I'm sure you'll be glad to know that I survived our American Girl Birthday Party! (My checkbook may have spontaneously combusted, but me? I'm still alive!)
The girls had a blast. I am so glad I did this now, because I'm pretty sure that at 10, this is the last year my girl will be interested in having lunch with her "dolly" (PS...American Girl peeps...how 'bout we not call them "dollies"? 'Specially with the older girls...).
Anyway...I was really quite unsure of what to expect. In the end, I'll totally admit that I was expecting a "Disney'd" up version of a birthday party for girls. While it wasn't quite that, it was still pretty dang good!
When we arrived, the girls all picked out a chair for their (here's that dumb word again) "dolly". We got seated, and something (intuition?) tipped me off that they weren't aware we had booked a birthday celebration. (Could have something to do with the fact that I never received invitations in the mail? And that they seemed unprepared for our birthday gathering?)
After ordering our drinks, I touched base with our server, to make sure they knew we were there for a birthday, and had (weeks previously) booked a Bistro Birthday Celebration! Things were remedied quickly, tiaras brought out, and our celebrating began!
The food was actually quite remarkable! I had the salmon and was pleasantly surprised! Can you tell I'm not a food blogger? Didn't take one photo of my meal...but I did get this one of the girls' drinks:
Anyway...we ate, we drank, and we be'd merry. We opened presents, we ate cake and sang "Happy Birthday". We laughed. We talked. We got fun little goodie bags to take home. (And, by we, I mean "not the adults".)
Then we paid the bill. (And by "we", I mean "I".)
Then we died.
Then we remembered that last year we spent about the same amount on a pool party and wanted to drown ourselves in the pool midway through that party. (Again, "we" = "I")
Then we came back to life, looked around, saw the fun that was being had, the lack of any sort of effort (other than calling to make reservations), planning, or clean up; and declared the eleventy million dollar tab "worth it".
We went on rides (and by "we" I mean "them"):
We babysat (and by "we" I mean "her"...I was too busy taking pictures to be responsible for the "dollies".):
We bullied some nice, young, itty-bitty baby wearing mom (er...the baby was itty bitty. Not the mom. Although, the mom was pretty teeny too...) into taking our picture:
Then we headed home (and, for the first time, by "we" I do actually mean "we".)...happy, broke, and full.
Oh, and thirsty.
Dang, were we parched. Which we remedied. But then we had to pee.
Such is life with a car full of girls.
You are such a great mom! That must have been a wonderful experience for her! Luckily for my checkbook, my daughter doesn't like American Girl Dolls, whew!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for you about the American Girl experience... what age do you think would be a good age to get my daughter a doll? She's 4. My mother and sister want to take her to the store, let her choose a doll and buy it..... I was thinking she's still a little too young for it, but then I want her to get the most out of the doll (since they're expensive). I'm afraid if I get it too late she'll lose interest in it quickly, ya know. Sorry, I'm rambling.
ReplyDeleteGlad the birthday celebration was a success :D
I love reading your blog! I've nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award :)
ReplyDeleteWow- you're a more generous mom than I! I only let them have ONE destination birthday party- when they're TEN! All others are low key, with family at our house. Except for the 5- it's still at the house, but with friends. Wanna come over next August and throw a 5 year old birthday party?!?!?
ReplyDeleteWhen My granddaughters were younger I had wished we could take them there. Now they are 12, 13, 15, 18 and 19...so we really missed out on the fun! Boo! But we live in Kansas and it just never happened.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you got to go with the girls, and that a good time was had by everyone and their dolls. (:>)
Some of our girls did have American Girl dolls, and they are really nice quality. When I was a little girl I LOVED, dolls and I would have loved going there. Now I am just an antique little girl! (61) And I wonder how time passes so quickly?
One thing about life is that it helps to have a sense of humor...and I always enjoy yours!
Have a great day Mama M!
Linda @ truthful Tidbits
That is so cool! I have never heard of an American Girl party. Is there an actual store or place they have those? My girl got her first American girl doll this past Christmas and she loves her! I'm always looking for ideas for birthday parties. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the pics!
That looks like a really fun party for the girls. Thanks for sharing the pics with us.
ReplyDeleteI love it! What a wonderful memory for all. My daughter has requested a trip to American Girl and I haven't caved yet because she's never been into dolls at all. But we shall see.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures.