My American Girl is Named Julia

I picked her up from school early. She was brought to the office not knowing I was there to pick her up...she wasn't really sure why she was in the office, she was just going with the flow. The receptionist pretended to be on the phone and handed her the American Girl magazine to look through while Julia waited for her to get off the phone. When I came around the corner this is the look I got when I asked her if she was ready to go to the American Girl Bistro.
This is what happened when she realized we're leaving RIGHT NOW, and on a plane! (a few happy tears in case you can't tell in the picture) . . .


This is the first time she can remember being on a plane (she was about 15 months old during her last flight). She was very excited!

When we landed I took her to eat at the Benihana's Japanese steak house that was down the street from our hotel. This is the birthday hat they made for her and had her wear as they sang Happy Birthday.


The next morning we woke, showered and got ready to go eat breakfast at the Bistro. The empty (clean) table was ours. Notice all of the pink and shades of purple. Any girl's paradise.
Here are some shots of the cute lighting fixtures around the restaurant. . .
This is us enjoying our breakfast. We (and Melanie - the doll) had complimentary strawberry muffins. Julia had the largest chocolate milk I've ever seen served to a child (already cleared in the picture).

The doll even got her own chair and menu too. Then after breakfast, Julia was served a birthday ice cream sundae, complete with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, a Happy Birthday song from everyone in the restaurant and two spoons (yay me!).



This is Julia waiting on her doll, Melanie, to get the "do" of the month and her ears pierced. That's Melanie in the pink/orange outfit almost behind Julia.
All finished with hair and ear piercing (the dolls...Julia's were pierced several years ago - not on this day). Now we're ready to shop in the Boutique!



An hour or so later, we were all finished shopping. Birthday presents included a new doll "Julie", a new winter outfit, shoes, and new earrings (all for the doll of course). The sticker on Julia's shirt was from breakfast and says "It's My Birthday" (it's really this coming Tuesday). I might add that "Julie" is the new historical character from 1974. She has all of the things I had as a child. Makes you feel kind of old when the new historical character is from your childhood. I am not historic! (ha)



Now we're ready to go hit the mall and kill some time before a late lunch and time to travel back to the airport.




There was a beautiful carousel in the mall. The cute frog and it's duck, lady bug and flowers caught her eye. We laughed and said this was the AFLAC frog.

So she rode it.

This is us trying on cute feathery headbands in "Icing" and taking our pictures in the mirrors over head. We had fun pretending we were divas in these things.


This is just a cute shot of her coming out of one of the stores - I just couldn't resist posting this one.



When we went back to the Bistro's dessert counter to have an afternoon ice cream treat. The store allowed Julia to pick a doll to join us since our bags were already in the car. Julia chose this cute thing. She got her own muffin again. Julia didn't eat it this time...her ice cream float filled her up.




This is Julia enjoying her "Black Cow" root beer float. One scoop vanilla, one scoop chocolate, chocolate sauce, and of course root beer. She loved it.



At the end of the day, we drove back to return the rental car and patiently waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport. Julia enjoyed caring her big red bag with her new stuff in it. We both truly enjoyed ourselves. We laughed, we giggled and we tired each other out. This was the best gift ever! And it wasn't even mine. Seeing her smile and glow from excitement these two days was enough to warm my heart for a long time. I highly recommend something like this. Start saving those sky miles now!