Although I usually try to avoid the malls this time of year, Jordan needed new flats for her concert tonight and Jaycie was craving big, soft pretzels, so I decided we would brave the crowds. Jaycie asked if we could look at the toy store but not buy anything and I said that was fine. With Christmas only a couple weeks away and my house already overflowing with their toys, I have no problem avoiding impulse toy buying.
It was lunchtime when we arrived at Eastview Mall but there were a surprising number of parking spaces still available. I parked by the newest department store in the mall, a place called Von Maur because it granted relatively easy access to the food court. The girls wanted to ride the escalator in the store just because it’s fun, so we did and then quickly headed into the mall.
View from the upper floor of Von Maur
From there we went to the food court for lunch and I was surprised how many new and non-chain restaurants there were in it now. That mall changes its stores every other week it seems and there’s an excess of expensive shoe, purse, sunglasses, jewelry, and clothing stores. After lunch, we walked around the corner to the toy store and spent quite a while in there.
The girls liked looking through all the usual girly things including Barbie, Ever After High, Disney Princesses, and My Little Pony. I patiently waited for them to get their fill of all the pink, frilly stuff and then we headed to where the Star Wars toys were. Now it was my turn to ooo and ahh over everything I saw and wish I was still young enough to play with such toys without seeming ridiculous. At one point Jordan asked why there was so much Star Wars stuff out now and I replied that it was probably because of the newest movie coming out next year. In reality, I don’t care why there’s so much Star Wars stuff out now, I was just giddy to see it all!
Star Wars Rebels Lego set
This looks like silly fun!
We did actually manage to escape the toy store without buying anything and on the way to the soft pretzel store, we took a detour into the Hallmark store. To my delight, they had Star Wars stuff too, though this was of the cuter variety.
These are just too adorable!
The itty bitty power of the Dark Side and a bit of Hulk smash in the background 🙂
Jaycie wanted to look at the Hallmark ornaments on the wall and while there were some cute ones, I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without. There was one rather amusing ornament from Christmas Vacation and it made me smile because I’d just been reminded of the squirrel scene that morning.
Squirrel! Lol!
Once we left Hallmark, we continued toward the pretzel place and I paused long enough to take a picture of the events sign that listed the concert Jordan will be performing in this coming Tuesday.
We finally made it to the pretzel place amid the mall crowd and the girls enjoyed their pretzel bites, even letting me have a few. While walking back toward the store we entered through, we passed several stores that I don’t recall seeing during my last visit a few months ago. Like I said, the stores of that mall are constantly changing and I’ve given up trying to keep track. As we neared the main entrance I saw a store that I hadn’t even heard of until this morning. Strange how life falls into place in peculiar ways sometimes…
I didn’t go in, I just took a pic on our way by.
By the time we made it back to the doors we had entered through, we were all exhausted. The rain from earlier had transformed into a thick fog which sharply contrasted with the pretty, festive decorations we had enjoyed throughout the mall. It would have been nicer to come out to snow, but apparently Mama Nature was too moody to accommodate our wishes today. Even so, the girls and I saw plenty to give us dreams of galaxies far, far away…
Lidancie Arts 