April 2nd - Ellie can't wait until Friday
April 3rd - Ellie can't wait until Friday
April 4th - Ellie can't wait until Friday
April 5th - Ellie can't wait until Friday
April 6th - "Kevin, I know I've been saying I can't wait until Friday, but now I can't wait until Saturday!"
April 7th - 7:00 AM - "Mom, I was so excited when I woke up I wanted to scream, but you were still asleep so I just did it in my head!!!!"
April 7th - 9:30 AM - We finally arrive and step foot in the American Girl Doll store in Chicago. We spent the next four hours experiencing every possible corner...but let's roll back just a bit for a few more details.....
Ellie discovered through a couple of her friends at school (Alex and Grace) the American Girl Doll. I had learned about the doll a few years prior and was just waiting until she was interested. (So in reality, I was as excited as she was.) It was around Christmas time that she was asking for a doll. We had already planned our trip to Chicago so I asked her if she wanted a doll for Christmas or would rather wait and get it for her birthday and go to the store on the trip instead of a party. Of course you should know (if you read her birthday entry) that I am a sucker for celebration so even though she chose to wait until April for the doll and have no birthday party - I only held to one of those conditions.
We had fun building up to the event, looking at dolls online and getting good ideas for what she wanted to buy. Around Christmas she got a magazine from a neighbor and after Christmas used some of her money to buy a couple of accessories for her to-be doll. For Christmas she received some American Girl Dolls books and started to read a couple and get introduced a bit more to the historical characters.
In early February, I booked our hotel in the "official" American Girl Doll hotel and made reservations for lunch in the American Girl Doll Cafe. In the weeks and days just prior to the trip Ellie was so excited "just couldn't wait until" - it was super cute.
We left for our trip on April 6th. Our first flight was delayed an hour so we waited in a bit of anticipation, not knowing if we would make it as our second flight only had an hour layover. We rushed from gate to gate in the airport and made it on the second flight, but our luggage did not. We arrived in Chicago and spend the first hour in baggage claim. We arranged for our bags to be delivered to our hotel.
At 11:30 PM we left the airport and Ellie got to experience her first taxi ride. This was also something of anticipation as we have played a "yellow taxi" game for a few years now in the car. The first taxi ride of the trip was good. The taxi was clean, the driving was under control and the taxi driver even smelled good. She was a larger woman, from an island with a black leather jacket and the heat on, but we survived and was a good first ride. The second taxi ride of the trip made Ellie very hesitant to ever take another taxi again, but that is a story for a bit later in the trip.
At 12:00 AM we were tucked in bed, but Ellie couldn't sleep.
At 1:00 AM the airlines called saying our bags had arrived at the airport.
At 2:00 AM the hotel called saying our bags had arrived at the hotel.
At 2:30 AM the hotel bellman knocked with our bags at the door.
At 7:00 AM Ellie was screaming in her head.
At 9:30 AM We stepped foot in the American girl doll store and now we continue where I left off....
We walked in to the not so busy store and started on the ground floor. We looked at all of the historical dolls first.
Ellie and I had just read together about the Mardi Gras party Cecile and Marie-Grace attended so we were excited to see this display.
It didn't take long before we headed up the stairs to pick out Ellie's doll. She had decided before we went that she would get a doll that looked like her and narrowed it down to two. One with curly hair - one with straight hair.
Once she had a doll in her bag, it was time to do some serious accessorizing.
About 30 minutes in we decided we better get some breakfast so we stopped for a bite of breakfast at "Treats for Two" inside the store.
The next hour we went up and down the escalator, around and around the store and did a lot of looking and a lot of shopping. We also stopped by the salon to schedule an appointment for the doll.
By 11:00 Ellie's bag was full and it was time to make the big purchase!
After an embarrassing issue with our credit card (declined because they thought it was fraud) and a call to the credit card company to let them know it was really us making the purchase - we had the goods!
We stepped out of the store so Ellie could get her doll out of the box and dressed and accessorized.
We had some time to kill before the hair appointment so we walked around a bit and stopped in the lego store next door.
On our bathroom break we found "doll hangers" - of course they had doll hangers. Why wouldn't they?
At 11:45 it was time for the hair appointment. Ellie also scheduled her to have her ears pierced. They do that behind the scenes and when the girl came back with the doll she said she was good and didn't cry. Then she teased Ellie for making her doll do something Ellie's not brave enough to do. We all got a good laugh.
Ellie picked the style of hair and was super excited about it. I was just impressed with how well they could do doll hair!
We decided it was a bit tough to carry the doll all day so we made another purchase (credit card issue free) for a little carry bag.
12:30 and it was time for lunch! The room was all black, white and pink. Of course there were seats for the dolls and they had their own tea cups.
We had fun answering questions from a box they had placed on the table and as usual, just enjoyed being together.
The meal started with mini cinnamon rolls, Ellie ordered a mini plate (mini burger, mini mac, mini dog)for lunch, and they completed the meal with mini desserts.
You would think with the "mini" lunch we would be hungry, but there was more food than we could eat. We left the store around 1:30 and finally had the American Girl Doll experience Ellie (okay all of us) had been anxiously awaiting. I was thankful we could give Ellie this experience. I realize how blessed we are to have an amazing child that is great to take anywhere and how blessed we are to have the resources to do these types of trips. It was one of those times I know I'll look back on several years later and be thankful we got to make it happen.
That was the end of the store, but we were still in Chicago and needed to make the most of our day in the city. We had about three more hours before we were meeting up with Kevin's family so we took our second taxi ride over to Navy Pier. The second taxi ride may have ruined Ellie's tax rides for life.
American Girl is on Michigan Avenue in Chicago - a street taxis are not supposed to pick up or drop off on. There was a taxi dropping off right in front of the store as we were walking out so we jumped in, not knowing the restriction, and just thinking we had perfect timing. It would have been okay, but the taxi got blocked in by a bus and a street cop made his way over to chastise him. Of course he argued with the cop that his customer asked to be dropped off there and they went back a forth a bit. This instantly made Ellie nervous. She is a rule follower and this did not sit well with her. She eased up a bit but when we got to Navy Pier, the driver dropped us off at the front of the taxi line and instead of making his way back to the end of the line of waiting taxis, he let another group jump in right after us. This set the taxi driver that was first in line of the long line of taxi drivers off...he was cursing and cussing and calling him the scum of the earth and other words not appropriate for this blog. Ellie was OVER taxis and when we needed a third one (which went fine) we had a hard time calming her and getting her okay with the idea of it.
Navy Pier was awesome. We spent time in the Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze, walking on the Pier, stopping to take Ellie's new American Girl Doll Pet out of the box and play, in the stained glass museum, avoiding the wind at the end of the pier, and playing miniature golf.
During our golf game (which I killed them at - but to be fair, we played a game in the funhouse that Kevin totally beat Ellie and me at) we got a call from Jonathan saying they had made it to the city, so, against Ellie's request, we jumped in our third taxi and headed to Millennium Park.
Around 4:30, we found Kevin's sister Carrie, her husband Jonathon, their son Ethan, and Debbie. We were excited to see them and Ethan and Ellie became buddies immediately.
We took in a few more little sites together and the headed back on the train to their home outside the city. The next day was Easter, so we spent the night coloring Easter eggs.
Around 8:00 PM, it was bedtime for Ethan.
After the American Girl store, the taxi rides, the Pier and parks, the Easter eggs and Ethan was tucked in bed, Ellie did what Ellie enjoys most - she played. It was the perfect ending to her perfect day.
Can you believe that was all just one day? One perfect day.
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