American Girl Surprise

This is a day none of us are likely to forget.

As you may have read, Gracie has been saving her money to buy the American Girl doll of the year that she instantly fell in love with in January.  Well, those dolls are precious, but expensive, so thanks to extra chores around the house, and Christmas and birthday money, and two VERY generous sets of grandparents who went above and beyond--Gracie had all the money she needed, and then some after her party at the house on Sunday.

Well, daddy had the brilliant idea several weeks back to take her to buy the doll in person at the American Girl doll store in Tyson's Corner (near DC).

I didn't realize we were as close as we are to the store, and I am thrilled at his idea.  So, we had to do some stalling tactics as she was ready to go online right away, but we found away to hold her off, and we loaded up in the car to head to Tyson's.

Now, we told the kids we were going to this mall because daddy found out there was a Lego store (which was true), but she had no idea what else was there.

It took us about 2 hours, and we didn't know where in the mall the store was.  Well, I had my camera ready to video the discovery, but she saw it before either of us! So, I hit "record" and I attempted to capture the moment, but I assure you that the real life reaction was priceless!!



 When we went in, she found Isabelle in maybe 30 seconds.  The excitement on her face was such a gift for Garren and me.

The boys had no desire to be trapped in this VERY girly store for who knows how long, so they went off to explore.

Gracie and I spent the next hour roaming around the store looking at every thing in sight.

She had almost $200 to spend, and the doll was only $120, so she had a big decision to make, and a million choices.

As she was deciding, we went down stairs to the hair salon and made an appointment for Caroline (her first AG doll) to get her hair done.  I had snuck her in an oversized bag I was carrying after we found out they had such an option. Poor Caroline was in desperate need of a sprucing up.

We got a 2pm appointment, and off we went looking at everything--twice.

Gracie finally decided on Caroline's cat "Inkpot" and the school backpack.

Daddy caught up with us on the top floor (there are two floors connected by escalator, a bistro, and a hair salon for dolls!)  and he helped her check out.

What an experience!

We did wander around the mall and found food and the Disney store and the Lego store to eat up some of our time waiting for Caroline's appointment.

Gracie was so excited to go back in the store again, and we left the boys to entertain themselves.

The salon experience was too neat!

The hairdresser was sure to go over hair care of the doll, and she chatted about do's and don'ts and then showed us how to re-curl Caroline's hair with just a brush.



I was sure to take before and after shots so you can see how well they did.

What a very special day for all of us, and especially for our Gracie. I don't think she will ever stop talking about it.

And, really, words can not describe this place, and I realized that when we returned for the hair appointment, so I pulled out the camera and turned on the video setting and tried to capture what it was like. It was just as much living catalog and musuem as it was store.

Since the grandmothers didn't get to live the experience, I thought they might enjoy a "video tour," and anyone else who wants to see too.

A huge thank you to all who supported Gracie in raising her money, and helped bring Isabelle home. We are pretty sure she is going to be very happy here.

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