A Trip to Mankato

Did you know that Mama had another birthday?  She likes to say that her birthday is the most important day of the year, but I know better, Jesus's birthday is the most important day of the year...and no, that does not make Mama's birthday the second most important day of the year (though she always tries to convince me of that when we have this conversation...and we have this conversation a LOT!) 

None the less, this year Mama's birthday was on Easter Sunday so we headed to Mankato on Saturday to hang out and do some shopping.  When we got to the mall we learned that one of the stores was having an Easter event so we headed over.  There was a pretty girl dressed up as Belle...

Their hair salon was doing hair and hair chalk....

And their makeup counter was doing face paint!  Aren't we cute bunnies?

Because it was Mama's birthday we got to do a bunch of fun things.  Mama and Daddy wanted to upgrade their phones so while Daddy was working with the store to get everything setup Mama let me and Ellen ride on the animals!

Ellen picked the cow, and I picked the lion.  We wanted to go all over the place, but it was REALLY busy so we just stuck in one area so we didn't accidentally run into anything (I knew what I was doing, but Ellen was a crazy driver!!)

The most exciting part of the day was when Mama asked Ellen if she wanted to get her ears pierced and Ellen said Yes!!!  Mama was pretty surprised because Ellen had never wanted to do it, but she changed her mind and was such a big girl. 

The girl who did it was really nice and Ellen kept calling her, "the nice lady", like, "The nice lady told me that I can't take out my earrings until Daddy's birthday."  Right away after she got it done she was NOT happy that it hurt, but she was so excited and proud to have pretties in her ears just like me and Mama.  She was also happy that she got to hug their special bear and pick out a sucker.

Of course, no trip to Mankato would be complete without a ride on the carousel.  Ellen wanted to ride the rabbit because she had a bunny nose on.

The cat is always my favorite.

As usual, Maren hung out with Mama and was as cute as can be. 

I think Mama had a pretty good birthday eve!
Linden