Thursday, June 13

Our adventure today took us to two malls. The kids and I needed to do our Father's Day shopping, but I was hoping for something a little more fun than just a mall. So, I got online and searched on mall + playplaces. The site for the Atrium Mall came up. The site said that it had a playspace for kids to enjoy. It wasn't too far away, either. I was quite tickled with the find, so off we went. When we got there, I got a call from Julie while we were still in the parking garage. She was calling with the news that the Baker twins had arrived. Congratulations, Margaret & Lee!! The babies are doing well - boy and girl - both over 5 lbs.

So, we went in and rode the elevator up to the 4th floor of the mall. (It was a great glass elevator with which the kids were greatly impressed!) Unfortunately that was the best thing about this mall - in their opinion. The kids space was great if you were a preschooler - so David had a great time! It was a carpeted, enclosed space with several pieces of "little tikes" type play structures. There were places to climb, slide, and tunnel. Davd played for about 20 minutes, then a stinky diaper drew him out. We actually left without a tantrum. We changed the diaper and set out to look for the food court, but there wasn't one. There was a Cheesecake Factory, a Vietnemese place, and a Bertrucci's (Italian-family style). The kids weren't excited about any of them, and I really wasn't either with the three of them and only one of me. So we went into the Borders books and shopped a little and then loaded up and headed back to the mall at Burlington.

At the Burlington Mall, we went straight for the food court - we were all famished!! Then we got all of our shopping done with only a little backtracking. I remembered to bring the stroller this time, so things went much better with David! It was another cool day (high only in the mid 50s), so we came home and had a soup and cornbread night for dinner - which Tim actually made it home for!
Things are really beginning to gear up for him! He has a lot to do from here on out. He says that he'll be studying most of this weekend. His study group is meeting on Saturday to get their group assignments done. I think that it will be a good thing that we'll be in Alabama for the last week of classes for this term and for finals. Maybe the poor guy will be able to study in peace.

After supper, we took a trip an ice cream & sandwich place we found that's fairly close to home. They had mint chocolate chip, so Jamie was pleased. And they had sprinkles, so Rachel and David were pleased. I was pleased with my cookie dough ice cream cone until David decided to take it over. I didn't really need it anyway. He did at least let me have the chunks of cookie dough and the last half of the cone. We took David's ice cream (what was left after eating all of the sprinkles) to Tim, who stayed home to study. This place is a good find because it will be an easy one to get to on bicycle on warmer days!