Happy Birthday Annabelle!!!

Today we got to celebrate our good friend Annabelle's 4th birthday!  We've known Annabelle since she was about 1 month old and her family live right down the street from us.  Handley had been looking forward to this party as soon as we found out it was going to be at the American Girl Cafe.

A few months ago we got an American Girl doll catalog in the mail and Handley carried it with her everywhere.  She slept with it in her bed, took it in the car with us, and got really upset when one of the pages ripped.  About a month later we got another catalog and she was so happy.  She immediately ran to get the old one and told Harper she could have it since she had a new one now.  She loves looking at all the dolls and their different outfits.  I remember when I was a little girl I would do the exact same thing with the catalogs that would come to my house.  One day when we were out to eat she saw an older girl with one of the American Girl dolls and she couldn't stop staring.  When she learned that for Annabelle's party the girls would get to borrow a real American Girl doll and have a fancy mommy/daughter lunch she was over the moon.

Today could not have been more fun for the girls and for all the moms.  As soon as we pulled up Handley was shaking with excitement.  All of the girls were dressed up and we enjoyed a delicious lunch in the most adorable pink cafe.  All of the girls got to have their dolls sit with them in special seats that attached to the tables and it was just the cutest thing ever.

A little background about these next pictures.  Harper LOVES to fix people's hair.  She is constantly asking if she can fix my hair in a ponytail or pig tails.  She usually makes a tangled mess out of it, but I don't care because she thinks it's so much fun.  I've been thinking that for Christmas I would love for Harper to get a doll with real hair she can style.  The very first thing she did when she sat down beside her doll was pull out the rubber bands holding the dolls pigtails and starting "fixing" her hair.

She then proceeded to turn the doll's hair into a big tangled mess.  While all the other little girls' dolls still had perfect pigtails at the end of the party, Harper's looked like this:

And that is why Santa might just bring Handley the real deal American Girl doll for Christmas, but Harper will be getting the Wal-Mart knock-off. :-)

After lunch we were headed too the carousel located in the mall.  It was the perfect way to end a wonderful party!

After the party we went to pick up Hudson from Gigi and Papa's house.  They were sweet enough to babysit him during the party and Handley happily told him that this would be his first time staying at Gigi's house all by himself.  I wasn't surprised that he was perfect for them.  Gigi and Papa had quite a full weekend with all three kids, three days in a row!  We are so grateful that they enjoy our children as much as we do.

We got home just in time for a quick nap/rest time and then we were headed off to our dinner club.  As usual, we ended the night there with corn hole and lots of laughs. We had such a great weekend, but I am exhausted from being so busy and I'm looking forward to settling back into our normal weekly routine this week.