Windy City-part III

After our full morning, we were ready to head back for lunch, so I said, "Okay, Hannah your turn to lead!" Since we left the park at a slightly varied location from our entrance, she looked a little shocked at first, but after I reminded her that the last thing we'd passed was the bike rental...she looked at the sign ahead and said, "Alright, this way!" She did very well finding our way back to the condo. Claire & I were surprised at just how well...future city-dweller?

Once back, we had our lunch and waited for daddy to arrive. It was taking a bit longer than I had anticipated, so that gave us time enough for showers and fancier clothes. See, we had told the girls that we were going to "find" American Girl Place and have a look around...something daddy had intended to do on one of his trips, but hadn't yet. Of course, we knew where we were going and took a couple turns to shake their confidence, but then we turned the corner and saw it...AGP. (Okay, now I know why they don't abbreviate it.)

Our sweet girls had NO idea, NO IDEA what was in store.

We casually went inside and took a look around (floor one-book store), then up the escalator and we entered another dimension...clothes, tents, food, chairs, beds, pets, anything a little "doll" could wish for...if she could wish. Aaron & Claire were off to the larger room with bordering displays of all the historical dolls from Addy to Julie. Hannah pulled me off to the side to show me the lifesize displays (I think I could easily have missed them.) and began to tell me all these details of the books she had read so far. [Confession: I didn't even know that she had read some of these books.] "Oh, mom, that's her sampler...it's just like the book said." "I haven't read about her yet!" [Yet-yeah!]

After sufficient time spent oggling over each doll's display and all of their extras, we took the escalator up to the Just Like You doll area. We also saw the doll of the year, Mia, and her fun ice skating stuff...I think that may have something to do with the olympics being this summer, but I may be wrong. At this point, we just about lost Claire who said, "It's really no fun to look if you don't have a doll." I know this sounds bratty, but she said it so sweetly. (And only after continually reminding herself, "We're just looking, we're just looking" downstairs!)
Aaron turned to me and said...we need to do it now. I quickly grabbed my camera and said, "Let's get a picture." Claire just about didn't bite, but then she moved over toward her sister. I got one picture off...

...and then Daddy told them the surprise! All I heard was "dolls" and the girls faces changed dramatically! That was the closest I've ever seen my kids to speechless.


It was all fun and frills from that point on. They both decided which doll they'd pick and we headed back down to the historical dolls (YES!) to pick up Kitt for Claire and Molly for Hannah. Notice: Molly has glasses, just like Hannah! And Claire just loves Kitt's short blond hair (I think she reminds her of...someone she loves very much. ha ha)


I have to admit that I was slow to jump on the band wagon of these dolls. I have friends who have them and others who won't (ever) and I wasn't sure where I stood, but it was a great experience and I'm glad that our girls were thankful and appreciative. Claire: "This is the most generous thing you've ever done for me." Hannah: "I just want to say thank you for the forty hundred thousandth time!" (Okay, we'll get back to our math next week!)