twinkle twinkle little star

A couple of girls have been practicing hard...

mall of america

Remember at the end of last year when it seemed like all Rob did was work, work, work out of town, work late, work, work out of town again...you get the picture?

Well, one of his coworkers in Illinois felt grateful for some help he provided her on one of those late night work sessions, so she gave him some tickets to attractions at the Mall of America that she had won on a radio station. It was very nice of her and now that Rob will be in town for a bit (I'm probably jinxing us now), we decided to cash in on the tickets last weekend.

We got to the mall right away in the morning and started our day with a trip through Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium. 

The girls had been before with Rob, but I hadn't seen it before. It was really cool and I absolutely loved the giant sea turtles. I couldn't get enough of them. The girls thought it was so awesome to walk under all the fish and sharks and other creatures swimming above us. It was certainly a great way to start off the day.

Next, it was time to hit Nickelodeon Universe. We had four unlimited ride wristbands so really we could have stayed here until it closed (not that I ever would want to do that!). The girls first ride choice was the carousel.

Little Pie thought it was so cool she could ride a bunny.

We rode several other rides including a hot air balloon! 

Finally, a trip to Nickelodeon Universe wouldn't be complete without a visit with some characters.

The Backyardigans

Diego and Dora

We also had mini golf passes so the girls attempted mini golf for the first time. Let's just say it was a pretty stressful round of golf. It was hard to explain the rules, remind them how to stand, and keep them from stepping in others shots all the while trying to play ourselves and not keep up the line behind us.

The girls favorite part of mini golf? The hole that had the sound of a flushing toilet when you hit your ball in the cup.

The last passes in our generous packet of MOA tickets were for the Ice Castle exhibit. We did not have enough time to visit it, so the girls and I went back today after we dropped Gramma and Grandpa off at the airport. Of course it was only 18 degrees today, but it was beautiful (and not crowded!)! I'm glad we visited (even if I was apparently the only one who got too cold).

winter

I dislike winter quite a bit. I know I don't live in the right state for someone who dislikes winter, but I'd have to take that up with my ancestors and that would be a whole big thing.

January has got to be the worst month of the year. With the after-Christmas let down, the short gloomy days, the below zero temps, the germs keeping us from going anywhere indoors, the debilitating weather and the I'm so sick of my winter wardrobe complaints, it's a wonder I make it to February without just leaving on a jet plane out of here.

But we are into February now. Once February arrived, I suddenly noticed it's no longer pitch dark before 5pm. The sun seems to be shining more often and it even feels a little bit "warm" on my face. I see a light at the end of the tunnel with our trip to Arizona at the end of the month and when we return it will be March. March! Only two more months of winter after we return! I kid...only one and three quarters months.

With that said, I remember loving winter as a kid. It seemed like I played outside all of the time. I loved building snow forts, sliding on the "hills" at the edge of driveway after my dad shoveled, eating snow, feeling the cold wet snow creeping down my back and inside my gloves.

So it's no wonder Little Pie and Little Bird love playing in the snow too. And now that it's above zero (30 in fact!) and we actually have snow and not rock hard ice, it's been fun to go out and play the last few days.

Little Bird takes after me and eats snow 75% of the time she's outside. We've had the talk about the yellow stuff and the stuff with dirt and gravel in it. I know she just loves the cold on her face.

Just because it's winter, doesn't mean we can't visit the park. Little Pie thought the slide was awesome today because she was all wet, it was all wet and she could zoom really fast down it.

To me, it seems like the last few winters haven't given us the huge, giant snow I remember as a kid. But then again, I was smaller then so maybe it only seemed huge to me. Anyway, we found a pile of snow after the plows came through the parking lot at the park. The girls thought they were climbing a mountain!

But planking in the snow is something these girls came up with on their own. What is she doing???

basketball

We continue to enjoy going to Taylor's basketball games once or twice a week. It's a great activity to get us out of the house in the evenings during a cold cold winter.

The girls continue to be the big superfans of the JV team, with everyone recognizing who they are. The woman taking tickets always has fun stamps ready to give the girls and when we stop for popcorn before going into the gym, whomever is working at concessions always tells the girls to cheer loud for Taylor.

They are always wondering if Taylor has a game and if we are going. We have only missed one home game and when I was wanting to skip a game last week when the temps were below zero, the girls said NO! So we bundled up and headed out. (yesterday when it was zero degrees and snowing, I didn't even bother asking them if they wanted to stay home, knowing their answer would have been NO.)

They've got the routine down and they are actually picking up on the rules and strategy of the game. They know the lingo, foul, free throw, three pointer, time out, half time, defense, steal, etc. They love it when Taylor scores and they let everyone know it (like we missed it or something).

Photographing games is hard. I can't believe I got this shot.

After the JV game is done, the girls always want to know if we are staying for the varsity game. Sometimes we stay for the warm up, sometimes we stay for the first half and last night we stayed for the whole game. They think it is pretty cool to go out on the floor between games or during halftime. 

Put me in coach!

The girls are so into basketball right now that they are are even playing it at home. However, their game goes like this...

They play in our room with no ball or basket. They are each on the Maple Grove team playing against "the white team". They use the alarm clocks in our room as the score board. (Yesterday I heard the score was 10:23 to 10:25.). They go into their rooms and close the door when it's halftime, and then come running back out when half time is over. Little Pie seems to be the high scorer of the team since it appears that she is taking most of the shots. When their game is over they sit on our bed and "watch" the varsity team, cheering loudly. 

...it is so hilarious!

I've had only one concern about all this exposure to basketball. At the beginning of the season the girls asked why only boys played basketball. Yikes! So we managed to go to the a girls' varsity game a few weeks later, which was super exciting. We also plan to take the girls to a Gopher Women's basketball game in a few weeks. Whew...I didn't want them thinking they could only be cheerleaders!