The End of March - Girls' Day

I could preface this post with my dissatisfaction with the toy industry's offerings for little girls…or my alarm at the way dolls for little girls are highly sexualized…but I will refrain.  Instead, I'll say that I've been interested in the American Girl dolls since I was a kid.  (I never had one…I think I found out about them when I was too old to legitimately get one of them.  And also they were super expensive.)  I haven't been sure, yet, whether Grace was going to get very interested in dolls, or AG dolls in particular.  But, she has been enjoying reading the books.  So, when we got an AG store within driving distance, I wanted to check it out for myself before I considered investing in a doll someday.  Corinne was interested in doing some investigating, too, so we decided to make a girls' day out of it with Grace and Charlotte.

It was a rainy day, so we dressed in our rain boots.  We don't get to wear those much around here!  Grace chose her outfit, as you can see.  We were both very excited about our day.

Here are our girls.  You can see that Grace is a hugger and Charlotte is not so sure about giving away that much personal space, which I understand!

Grace and I had been talking about our trip to the store for awhile, and we were going with the understanding that we would not be buying any dolls because they are made for much older girls.  However, she could spend some birthday money on a couple of the books.  These are the ones she chose, and we have enjoyed them.  (I had a friend with older daughters recommend to me that my daughter read the books before she decides which character she likes the best.  Good advice!)

We really enjoyed the store.  There are so many things to look at and touch, whether or not you buy any of it.  All the parents and kids seemed excited to be there, so people were in a generally good mood.  There were lots of displays that let the girls touch and enjoy, and even the boxes of things to buy were openable so that you could inspect what you might choose to purchase.  It was quite a contrast to Target or wherever else you might find toys - and wailing children - and sealed packages.  We had fun looking around.  If you have a kid with the "gimmes," I'm sure it would be no fun at all, but since we had firm expectations of no doll purchases, Grace did pretty well, although I must admit, she did a little asking near the end.

The picture doesn't show this, but it rained a lot, and we forgot our umbrella in the car.  We made a mad dash for some smoothies and got very wet, but we thought it added to the adventure of the day!

While we were there, I also wanted to investigate the Naartje store.  Multiple friends had recommended it to me, and I wanted to check it out for myself.  Corinne and I did a little shopping, and we weren't disappointed.  The clothes are cute, good for lots of playing, and reasonably priced.  Here's an outfit I got for Grace that she'll be able to wear in the fall.

We had fun on our girls' day!