A lovely day - the melt down

Well it's half term so a week off work and it started with a sore throat, ugh!! Anyway it wasn't so bad today and it was grandmother and granddaughter day as Marc, Sam and a whole host of kids were off to Alton Towers for the day.
Livvy and I spent a lovely day together, apart from major melt down but I'll tell you about that later.
First of all it was into town and ofcourse the day isn't complete without buying a toy so Dora the Explorer came along with us as this is what we bought. Livvy was so cute carrying it around with her all day and talking to it too. She told me to close the car door quickly when we were getting in 'because Dora is cold' she said.
We headed off to Shugborough Hall http://www.shugborough.org.uk/as I heard they had a farm and Livvy wanted to see the animals.
Well now that I'm a senior citizen I got in for quite a lot less, infact it only cost me £3 and Livvy got in free. The lady did give me an orange sticker to wear so that I didn't have to get my ticket out of my purse if I wanted a discount off any meals I had. I did wonder why - because do I really want to be reminded that I am now over 60.
It would have been a cheap day out if it hadn't been for buying lunch and the other little niceties that go along with a day out oh and the presents she wanted to buy for her brothers and mom and dad. This sweet little 2 year old knows exactly what she wants and it made me smile to see her stand back and look along the shelves to see what she could get them. Thankfully she didn't pick anything too expensive.
Shugborough is a beautiful place but if I'd paid the full price I wouldn't have been too happy as there wasn't really a lot happening today.
Everything was going well - but then 'melt down'. We were going through the kitchens, Livvy trying out the old fashioned scrubbing brush on the washing and then we went upstairs - sadly it fell apart after this - sweet little Livvy was obviously getting tired, wanted to be picked up but she was just too heavy for me so when I put her down that was it. She screamed - and I mean screamed and lay there on the floor shouting for 'daddy'. I just walked away in the hope she would have followed - but NO she still lay there screaming. I was determined not to go back for her so stood my ground while people looked at her, tried to talk to her, walked round her, almost climbed over and looked at me as if I was the monster from the black lagoon. She was just routed to the spot and was not gonna move for anyone.
Well after waiting as long as I could she finally won and I lost it - big time, I marched over, picked her up and then, heavy as she was, had to try and find my way out of the place going from room to room until I finally found the stairs down. My sweet little granddaughter just continued to scream.
Finally we got outside and I was absolutely drained. I could feel the tears nipping at my eyes but I told her I wasn't happy with her. She knew she'd won but continued crying and finally we made our way back to the car. I didn't want the day to end on a bad note and when she saw I was nearly in tears she calmly said 'you alright nana' then said 'sowwy'. We'd missed the animals first time around so I got the buggy out of the car and off we went to see the animals. She fed the rabbits, that were very few, we looked at some really smelly pigs and I mean smelly - I can stand most things but this nearly made me sick. Mommy pigs had just given birth and were feeding their young. We saw some guinea pigs and chickens and that was about it for the animals. There was a little play area which Livvy loved so she played on the slide and went on the swings. It was certainly a full day and we made it back to the car. I sat for a couple of minutes and when I turned round she was fast asleep.
Will I do it again - most definitely Yes, she is adorable and it's the first time she's done anything like that to me and she wont be doing it again.

Surprise

Well, I realized I couldn't get the book uploaded that I'd made for mam but I'll keep trying.
Had a lovely surprise the other my son and daughter in law decided to decorate the hall and stairs for me. It's my birthday tomorrow and they thought it would be nice to do something different and I just love it. They chose some wallpaper which was my favourite colour and a beautiful flower pattern in a soft green and brown. It's gorgeous.
I'm off to Shrewsbury for the day then I'm babysitting at night so no big celebration.