Meeska-Mooska-Mickey-Mouse!

Everyone sit down for a moment - I have an announcement to make. 

I, Laurina McDade Sigmon, took my two youngest children to the mall today for four hours.  FOUR FLIPPIN' HOURS. 

Now, now, before you go calling to see if I am OK and asking obscure questions from my past just to assure yourself that my body has not been taken over by aliens - I assure you, this was not on purpose. 

It was however, surprising painless! 

Things I learned today:

1.  If you get to the mall before 10am, only certain doors are open.  Most certainly, they will not be the doors closest to where you park.

2.  If you stalk down the Disney store and are the first child to enter, you get to 'wake up the magic'.  This was a very exciting surprise and got our day off to a fabulous start. 

Daniel got to put on Mickey's famous costume, figure out what the magic words were, and got a special Mickey lanyard for free - all for arriving first at the Disney store.  Who knew? 

     *Side note for all you momma's who want to try this:  If you are clever, you will help your child figure out what the magic words are by actually READING the words on the book in front of the store that the nice Disney lady is pointing out.  *If* you are clever.  I am not clever.  It took us about 5 tries.  We tried abracadabra and several different variations of 'Meeska-Mooska-Mickey-Mouse' until I was about to tell the nice Disney lady to just flip the dang switch on the magic 'cause we were getting tired of guessing.  She finally gave in and told us to read the words on front of the book. 

3.  Disney is a marketing genius.  I could spend an hour in the store.  My kids could spend all day there.  Their products are pricey, but of good quality (like stuff that might actually last until next Christmas if I were to put it in a stocking).  They have clever, clever videos going the entire time you're in the store.  One of the videos made me dance every time it came on (I'm including a link, just so you can see how much of a marketing genius Disney is). 

Another video was a girl power spot that made me want to buy every piece of princess apparel in the store.  I know, right?  How ironic.   Sorry y'all.  I tried to find it but am not willing to waste hours on the internet trying to find the video I am talking about.  If you go to the store, you will know exactly which one I am referring to when you see it.

And don't even get me started with everything the kids wanted to buy.  Oh sweetie, if a money tree grew in our backyard, I'd be just delighted to buy you that $40 stuffed Minnie mouse that is as big as you are. 

 Yes, son.  I would love to buy you that $20 set of spiderman figurines.  That reminds me - I gotta look up spiderman characters.  I have a feeling someone will be getting that set of spiderman figurines on Christmas morning and I had NO CLUE who all those characters were!

4.  You have to be a special kind of person to work in Build-A-Bear.  Like not me.  Ever.  And no, we did not pay to build a bear.  We just like to look.

What?  Wolfing down fries while sitting on the little amusement rides in the food court is not considered proper etiquette?  Why did no one inform the 2-year-old? 

5.  HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE LEGO STORE LATELY?  OK, this had me standing there with my mouth open.  I pulled this from CNET because I cannot explain it myself, but it is amazing. 
-Lego is rolling out augmented-reality store displays that show shoppers, in 3D animation, what a completed kit will look like.-  And dude.  It is far cooler than it sounds.  You hold up a box of lego's to this screen and then a 3D, moving image pops up on top of the box of what the kit will look like assembled.  I may have experimented with this until my children asked me to leave...


 6.  How in the world does the Apple store run so smoothly?  I mean, the number of people in that store HAS to be over fire marshal's code every time I go in.  I have no idea how they keep up with so many people, BUT, I am very happy that they have lots of Ipads out for the kiddos.  Daniel and Allie stayed entranced the entire time I was at the genius bar.  Pleasant experience - except for the pricetag - Ouch!

Years later when we can't figure out why the heck Daniel feels the need to have every new gadget on the market, remind me of this picture. 

7.  Finally, McDonalds is doing their monopoly game again.  Apparently there is a 1 in 4 chance of winning.  If you buy a 20 piece chicken nuggets, you get 4 little pieces.  If you're lucky like us, you will win a McFlurry.  If you're exceptionally lucky, like me, your two children will be sweet little angels and split it with limited crying and whining.  Good day today!