Slippery Slope

Move over Build-A-Bear...bring on American Girl. We have read about it, we have looked at it online, but this weekend, we drove to Dallas for the "experience" and let me just say SLIPPERY SLOPE and we are already floundering at the bottom. We took along Nana (Damon's mom), her sister (Aunt Sherry), and their credit cards. This was an early birthday present for Reid and let's just say, she partied in style.

All I can say is it is very, very, very pink and for a four-year-old it was a matter of "Where in the heck do I start and how can I manage to touch all of this stuff?"

At Reid's age, American Girl has the Bitty Baby section and you can choose from an infant or the Bitty Baby twins. Reid was a little overwhelmed with us trying to help her choose, so we enlisted Regina, one of the AG staff, to help her. Reid choose the Bitty Baby twins and within that she chose two girls, both blond. And, with her twins, she got a double stroller.

Then, she had to move on and choose her accessories. She and her Great-Aunt Sherry (i.e. the payee) went in search of those. She has talked about a new baby bed for weeks, so that was the first order of business, and then she went on to choose a tea set, onesies, bottles, diapers/wipes, Christmas pajammas for her and her babies (she will match her babies), hair curling set, and a couple of baby outfits.

20 minutes and $600 later, this is Reid with her twins and all of the associated stuff. We were a little concerned about having enough cargo space in the Pilot. And, drum roll, please, the twins names.....Emmerson and Emily!

After finishing her shopping, we headed upstairs to have lunch at the American Girl Bistro and "the girls" joined us. The twins had their own chairs, as you can see, and they had their own lunch, a chocolate chip muffin. They are a little picky and didn't eat much, but they did try the mac and cheese, chicken fingers and some of Reid's chocolate chip chocolate ice cream sandwich.

Since this was an early birthday celebration, Reid's Aunt Sherry said she had to have dessert and celebrate in-style. So, now Reid thinks she is five. After all, she had candles and she got presents.

And, of course, post American Girl:

Yes, it was expensive. Yes, it was pink overload. Yes, it was a little over-stimulation, but Reid was so excited. Will we do it again? Probably. The stuff is not that badly priced, as individual pieces. It just adds up quickly. We will probably take her back next time we are in Dallas and let her take her dolls to the doll hair salon. And, we will add to her collection of clothes and story books (each outfit comes with a storybook).

You will notice Jackson is not in any of these pictures. Our Dallas friend, David Lowery, picked up Jackson and took him to the Dallas Fair. David, his granddaughter Makayla, and Jackson were at the Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and they had a great time.

Damon and I also worked in a trip to IKEA (my first time) and to Penzy's Spices, a really cool spice store that just makes you want to cook. We had dinner with our friends the Lowery's on Saturday night and headed back this afternoon.

Our den looks like a post-Christmas afternoon - boxes, tissue paper and toys. The "twins" are already in bed. I won't be far behind.