Mall of America and Birthdays on the Road

Last October I went to Minneapolis for work for a few days.  You can read about that post here: The Smokies with a side trip to Minnesota.  While I was there I went to the Mall of America and later came home and showed my kids pictures of the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park that is inside the mall.  Ever since then they have been wanting to go there.

After leaving South Dakota we headed to Minnesota.  I was able to go into the office one day while I was there.  It’s always nice to see people I work with face to face sometimes.  I feel very blessed to work with some awesome people that I really like to spend time with.

Jesse’s 10th birthday was that week and guess where he wanted to go for his birthday?  Mall of America of course!  Sometimes people ask me how we do birthdays on the road.  Actually we were never really into the birthday party thing when we lived in our sticks and bricks.  We always preferred to celebrate birthdays by taking a vacation to Disney World because that’s just how we roll.  So now on the road we just try to plan our travels through an area with something fun to do as a family.

We went to Mall of America twice that week.  One day I took the kids to the Crayola Experience in the mall.

I found a Groupon for 50% off and I was able to get in free with my homeschool teacher ID.  What could have cost $60 (it’s normally $20/person) ended up only being $20 for all 3 of us.  Score!  I wasn’t sure if my kids would like this place because they are getting older and I wondered if it may be a little too young for them.  But they loved it and we all had a great time!  We spent about 4 hours there because there was so much to do.  I was really impressed by all the activity stations and how much creativity is involved.

At the first station you make your own personalized crayon.

Then you make a coloring page featuring your own picture!

At another station you make something out of clay.

In this section they could color with markers.  Jesse’s sign shows his love for his family, Jake’s on the other hand shows he could use a little humility. 😉

After the Crayola Experience we went to the Lego Store where the kids could play with lots of Legos.  Check out the amusement park in the background!  That was for the next day.

So the next day my baby turned double-digits… 10 years old!  How can that be possible?  I can’t believe how quickly they are growing up on me.  Chris took the afternoon off work and we spent the day at the Nickelodeon Universe inside the mall.

First of many roller coaster rides

The log flume ride was my favorite!

I think the kids liked the bumper cars the best.

This ride was pretty fun.  With your controller you can make it spin or go upside down.  I’m not a big fan of spinning, but it was still fun.

I love roller coasters and this one had upside down loops and corkscrews.  It was really fun!

My cute birthday boy!  He kept telling me several times throughout the day how thankful he was that we took him there for his birthday.  He is so sweet and it melts this momma’s heart to hear him express such gratitude.

Ferris Wheel

We were all pretty amazed at how many rides they can fit inside a mall.  We bought the unlimited rides wristband that my boss was able to get a great deal on.  And we sure got our money’s worth!  We stayed until they closed and only took a break for dinner.  And since it was a weekday we practically had the place to ourselves and never had to wait in any lines.  That’s a nice benefit of homeschooling and September birthdays.

Jesse said this was his best birthday ever.  Now how am I going to top that next year?  Hmm…