Alaina and Grandma's day out

My sister Cheri's Mother-in-law has a tradition of taking her grandkids out and buying them a new pair of shoes before each school year.  Cheri mentioned it a few weeks ago and talked about what a nice tradition it was, thinking I might like to do it with Alaina.  I thought it was a great idea, so last week Alaina and I had our shopping day.  She starts school on the 6th.  She's too young for regular kindergarten since she doesn't turn 5 until the end of October, but will be Pre-K.

Here we are, ready to go.  Ruby wanted to join us for our picture.

Ruby also wanted to go with us.  This is her sad face when she found out she had to stay home.

 I told Alaina she could choose any place she wanted for lunch.  Guess where we ate?  McDonalds of course!

Going to the mall with a kid opens your eyes to things you don't notice regularly.  We were on the second floor and Alaina was fascinated by the view looking down at the bottom floor.  She kept stopping and looking down there.

And escalators?  They are like a ride!  We went up and down several times, trying the escalators in several stores!

 After checking a few places, we found some shoes.  They are actually short boots, which will be nice in the winter.  She was happy with them and I had to persuade her that it wasn't time to wear them yet.

 She was going to ride the merry-go-round in the mall, but a sign said the animals on it were "resting", so she took a little ride on this helicopter, and she enjoyed it.

There was also a cart selling balloon creations.  Alaina picked a flower and said she would share it with Ruby.

After we left the mall, we made a pit stop at Michael's to see Aunt Heather at work.  She thought she should go see Grandpa too, but that would have been too far out of the way.

We had such fun together and I'll be praying that she has a wonderful year at school.