Window shopping blows.

I am not a window-shoppin' kind of gal. Never have been one, never probably will be.

But, that's exactly what we did yesterday.

Jose, after spending all morning at his mother's, decided he wanted to take us to McDonalds for lunch so that the girls could play in the Playplace. Me and the kids had just eaten lunch, though, so I vetoed his idea. After thinking for a second, he informed me we were going to go to the mall instead.

Excuse me for not leaping up into the air with joy and all that jazz, but the mall isn't exactly the place you want to be when you're broke.

He told me to get over it, we were going anyway.

We began out mall outing at Vics Popcorn in the food court. I have a thing for greasy, buttery, movie theater-style popcorn. The girls, too young to comprehend that we're out of cash, begged and pleaded for slushies and the colorful glazed popcorn. I told them that we had $5 to spend. We could either share a large popcorn and a Coke, or we could buy one teeny tiny bag of colorful popcorn.

They didn't like my reasoning. The kept whining and insisting that they simply HAD TO HAVE a slushie and the pretty colorful popcorn.

Sorry, kiddos. This time its not just Mom being a meanie. We can't afford it.

From there, we headed directly to the play area. I was expecting complete and utter chaos. I mean, it was a Saturday afternoon, right after lunch. I was pleasantly surprised, though. There was actually a PLACE TO SIT. In fact, I was able to choose where to sit, instead trying to squeeze my plump rump into the only open place available.

The girls played for over 45 minutes while me and Jose sat and chatted. I must be getting my frustrations out in this blog instead of taking it all out on him, because I've been downright NICE the last couple of days. He even joined in on making fun of some of the other parents with me instead of chastising me!

After the play area (Holy smokes, the girls didn't pitch a fit when it was time to leave!!), we window shopped. Ahhh, the dreaded act of window shopping. I couldn't resist and took the girls to Gymboree. Jose will not step foot in Gymboree or Childrens Place, which is just as well because he'd probably have a heart attack if he glanced at the price tags in Gymboree!! The girls scurried happily to the TV set while I checked out the sales racks.

(sigh) I love me some Gymboree.

Everything was very cute. There were MANY pieces from Winter Snowflake (yeah, yeah I know the stuff by line name. I'm obsessed like that) that I adore and NEED for next year, but I have to wait.

After Gymboree, we browsed through JCPenny and Children's Place. I don't really care too much for Children's Place for my girls. The stuff is cute, but it doesn't fit them very good. And the sizing is all over the place. Last year, for example, I had to get Isabel size 10 shorts. Now, I now she is a big girl. But, there is no way in heck that my 4 year old was wearing size 10!

Children's Place was having a crazy good sale. There was tons of stuff I would have loved to buy my nephew. Maybe next time...

After Children's Place, we wrapped up our trip to the mall with another visit to Vic's Popcorn. We bought my mom two popcorn balls, since she really, really likes them. And then, we headed home.

What an adventure. :)