Happy Mother's Day

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the awesome moms we know out there! We had a really nice weekend. My mom and Dave came up for a visit. On Saturday we ventured to the Mall of America and went on some of the new Nickelodeon rides there. The merchandising and branding really bothered me though. You actually have to buy your ride tickets in a Nick store now so your kids have to walk past all these t-shirts and stuffed animals with Dora or Backyardigans on them. The park looks like Spongebob and Diego threw up. You can't turn around without being bombarded with some character or television show title. I actually liked it a lot better before when it was just the Park at Mall of America. (Sorry I'm just grumbling...as if our kids are bombarded by enough branding on television and everywhere else!) There are some really fun rides though. And some really incredible ones that I don't think any of us would ever go on in a million years. There's a Spongebob roller coaster ride where the cars go exactly perpendicular to the ground when its going up and its sooo slow and then the drop is practically the same thing. Makes me sick to just think about it. :-) But looked like a lot of fun if you're into that sort of thing. There is also this gigantic skateboard thing that goes back and forth and while you're on it you're spinning around besides. Craziness!




Ella LOVES the Rugrats bumper cars ride. It's her "favorite". The funny thing is that she doesn't try and bump into people, she actually tries to avoid them and she's an excellent driver. I was really amazed by her abilities. I guess all that jeep driving at Bubba's house has paid off! She also went on the Swiper ride and jumped in Spongebob's Pineapple house. Lily liked the more laid back Diego train ride and the Balloon ride. After all that, we had a nice lunch at Tony Roma's and then made our way home after stopping at Build-a-Bear to pick up some pajamas for Ella Bear and Lily Cat.



Ella woke up at 5:50AM on Sunday because she was so excited for "Mommy Day". She even brought me flowers that were hidden in her closet before Andrew was even awake! Purple flowers from Lily and pink ones from Ella. :-) I also received a couple travel mugs to use for my Starbuck's coffee, a Starbuck's gift card, and I get to go to the spa for a little relaxation in a couple weeks when Andrew and I go up to Brainerd for Memorial Day Weekend. My mom also gave me a really cute cookbook called "Kitchen Playdates" with a lot of suggestions for things to do with kids in the kitchen.

Later in the day we had a yummy lunch over at my grandma's house compliments of my Aunt Carol and visited there for awhile before making our way home again. Andrew took my out to dinner at Biaggi's while my mom and Dave entertained the kids for a bit. All in all, a very nice Mother's Day!