Ready to Shop

I told Maddie we had to do our grocery shopping the day before we left for our Hong Kong trip so we could stock up on groceries while Jana was at the house with nine kids and no car.  Maddie was not pleased.  When I said it was time to go, she was magically all smiles. “I’m READY!” she declared. Maddie Mae had made up her mind that if she couldn’t control whether or not we went, at least she could control what she brought.  Here she is ready to go.  The birthday gift bag is full of Littlest Pet Shop toys like the one she is showing off and she’s got her pink water bottle and a warm sweater on top of her t-shirt, shorts and jumper.  The forecast for that day like all the others was over 90 degrees with humidity.  Sticky hot.

 

Not wanting to be left out, Jacob held up his rapid fire Nerf bullet gun, “I WED-EE SHOPPING TOO!!”

 

We had nothing else on our agenda for the day so we arrived about when the store opened at 10am. There was plenty of parking but as soon as Jakey notices we have entered a parking garage he starts calling out with dramatic enthusiasm “Another level!!” (Sounds like “an-udder yevel”)  He loves to go up and up and up or down and down and down.  Instead of parking on the second level at Sembawang we went up to the third and got a front row spot.

 

Walking in on the third floor I happened to glance to the side and remembered being told about a water attraction in Sembawang Mall.  Perfect.  With nothing else to do we went to check it out.  The water doesn’t turn on until 11am but there was a good sized dry play area.  I let the kids explore, play and I took a ride on their train a few times with them.  When it was getting close to water time I scooted them out and down to the basement to do our shopping.

 

We took the escalators down, down, down which always makes them really happy.  Escalators and travelators are our favorite here in Singapore.  We checked for dark socks for Ben on each level with no success and when we made it to the basement we followed the signs to the bathroom so Jake could freshen up shall we say.  I was met with the most amazing smell as we walked.  It was that fresh, amazing smell of warm bread.  I almost stopped in my tracks to just enjoy it.  Usually Singapore smells of fish markets and hawker stalls.  Not my favorite.  At the moment I figured out it was bread Maddie says, “Mom, I’m hungry.”  We had Subway for lunch and it was the best American food I’ve had in a month.  I miss American food terribly so we got two chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms in them as a special treat.

 

After lunch we bought a grass trimmer to use on our five foot by eight foot patch of grass and picked up our groceries.  The kids were perfectly behaved walking up and down the aisles holding hands and following behind me. Maddie even pointed out all the kids that were being naughty by running around the store and playing wild and not staying with their mommies.

 

Such a great day.  Instead of getting in and out with groceries in an hour, we were at the mall for about three hours and had such a fantastic time together.

 

May 30, 2011