An American Girl

     Not sure why but just typing that title made me want to break out in a song.  Anyway, back to the post.  Before Christmas Mikayla had the opportunity to write her list a few times for Santa. One thing that remained the constant across all the lists was an American Girl. Mike and I had talked about and decided that she was not quite ready to take care of one. But it made it really hard to resist as the time got closer and she kept looking at the catalogue and picking out exactly what it was that she wanted. The week before Christmas she decided that she wanted to pick out the doll so she sent one last request to Santa asking for a "ticket" for an American Girl. Well, I guess Santa got the message and it was there waiting in her stocking on Christmas morning.
     Truth be known I was looking for something special to do with her on her birthday, but ahem, this one was left up to mr. softie.  If only I had known what he had gotten us into.  The morning after Christmas, a.k.a. Mikayla's birthday, we went to a small little church to watch Mike's mom play the flute.  After the service Mike's sister went with us to the Mall of America for the American Girl experience.  I definitely did not plan this well, and let's just say I was a bit overwhelmed when we got to the American Girl store.  You see, I have been in the store before both here and in Minnesota, but the time I went there in Minnesota I only remember one floor.  So, um yeah, that entered the first source of confusion.  We flagged somebody down who helped us locate a catalogue and let us know that what we were looking floor was on the lower level.  Finally we located the doll, but finding the outfits that Mikayla wanted was another task.  Oh and by this time we had my brother-in-law, his wife, and two boys met up with us.  So we had both of my sister-in-laws and me on the hunt for the outfits.  Finally we were able to buy the doll, get her ears pierced, and her hair done.  Phew, it was definitely a task.  And if it was not quite as crazy it was I would have taken pictures of the whole experience.  Mikayla really loves the doll and is doing a great job of taking care of her.  But I am not ready to be the mom who lets her take the doll everywhere with her.

Meet Julie

She loves, loves this doll