Galleria Mall

We made our first trip to the Galleria Mall on Saturday with plans to enjoy many of the free holiday activities, and also let Lorelei give ice skating a try. She has been asking to go for nearly a year now! :)








We got there just before 10 and started out with the play area before it got too busy. It was a big hit with both kids.


Then we did a quick Christmas store errand at the American Girl store, which was PACKED with girls and moms. Brad said..."Oh so there are books about the dolls?" Apparently I need to fill him in on the latest craze!

After our first-ever Five Guys Burgers for lunch (sooo good) we headed over for Lorelei and I to get our skates. She was so excited, but let me tell you I was already breaking a sweat just trying to get our skates on in between the hundreds of others who had the same idea. Public skate starts right at noon, so the masses were right there with us at that time. She was excited that she could master walking with the skates. :) Then when we got on the ice she did okay, and switched between holding the wall with one hand and me with the other, and me holding beneath her armpits (Brad's suggestion as that is what the skating teachers seemed to be doing.) Well about half way around the rink, she said, "I ready to be done Mommy. " :) She was a trooper and did finish the rink, but we have a new wait-until-you-are-five-before-we-skate-again rule. :) I went around a couple of times to try and feel we got a bit of our money's worth.



Didn't get any good skating pictures as Makin was throwing a huge fit that he was not out there skating with us! :) Luckily Brad got him to sleep in the stroller and he took a great nap after that.















Then we headed over to see a mini-circus that they have twice a day each Saturday during December. What a huge hit that was! There were clowns, gymnasts, jugglers, and a magician, among a few others. Kept all the kid's attention and was so fun!

On our way out. Makin was dancing to the music they had going with the tree being lit up to music. He loves it! :)


Then we headed home and got birthday presents wrapped just in time to head over to Morgan's 2nd birthday party! (And Lorelei was doing amazingly well for no nap!)


We all had a great time with pizza and a pizza-size chocolate chip cookie. Lorelei talked their Uncle Wes into lots of fun games and she just loved it. Great way to top off a fun, busy day!

(Side note: Although she did okay without a nap, of course we always suffer the following day! And the weirdest thing was that they had to come get me because she was too sad in Sunday school! Assuming it was just because she was over-tired but we'll see if she still does okay next Sunday. And it is her church program. Can't wait!)