Charlotte's Web

Today we celebrated Charlotte turning 5 years old (on Tuesday) at the American Girl Doll Store in Natick with her friends. On a normal day the store would surely be chaos. Add to that chaos a little "3 weeks till Christmas" shopping choas and together it equals Dad overload. Dolls everywhere, outfits everywhere, kids everywhere, mom with giant shopping bags, on two floors and my brain melted down. The good news is despite my anxiety overwhelmed too many people in one store with no direction issue, Charlotte had a ball. Turning 5 is a big deal, and its even a bigger deal to spend the day with your girlfriends doing what girls do best, shopping and playing dolls. Charlotte got a new doll, Maeve got a new doll, and dad got to witness the inner workings of what actually happens in an American Girl Doll store. (oh and what really happens is they make a FORTUNE)

To say Charlotte had fun would be an understatement, and her little sister didnt feel like a little sister but one of the girls all day. Maeve picked her doll with relative ease (Livvy, although we think she was influenced by someone to call her Elizabeth, which she cant say well so it was shortened to Lizzy, which she happens to say with a slight lisp as Livvy). LIvvy was born. Pretty simple.

Charlotte on the other hand picked a doll at first, from the make your own doll section (which is not really make your own, but more like pick a different doll that has almost everything you want it to have). After picking the doll, she found another one, and then on her way back upstairs to tell us she found another doll, found yet another she liked. In the end all three dolls were lined up like a police line up and Charlotte had to pick the one she wanted. In the end it was the first doll she picked. Always works that way. Go with your gut kid and you wont go wrong.

We all sat, had lunch, and the girls even got to eat with their dolls. Dad, not being one to be left out, was able to borrow a "guy doll" from the store to eat with. Everyone had their dolls, everyone had fun, even carrying three giant shopping bags, bumping into people, trying to keep an eye on your kids, wondering just how much mom was really spending, type of fun.