2/27 Blog: We actually went to the mall!

Here in Cincinnati we have a very nice mall called Kenwood Towne Center. It is the upscale mall...Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, William Sonoma Home, JCrew, Banana and the other usual stuff. Prior to moving to Europe 10 years ago it was my hang-out, I did most of my shopping there. Since returning from Europe almost 7 years ago I don't frequent it very much.

There is something about young kids and malls that don't go together. Sure, when I was on maternity leave I would go with the baby. That was easy enough to navigate, and it was often during a weekday afternoon, so no crowds. But a Saturday, with three kids in tow...no way.

Well today we did it. We left our house at 10 this morning for Ben's hockey game. When we left we thought the other semi-final game was after ours. With this in mind (and knowing Ben would want to watch it), and the fact that we had to be downtown for the Children's Theatre at 5, we planned on being out all day.

Then we got to the arena and realized the game was before ours. So we played our game at 10:40 (we lost, bummer, end of the Ice Dragons season, 1-0) and were leaving the arena at noon. I guess we could have gone home then, but we needed to eat anyway and decided to stick with our plan. We headed up north a bit to go to Barnes and Noble. The kids had Christmas gift certificates to spend so that would kill some time. After the book store we headed to Johnny Rockets for lunch...but we were done at 2pm...now what.

Arnie wanted to go home. I knew if we took the kids home they would never want to leave, they would start playing with friends and throw a fit. So I pushed to go to the mall. I myself couldn't believe this, but I too had some old gift certificates that we could use because we never get up there. So off we went. First Williams Sonoma (thanks Aunt Sue...xmas 2 years ago gift), and the kids behaved. Next was Sephora...the girls LOVED it...and even got some nail polish out of it (Purple and bright Blue...what a sight). Then we headed to get a treat for everyone because they were so good.

While eating our ice cream Ben asked if he could look in Gap kids. Next thing I know he is coming out and asking me to go in, he found something he liked. For me who shops at Target it was total sticker shock...I just don't spend that much on clothes. I ended up letting each one of hem pick something from the sale rack. Little did I know I had a Gap gift certificate too so that was free as well.

I don't know when we will head there again, as each of the kids (in particular Claire, my girly girl) had a lot of the "I wants" going on...but it was a nice afternoon. Our long, but great day ended with "Jack and the Beanstalk" at the Children's Theatre which was "awesome" according to the kids. Now we are home relaxing...watching Curling on TV. Crazy as it sounds we have actually played curling before in Montreal and loved it...there is a ton of strategy and it is not easy. Back to it we go.