American Girl

For Kenni’s birthday this year, I had a special something up my sleeve.  First, I should explain that my sweet, now eleven-year-old still loves her dolls.  Especially her American Girl dolls!  I gave her mine from when I was a little girl and she played with it for years.  Finally, when she was ten, she got one of her own for Christmas, and it is her pride and joy.  Lately I have realized that my little girl is growing up, and the days of playing with dolls are coming to an end. Which is what brought on the idea to surprise her with a trip to the nearest American Girl doll store, which is in Denver, Colorado.  I had been planning it for over a year.  I asked my friends with daughters her age if they would want to come with us, and a road trip was born!

Ok, so first all the moms got the car all packed and decorated.  Then we drove up to the elementary school to check the girls out of school.

They were so surprised.  A little confused at first, but by the time we made it up to the middle school to get Taylor, everyone was so excited!

Then there was the 8-hour drive……..

But we made it!  My bff Jami was kind enough to let us all stay at her house in Denver.  They had just bought a new motor-home type camper and the girls all slept out in that and they thought they had their own private hotel!

The next day we had a little party at the house and opened gifts…

I had bought each of the girls an American Girl Denver t-shirt on clearance on their website, with a matching t-shirt for their dolls. They loved them.

And then we were off to the store!

We spent a magical 3-4 hours in there.  The girls got their dolls hair done at the doll salon, Taylor got her doll’s ears pierced, they shopped for new doll outfits, accessories, books, you name it.

This is Kenni’s doll, getting its hair done. It really did look nice when they were finished,even if it did cost a bloody fortune!

Next we headed over to a fancy restaurant across the street for lunch.  Much to our surprise, they had doll highchairs for all the girls dolls to sit and eat with us.  Genius!

Then we went to explore the mall and do some more shopping.  Which somehow lasted several hours and then we found ourselves hungry again.

So we went to another fun restaurant and ordered nothing but cake for dinner!  No, im serious……

Ohhhhh it was so good and so much fun!

After a seriously long day of shopping, we headed back to Jami & Spencer’s for the night, had a great time hanging out with them for a few hours, then went to their restaurant they own and had one last meal (around 9:00 p.m.- HEY, we were on vacation!)

The next day it was time to head home

We had so so so much fun!  I think we need to do mother/daughter road trips more often!  Thank you Thank you Jami & Spencer for letting us stay with you!

Bye Bye Denver……