The American Girls

This weekend my friend Monica and I ventured into Chicago with our 5 little girls for an adventure to the American Girl Doll extravaganza. It was an adventure. The day began with "When are we going questions" at about 7 am, and those lasted all day until the departure of about 2 PM. I think the girls were pretty excited, as we had our first, "are we in Chicago yet?" question before we were out of the neighborhood....

Rest assured we made it, in one piece to the hotel, and eventually to our correct room. (they first tried to send us to a room with one bed. It was determined that we were over capacity for that, and the transfer was made to a more suitable accommodation) The girls colored, settled in, and snacked, and after the room looked like we had live in it for about a year (15 min or so real time) we were off to shop for new, expensive clothes for our brunch the next day. Now when I say we were off to shop for new outfits, we all know I mean for the dolls--right? The store was a mad-house. I think there were so many girls there that nobody noticed the fact that we had one complete, and one partial set of triplets with us. 5 girls aged 5-6, who had very different ideas of what to buy. Five doll outfits, several pairs of doll ice skates, and two new doll dogs, later, and we headed back to the hotel for R&R. (rowdiness & riot)

We snacked, swam, colored, played dolls, and watched TV. (I think the kids found stuff to do too) At bedtime we settled in for a game of musical beds that began with Holly claiming a round of nausea, and ended with Jilly coughing so hard she puked on Madeline's doll in her new outfit. I think the kids all ended up in different places than they started, but they all did manage some sleep which is more than I can claim for Monica, or myself.

Poor night's sleep aside we got all of them prettied up for the lunch the next day, and it was really fun. The dining room was lovely, and the kids, and dolls enjoyed it very much. The food, and service were very good, and it made the trip really special.


Over all it was a blast, and something the girls will remember forever. It has also renewed an interest in dolls, and they have been played with non-stop since we got back.