Lost but not forgotten...

That's my mind (lost) and you (not forgotten). Sorry for the lack of posting - it's been crazy here the last few days. We're still in the Christmas Crunch here at work and I was trying to get some other 'very important' stuff done last night, which I'll get to in a minute. I think I've somehow worked through the madness of this place and have accomplished the seemingly impossible task of completing all of my projects here on-time and on-budget (well, under budget but the construction engineer for the owner told us to keep the savings because we'll be putting it towards extras over the next few weeks). So 1.5 weeks and counting until the Christmas holiday and the stress of getting these done in time is over.

So back to my 'very important' thing that I needed to be doing yesterday. I really only left 2 hours early, but it saved about 3 hours of sitting in traffic and allowed us to see Happy Feet so it was well worth skipping lunch for. By 'us' I mean Aine and Shauna - my two little 9 and 10 year old (respectively) friends. We had a serious date to go to the mall and do some bear building.

I picked the little ladies up from school and drove the hour to Dundrum as they did their homework in the back seat. We hit a minor snag with 8x7=?? and the meaning of the word 'succeed' but I worked them through it and it was a very prductive car ride, as all homework was done and shopping could begin upon arrival. Well, as soon as we got something to eat anyhow!

So off we headed to the 'restaurant' section since the girls were 'starving'. It's not a food court. It's really all restaurants. It's where you find TGI Friday's and Bennigan's 'American Grill'. That cracked me up since it's an 'Irish Grill' at home, but whatever works. So we went to Bennigan's since the kiddie menu there looked yummy. It was pretty good. The American Grill even came with an American waitress (from Arizona). I had wings and a quesadilla for dinner. I figure I'll claim the 'veggie' quesadilla as qualifying it for a healthy dinner... Cute aren't they? Picture was from my phone, so sorry about the quality. I'll try to take the better one off my camera later tonight.

After dinner we headed up to the Build-A-Bear shop. If you haven't been to one, seriously stop in next time you go by. They really are adorable and make great gifts for kids of all ages (27 year olds included). After much a-do about escalators and glass elevators we finally made it up 3 floors to the store, where they took off at full sprint once it was in site. After quite a bit of back and forth Aine picked out her Monkey (Monk Monk) and Shauna got her Froggy (Lou Lou). We were running late by then and they were excited when I surprised them with the idea of going to see Happy Feet so we purchased the animals with promises of coming back to register and dress them.

Happy Feet was really good. I'm a fan of animated cartoons anyhow, but it was one of those with adult jokes in it, like Ice Age and Shrek. Not that I've seen the first Ice Age, but so I've been told. I recommend seeing it and if you'd like a date let me know because I'd go and see it again. I was so in love with penguins by the end of it that I would have gotten Mumbles at Build A Bear but the Irish shop didn't have it. :-(

So back to the shop for another 45 minutes of registering and printing birth certificates and clothes shopping. Lou Lou got a cute winter outfit of jeans and a t-shirt with embroidered penguins along with a pair of sandals. Monk Monk came home in jeans with a skater chain and a leather jacket. Too cute. I finally dragged them out once the gate started closing on the store. It was a great math lesson as they stood there adding and subtracting, trying to figure out what they could buy with their allowance money. Movies and dinner were on me, but the moms insisted they buy their own Build A Bear stuff.

It was a really fun night overall and the girls seemed to have a really good time. I told them we could do it again sometime and I'm actually looking forward to it. Now, if only all of my dates could go that well... ;-)