Sea Life at the Mall of America

Yesterday, the boys and I went to the Mall of America to visit the aquariums at Sea Life.  It's teacher appreciation week this week, meaning it was free for me and 50% off for any additional guests.  We used to be members there, back when it was $10 per person (based on an education discount), but hadn't been there in years...

They have some new things since the last time we visited...like this ray tank...it was pretty cool.

There was another touch tank that had anemones, sea stars, sea cucumbers, among other things you could touch.  Sorry, no pictures...we were too busy touching things...

The horseshoe crabs you couldn't touch...the boys don't believe me that they have blue blood...

We remembered the room with all the different jellyfish...it was hard to walk through without saying 'taking on the jellies....'.  It's a line from Finding Nemo...and all three of us said it at least once...

This coral tank was new to us...in the middle was a bubble that kids could crawl into and see the fish from another perspective...

Then we moved to the underwater tunnel...first up was the shark tank...

There's another tank that has fish from the Amazon river region and still a third that mimics some of Minnesota's lakes...here's Luke at peace with the sturgeon...

After leaving the tunnels there's a few exhibits of animals living in South American rainforests.  Things like the alligator snapping turtle, poison dart frogs and these caiman...

After a couple of hours at the aquarium, it was time to go home.  We had to cut through Nickelodeon Universe to get to our parking ramp.  It was hear that we ran into these guys...

The boys thought I should take a picture for Lex.  These two are Marshall and Chase from Paw Patrol...a show she likes...

And Kieran found the old location of home plate, back when Metropolitan Stadium sat on the site...he  thought that was cool...

It was a fun couple of hours...

Kieran's Teeth

Last week, Kieran had 8 baby teeth removed....they just weren't coming out and the adults are coming in all directions.  The orthodontist wanted them out so we could wait six months and see how the adult teeth responded.  The end result is he is going to have braces within a year, she was up front with him and he understands that....

He he was last Thursday evening...he didn't want ibuprofen, but he slept okay during the evening.  By the next morning, when he could eat again (his last meal was around 6:45 am the day of the extraction), he was fine, he was running around outside when I got home from school....

Now with eight teeth pulled out, he was well aware of tooth fairy potential.  He's aware of what Lukie has been getting and is fully capable of multiplication...

Thursday was out for the tooth fairy and I didn't know where the teeth were until late Sunday night when he found the teeth and brought them out right before bedtime.  We agreed to put them under his pillow on Monday night...it had waited this long, why not?

When at the gym the next morning....I got this text (which was also sent to Sarah)...

The gig was up...Sarah had acted the part of the tooth fairy and taken the teeth and replaced it with money on the counter.  I asked Kieran why he thought the tooth fairy wasn't real and he said "she only takes teeth from under the pillow."

He was upset...but agreed to not tell Luke or Lex (who hasn't lost any teeth).  He was furious when he said "I bet mom has all my teeth" and I said 'not true...I do..." and then I had to show him.  He just laughed when he saw every tooth he's every lost....I still need to add the new 8 to the collection...

I'm sure Santa...Easter Bunny...Leprechaun....etc...they're all gone...oh well, it was time...