Whirlwind Weekend—Part I

We celebrated the 4th of July weekend like a celebrity on Rodeo Drive. Only we were in Atlanta and, umm, we’re not celebrities.

Our mission: To obtain one American Girl doll that strongly resembles the Princess of the family. This was her birthday wish; no party, no cake, just a new doll. Thank you, mom, for starting this obsession tradition.

Saturday, July 5

0700 The GRITS family loaded up the Greek-mobile headed for the big city of Atlanta. One child took a nap, and one very excited birthday girl did not.

1130 Arrived in the big city of Atlanta and headed directly to the American Girl store. No passing go or collecting $200. Unfortunately.

1200 We had a visual on our final destination. After parking and risking our lives like Frogger in the parking lot, we were going in.

1215 The store was like nothing we had ever seen. Unless you count the movie “Jingle All the Way”, you remember when Sinbad and Ah-nald are fighting to get the Turbo Man toy?? Except there were plenty of dolls to go around in our case. We had to find THE doll that the Princess wanted, not just any doll would do.

About 20 minutes later we made a final decision.

Pretty good match don’t you think?!

Then we had to look at everything in the store before leaving. Which annoyed one family member in particular.

The proud new “Mom” of “Anna Grace”

1300 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

But don’t think the fun stopped there….oh no, no, no. We had more to do during our whirlwind tour. After lunch at P.F. Changs our next mission was to find the Lego outlet store for the 9 year old, whom I will now refer to as Lego-Man.

I should also introduce you to another member of our family that has been behind the scenes until now. Meet Eileen:

Yes, yes, she is a cell phone. The hubby’s to be exact, and over the last few months she’s helped us arrive at various destinations. Why Eileen? It’s just the song that was playing when we first began using her….”come on Eileen”. Well, this weekend she turned on us. Eileen had us going in the complete opposite direction that we needed to be going and, thankfully, the astute hubby was on to her ploy of thwarting our getaway fun.

So, after pulling the plug on Eileen we found our own way to the mall housing the Lego Outlet store. Now look who’s smiling:

And after looking at every Lego set at least twice, Lego-Man, finally decided on this, which was 50% off:

With two happy children in tow, we headed off to the adult’s shopping choice:

Have you folks been to this place?! We get the catalog and have a TV stand from here, but going to this place is an experience like no other. The American Girl store has got N-O-T-H-I-N-G on this place. Nothing.

Ikea is not for the faint of heart. You must be in good physical condition to walk through the doors and your nerve medication MUST be at therapeutic levels upon entering. Mine was not, because I do not take any. I should.

Note to self: next time leave kids at home with sitter and DO NOT, I repeat, do not go on a holiday weekend.

After wandering and meandering, meandering and wandering, we headed out with spending less than $20. Phew. Did I mention taking nerve pills and leaving kids at home.

So we ended the day with dinner at the home of my husband’s sister. She fixed us a delicious Rachel Ray dinner of salmon with corn & black bean salsa, followed by homemade peanut butter cookies and vanilla ice cream.

After our celebrity style shopping spree, we were at the hotel and all in bed asleep by 10:30pm. I think I actually heard the Princess snoring or was that me?