More MOA Adventures

On Wednesday evening, we planned to meet my side of the family (minus the family members that are far away) for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. (I won't tell you how old she is, but let's just say, she's older than a monkey. *wink*) Anyways, the Mall of America seemed like a slightly central location since we were all coming from different directions. Chris and I met there early with the kids and did a little shopping for necessities. Caleb kept saying that he wanted to "see the sharks" and I kept assuring him that IF we had time we would. (I was thinking that there would be no time after dinner so we wouldn't go. See? I always need to be dragged there...) Chris side-tracked Caleb by suggesting we all ride on some rides. He was hoping that Caleb would be big enough to go on some adult rides but Caleb didn't seem interested in them. For the first time, however, the whole family got to ride on the carousel---even Hannah! Of course, since we were all ON the carousel, no one was OFF the carousel to take pictures so we couldn't capture the moment. Let's just say, Hannah loved it. I put her on a horse (actually, it was a giraffe) that was stationary and didn't go up and down, so there wouldn't be too much motion for her. She ended up squealing and kicking her legs the whole time. The other people on the ride were laughing at her because she was just so giddy!

After rides, it was time for dinner. We met the rest of the gang at the Twin City Grill. Amazingly enough, I had never been to this restaurant before and it turned out to be great!! I can't wait to go back! Unfortunately, the dinner was not as relaxing as we all hoped it would be. We sat Caleb and Hannah next to each other for some strange reason. Hannah is so grabby these days and we weren't even thinking about how that would effect dinner. When the waiter set Caleb's food down in front of him, Hannah promptly grabbed at the basket, which made all but one of his chicken tenders and most of his fries fall on the floor! The worst part was that it also made a little dish on ketchup fall on the floor----and all over Caleb's pants!! What an absolute mess. I was ready to go home by the end of the meal but Caleb changed my mind. He came up to me and said, "Mom, do you have different pants for me to wear?" I told him that I didn't but we would go home and then he could put on his PJs. He made the saddest face ever, started to cry and said, "But, but, but, I need new pants to wear so we can see the sharks!!!" Talk about heart-breaking. Well, geez, where are we going to get new pants at the mall? (Sarcastic icon entered here!) We ended up buying new pants for him (he picked out red fleece sweat pants for himself---what fashion sense!) and then, yes, we went and saw the sharks. Once again, I was just a push-over. :)

Here is a picture of the family outside of Twin City Grill.


Happy Birthday, Mom!!