family day at the mall

  i guess april is family month (there is a more official name, but i can't think of it right now) and the school sent home a whole month's worth of ideas for things you can do as a family.  one of those ideas/events was a family-fest at the local mall with pbs (cat in the hat and super why characters).  i thought that it was worth checking out if only for the walk.  and we were already out early to pick stone for the exterior of our house and for the lowe's build and grow that morning, so why not?

maddux is starting to be awake enough that i feel bad keeping him in the carrier while running errands, so we decided to let him try sitting in the stroller for the first time.  madelyn and mason could not have been more excited!  they were jumping all in maddux' face when we first got in the mall and they noticed that he wasn't in the carrier (where they can't normally see him that well).  once his sister and brother backed off, i think maddux really enjoyed being able to see the action.

mason trying out the coin operated car (our kids still don't really know that these do anything because we never give them the money to make them 'go'.)

mason was really, really excited to see this giant squirrel character.  matt took him over to get a closer look while madelyn and i waited in the line to get her face painted.  mason just kept waving at and clapping with excitement about that squirrel.

meanwhile, madelyn waited in line as patiently as possible to get her face painted.  they were doing some pretty options but madelyn wanted an ice cream cone - with red ice cream of course.

these kinds of things are not matt's favorite.  he hates crowds and really hates waiting in line for free activities.  and that is what this whole even pretty much was.  each kid was given a card and if they completed 10 activities (and collected 10 stickers) they would be entered into a drawing for prizes (to be mailed later).  it was actually a pretty nice event.  not just vendors trying to sell you stuff.  there was that too, but it wasn't the focus.  the kids got to make braclets, make easter crafts, get candy, face painting, s'mores (for ymca camp - pretty cool to toast marshmallows in the mall), say hello to the easter bunny, see the cat in the hat and super why (princess presto was the attraction for madelyn there), and other freebies.

the easter bunny got swarmed when he started handing out peeps chocolates.

madelyn enjoying s'mores while wearing her build-a-bear bunny ears.

maddux had enough fun and went to sleep.

look close and you will see the cat in the hat.  the real sight was matt holding madelyn and mason at the same time so that they could see him.  i had mason on my shoulders for a while but had to put him down to feed maddux.

mason was not ready to leave when we were and tried to hide.  you might notice matt's starbucks coffee which we had to purchase so that mall security wouldn't chase us away from the table anymore.  apparently we were sitting at one of the four tables in the area assigned to starbucks and could not sit there without buying something from them.  we had bought auntie anne pretzels and drinks as a snack before sitting down and weren't thrilled that we now had to buy something else.  oh well.

madelyn with super why (behind her).  i asked her if she wanted to wait in the crazy long line to say hi or if seeing them was good enough.  she said that seeing them was good enough and i snapped a quick picture as we passed by.

mason apparently has a natural gift for corn hole (is that what it is called?).  this kid was just born to throw.

we also got the kids finger printed.  it was more than finger prints.  they weighed them, measured their height, took their finger prints, recorded their voice, and took their picture (in profile and straight on).  then all this information was put onto a cd that we could take home in case there ever came a time when the kids went missing we would have it ready for the police.  the non-profit doing this does not keep any of the information.

then we went home.  that night madelyn threw up before going to bed.  and then i threw up before going to bed.  i am happy to report that madelyn was fine after that.  i on the other hand spent the next 36 hours in bed with what i think was food poisoning.  i can't remember being so exhausted and dehydrated before.  thankfully matt was home on sunday to take care of the kids because i was useless.  love.

UPDATE: we just found out that we won a zoo pass!  now we just need to find out if we can use it to extend our current zoo pass or if we need to find someone we can give it to instead.