Mall Madness

We spent the night at the mall. No, we didn't get locked in by mistake - although that might have been fun too. Actually it was a Girl Scout event called mall madness. We arrived at 9:30 p.m. and left around 5:30 a.m. There were three adults and eight girls - that was just our troop. The leader and I have girls the same ages - 9 and 11. So our little ones were there with their troop as well. Not to mention every troop within the Service Unit. Some stores stayed open until 1 or 2 a.m. Some stayed open all night and had specials just for the Girl Scouts. The girls played glow in the dark golf, played on the inflatables, played bingo, did crafts, and of course shopped until they dropped.

Let me tell you - going to the mall is not normally my cup of tea. In fact, we've lived here for two years and this is my first trip to the mall. Not because I don't mind a good shopping spree every now and then, but because we never have the money to do anything like that. Remember I'm a stay at home mom. That being said, my brother and sister-in-law always take my kids school shopping a couple times a year. So we called them up, told them about this night at the mall, and asked for some school clothes money - with the idea that we'd be able to shop for school clothes. Each child got $100 dollars to spend - well, I got $100 for my son since he wasn't there. They did have some ok sales - apparently not as impressive as last year, but ok.

My older daughter bought a couple of shirts - one cute and one is still up for debate on whether she can wear it to school, a couple pairs of earrings - that'll help keep her warm on those chilly school days, and candy - well what can I say about that, so did I. I asked her how much she spent and she said, "I don't know... under $50 though." Under $50?! For what she bought it should have been under $20. My younger daughter actually did pretty well. She got a pair of jeans, a pair of khaki-type pants, a cute shirt, and a pair of gym shoes. How much did she spend? $41. For my son we got a pair of Power Rangers tennis shoes and two pairs of jeans. I spent for him only $29. I'll go through the receipts later and figure out how much each child spent specifically so I know how much they have left to spend for school.

The girls had a great time though. Only one of ours actually slept. About 1 a.m. though she started feeling a little icky so that's understandable. Everyone was running around and having great fun. I, on the other hand, had my feet screaming "SIT DOWN!! DON'T STEP ON ME AGAIN!!" Unfortunately, I could only listen half the time because we were walking from one end of the mall to the other because of stores, sales, activities, tracking girls. Anyway, it was quite an experience. One I wouldn't trade because I got to have an experience with my daughters that a lot of people don't have.