ROAD TRIP - DESTINATION AMERICAN GIRL!!!

In July a new store opened in Lynnwood, Washington. My girlfriend and I were very excited as we had been to this store in LA on a couple of vacation trips to that area. We thought it would be kind of neat to now experience it through the eyes of a child and as Dakotah my granddaughter is now 7 and the perfect age for this type of store, we talked about taking her when we went. On the last weekend in September my girlfriend Loretta's husband Robert offered to take us all on a road trip to visit the new AMERICAN GIRL store just outside of Seattle. The weather forecast was pretty grim all week and much to our amazement, when we set off at shortly after 7 am on Friday morning it wasn't raining...bonus! We got through the Douglas border crossing very quickly and were on our way!

Above is Dakotah buckled into her car seat, car seats are the law in Canada until the children are about 9 years old. Our first stop we decided would be Joanne's fabric store, much of our fabric stores have vanished and it is always nice to browse the fabrics at Joanne's. We were a bit early and the store wasn't opened yet so we stopped at Starbucks and Missy D had their version of an egg McMuffin and promptly lost one of her baby teeth....the picture below shows her holding it. Uncle Robert patiently showed her his phone which has GPS on it and assured her that the tooth fairy would be able to find us using the GPS...very important stuff to a seven year old!!

Joanne's finally opened and we spent some time checking out the Halloween isles, great fun!

Auntie Retta was suddenly scared...lololol...spiders and noises and scary masks...

And then we arrived at the store. It was huge, we weren't expecting something of this size as it is a "Bistro" store. But it surprised us by it's size. Everything is laid out on one floor so it is easy to get around and keep track of everything and everyone. I had a very sore knee which for some reason was making me rather slow getting around and Uncle Robert volunteered to be Dakotah's shadow as she darted from here to there all over the store (thank you Robert...)

A/G is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and above are the mini dolls they have put out to commemorate the special year. We had considered them....until we got near the 18 inch girls and that idea flew out the window...

A/G introduced two new girls to their product line this summer and both are gorgeous with stunning clothing. I think the Marie Grace one is also a new face mold. It was very hard to leave her in the store as she is so cute.

Dakotah bounced from display to display, it is a doll lovers paradise....she didn't know what she liked the best. I told her I would buy her a doll of her very own as part of her Christmas present...and then began the hunt for the perfect doll for her. So many choices...she finally decided on one of the girls of today rather than a historical because she loves to do their hair. She loved Marie Grace but she had an intricate braid across the back of her hair and Dakotah didn't think if she got her she would ever want to take it out and she really wants to do the hair so we found one that she can do that.

This was her final choice, I think it is #35.

Here Dakotah and Auntie Retta examine the dolls, Auntie Retta has the best "eye" for picking out dolls and having them be perfect without a wonky eye or bald spot or something!

Kaya's camp especially the log fire really fascinated Dakotah

And here is our very patient and kind driver/kid chaser/luggage helper/ and all around good guy, Robert who never got to browse the mall or get his coffee as he stayed and helped us out while we were in the store.

Dakotah and her new doll, her very first American Girl

We went out to dinner and of course the dolls had to come too!

This is the display booth they had set up for Kanani, American Girl of the year whose story line takes place in Hawaii. We took along the Royal City Record newspaper as they have a section they often post travel photos in if you take their paper along. I submitted the photo but so far it hasn't been printed.

To our absolute amazement, as we drove down to Lynnwood the temperatures soared upward and not only did we not have the predicted rain but by the time we arrived it was in the 80's and balmy tropical breezes were blowing. We heard it was a tropical front from Hawaii that had come in and it sure felt like we were in Hawaii or someplace other than the Pacific North West land of rain and wind...lol  The Best Western Alderwood where we stayed kindly let Dakotah take a dip in the pool...I say kindly because I am sure the pool is probably closed for the season by the end of September and there were painters working in the area however they were very sweet and let her have a swim.

Our first day at the store was Friday and it was very quiet because it was a school day. Dakotah luckily was enjoying a professional development day and her school was closed, timing is everything. Being the store was quiet we got to see everything and do everything, Dakotah and Uncle Robert had a blast with this door...it revolved and they went round and round...the next day at the store was so busy you couldn't do anything remotely close to that....

I had Dakotah try on the Kanani dress as she is part Polynesian much like Kanani the girl of the year...in truth I wanted to check out their sizing because at some point I would like to get her this dress, she looked so sweet in it....

Thanks for taking us Auntie Retta and Uncle Robert!!! It was another fabulous trip and treat of an outing!

FABULOUS TEA AND VISIT WITH DOLLY FRIENDS

Last Thursday my friend Loretta (aka Martha Stewart of the North) whom I originally met through the Internet when we both were collecting Chatty Cathy dolls had a tea. Through the years our doll collecting has morphed into "other" collections as well as our beloved Chatty's. Along the way we met another doll collector named Isabelle and she has come along with us into our new doll passion, Bleuette dolls. Last Thursday Loretta hosted us both for a Bleuette tea. As some of our Bleuette dolls are at camp on the good ship Amitie (a fun project hosted by Gael from the Bleuette sewing group on Yahoo groups), we took the opportunity to pose a few pictures so our little campers can earn their badges for their uniforms. No...we are not insane....not even close, we have just discovered that you are never too old to have a fabulous childhood and while we did have them when young, us empty nesters (well sort of...) are going back to times of old where life was slower paced and dolls were synonymous with fun times. With the Internet, we are able to access a ton of other avid collectors and we have formed online families and friends with similar passions/obsessions(?). It is such fun, if you have a hobby and would like to share, check out Yahoo groups because I just bet you will find many others, even thousands of others who share your passion for collecting and would love to come out and play with you. Thanks Loretta for hosting another fabulous event! These soiree's just get better and better!

I haven't blogged for quite some time but I had an interesting summer and will try to post a few posts regarding what I did on my summer vacation...a little hint...we joined the United Federation of Doll Clubs earlier this year and they held their annual convention in a place that was close for us to get to and also happens to be a place dear to our hearts, Anaheim California, home of Mickey, Minnie, and this year home to thousands of dolls collectors and sales people from all over the world...I will post pictures soon of that once in a lifetime event.

COUPONS AND ME!

Walmart is having their yearly Anniversary sale and strangely enough I haven't been near the place....today I had to spend time at my Mom's waiting for the fire alarms to be tested by the strata and I figured it was a good time to clear out the junk pile otherwise known as "my purse". I ran across several great coupons that correspond with what Walmart has on sale but as I was at the other end of town, I piled up "stacks" of coupons and took Walmart's ad over to London Drugs to price match. I price matched the Tide and the Lady Speed Stick, London Drugs had the Pantene on sale and it was a bonus bottle! I presented my ad and my stacks of coupons (love London Drugs who allows you to stack coupons as long as the coupon UPC's are different numbers) my final total for all of the above including the 12% HST tax was $5.05. I came home very pleased with myself!



BUGS AND CRITTERS OF ALL SORTS

I read and enjoy Dawn Meehan's blog and her new column on Babble, the link is here

http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/because-im-the-mom/2011/07/10/drinking-driving-and-the-dmv/

I really enjoy her humor, today's column has some things I had forgotten about having lived in a tropical local for 7.5 years, she has recently relocated her family to Florida and her paragraph " Of course, it was raining by the time it was my turn because it rains every stinking day in Florida. The heat, the rain, the cockroaches, lizards, frogs, and locusts of biblical proportions have me convinced I’ve actually moved to the Amazonian rainforest and not the theme park capital of the world. Anyway, after two hours, I left with nothing."
brought back some memories of when I first moved to Hawaii, her words made me laugh as I remember the foot long cockroaches that flew around at night and dive bombed in to attack....this west coaster wasn't used to bugs that size and aggressive ones at that. Then there were a couple of instances I had forgotten about until Dawns post jogged my memory, one was with a praying mantis, I went outside to do the laundry, or attempted too...on the other side of the screen door was this huge and I do mean huge bug...looking at me with big bug eyes...and not moving. I threw stuff at him and quickly shut the screen door as I didn't know if he flew, hopped or charged. He just batted his big bug eyes at me...so I resorted to whatever was under the sink, I sprayed him with Windex, he didn't move, Fantastic spray, still wasn't leaving, spray starch...he just batted his big bug eyes at me...nothing phased this bug.(of course for some reason we had nothing like Raid around)  In the end he won, I didn't do the wash that day (and yes, our washer and drier were outside in that mostly sunny locale but under an awning. My preying Mantis was more brownish and much larger than this one and he had big antennae coming out of the top of his head but you get the idea, picture credit is displayed on the picture.

Now on another occasion I came home late one night and when I came through the gate I could see a critter in front of the front door....the area was undercover, well lit (thank goodness) and "it" looked like a rock. As I approached slowly on tip toes it moved and let me tell you so did I. People kept telling me about these "buffo toads". They said be very careful they can kill your dogs with some kind of poison they spray...well just my luck I had to meet up with one in the wee small hours in the dark....first I tried scaring it...scared myself more than it and no it didn't move. Then I tried going back out the gate and getting rocks and throwing them at it...still he wasn't going anywhere and we had a standoff, I had no way into the house without going over him and that just wasn't happening. Eventually he hopped off into the night but I spent the next few months wondering where exactly did he hop too....(photo credit displayed on photo)

Then there was the time I discovered a bunny living in my yard. Well, what harm can a bunny do...right? Well this one was devouring all the vegetation in the yard. Our yard was completely fenced. Actually I think it was safer than Fort Knox's as the fencing was concrete block and at least seven feet tall. The big mystery was how did it get in the fully enclosed yard. Anyways, I ended up getting a trap from animal control and eventually I caught the bunny and took it to animal control to be relocated.

On yet another occasion I went out to hang laundry on the clothesline and something moved...it was a big chameleon sunning itself on my clothesline...sheesh it never ended....and then there were the odd bird noises I heard all day and night, mostly night when I was there alone....turned out they were being made by gecko's....who knew....but the gecko's I were familiar with as I had seen them in hotels in the past, if they come into your room it is said to be good luck...or at least that is what the hotel staff says, probably so you don't spazz out on them when you find them in your room...lol   So these were the down sides to living in a place that is often referred to as paradise...but luckily in Hawaii we had no snakes...many years ago they brought in mongoose to rid them of snakes so now there are no snakes....millions of mongoose but no snakes...and luckily no mongoose ever found their way into my yard. Thanks for joining me in my trip down memory lane and please visit Dawn's blog when you have a minute, she is really funny and you won't be sorry you did. Her link for her blog is

http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
or just go ahead and visit her at Babble and see her column there!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

HAPPY 144TH BIRTHDAY CANADA!!!

We spent today enjoying the holiday at Burnaby Village Museum where large crowds gathered to enjoy a BBQ, celebration cakes and a very fun time. We met up with Robert and Loretta and spent some time eating lunch and visiting. Dakotah and I stayed at the park until after closing. It was her first visit and she can't wait to go back and see more on a quieter day. The museum is celebrating it's 40th birthday and has free admission this year, so we will be going back in the near future!

Loretta, Me and Dakotah

Dakotah and I

A cake artist at work piping on the cream frosting...num...strawberries and blueberries are the decorations.

We ran across an old outhouse and Dakotah had to try it out...pretend style!

Lunch, delicious bbq'd hot dogs for Dakotah and I Loretta and Robert enjoyed sandwiches they brought as they didn't want to fill up to much as they were going out to dinner.
Below are the wonderful decorated cupcakes Loretta brought and shared with us...they were a wonderful treat!

Dakotah in front of the large tables holding the Canada Day cakes

The RCMP all decked out in their red serge uniforms.
Below is the line up for the cake, by the time we came back it had more than doubled and was up and down the hill and snaked all over.

Dakotah held this really large sword which is real but not sharp and called a "practise sword"

Dakotah was very interested in how people got water from wells.

The goods in the bakery window look wonderful but they are faux!

More line ups for cake!

Dakotah and some of the other children rolled down this grassy hill to the side of the cake line up, it helped pass the time and rolling down hills never goes out of style for children it seems!

I think this car is from 1928, someone ran by and knocked over the sign with the details on it so not positive on the year.

Oh my, what a treat this was, cotton candy flavored ice cream! She said it was sooo good!

We ran across this interesting cow complete with a cow bell on our way to the gate at closing, a fun time was had by all, Happy Birthday Canada!