Castles and Dolls

Molly studied castles in school this year. The 2nd graders had an optional project: to make their own castle out of household materials. This is Molly's castle. She is very proud of it!

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The American Girl Doll Obsession

After Christmas, Molly realized that almost every friend she knows got an American Girl Doll for Christmas. Really. She had heard of them before Christmas, but she never really cared about them or asked for one. After she saw that all her friends wanted one, she went from not really interested to completely and totally obsessed!

I took her to the American Girl Doll store at the Mall of America one day so she could look around. She was in awe of every thing she saw. For those of you who haven't been there, it's insane. The store is 2 stories tall with a doll beauty salon and bistro inside. They sell historical dolls, the doll of the year, the look-alike dolls, the bitty babies, and 985,739,025 expensive accessories to go with the dolls.

Molly wanted all of it.

She brought home a catalog and poured over it each day. She really wanted a doll. We ended up telling her that we'd give her a doll for her birthday (in August), but we weren't going to go out and buy an expensive doll in January just because she wanted it. We also told her she should start saving up her money so she could buy the accessories she thought she needed.

A few weeks went by. Molly still poured over the catalog almost daily. She tried to figure out ways to earn more money to put toward the things she saw in the catalog. She started reading all of the American Girl books from the library. She even borrowed a doll from one of her friends a couple of times. She told us all the time that she couldn't wait to have he own doll. Molly had decided that for her first doll, she wanted Kanani, the 2011 girl of the year (only available in 2011).

One day, she started writing a list of the things she wanted from the catalog. When I found it, it was 6 pages long, front and back! Here is her list:

Then, in early March, she got invited to a friend's birthday party. It was a tea party, and the girls were asked to bring "a very special doll or stuffed animal" to the party. Molly read it and looked at me with her big brown eyes. Then she said, "Mom, you KNOW all the girls are going to bring American Girl dolls. Is there ANY way I could get Kanani before the party?"

I still didn't want to just go buy the doll for her, but I wanted her to have Kanani for the party. I helped Molly figure out how much money she needed to be able to buy the doll. Then I helped her figure out how to earn it. Molly sold a Wii game to a friend, a gift card she had from Christmas to her Daddy, and some other things, and eventually she wasn't far from her goal. She got close enough that we told her we'd cover what she was short and let her pay us back later. She was in heaven! She was SO EXCITED to go buy her doll.

Here she is in the store, picking out her doll. 

Molly at home, ready to open the box. :) I didn't get a photo of Molly with Kanani after opening. Molly wasn't in the mood for posing and just wanted to play! She was so excited to have her doll. She did bring Kanani to that birthday party, and guess what? Molly said that every single girl at that party (8 of them, I think) had brought an American Girl Doll. I'm so glad Molly had one too. :)