Ella's Birthday - Camera 1

Ella had a big treat - me too - and we went to Chicago on her birthday weekend to pick out an American Girl doll. We were so lucky that my friend Joni who has a daughter - Ella's friend, Reesi - went with us. We had a great girl's weekend!

Day #1: It was quite eventful starting with the accessories our Elf on a Shelf left Ella for her birthday and to share with Reesi. The plane trip was fun - Ella sat between "two big men" and I had to sit behind her. The limo ride from the airport to the hotel was also a highlight as was the fact that the hotel was very "fancy". Our first day we (I) decided we would walk to get pizza. What I thought was a 1.5 mile walk was really a 2 mile walk in the freezing cold wind with two little people that did not appreciate it so much. As we were approaching our destination, Reesi fell off a curb. She survived but we were not too thrilled with our 1 hour pizza wait at 2:00 in the afternoon. Onto bigger and much better things, we took the girls to AGP (now I will abbreviate American Girl Place because it will come up - alot) where they picked out their AGD (you get it now). Ella picked Julie from 1970s and Reesi picked Felicity from 1770s (Reesi could not remember her name until the trip home - she kept saying "what's my doll's name again"). Then Joni and I proceeded to pick out accessories for afore mentioned AGD. I think this is the part where we enjoyed it more than they did. Afterward was dessert time and what a better way to celebrate freezing than with ICE CREAM! Yeah and then we decided to cab it back to the hotel for an evening of AGD play.

Day #2: We woke up and caught a cab to AGP just in time for the doors to open. We headed with our AGD up for brunch. I think I may have liked this part more than the girls too. The place was really cute and the food was not bad either! After this, we did a very (and I mean very) minor amount of "grown up" shopping and as that may sound weird, it was just the Gap, Apple store (I left my charger) and H&M. We then cabbed it back and played....yep, AGD. We went for an early dinner and ice skating afterward. There was an incident at dinner that left Reesi wet so we strayed over to Old Navy only to discover by the time we got there that Reesi was dry...but we did get a look around, a little. Then off to ice skate...where we waited for quite sometime then decided to hit the rink "around the corner" with no waiting. It was a bit farther than around the corner but worth it because it was not crowded at all. The girls LOVED ice skating. The big girls were frozen but we endured for close to an hour. Then guess what...yep - CAB. Reesi and Ella were able to hail their own cabs by the time we left! We hit the room where there was more AGD play and finally to bed.

Day #3: Not really much - Apparently the Chicago Bears players stay at the hotel where we stayed before a game because the lobby/restaurant was a buzz with Bear fans grabbing autographs. Joni and I were just hungry. Well, we the packed up and grabbed a cab and hit the airport. We made it back to TN safe and sound sporting 2 extra girls - Felicity and Julie!