Mall fun…and then no fun.

First we stopped at the Lego store just to see if there was anything on Clearance. Just under $200 later…we left there and headed to the play area. On our way out, we stopped to gather the kids at the building station and a mom complimented us on Katie being polite—she said her son dropped a piece and Katie handed it to him, he said thank you, and she said you’re welcome! She said it was very unexpected from a 2yo. YAY KATIE! ๐Ÿ™‚

Then we hit the mall play area. It was complete chaos because most parents are lazy and don’t actually parent their too-old and too-tall and too-aggressive kids and let them RUN WILD while little kids are trying to play in an already-congested area. So we didn’t stay long.

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Then Katie wanted a ride. She loved it! (Sidenote: it was 75ยข—seriously?!)

And then Owen learned the hard way not to beg for McDonald’s. We were near the food court getting them small treats at the customer service kiosk and he saw McDonald’s and wanted it. Tom and I said we were going to Red Robin instead. He kept asking for McDonald’s and I told him we said no and to stop asking. He asked about three more times…so he lost Red Robin. He was not happy about that (and neither were we!) but hopefully he learned his lesson. On the way home he asked about four times if we were going to Red Robin for dinner. Nope, not for lunch, not for dinner, not at all today. (Apparently he didn’t learn his lesson about repeatedly asking for things.)

So it was a mostly good day. ๐Ÿ™‚

BOTH kids wanted their toes painted like mama’s this morning.

Katie loves having her toenails painted and I’ve been promising to do them. She came to visit me as I getting out of the shower, so I figured it was a good a time as any. I sit her on the counter and tell her no wiggling.

“NO wiggling, mama. I no wiggling.” ๐Ÿ™‚

Then Owen came up and wanted his done, too. He’s actually been talking about it ever since I got nail polish in my stocking and he liked the silver glitter polish. I sent him downstairs to find it but he couldn’t, so he said “pink like yours” was good.

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Afterwards he asked if it rubbed off. Nope, buddy, it takes special chemicals. You could see his brain working but he didn’t say anything so it must have been okay.

Trader Joe’s, fish, pizza, escalators, and bouncing!

Tom wanted to go to a fish store to see what they had—and of course the kids wanted to go…so we all went! On the way there, we saw a Trader Joe’s (which we hadn’t been to here yet) so we stopped to pick up a few things. I tried to get Owen to push the kid-sized cart and he was having NONE of it and turned into a grouch. Fine. So then we hit the fish store and the kids loved that but then it was almost lunch time so I searched Yelp for something close by…and we ended up at a really yummy pizza place at the Springfield Mall! Well, then since we were at the mall, we decided to check it out (we hadn’t been there yet, either). And that’s when Owen discovered the escalators. Well, he had been on them before but this time he LOVED them. And he’s old enough now that he will go on them without us…which he did. A few times. ๐Ÿ™‚

Katie wasn’t too sure and held daddy’s hand pretty tight.

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This was Owen’s third and fourth trip around the escalators. Like mother, like son…I remember doing the same thing with my cousins Lisa and Lori (though at a little bit older age) at the Saginaw Mall! ๐Ÿ™‚

And then as we were headed to a store I wanted to briefly look in…we ran across a bouncy place. YES. IN THE MALL. So in we went…and let the kids run wild for 30 minutes! (Contrary to what you see in the pictures, there were a bunch of other kids there!)

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As a last special thing…on our way out, we stopped to get frozen yogurt!

Surprise movie and pizza!

We needed to run to Costco and on the way there I decided to check the movie schedule to see if anything kid-friendly was playing that we could surprise the kids with. And yep! Starting in 10 minutes was Penguins of Madagascar which both kids love (they watch the cartoon at home)!

They were thrilled!

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And then afterwards we hit Costco…and since it was lunchtime…got pizza in the cafe!

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The very last gifts!

There was unmatching wrapping paper under the tree so the kids were curious… Thank you Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim! Both were a huge hit! As Owen was opening his he saw it was a Magic School Bus item right away and commented that “MAGIC SCHOOL BUS IS SOOOO AWESOME!” Tom and I were both like Huh? What? How does he know what that is? (We still don’t know.)

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Charlie and the mouse!

Santa wasn’t going to get the cats anything because Charlie is the only one that eats treats and neither one really play with toys…but they had stockings hanging so I had to put something in them…so I got a bag of mice at the dollar store. Katie had to give the mice to Charlie right away—and Charlie actually played with it!

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Throughout the day, Katie would randomly bring the mice to Charlie but of course Charlie was done. ๐Ÿ™‚

Santa was here! He left bags!

The kids slept in until after 6:30 (normal).

He loved his new shoes—they have FLAMES on them! A size 3 if you can believe it!

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Digging into her bag!

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A Pirate Lego game!

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The Frozen headband had to go on right away!

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TUTU PANTS!

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She got a Yoda ornament and put it right on the tree. She also got a fragile Princess Sofia ornament and of course wanted to play with that one!

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She got her own old iPhone so there are no screaming fights about sharing Owen’s.

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Owen was SUPER EXCITED about getting this dollar store skateboard! He had mentioned a skateboard a few times I didn’t pay any attention because I had already bought all his stuff—but I saw it at the dollar store Christmas Eve when I went to pick up a few stocking stuffers so had to get it.

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From walking in to the last stocking present opened, it was just under 30 minutes! Phew!

Santa is done!

I had bought the extra-large Santa gift bags from Pottery Barn Kids last year (on clearance!), thinking that it would limit me to that many gifts…except holy cow were the bags HUGE! Santa had about 10 gifts for each kid and barely filled the bottom of the sacks (though, granted, none of their gifts were that big)! At least we’ll get to use them for many years to come…

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Opening presents via Skype, part 3!

Tonight was presents with Gramma Jean and Grandpa David!

The kids loved everything, but Katie really loved her Olaf hat and tea set (they’re having a tea party in the picture) and Owen picked the Magformers as his favorite! We ALL loved Owen’s MSU PJs and he was thrilled with his Lego Movie PJs, too!