Seattle American Girl Store Trip

We made a family trip to the Seattle American Girl Store to celebrate G's birthday a little early. When I planned it, I didn't necessarily mean to put it on Saige's debut day - it was more a matter of being able to get a sitter for our elderly dog and being able to get a room at the Residence Inn on the American Girl package they have. It just worked nicely that we drove up on the first. Once I realized that, I made sure we got there in time for the festivities.

We arrived about 11 o'clock. I was not surprised by the number of people in the store. I was surprised by the number of people in line! The Seattle store is not huge but the line went from the registers all the way to the hair counter. They had it well planned, however, with enough temporary line guides, all the registers open and someone at the front of the line directing people. The line seemed to move quickly. They had plenty of Saige items on hand except for the Painting Set, which was already sold out by the time we got there. We got our free Saige t-shirt as we arrived, checked out Saige and went to the activities. First, G made a horse collage. Then she did the scavenger hunt, which was about being creative. When she finished, she got a Saige poster. She made a little hot air balloon. She then participated in the drawing lesson they had. Each child got a little Saige Drawing Pad for this.

 The Saige photo op - a very cute hot air balloon. That's my G with Emily in her Holiday Outfit.

We did wait in line for Saige's Sparkle Dress, although by the time we got to it, the line was half as long as before. At lunch, Emily had to try the new dress on and get a pic with Saige and her hot air balloon. That thing is super cute but is HUGE. We did some other shopping (Lego Store, Disney Store, Hobby Lobby) before heading to the hotel. I booked the American Girl Package at the Residence Inn about a block from the AG Store as a surprise.

 Here G is checking Emily in to the hotel.

 This is the bed and goodies left for the girl and doll. The bed has a pillow and blanket. There were two milks in our fridge to go with the cookies. Because this is a Residence Inn, there was a full galley-style kitchen. We had eaten such a big lunch at Macaroni Grill, my husband ran to the grocery and we cooked a small dinner in the hotel.

 The letter and map of the AG store in our room.

 And a special pink pillowcase for the real American Girl.

 The bed folds over to make a chair. Here Emily is enjoying some New Year's Day football.

 Emily all tucked in for the night.

G, Emily and her pink breakfast waffle. Breakfast was included in the room, with a pink waffle for the American Girl.

 The next morning we headed back to the store. We shopped a little in the less-crowded conditions and then ate lunch in the Bistro. Above is the special Saige menu they had - smoothies, sparkler, milkshake, and a dessert.

 They sang "Happy Birthday" to my birthday girl. She enjoyed her trip. Below are her purchases with her Christmas money and the birthday outfit she chose.

 Kanani wearing Saige's Sparkle Dress.

 Felicity in the Saige t-shirt.

Closeup of the Saige t-shirt.

Emily wearing Josefina's Holiday Outfit.

 Elizabeth in Caroline's Holiday Outfit. While the headband with the hairpiece is kind of fun and was a good fashion history lesson, Elizabeth is our only blond doll so the only one who will look right wearing it. Wish the gold part and hairpiece part were separate.

 Cecile in her Parlor Outfit with the Lacy Parasol. She is wearing the outfit with the crinoline.

All in all, it was a very fun trip and I am glad we did it. My daughter had a great time. The hotel was nice and the package had some very cute things in it. The Girl of the Year Debut was a fun thing to see also, even if we weren't there to buy the doll. There were plenty of fun activities to spark her imagination.

Hula Outfit for American Girl Dolls

About a year ago, we were heading for a vacation in Hawaii and Gabby's best friend was preparing to move to Hawaii. Needless to say, there was a lot of Hawaii talk in our house. Her friend slept over one night and I cooked up a way to make a hula skirt with the girls. That part was prepared in advance. From there, the whole outfit came about using things we already had and the girls' imaginations.

Here's Elizabeth modeling the finished product. I didn't get a good up close picture of the skirt but it was very easy to make. We used a hair elastic for the waist. The nice thick grown up ones fit nicely around the doll's waist with no measuring and sewing of elastic involved. We then took raffia and cut it twice as long as we wanted the skirt. We folded the length in half, placed the folded side behind the elastic and pulled the ends through around the front, looping it through tightly. No tying knots. You can somewhat see it in the picture below.

The girls made bracelets using elastic string, pony beads and some regular old cheapo silk flowers we bought a few years back for Gabby's room. I had taken them apart for that project so now we have a bunch of flower pieces with holes in the middles. They picked out the smaller ones and used those for the wristbands. 

The hair clip is a small bobby pin with more of the silk flowers. I simply stacked some of the same colors, putting a leaf piece on the bottom and pushed the bobby pin through the middle hole.

For the ankles, it was more elastic string, beads, and leaf pieces from the silk flowers (when you take those things apart, you get tons of pieces to use!)

About 11pm that night the girls said, "What about the coconut bra?" How I could I forget the coconut bra?? I was so tired I couldn't come up with anything that I had on hand that didn't require power tools that would work. So I slept on it. In the morning, this is what I came up with. It's simple but they were happy. These are brown felt circles with brown ribbon pulled through them. That's it. Above is the front, below is the back. With more time/planning I possibly could have used walnut shells or something similar but this made the girls happy and was easy.

The leis were again made with the silk flowers, elastic thread and pony beads. Here's the two partial outfits on the dolls.

Here's where we put the hula dresses in to action. That's my kids ready for the luau in Hawaii. Felicity is wearing Kanani's outfit (a surprise for the trip), while Elizabeth is wearing the outfit we made.

Yes, when Daddy got caught holding the dolls, some woman was trying to hit on him. Who knew American Girl dolls and an adorable four year old boy could bring in the women?

Afterward we got some pictures with some of the dancers. All of the ladies made a huge fuss over Gabby and her dolls. They loved Kanani's outfit, of course, but were very impressed when Gabby said she made the other one. We still love our hula outfits and enjoyed Hawaii so much Gabby had a luau themed birthday party this year. I'll get to that post some day.