as haylie's birthday present from us this year, my mom and i took the girls to american girl place!! it was so so much fun!! for the girls, yes, but also for my mom and i!! (my mom says she wants to come back for her birthday! lol!) again...back to firsts for the year.....it was the girls first time going to american girl place!! and not only that.....we took the train into the city from mendota!! first time for a train ride too!! the girls loved it!! and we did too! it was so relaxing - neither of us had to worry about driving and we didn't have to worry about parking! it was perfect! of course, once we got into the city, we had to walk about 2 miles to ag place. but that's ok, we brought the strollers and my mom and i love to walk...especially around the city! (last june just the 2 of us went up, and we figure we walked about 20 miles in the 2 days we were there! and no....we didn't walk that much because we got lost! anyone who knows us, knows that we aren't the best with directions, so it's quite common for us to get lost at least once, if not more, when we're out and about. but my sense of direction is freakishly good in the city, when i'm walking! not sure where that comes from, but i'll take it!)
each of the girls got a bitty baby for christmas in 2010, but neither of them had a full size doll. so part of haylie's gift was her own full size american girl doll that she got to pick out herself! charlie brought her bitty baby along so she could get her some new clothes and have lunch with us! overall, it was a wonderful day! exhausting of course, but so much fun! i anticipate many more trips in our future!
each of the girls got a bitty baby for christmas in 2010, but neither of them had a full size doll. so part of haylie's gift was her own full size american girl doll that she got to pick out herself! charlie brought her bitty baby along so she could get her some new clothes and have lunch with us! overall, it was a wonderful day! exhausting of course, but so much fun! i anticipate many more trips in our future!
charlie with her very own train ticket!!
and haylie too!!
waiting for our train to arrive
haylie and grama tammy on the train
and charlie and her girl....bitty baby
us after finding our way out of the train station, ready for our walking journey to watertower place, home of american girl place!
we made it!! just to be safe, we had asked a police officer which direction we needed to go, just so we didn't head in the wrong direction (yes, we've done that before! shush!). he gave us the best route, but of course we didn't follow it! lol! so we just headed in the general direction and made it just fine!
my little stars!
haylie and mckenna....2012 girl of the year!
haylie with her very own, handpicked american girl doll! she named her mckenna, and got her the gymnastics outfit, but it's not the mckenna doll
mckenna, mckenna and haylie
charlie and bitty baby with her new swim suit on!!
haylie and mckenna, sporting her new ice skating outfit (thanks marcus & stacey!!)
all dressed up and ready to party!
we had some time after shopping before it was time for our american girl lunch, so we took a little walk around the area. we found this giant hershey kiss and of course had to get a pic!
me and my babes by the fountain!
making wishes....
grama and her girls!
on our walk back to ag place, we walked by a wreck or something with fire trucks and ambulances. since we just happened to walk by when they were cleaning up, i had haylie take a picture by the chicago fire truck for nick!
even though we had already been in and out of the store about 4 or 5 times shopping, we had to come back for haylie's birthday lunch! i really had no idea what to expect when we got there, but it was gorgeous! it was so pink and spunky and fun! mckenna and bitty had their own highchairs so they could dine with us too! the girls just loved that!
haylie and mckenna with their birthday crowns on!
bitty and charlie!
haylie and the babies with their baby tea!
apparently something was reallllly funny!
finally caught her with the crown on! what a pretty girl!
miss haylie! so happy with the girls!
happy birthday to haylie!!!
haylie and mckenna with her balloon!
my princess
the four of us, just outside the cafe!
since we had shopped til we dropped at ag place, and filled our bellies, it was time to go. but we still had a couple hours until our train left, so we took our time walking back! sure glad we did, because we managed to find some fun on the way!
charlie and the big black bear (i think from the movie "brave") at the disney store!
on our walk back to the train station, we found this....how wonderful! it was hot, and the girls love water! haylie had a blast running around! of course, it's always the case that we don't bring swim suits when we need them! and this time i didn't even have spare clothes! so she had to not get too too wet! but she still had fun anyway! next time i'm bringing spare clothes for all of us....cuz i sure would have loved to get cooled off too! lol! of course if i do, it will be rainy and cold and it will just be added weight in my backpack! haha!
unfortunately charlie was exhausted from all the shopping and fell asleep on the walk! we tried to wake her up to play in the water, but she would have nothing to do with it!
haylie loving the cool water break!
we also walked by "the bean" so we had to check it out since haylie had never seen it in person, just in pictures! she thought it was pretty cool!
haylie holding up the bean! not the greatest shot, but it was hot and i wasn't prepared for bean shots! lol!
haylie in the windy city
she sure does love the city!
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