Presents.

Last week Niave had a birthday and although I had bought her a few things over the last few months - books, a game a DVD and some new clothes, all she wanted in the whole world was Jessie and Bullseye (her 2 favourite characters from her favourite movie, Toy Story) the only problem was there were NO Jessie's or Bullseye's anywhere to be found in Cape Town - believe me I tried everywhere.

Most people would have given up and moved on to the next thing but no, not me, in desperation we looked online and found some at Argos (actually there were quite a few at a number of U.K. toy shops but the one we chose was from Argos). I made an urgent Skype call to my sister 4 days before the birthday day to try to arrange the quickest route to get it here.

There is an Argos close to where Bev lives so she very kindly went and bought it for us and made numerous trips to the post office to get it sent off (seems post office mentality is universal!).

Of course being only a couple of days till Niaves birthday it was never going to get here in time but we did at least have some other things for her to open on the day - not to mention all the other gifts she got from friends and family including this gorgeous Playmobil Nativity set from Ouma and Oupa, Niave had been eyeing it since January!!

So there was more than enough gift opening to make it feel like a birthday. The fact that her "real present" wasn't here wasn't too much of an issue, she took it very well and was excited that they were coming on an aeroplane.

Bev had also posted her a Jessie dress-up suit which was also due to arrive after the actual day.

But, never fear, my mom had made an outfit for her to wear to her party seeing as she was supposed to be Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl! We bought an ordinary white school shirt and my mom sewed/stuck the yellow and red trim on to look like Jessie's shirt, she was also able to find some cow print fabric to make the leg thingy's (I'm sure they have a name) which she just tied over her normal jeans and I found a hat at Yu-Tom, the local Chinese shop.She didn't know about the other suit until it arrived.

So, there have been many trips to the post office, many phone calls, many attempts to track and trace online and finally the waiting is over!!

On Tuesday parcel number 1 arrived! A Jessie suit!! She was thrilled!

And today we were able to collect the 2nd parcel - there was much excitement, a frenzy of paper ripping and a happy little girl:

It was worth the wait, they are very sweet. Thanks to Bev, Argos, The Royal Mail, the South African Post Office and the 1 and only helpful Capetonian toyshop assistant from Toyzone in Sable Square - I have never been inside your shop but I will make a point of going based purely on the service you gave over the phone which way outdid most of the in store service I got from other toy shops. And that brings to an end an extended fifth birthday!!