprised by the fact that I couldn't find even one picture.