Lego build and the Mall of America

This past weekend the Mall of America Lego Store hosted a Lego Build event. It was a mural of thousands of 6 x 6 squares put together by the kids (and adults) who came to the event. I saw it as quite the opportunity as this mural will be displayed in their newly remodeled Lego store for years to come. So, with a little help from our friend "uncle" Tanner to watch Sydney and awesome Priceline to get us a 3 star hotel for $40, we hit the road north for the event.

By the time we got there, many squares had been filled and put in place, but there were plenty more to be done.


To my pleasant surprise, it was a calm atmosphere and not crazy busy. Natalie and Elaine were not as excited to participate, so they walked around with Daddy. Peter and I got our squares (his #725 and mine #22) and started to build.

My square was a little boring to build consisting of only one color but still crucial to the big picture!

After we finished our squares, we handed them to the mural builders who located the spot and tapped them into place.
The whole event took us about 15 minutes. Initially, my thoughts were "We just drove 5 hours to do 15 minutes of an event?!" but the smiles from Peter's face was worth it. Better yet, the day had just begun for all the kids.

As luck would have it, the Lego event was located adjacent to Nickelodeon Universe, the indoor amusement park. Honestly, the kids were way more excited about the rides than the Lego thing. Mommy might have been the only one excited about the Lego mural.

Kids were greeted by a shark (apparently, an escapee from the Mall of America aquarium downstairs). Priceless photo!

Next was the rides. Peter and Natalie's first choice was the Wonder Pets Flyboat. It was sort of a free fall ride for kiddies. It was still pretty high, and both Daddy and I weren't sure how Natalie would like it. Once the ride started, the looks on their faces told you exactly how they liked it.

Pure smiles from everyone, including Elaine patiently waiting on the outside.

Lucky for Elaine, there were rides that she could go on with one of us. First of the day for her was Blues Skidoo.

She had a great time going round and round, up and down.
Mommy does not do round and round rides very well but it was worth seeing her smiles. At the end of the ride, she stood back to look at it and said,
"Blues Clues FUN!"

Peter had quite the big boy moment: his first time in bumper cars. The mom in me wasn't too thrilled, but Daddy had no problems with it. So, off they went together. After seeing them together on the bumper track, I realized that Peter was definitely a big boy (and maybe Daddy was still young at heart).

I can't even tell who's having more fun!

Last ride for the girls was a Diego Rescue van ride...yet another circular motion ride. Mommy sat out with Peter while the girls rode with Daddy.

All of the kids were thrilled about the rides. Elaine had a super good time...it was sort of her first amusement park experience and she conquered it perfectly!

We did a little shopping at the mall, then headed to the hotel for the night. The next day was the IKEA and Trader Joes run before hitting the road back to Iowa.
This final scene is very reminiscent of the final scenes of the ride home from our last trip to Minneapolis.

What a fun weekend we had!