The thought never occurred to me for the past 6 years of mothering little girls that we’d end up getting sucked into the American Girl world. Not even when I saw other families with little girls knee deep in it. I didn’t look negatively at those people; I honestly just didn’t think about it. My childhood was filled with Barbie Dolls and Cabbage Patch babies, and the fact that these products are still on the market and popular only allowed my brain to rest upon visions of my little girls playing with those toys. Man, was I way off, or what?

Grandma Indiana had been wanting to take the girls to the American Girl store since she moved to Chicago this summer, but I thought it made more since to wait to go until they actually owned dolls. Annie was all geared up to visit the store as soon as we got home from NC, but Grandma decided to take a trip down to FL putting off the much anticipated visit to the store until yesterday. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait. My mom and I decided to make a day of it including brunch there. The girls were beyond excited and couldn’t stop talking about it until we finally arrived. Rather than keep rambling on about it, I’ll just start with the pictures.

We started the day with brunch. As you can see the cafe allows the dolls to attend the brunch as well with their own seats and tea cups and saucers.

Since Mimi’s birthday is this week we decided it would be appropriate to celebrate it during our meal. They even brought out her own cake with a candle.

Violet was a good sport throughout the entire trip with only one or two fussy spells. She eventually fell asleep in the stroller.

It is amazing how much these American Girl doll creators have put into the whole concept. The outfits, accessories, hobbies, books, movies, and even furniture. You can find just about anything for a doll in this place.

Does your doll need to get her hair done? Apparently, the 20-something people in line needed a new do’ for their dolls.

Has your doll got a boo or boo or other physical problem? Well, the doll hospital has got you covered even dressing your doll in a hospital gown during her visit.

Head on over to the shoe section, if you feel your doll is in need of some new footwear.

Have you found that your doll has bad vision? Well, the spectacles section has got you covered. Plus, pick up a pair or 2 of earrings while you’re there.

Of course, we had to get a picture of all of us in front of the Kit and Ruthie section. It’s not that great of a picture because we asked a passerby to take the picture, and she seemed to be in a hurry to hand the camera back to me.

Each historical doll had an entire section dedicated to her. Just to give you an idea, here’s what they had for Kit Kittridge.

As you can see, someone could easily go bankrupt if they purchased even a fraction of what’s offered in this store. I tried my best to keep the girls from wanting everything in the place, but we did let them pick out a couple of outfits for their dolls (including ice skates) and t-shirts for the girls. I figured this will probably be our only visit to the store, so we might as well splurge a little. I am glad that the girls finally got their wish of going to the store. Thank you, Grandma, for making that dream come true for them. It was a wonderful and dreamy day.

Another interesting thing happened on the way to the store. I was warned by the AG operator while making brunch reservations that some kind of construction would be going on from 7 to noon and would cause some noise and the parking garage to be closed. I didn’t think much about it until we tried to get close to the store for parking and discovered that several blocks surrounding the store were closed. It wasn’t until we were driving around the back a few blocks away that we saw a helicopter loading up what looked like a large, stainless steel box with windows and lifting it up that we figured out what was going on. After finally finding a parking space a couple of blocks away and walking up to the store we were told by a police officer that we couldn’t cross the street for a few minutes (even though we could see the entrance to the store). The police officer looked up to point out the helicopter and said they were lifting new elevators up to the top of a building dozens of stories high. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the helicopter in action lifting one of those monstrosities, but here’s a quick snap I got of the helicopter afterward.

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