Shoe-La-La

Ask pretty much any woman, and she'll tell you that there is nothing better than shopping for shoes - but who knew that shopping for little girl's shoes was even more fun than shopping for your own.

My friend Blair and I left the kids at home, and had a blast shopping for them at the "big" mall about 45 minutes away. Shopping for clothes for the kids was certainly entertaining, but the real fun was the shoes. Up until now Cara has pretty much worn the leather moccasin shoes called "Robeez" - which are wonderful and comfortable, and do a really good job of staying on little feet (no mean task, I might add) - not to mention that they're really cute. But now that Cara is walking all over the place, especially outside, she really needs tougher shoes.

When we were in Seattle, Grandma and Poppi took her to buy her first pair of shoes at the ultimate shoe paradise - Nordstroms. The pink and brown sneakers they got her have been very popular - and seem very comfortable. We also got her a cute pair of brown mary-janes style shoes - but they ended up being a little big, which became evident when I put them on her and she looked like a Clydesdale thumping around the house. So today's trip was partly to return those shoes and find something else that would be very wearable this fall.

Well, I really shouldn't shop with Blair, because she convinced me not only to return the shoes for another pair - but to buy an additional pair at the same time.

The brown pair was for the exchange - and the silver/gray pair was just a bonus. I wasn't even sure what she was going to wear them with - until we saw the new collection of clothes at Cara's favorite children's clothing store - "Janie and Jack". It was fate. And the silver shoes look so very, very cute on her.

Here they are in action...

We had lots of fun when we came home, as Bella, Max and Cara all gave us a little fashion show of their favorite new outfits

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Here is Max in his new car themed shirt and hat, and Cara in a lavender sweater and blouse with silver trimming.

And Cara, sans pants, showing off her first J-Crew t-shirt (yes, J-Crew now sells kids clothes).

And here is Cara in her lavender blazer, holding her purple jumper, and you can also really see her shoes in the next picture, as she isn't wearing any pants to detract from them.

I have to say that I really haven't enjoyed shopping this much in a long time. I don't know if it was just because we actually had 2.5 hours to actually focus on the task at hand, or just that kids clothes and shoes are really cute - in any case it was a good day.