Mall Run

We made the rounds on Saturday. Sort of.

It was one of those rare Saturdays when we didn’t have any pressing plans… though there was a meeting at church that we ultimately decided to skip, mostly because the kids hadn’t napped and there was no childcare (it was a meet-and-greet with the potential new senior pastor and his wife, and I didn’t feel like dragging cranky children to church and saying, “Hi, we’re Deanna and the Webmaster, and these are our screaming monkeys, Ane and Tad. Please excuse them, they didn’t nap today.” Yeah. That would have been a GREAT first impression. We went to Sunday night’s meeting instead, when there was childcare for Tad, and Ane could be bribed with a movie on the iPod).

So I had decided that we needed to make the trek into Bellevue and do a little shopping at Bellevue Square.

Why, you ask, when we live within 5 minutes of Alderwood Mall?

Because Bellevue Square has the only LEGO Store in Washington state, that’s why. And that store is all kinds of cool fun.

And because I was looking to get Head’s birthday gift now. I told Friend that I could wrap a present in March, but the odds on actually buying one in March was extremely low. And if you don’t know it by now, the Brain and Head are VERY much into LEGO. And Ane and Tad have more than a passing interest in them.

The store was a zoo, but Tad thought he had entered the Happiest Place on Earth that wasn’t Disneyland. I think we’ll have to take in LEGOLand on our next visit to southern California. Tad fell in love with the Star Wars dioramas and the many different box sets, while Ane focused on the “make your own minifigure” station, which was pretty entertaining. The Webmaster enjoyed looking around and keeping an eye on the kids while I made some phone calls (to Friend, my mother, and Ressis) and picked out some gifts.

We finally convinced the kids to leave the store, but they did have a bit of a payoff – Tad got a clone trooper minifigure keychain and Ane got a keychain with an Ahsoka Tano minifigure. Plus we picked up the Darth Vader/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Chewbacca magnet set – which I didn’t realize were just minifigures that you could remove from the magnet bases. Tad was the world’s happiest boy when we got home and opened up the magnet set, and Vader and Obi-Wan promptly had several lightsaber battles on the coffee table in the living room. The magnets are now way high up on the fridge, out of Tad’s reach, and on the side that faces the oven. Yes, he’s been begging to play with them ever since.

Right outside the LEGO Store was the entrance to Sephora – and the Webmaster went in. Ressis had given the Webmaster a travel kit of really nice facial care items from Sephora for Christmas, and now the Webmaster is addicted. My husband came out of the store with a black-and-white Sephora bag, looked sheepishly at me, and said, “How metrosexual am I?”

“Very, dear. But it’s okay.”

We then progressed to the raison d’etre (in Ane’s mind) for our entire trip to the mall – Build-A-Bear. Ever since her birthday party, she has been dying to go back to buy clothes for Emily Bunny. She had a gift card, a coupon, allowance and tooth fairy money burning a hole in her pocket.

Build-A-Bear was even a worse zoo than the LEGO Store, because there were two birthday parties going on when we walked in, and by the time we left, two more had started. And going to the store was a bit of an ordeal for Ane, whose understanding of money is just beginning – but this was a good and simple way for her to learn a fundamental truth: You cannot spend money that you do not have.

At six years old, we’re already preparing her for future credit cards.

Emily Bunny ended up with (out of the myriads of options) a new lavender “prom” dress (with little wristlet purse and necklace), pink glitter heeled shoes, and a Disney Princess tank top. The line took forever to get through – there was only one person running the registers, and one of the birthday parties was checking out in front of us – but we made it.

After feeding the kids and ourselves a little snack (how do you not spend money at the mall? Pack your own food!), we took a potty break. While the Webmaster and Tad were in the bathroom, Ane and I went into Janie & Jack, where I found an adorable preemie-sized onesie for Rerun, which was on its final clearance. Only time I’ve spent less that $5 at Janie & Jack, let me tell you.

After the potty breaks, the Webmaster and I decided it was time to go. I had remembered why going to Bell Square is such an ordeal – there is SO MUCH STUFF. The mall is huge and sprawling and three levels high, and on weekends it is packed. So, much to Ane’s consternation (she wanted to go to the play area), we left and headed back to our stomping grounds – Lynnwood.

I had to go to Babies R’ Us. There was a baby shower at church on Sunday, and I wanted to take a peek at the gift registry, and look at the preemie clothes. I really have a good deal of boy clothes, thanks to Tad, and I’ve kept everything, but I was looking for a few special things for just Rerun in a tiny size, even if he can only wear them for a few weeks, tops.

I picked up an adorable velour sleeper in light blue with brown bear accents (and little bear feet!), and then found some things for $2 or less on the clearance rack – another onesie and two pairs of pants.

So it was a good shopping trip for everyone. The Webmaster got his facial stuff, Ane had some new things for Emily Bunny, Tad got minifigures to play with, and I had the fun of shopping for Rerun… and Rerun got some little clothes just for him. (I now have to get to the “washing up” part.)

And then the kids didn’t nap. So they went to bed early. Which made it a very nice evening for the Webmaster and me.

It was a pretty good day!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 1:33 am and is filed under Children, Husbands, Shopping Stories.
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