Bowling & The New Mall

This weekend was a lot of fun! Saturday morning we took the boys to Strikes Bowling in Rocklin. Sawyer has been bowling a few times before, but he has never gone with Mitch. At least three times a week (as we drive past the bowling alley on our way home from daycare!) he asks if he can go on a Jeep ride and go bowling with Daddy, so we decided that it was a great weekend to take the whole family out. Sutton was so much better behaved at the bowling alley than I imagined he would be (he didn't even attempt to stray away from our little bowling area at all!), and he even took a few turns rolling the 6-pound ball down the lane with Mitch. Sawyer was excited to finally get to go bowling with Daddy, but he was a little sleepy and mellow that morning, so he ended up being content with eating a bag cheese puffs and watching everyone else bowl after about the 3rd frame. Sutton managed to drop my camera hard enough for the lens ring to pop off, and now it isn't working very well, so these few bowling pics will have to suffice until I can figure out a way to either get this camera repaired or get a new one!

Saying "Cheeeeese" with a mouth full of cheese puffs...

After naptime we went to check out the opening weekend of the new section of the Galleria mall. I had actually gone to the mall with Holly on Thursday for the grand opening festivities, and I had so much fun exploring all the new toy stores and play areas with Hattie that I really wanted to bring my boys back for some more fun. The new mall is pretty much just that, a whole new U-shaped section attached to the old mall. There are a ton of new stores including H&M, Delias, Louis Vuitton and some other higher end shops. The old food court closed down to make room for more shops in the future expansion phase, and it was replaced by a sleeker looking and rather high-tech food court in the new area. It's complete with one of the coolest family-type restroom lounges I've ever been in. The place even has a dvd player and sofas for kids who need to chill out from the mall for a few minutes! They moved a bunch of the existing stores so that almost all of the kids clothing stores and the new toy store are located right near a new "greener" play area (which is only cleaned with environmentally friendly and yummy smelling Method brand products - yay!). The whole set-up right there is great for parents, and they even have several food vendors (pretzels, popcorn, frozen yogurt and Cinnabon) right there so that you can get a snack while you watch your kids play.

Sawyer and Sutton LOVED the new kids play area, but it was ridiculously crowded since it was the first weekend it was open. Sawyer was getting a little overwhelmed at the number of older kids who kept pushing him out of the way and cutting in line in front of him at the new slide, but Sutton didn't seem to mind a bit and happily pushed his way through the crowd over and over again to take his turn. We let them skip riding in the stroller for most of the time that we were at the mall, and they had a blast walking around and exploring all the holiday decorations and toy displays that were seemingly everywhere! They especially liked the new Learning Express toy store and playing with the toys at Pottery Barn Kids. Sawyer was really having fun playing with the mini skateboard ramp table (kind of like his train table, but with wooden skateboard stuff instead) and Sutton was quite happily opening and closing every single door on the play kitchen set.