Writing about plans for a fancy dinner party yesterday reminded me that I haven’t shared any pictures or stories from our vacation yet.
Ever since Violet got a Felicity doll at Christmas, she’s been hoping to visit American Girl Place. There are 3 of them- one in Los Angeles, one in New York and the original in Chicago. Our trip to Green Bay this summer had us traveling right through Chicago. How convenient!
After dropping off the guys at the hotel and changing into our fancy dresses and hats, Violet and I caught a cab to downtown Chicago. Violet was so excited about visiting American Girl Place that I was a little nervous it wouldn’t measure up to her expectations. But I shouldn’t have worried, it definitely didn’t disappoint us.
American Girl Place is the Taj Mahal of Dolldom - sort of a combination of store and theme park. There were three floors of American Girl dolls, clothes, furniture, and other accessories. The Chicago store has displays for each historical doll that portray scenes from every day life in that time period. There was also a huge Girl of Today section as well as mountains of Just Like Me and Bitty Baby displays.
Violet spent a lot of time trying to decide exactly what Felicity items to spend her money on. After waffling back and forth over whether she should get several smaller items like outfits or just one big item, she finally decided to go for the Tilt-Top Table and Chairs. She received the tea set as a gift for her birthday and has been longing for the table and chairs ever since. Now we’re thinking Felicity looks a little lonely sitting at the table by herself and needs her friend Elizabeth to keep her company.
In addition to all of the browsing and shopping, we also stopped by the Doll Hospital and the Doll Hair Salon. Felicity isn’t hurt or feeling under the weather but she was up for a special new hairdo. The doll salon has a menu of different hairstyles to choose from - Violet selected a stylish Double-Flip-Twist and the hairstylist got to work. She buckled Felicity into a tiny, doll-sized salon chair and whipped a cape around her shoulders to protect her clothes and then proceeded to spritz, comb, twist and curl Felicity’s hair into shape.
After Felicity’s hair appointment, we headed to the
American Girl cafe for afternoon tea. The cafe is very girly-girly with its pink, black and white decor and was a perfect setting for a mom-daughter tea party. The tables are beautifully set and decorated. One neat thing was the little boxes of Table Talk topics. Violet and I alternated asking each other questions and chatting about our answers. Even Felicity got to join in the tea party in her own “Treat Seat” - small doll chairs that hook onto the table. The waiter even served her with her own miniature tea cup and saucer.
The tea itself consisted of 3 courses of delicious tea treats served on fancy tiered serving dishes. Many of the treats had names related to the dolls like Kit’s Garden Party Vegetable Sandwiches, Kirsten’s Farm Fresh Egg Salad and Felicity’s Patriotic Roasted Turkey and Cranberry Sandwiches. Violet’s favorite was the Molly’s Victory Garden Chocolate Mousse Flowerpot which were really cute. I liked the chocolate teacups filled with Raspberry creme.
After tea, Violet and I wandered back downstairs to look around a little more and then headed out to catch a cab back to the hotel. Imagine our surprise when Steve and Jon met us outside the store. They had walked from the hotel down the lakefront and over to the downtown shopping district. Quite a long walk! At first I thought they wanted us to walk home with them (can you say heels!?!), but they were happy to share a cab ride back to the hotel with us.
Violet and I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go back. Next time we hope to catch a show in the theater and hopefully *fingers crossed* April and Aunt Laura will get to go with us.
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