Mommin' It Up!

November 14, 2013

5 Cousins Walk into an American Girl Store

Sophie has been wild about American Girl dolls since she got her first mini-doll for her birthday last year. She also got a “big” doll, Marie-Grace for Christmas (I hit the big sale they had on Marie-Grace and Cecile.) and her BFF Cecile for kindergarten graduation. She loves the dolls and the books. She’s way into reading. So far we’ve read 3 Kit books, the Ruthie book, all six Marie-Grace and Cecile books and 4 Addy books. She even goes up to her room and reads by herself now! Sniff, sniff – a girl after her mama’s own nerdy reading heart!

Sophie’s birthday is this Saturday, and a few weeks ago I got the idea that Emily and I should take Sophie and Kate to the American Girl store in Columbus, which is fairly new and only 90 minutes away for us. Kate has several AG dolls and was quite excited! She brought her Emily (get it? LIKE HER MOM!) doll along on our trip. When my niece Murrin,who is almost 16, heard we were going, she asked to go too! I thought it was so sweet she wanted to accompany her little cousins. Murrin was the original AG lover in our family. She has Kit and e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g ever made for Kit, and plans to hand her down to her own daughter. She took reverent care of her. Even though she’s spending more time with her iPod than her dolls these days, she’s not too old to play with her little cousins!

Murrin with Kit, Sophie with her mini-dolls Kit and Ruthie (she felt her big dolls would be too “big to carry” (my kid? Lazy? No way!) and Kate with her Emily doll.

Emily and Kate picked us up, then we picked up Murrin and then headed to Columbus! Once there, we quickly found our way to the American Girl store.

And it. Was. PACKED.

I was honestly shocked. I wouldn’t go near the place after Thanksgiving due to holiday crowds, but I really thought on November 9th we’d be ok! WRONG! It was crazy, crazy, crazy. We could really barely move, and no matter what you did, you were on someone else’s way. Clearly American Girl has a great bead on the Columbus market!

Nevertheless, we had a great time looking around. I must confess seeing all the dolls displayed with all their beautiful outfits made me want to buy every one! Sophie had $40 early birthday money from my parents, and set about searching for the Perfect Thing to buy.

While she searched, I couldn’t help but notice the huge line for the doll hair salon and the cute little cafe within the store. It really was neat! I also noticed that the section for the historical American Girl dolls was much more packed than the section for the “my American Girl” section where you can get a doll that looks like you. This kind of confirmed my opinion that the historical girls with their stories are much more compelling.

Sophie finally settled on purchasing Argos, Marie-Grace’s dog, and the Saige movie. Saige is the 2013 Girl of the Year and won’t be around for long. Sophie and I have watched the Samantha, Molly, Kit, and McKenna AG movies together and they are all great, so she was excited to get the Saige movie. And eve more excited to have a Marie-Grace’s furry friend.

Kate settled on purchasing a matching American Girl hat for her and her doll, and Emily and I got in the h-u-g-e line to pay for our purchases while Murrin escorted the girls as they browsed some more.

This is us pretending to be excited about waiting in such a long line.

We thought we’d be in line for an hour – it was THAT long. Part of the trouble with browsing was that the line was so long, it was coiled through half of the historical girls section. And there were 4 or 5 black-clad security guys to make sure no one got cray-cray! (Or stole something, I imagine.) It was also pretty warm, and we had dressed warmly because it was cold outside. We were wishing we’d brought some bottled water! Whew! Fortunately, the store had LOTS of cashiers and the line moved pretty fast. They did a great job getting everyone checked out, and we actually *only* waited 30 minutes.

It was worth the wait, though, to see this! Sophie was excited to make a purchase with her own money.

Sophie with Argos, Marie-Grace’s dog. Her purchase with birthday $$ from Grandma and Grandpa!

We were all thirsty and starving, so we headed off for lunch and then treated ourselves to the delicious and legendary Jeni’s Ice Cream with our girls.

Despite the crowds (I was really proud of myself for not having a claustrophobic attack!), we had a great time and a great day full of cousin bonding! The girls watched the Saige movie in the van on the way home and Emily and I enjoyed just talking, which we haven’t had time to do in awhile.

We can’t wait to go back again…on a weekday…in the spring…when the crowds are elsewhere.

Have you ever been to an American Girl store? Apparently the Columbus store is much smaller than the rest of them. What was your experience?

November 13, 2013

Old Man Winter can KISS MY GRITS

So, YESTERDAY. Was not my favorite. We lucky Ohioans woke up to a light blanketing of snow and temperatures in the 20’s. BEFORE Thanksgiving? NOT OK! Actually, I am never a fan of snow and ice, EVER, but I found yesterday’s timing to be especially obnoxious, because we’re not even half way through November yet!

Tuesdays are already my least favorite day of the week because Jonah has to be at his little toddler speech class at 8:30. I always get up at 6:30 to get the big kids off to school, but on Tuesdays I have to also try and get dressed and get my makeup done at the same time, so that I can get Jonah up, fed, and dressed as soon as the big kids leave at 7:20. I ALWAYS have to wake him up on Tuesday; it is the one day he chooses to sleep in without fail (he usually is up by 7:30).

Since it was snowy and butt-freezing cold, I used the remote start on my keychain to start my van at 7:55. We needed to leave at 8:20 so that was plenty of time to get the van defrosted and warmed up.

Or so I thought.

When Jonah and I got outside, I hit the remote button to open my sliding van door and nothing happened. So, I made sure it was unlocked and tried again. Nothing. After we trudged across the lawn, I tried to open by actually using the door handle (like in the stone ages, remember that?) but it wouldn’t budge. Tried the other door, too – same thing! The driver’s door would open so I climbed in and tried to open the door from the inside. No luck.

Jonah is, in the meantime, crying out in the snow, BECAUSE IT WAS FISHING FREEZING of course.

So, I grab him and head back into the house. He’s still crying. What the crap, mom? You said we were going bye-bye to school and now we’re not? I AM ENRAGED!! I knew I was going to have to spend some time outside to get these doors open, so I turned on a tv show for him to keep him sage and stationary while I headed back out. Then, I called his class coordinator to let her know we’d be late. (And she was less sympathetic than I thought she should be, HONESTLY. I don’t know if she thought I was making it up or what. We’ve NEVER been late before.)

Then I headed back outside to the frozen wasteland to do battle with my van doors. It took me 7 or 8 more minutes to get the driver’s side van door open. What finally did it was me pulling from the inside as I simultaneously pressed the button to automatically open it. Whew! By the time I got it open I was sweating like a horse and cursing like a sailor.

I ran back in to grab Jonah, but by now he was fully engrossed in Elmo and didn’t WANT to go bye-bye. I hauled him out to the van kicking and screaming.

He tantrumed the whole way there.

And for the first half of class.

And only cooperated for snack.

It was SUCH a waste of time and so emotionally draining. He had done really well at class the two weeks prior to this and I wish we had just stayed home. He only has 4 classes left until he turns three and goes to preschool, and I really wanted to make every one count. But thanks to Old Man Winter, our rough start to the day had totally thrown him out of whack.

I seriously barely kept it together during his class. It. Was. Awful.

So, thanks to the weather, my morning sucked big time. And I hear we are going to have a rough winter this year. I really don’t know if I’ll survive, cold weather is my mortal enemy! I may need to raid Emily’s stash of happy pills before it’s over.

At least the 8:30 class is over soon. Preschool starts at 9:10, I don’t have to STAY there with Jonah so if he acts coo-coo, OH WELL, and if he throws a fit on the way there, I can go get myself a salted caramel mocha for therapy on the way home and then watch What Not to Wear on Netflix for a couple hours before I have to go pick him up again. Right?

I mean, as long as this winter isn’t one long SNOW DAY.

November 11, 2013November 10, 2013

Uncomplicate your style with J.Jill

This post is part of a sponsored campaign with J.Jill and the Motherhood.com. All opinions are my own.

Every day, every woman answers the same question: What should I wear today? This is a question that plagues me constantly. If I know I have an early morning appointment, it’s a question I have to answer “yesterday”! I think we can all relate to the what-to-wear-quandary, right?

Well, that’s a qunadary that J.Jill wants to answer for you and BE the answer to for you – and they want to make it easy. Uncomplicated, if you will. They know we are busy women taking care of all the many people and things that are important to us and we don’t have a ton of time to spend on our wardrobes. SO! J.Jill wants to uncomplicate their customers lives by taking care of the “What do I wear today?” question so we can focus on the things that are most important to us.

Keeping it simple? I love it! I’ll be honest, I’ve never explored what J.Jill had to offer until now, when the Motherhood offered me the opportunity to check out J.Jill’s clothes and particularly their Pure Jill line. I L-O-V-E their Pure Jill line! It’s fabrics and colors are inspired by nature and are soft, simple, clean, and comfortable. The Pure Jill line is full of basics that every woman needs in her wardrobe. The folks at J.Jill put a lot of love and time into designing this line and they’re really passionate about offering clothing to women that is effortless, comfortable, and polished. They’re so confident about this line that they challenged me to pick a Pure Jill piece and style it with items I already owned.

I decided to go with this Pure Jill ultrasoft Kimono-Sleeve Sweater.

And, because I couldn’t resist, I also purchased this Pure Jill striped Infinity Scarf to style it with.

I love the softness of the sweater, and the small details like the exposed seams and the rolled hem on the sleeve.

And the pockets!! Oh, I adore the pockets!

Check out how I styled my Pure Jill kimono-sleeve sweater:

I contrasted the neutral of the sweater and scarf by pairing them with a bright pink tee, and since the top is pretty roomy, wore a skinny jean and boots to balance that out on bottom. A simple medium-sized hoop earring for some extra understated bling and voila! I was good to go.

I absolutely loooooove how comfortable and cozy the sweater is, and I adore the infinity scarf. It’s so versatile, and since it’s so neutral I could wear it with just about any top in my wardrobe.

And I know I already mentioned my love of the pockets on this sweater, but I have to tell you again – they are FABULOUS and really up the cozy/cute factor!

I absolutely love my Pure Jill pieces and I can’t wait to try more of the line, especially their 3 other essential pieces (the kimono sweater being the essential piece I already own): the Pure Jill pant, ballet flat, and simple cotton tee.

What I love, love, love about these Pure Jill pieces is that they are classic. They’ll always be in style and can be “trended up” with accessories if necessary. In addition to the clothes being fab, my online shopping experience was as easy as pie. The J.Jill website is also very “uncomplicated” and shopping was a breeze!

Speaking of shopping, J.Jill is allowing me to share a special coupon code with you so you can hop on over to their website and get 30% off any one item! You know I love a deal! Use code JJSTYLE at checkout from now until 11/24/13 to get your discount.

I am loving my Pure Jill pieces and I can’t wait to grab a couple more! Which ones do you want to complete your wardrobe?