Sharks anyone?

I'm getting behind on my daily blogs. I'll quick summarize the day. It wasn't at all what I had expected it would be, but for that reason, it was marvelous!

Emmett began the morning by dressing himself in an orange and brown shirt that matched with his orange and brown flip flops. Totally his idea. He's very into matching and he does it very well - not too matchy, just right. Oh, and yes, he wore underwear too. Superhero underwear seems to be the favorite these days.

Then the kids and I headed to the Mall of America to return something I had purchased for Eric. That's all we had planned for the day. When we were there I realized its "Toddler Tuesdays" so we walked over to the rotunda to check out the happenings. On the way there we had to stop for a Cinnabon, of course! Yum!

At the rotunda there was coloring and a little mini performance by a children's theater company. Emmett really enjoyed it! Eisley ate crayons.

Emmett has been very into sharks lately (well all "wild" animals, including sharks). We saw a couple pictures and statues and big giant walking sharks at the mall so I asked him if he's like to go see some real sharks. Of course he did, so to my surprise we went to Underwater World! Because of Toddler Tuesday I only had to pay the child admission price and Emmett and Eisley are free till they're 3. So, I couldn't think of a better way to spend $13! We walked through the aquarium twice - we saw sharks, sea turtle, sea stars, sea horses and even guitar fish! I haven't been to Underwater World (in it's entirety, we went to a portion last year that was free for a day) in probably more than 10 years so it was a real treat for all of us.

Then we went out for lunch. There are a variety of restaurants that have kids eat free on Tuesdays so we decided that Emmett didn't want to eat anything. He especially "didn't want" ribs so we went to Famous Daves and ordered him ribs. The reverse psychology worked and he did indeed eat some ribs. Another $10 well spent in my opinion.

We then headed home for naps, followed by a quick and uneventful trip to Target and ended the day with time with Grandma for the kids and a MOPS meeting for me.

It was a lovely day. I'm so glad that I have one day free to do fun/educational outings with my precious little students. PBS does say, "You're your child's best first teacher." I'm doing my best!

Oh, and sorry no pictures. I didn't think a quick trip to MOA to return a sweatshirt warranted a camera. However, Emmett is used to me taking pictures all the time so on occasion he would strike a pose and say, "Mommy take a picture of me!" So I pulled out my phone like any good mother would do, and snapped a picture. Now if I can just figure out how to get them off my phone...