The Rainbow(ish) Shoes

The following post was sponsored by Westfield Santa Anita. Check out their sweepstakes page for a chance to win a back-to-school shopping spree. 

Last Thursday, I channeled my inner Cher Horowitz and went to the mall. (ED: Westfield hooked me up with a $250 gift card to finish my back-to-school shopping. Thanks, Westfield.) There were several things on my to-get list including navy cardigans for both kids, new leggings for Fable and jeans for Archer, but my #1 mission was to find and retrieve a pair of rainbow shoes.

As you may know, my kids attend a uniformed (public) school with a rather lax approach to... uniformity. Basically, as long as they're wearing solid navy (or white) up top and solid navy on bottom they're good to go. Socks, shoes, hair clips and the odd accessory are all good.

Fable took the dress code extremely seriously the first day and then as the week progressed, everything kind of went out the window. Her four clips became fourteen clips, her matching socks became once again, mismatched.

The day before school started, I caught Fable grunting while trying to reach by way of tippy toes the side of the fridge. She wanted to hang her picture. She's been doing that a lot lately, taping her masterpieces to the walls without telling anyone and suddenly there's a picture in the hallway or above Revi's crib or next to her bed. A rainbow with a face or a castle under a rainbow or a garden of rainbow flowers, or, or, or...

"This is my new favorite," she said. "So I'm putting it on the fridge."

...Naturally, rainbow shoes seemed not only apropos but mandatory. Unfortunately, last week, when I took Fable out to do some last minute back-to-school shopping, we came home empty-handed. So! I figured, since I was doing a back-to-school shop with Westfield, I'd turn my shopping day into a bit of a rainbow-shoes power mission. 

It was also a new jeans/socks/shirts/sweater mission but also a rainbow one. A RAINBOW ONE!

First stop was H&M because they make Archer's favorite jeans and their kids clothes are always tops and they always have these crazy sock sales and my kids were in desperate need of socks. Especially Archer who refuses to throw anything away even a sock with a giant hole in it because "where will it go? What will happen to it next?"

(The socks now live in a bag in our closet so they don't have to die.)

I picked Archer up a new sweater (that, ahem, fit. Kid's grown three inches in one summer, not even kidding.)

socks: H&M
jeans: H&M
sweater: H&M
Striped shirt (for weekends/free dress days): H&M
Zebra shirt (for weekend, free dress): H&M
Navy Shirt: Arizona Jeans Co, JC Penny

Unfortunately, the amazing rainbow shoes I fell in love with for Fable were not available in Fable's size. 

(Payless didn't have any rainbow shoes in F's size either.)

What they did not have in rainbow shoes, however, they made up in leggings/accessories and the perfect light-weight cardigan. Bam: 

Cardigan, H&M:
Leggings, H&M:
Socks: H&M
floral headband, hair ties/hair clips H&M:
Sunglasses, more hair clips, headbands & snack bag: Sanrio 

My last stop was JCPenny which, have you seen JCPenny lately? It got super nice. Good for them.

Anyway, all's well that end's well because THAT is where I found the rainbow shoes. Well, I found one shoe that was kind of rainbow-y, anyway.  It was a the display shoe, the only rainbowesque size 12 that was left in stock.

But here's the thing about shoes, where there is one, there is usually another. So, naturally I went through every Sketchers shoe box and found nothing. Which was extremely frustrating so I left. I left the shoe area with my one rainbow shoe and wandered smack into a Sephora in the middle of the store (There are Sephoras in the middle of JC Penny now apparently = word) and then walked inside said Sephora to snag myself a little bronzer action. (10 is the best. THE BEST.)

Speaking of 10... Ten minutes later, with my bronzer and shoe in hand, I returned to the shoe area and (of course!) found the second shoe within seconds. I assume it was a guardian shoe angel that found and then placed the long lost shoe in plain view (as opposed to my blindness) because the left shoe was right there where the right shoe first was. Oh, hi.

No shoe box but who needs a box? Down with boxes!

When I went to pick Fable up from school, the shoes were waiting for her. 

"Guess what I found today?"

"Rainbow shoes?"

"They aren't EXACTLY rainbow shoes but they're kind of rainbow-y, do you like them?"

"No... because I LOVE THEM ACTUALLY!"

***

Friday morning Fable wore her new shoes for the first time. Fourth day of school as opposed to first but who's counting?

And today, inspired by Fable, I wore two different shoes. (I don't own a pair of light up rainbowy shoes so this was the next best thing.)

(Fable approved.)

GGC