An interesting morning...

My morning started with this...

She did NOT want to get up and was practically begging for more sleep saying...

 "I just need more time for sleep Mommy...please?"

     We have officially hit the point in her life where she is not happy to get up early for school and actually wants to sleep in. After 5.5 years this is a mixed blessing. Great for weekends, terrible for school mornings. It took about 10 minutes to get her up and moving for school. 

And then the other thing happened. 

Gwen's shoe strap sadly broke...

We had already planned to go out and buy her a few pairs of new shoes this weekend...

Then it dawned on me...the "a few PAIRS" part... 

Gwen has outgrown or slowly destroyed through use 3 pairs of shoes in the past 6 months. So the sneakers.. that JUST broke were her last pair of well fitting seasonally appropriate shoes.

Mental cussing happened and that is when this Momma decided to get...creative. 

I immediately thought through my options...

Option #1 Bring out the sewing machine and try to machine stitch the velcro back onto the strap. 

Option #2 Track down my hand sewing needle variety pack and hand stitch the velcro back on.

Option #2 Find some type of fast drying glue that would work with the materials.

And then...I noticed the time. *sigh* I have less than 10 minutes to figure this out before the bus comes. Not 10 minutes before it is time to go to the bus stop...so that means we have about 7 minutes before she needs to get her coat and backpack on and head out the door.

Thinking quickly I realized that option 3 was the only viable choice in order to get her on the bus and to school on time. Realizing that this would be a great "quick fix" tutorial to post on the blog I decided to snap pictures of me fixing her shoes. You can bear witness through the magic of my camera phone the horrible-nasty-no-good-THING that happened...

Why yes. 

That would be me stupidly putting Crazy Glue on the strap to try and put the velcro back on.

What is that...that acrid smell?! Surely it is not her shoes... 

See that white wispy stuff there? That is chemical smoke that happens when you put SUPER GLUE on sneakers. The strap as you see is melting...

That's right. 

I melted my daughter's shoe strap. 

So I scoured our shoe shelves and found Gwen's sparkly and falling apart ballet flats. You see, she had worn them so much that the sole of the shoe was slowly seperating from the shoe itself. 

The "quick fix" tutorial pictures completely forgotten by this point...I tested the ballet flats to see if they'd melt when using super glue to attatch the sole back to the shoe body. It didn't melt! Hooray! Success! I almost did my personal happy dance a la 1998...yah know. When it was cool to do that. But, honestly, there wasn't time for celebration. Gwen quickly started putting her flats on....

But. 

She. couldn't. get. them. on. while. wearing. socks. 

GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The socks had to come off so she could barely squeeze her size 12 feet into size 11.5 shoes. But, she just had to deal with it for the day and then as soon as she gets off the bus we would be going out and buying her a new pair of sneakers..and maybe some new ballet flats as well. 

Side Note: Children. Why must they grow so fast!?? Seriously. Gwen, stop growing!!

She ( thankfully ) made it to the bus stop! However, when my husband returned from taking her to the bus stop he was absolutely freezing. It then hit me...if my husband's face was THAT cold...then poor Gwen. Poor Gwen and her exposed feet would be even colder. 

Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. What kind of Mother am I to send my child out into this cold weather with ill fitting shoes and no socks?! Looking at my phone I cringed when I read the weather report...29 degrees, feels like 19 degrees. That clinched it. I needed to go out right this moment and buy her new shoes so that she would be able to play during recess and PE without frozen toes. 

I looked up Target's hours and lucky me, they are open at 8 am! So Henry and I got ready and scooted out the door to buy my poor, freezing cold daughter a pair of sneakers. 

We found some inexpensive ( clearance!! ) sneakers and a really great pair of electric blue ballet flats also on clearance. All in all I spent 14.97 for two pairs of shoes. The sneakers are size 12 and the flats are size 13 (so she could wear socks with them of course!). That way if for some reason the sneakers didn't fit, she could still wear her socks with the flats. Did I mention that the flats were $5?! Yes. I am a deal seeking goddess. ;) 

We got into the school as quickly as we could...

Did I mention it was REALLLLLLLY cold and windy?! Yeah. It was walking in and out of Target that confirmed I was right to buy her some new shoes and bring them by the school. 

Gwen came to the front office and we started trying on the shoes. 

The sneakers were a bust. And that was also when we discovered that she was a 12.5 not a 12. Thankfully I had the size 13 ballet flats to fall back on. She slipped them on and they fit perfectly in the toe box and Gwen proclaimed them "The comfiest pair of shoes ever!" ;) I gave her big hugs, sent her back to class in her shiny new ballet flats with her bubble gum pink Minnie Mouse socks that clashed terribly with the flats. But hey, at least her feet will be a bit warmer. Not as warm as I would like. But it was a vast improvement from ill-fitting ballet flats and no socks. 

Henry and I braved the wind and cold to head home...I made myself some coffee to warm up with as soon as our coats and shoes were off. And Henry played happily with all of the shoes and house slippers strewn by the front door. Yes, I made a mess. But I was a Super Mom, as witnessed by our school's front office staff. I was so happy with my choice to make sure Gwen had what she needed and my advance thinking. Like bringing a pair of socks and buying two pairs of shoes incase on of them didn't fit. =D 

And then...I got a phone call from the school. In the hour Gwen had been wearing her new ballet flats her shoes were stretching and were slipping off. aka The shoes were a touch too big after wearing them and she couldn't keep them on. 

I decided to grab a second pair of socks ( thick ones! ) and go back to the school. Sorry, I wasn't going to go back to Target, exchange the sneakers that didn't fit, and then turn around and buy ANOTHER pair of shoes that may not fit. Gwen would just have to wear two pairs of socks with her flats and get through the day. We would go out and buy some new shoes tomorrow. Yes. That is how I spent my morning. Let us never speak of this again.