What a day

Initially we were going to spend the day finishing laundry and possibly picking up some new shoes for Katie. Then I saw the Doodlebops were going to be at the Mall of America. What is a Doodlebop you ask? The Doodlebops are a show on the Disney channel. It's a small kid rock band made up of 3....people, I guess. They are each a different color - one pink, one blue, one orange. Katie hasn't even seen their show, but knows their songs from the computer. I decided that we might as well go and check out their show at 1:30. How crowded could it be?
We got to the mall around 11:30 am, ate lunch and then decided to go get an early seat. They were opening up seating at 12:30 and it was on a first come first serve basis. I thought - heck we'll be really early, but that's ok. As we headed toward the rotunda I saw a LONG line of strollers. Yep, that was the line for seating - there was probably 100 people ahead of us. We had to sit on the floor up by the stage, but that's where Katie wanted to be anyway. The bad news is that we had to sit on the hard, cold floor for an hour before the show started. Will and Katie were VERY good, very patient, just perfect...which is more than I can say for a lot of kids there. The show lasted 20 minutes. :) They are giving a full concert tomorrow night at the Xcel center, but I would rather have a free 20 minute taste.

As long as we were at the mall, Katie wanted to do a ride and since she was so patient and was behaving so well we thought it was only fair. :) Nickelodeon is the new sponsor of the amusement park in the mall. They have changed most of the rides to look like or be named after shows on Nickelodeon. Again, Katie isn't really allowed to watch Nick that much, but she does know the characters. As we were walking through we passed one spot where they were doing a meet and greet with a few characters from a show that Katie has seen - The Backyardigans. It's a cute show about these neighborhood kids (they are really animals) that play in their backyard and imagine themselves in a different world. Got some good pictures.



Katie rode on the train, which is now a Dora train. Then we headed off to look for shoes. Having found NONE that both of us liked we gave up and decided to do one more ride before heading home. Katie wanted to ride the carousel. I figured the three of us could sit on the bench that goes around instead of an animal. Nope, they would only allow 2 people to sit there - I guess Will counts as an entire person. :) She said that I could hold Will and stand by Katie as she rides on an animal. Well that made no sense to me, but we went for it. As she is going around checking seat belts she tells me that her manager said Will actually has to be on an animal too. I ask her if it's really ok for him and she says it's totally fine. Hmmm....ok. As the ride starts, Will is holding on like a pro. I really wish we had gotten a picture of it because he looked so old. Then the horse started going up and down - he started giggling more than I have ever heard (unless Katie is tickling him of course). Every time it went up he would giggle and shriek. It was really the cutest thing. Katie was proud because she held on all by herself and I didn't hold onto her, like I usually do.
We had a good day, but I am beat. It's 10:00...now I'm off to finish that darn laundry.