Wilson Valley Mall

Gabby wanted a "shopping party" for her birthday this year and so her slightly insane mother re-created the mall experience at our house. Even more insanely, Crystal allowed Gabby to invite 14 friends to the party and all but one was able to come. I will admit that the party went off well and that the girls had fun, but I still question the 98 hour commitment to preparing the party...

The first stop - the salon for pedicures.

Next stop: the pretzel shop to make your snack
On to the Lego store...
A visit to Claire's boutique to make some jewelry
The absolutely most over the top element - Build-A-Bear. Yes, Crystal handmade fifteen separate teddy bear forms for the girls to stuff and then forced her Mom to work in the sweatshop sewing the bears closed after the girls finished stuffing their bears.

Not pictured:

• The personalized "credit cards" each girl had to use while shopping
• The Purse Cake
• The Candy Shop / Cold Stone - the girls got to add their own mix-ins to their ice cream bowls (typically that involved multiple heaping scoops of M&Ms, Nerds, mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, etc.)
• The See's candy shop - for take home's Crystal made 4 or 5 chocolate suckers
• The Game Room in the basement
• John rolling his eyes many many times while having this described
• John feeling sorry for Crystal because she was feeling overwhelmed - this one was not pictured because it didn't exist.