American Girl

Madison has been begging me to go to the American Girl store. We visited the one in Los Angeles two years ago, and now that she is getting old enough to start reading/understanding the historical dolls, she has been wanting to go to the store. We are currently reading the first of the Molly books because Molly's dad is a doctor who goes off to war to help people (sound familiar?). Anyways, somehow while in Maryland, we started talking about American Girl. Jenn had given Madison Hannah, her beloved Bitty Baby almost six years ago, and I'm sure that was part of the conversation. Unknown to me, the new American Girl store recently opened in Washington D.C. When I heard that, I knew we had to stop. So, on the drive home, I surprised Madison by stopping. As we got off the exit, the kids started asking me where we were going. Luckily, the store was at a mall right by the interstate. We got there just after 10AM, so they had just opened and weren't busy. We were able to park right in front of the store, and as we pulled into the space, Madison read the sign and started shrieking. She was so excited. The boys were fine too. Luke actually helped Madison pick out an outfit, and Alex just kept pointing at the Bitty Baby dolls and saying, "Hannah" for Madison's doll. Hannah got a little TLC too, as they have a "spa" for the dolls to clean them up. With Hannah being our cross-country traveler, we decided she needed a treatment. If you had seen her lately, you would have agreed! The boys also enjoyed that after American Girl, we ventured into the mall where we got pretzels. That made their day.

Here we are at the car, just in front of the store. Madison was delighted. Oh, and don't forget Hannah was excited too :)


Inside, here we are at the spa area. Hannah is behind Madison being treated. They even took off her dress and put her into a doll robe. They did a nice job cleaning her up too. Madison loved watching it and was shocked at how dirty Hannah really was. That was a great $5 spent. Priceless.