American Girls

Today Amanda and I took our girls to the American Girl store in Los Angeles to celebrate the amazing job they did during cookie season.  And not just in Los Angeles, the store was in The Grove.  I don't know how many people are TMZ watchers but I am and Cass sits next to me quite a bit so she knows all about The Grove.  I think from seeing it so much on TMZ, she assumed it was going to be filled with nothing but celebrities, and not just any celebrities....Hannah Montana!!  Her reasoning?  Hannah Montana lives in Los Angeles, therefore she shops The Grove all the time so we have to see her!!!  It only added to the excitement of the day so we went with it :) 

The Grove ended up being a really nice shopping mall!!!!!  It was all outdoors, had a cobblestone walk and fountains, it was a nice place to walk around!!!  But we didn't want to just walk around, we were on a mission. 

Isn't it a nice building?  I think I was more excited because the last one we went to was in Chicago and it was right off a busy street, don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun but this one seemed nicer from the outside.  The girls were stoked from the second we walked in.

We needed to check-in for lunch so they knew not to give away our spot so we quickly ushered our girls to the nearest elevator.  While we were waiting we discovered the magical world known as personal shopping.  I thought that only happened in high end stores and for millionaires or celebrities!!  Near the elevator there was a separate room that occupied desks and dressing rooms filled with little girls and their personal shoppers for the day.  Luckily the girls were on a "whats coming next" high so we didn't get to hear "wheres my personal shopper, why I am not as lucky as that little girl dressed in the Louis Vuitton frilly dress who has 20 gazillion boxes of things?"  Can I get an amen for girls being grateful?!  We checked into the reservation desk and had some time on our hands so we did some window shopping.  It was actually pretty neat.  They have a whole section with a museum type feel of each girl and the time period they are from.  We even met a girl who worked there who was herself a former Girl Scout so she took to our girls and gave them a personal tour of all the girls and all about their stories.  Then it was time to dine.  We walked through black and white double doors into our perfect lunch cafe.

The decor was simple but having it black, pink and white made it super girly and fun.  I think I want to do Cassie's room in those colors now.

The table had these cute pink sunflowers in a watering can, along with a small black pinstripe box filled with conversation starters.  Can I add that on the way home my sweet daughter leaned into her friend next to her and in a not so whispering voice uttered "look, I stole one of these" (holding up one of the convo starter cards, which were for sale in the store actually so totally not something they wanted you to take).  Good job on showing my lacking parenting skills.  However, I could swear we have had the no stealing convo, I guess not enough.  Anyways, back to our great day.

My favorite decor were these mirrors.  They lined one side of the cafe and I love them!!!  I want to make some!!!!!  After oooohing and awwwing, the girls sat down for their lunch.

If they didn't bring their own doll, they were allowed to borrow one, along with its own highchair so you can sit next to your new friend of course.  The meal consisted of yummy little cinnamon rolls as soon as we sat down as well as drinks (pink lemonade of course). 

Our appetizer was fruit kabobs, veggie sticks and pretzel bites with honey mustard and ranch for dipping.

My lunch was a spinach and sauteed mushroom burger.  Some others a salad, pizza and chicken fingers, yumm!!!!!!

For dessert everyone a chocolate mousse/oreo cookie crumb flower pot, a cookie and some cake.  It was so cute!!!  Even some of the girls who had fruit with their lunch found it cut into hearts and stars, they really know how to make little girls happy!!!!!!  After we ate we walked around The Grove and found the trolley.  After much begging and pleading, we climbed aboard and sat on the upper deck.

It took us through the whole mall until it ended up at the world famous Farmers Market.

I think I may need to make a trip just for that place!!!!!  On our trip back to the other side of the mall, our lovely trolley driver got the girls all sorts of excited.  He had been telling us jokes over his microphone and updating the men folk on who was winning in the World Cup so far.  Then we heard, "ladies and gentlemen, we may have a Justin Beiber sighting".  What?!!!  Where?!!!!  We informed the girls it was just a kid who resembled him, otherwise we would have heard a million girls screaming and the trolley would probably have come to a screeching halt.  But mister trolley man, never say such things around six 8 year olds who love the Beib and have had their heart set on seeing a celebrity.  I think the hearts were thumping for a good minute or so.  All in all, we had a great day.  The sun was shining and our girls got to relax and enjoy themselves after pounding the streets selling calorie filled goodness.  They have already made plans for next years trip.  I feel like a proud momma times 6 :)