And so it begins...

Strolled out at 8:45!
Rolled out at 7:05

Night before school - he was the only one that was excited.

4 years later...

I finally learned how to make sushi. Delish! We were all impressed with my first try.

If you lived here...

...you could have some of these...
...made by that girl.

(you would also be begging for a drink while tears stream out of your eyes)
(jalapeno poppers from the auntie M collection)

Alex's Birthday

1st birthday

breakfast = hotel

lunch = sushi

dinner = TGIFridays

2nd birthday - we were going to have his sleepover/water park party this day, but two of the lil' fellas were sick. We still had the sleepover, cookout and let him open his presents. We just didn't call it a birthday party.

New toys - hooray!

3rd and final birthday = Dirt cake + sleepover + waterpark = fun!

You know the drill.

Dirtcake was delish - but oh, so messy!

Indoor waterpark

Wet, tired, starving boys.

Rides

There is a Nickelodeon theme park in the center of the mall. My kids are still wimps when it comes to rides, but they are trying to branch out.

MOA

These signs pop up on the drive through North Dakota - it means "Pull over and grab a tree!"

Alex picked Sushi for his special birthday lunch. This is called the Caterpillar - it's eel.

I posted the nice picture of Alex - the others are very manly with sushi hanging out of his mouth.

We visited the aquarium in the mall. It boasts that it's one of the largest blah, blah, blah, but every aquarium we go to says the same thing. (even in Oki)

Alex's new shoes from the VANS store.

Mall of America Rocks!

Characters

Ang from Avatar - love him!


This is searwious - the phone is winging!

The Wonder Pets were really sweet and fun!

Sponge Bob Rocks!

The Manning Characters! The two goofy people didn't realize that they dressed alike! I had to snap the picture and show them!

Build A Bear

Alicia is texting Ashley instead of supporting her brother's new addition to his stuffed animal collection!

The pedal in the background will come into play in a few minutes.

Doggie is good to go!

Where did all this stuffing on the floor come from????

My Alex is still in love with stuffed animals. They follow him from room to room in our house and he sleeps in the center of about 20 animals in his bed. (Big A said he was just like Little A when he was a boy.) One of Alex's birthday treats was a new friend. Alex stepped on the cotton injecting machine on accident when he was walking away. It was the funniest thing that I have seen in a long time and it can still bring me to giggle tears when I think about the moment that I saw the cotton shooting across the store and hitting a woman on the backside. (She didn't feel a thing.)

Bloomington

The Light Rail - I do love public transportation. I need a transit from the base to town.

This is our imaginary hotel where the bellhops greet and hold the door open for you. It's across the street from the Target Center which holds the big concerts and sporting events.

Hard Rock!

Taylor Swift will be here in October.

Kings of Leon will be here in September! (I don't know who they are, but Alicia thinks they rock.)

We passed the MN Twins home, but forgot to snap a picture.

Fargo

We made it to the infamous Fargo which is on (as in it takes 1 minute to get to MN) the border between MN and ND. It was a nice little city and we had a great time exploring a new zoo, chuck e cheese and of course the mall. It's all about "the malls" in ND. I guess because they are a gathering place when it's neg 45 degrees for 6 months.

The zoo was adorable and we found some new creatures that we fell in love with. One surprising thing was the bird cage that had its gates open! We were shocked and when we walked through we found out that the birds had injured their wings so they weren't going anywhere.
We went to the lamest ChuckECheese - ever! They are not a big chain up here which is a shame.
It was a nice stop over before our trip to the Mall of America!!!!