American Girls Do DC

Well, Hi :)

I am attempting to start "Project Catch-Up" on my blog. I know that as long as I live away from family, and as long as we continue to go and visit them every summer, I will get behind on my blog. I have to say, I am having quite a time getting back into real life. I miss Utah and it's glorious weather. I love Virginia, but I really HATE the summer here. We have had temps of 103, 104... but add in the humidity and the heat index rises to 115, 117. I swear I'm still tired from the time change and our red-eye flight on top of that. And to add the cherry on top of it all, I miss my mommy and being able to have an easy life because she takes care of me!

So, bear with me.... the weekend before we actually left was incredibly busy and we had something going on every day. So I'll start there!

My friend Ira and I took our girls to the grand opening of the American Girl Doll Store in DC. She really had to talk me into it because, well, I'm kind of a bum and I really don't like crowds. It stresses me out. But I was really glad we went because it was very organized and well done and we actually had a lot of fun. When we first got there we had to wait in a line (that moved super fast) for our tickets that would actually get us into the store. We were in group #7 and they said they would be calling us around 1:00 PM for our turn to go in. It was about 10 AM at the time.

Daphne, Laylah, and Lilly waiting with their dolls (Daphne doesn't actually have an American Girl Doll, she borrowed one of Lilly's)

They had a bunch of tents set-up with free activities like face-painting, balloon animals, free food, toys to play with, and clowns roaming around to entertain the lines.

This little clown guy was so hilarious and he asked Laylah if she wanted to ride his unicycle. She said yes and he picked her up and threw her on his shoulders, hopped up on his unicycle, and took off. My heart was in my throat the whole time, until her feet were back on the ground. I got a video of it too. I won't put it on because... I squeal a lot. It's embarrassing.

We waited an hour to have the girls' faces painted

It was worth it. Gorgeous girls!

After that we were ready to be done in the activity tent, so headed over for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Afterwards we picked up cupcakes at CakeLove. Yum.

By then they had called our group # to go into the actual store. It was so much fun in there! Even though I'm not a fan of crowds, I have to admit that the energy and excitement was contagious. I wanted to buy everything in the store for my excited girls! Luckily, we had had a little chat before going in about how they had brought their own money and I wasn't going to be buying them anything. If they found something they loved that they couldn't afford, they could put it on their Christmas list.

We only had one little melt-down from Daphne who wanted a Bitty-Baby so badly that she could hardly stand it. I reminded her several times that she could ask for it for Christmas and then she finally settled on a little dog named Pepper. Laylah was able to find some accessories and pj's for her doll, and I had two thrilled little girls on my hands.

It was a really great day and I loved spending it with my girls!