8th Birthday, First Installment

Tomorrow Lauren and Grace turn eight. Eight! We can hardly believe it. As Skip pointed out recently, we are almost half-way to college. From their cozy seats in second grade that doesn't seem possible, but I'm sure it will zip by very quickly.

Last weekend we drove over to Atlanta. The duo had received an American Girl catalog a few weeks ago and were excited to inform me that Samantha had been brought out of retirement. Samantha has been a favorite for quite some time. We have the books; we have the movie. The doll, however, has eluded us. After careful consideration, the duo requested Samantha as their birthday gift, and we decided to make our first trip to the store (versus ordering) for her purchase. We selected Samantha, and the duo had been given some spending money from Gran and Poppa and also from Auntie Lisa as gifts. After the quick Samantha selection, the duo went through the store multiple times in search of the perfect purchase with their generous gifts. Lauren finally settled on an outfit for herself -- an Isabelle replica outfit. We totaled up the individual pieces (3), and we talked about the fact that the outfit would be $100.00. (That is a staggering sum to someone frugal like me.) Without batting an eye, she quickly said, "OK!" Cautions about spending such a large sum on a relatively simple outfit and even pointing out that we could replicate the outfit for about $20 were not successful in changing her mind. She wanted Grace to buy the outfit, too, and gave Grace her best sales pitch.

"Gracie," I said, "this outfit is $100... almost the entirety of your budget."
"No WAY!" she immediately said, before prancing off to look at other things.

(I could not have been more proud.)

So then Lauren decided she was not going to be left with a $0 balance while Grace was walking around flush with birthday money. They each decided on a stuffed pet, a dog and cat, and they plan to judiciously use the remainder of their generous gifts.

After the shopping experience, which, if I am being honest, was lengthy, we went to the American Girl Bistro for lunch and birthday cake. We can stipulate that all of these things are of considerable expense relative to the materials involved, but the duo had a wonderful time. Lunch was very well done, and the service was surprisingly fantastic. They know what they are doing at the American Girl Store and Bistro.

All in all, we had a good time.